Welcome, winter

June already. And boy does the weather make us feel it. Actually, it's been funny lately. Lots of rain, coolish days but nothing a good blowy heater under the desk can't fix (when I'm at work, anyway). I'm looking forward to when these miserable first days of winter go away and the glorious Sydney sunny winter days begin.

The other funny thing is reading craft blogs (via Google reader - I really ought to update my link list) from the Northern Hemisphere where they are talking about school finishing for the year and spending days at the pool and wearing summery frocks. Crazy talk! It's less than 20°C!

Visit from the past

Oh joyous of days! My dear old friends Kate and Iain came for a whirlwind visit today with their seven month old bub. It was so wonderful to see them since it's been quite a while since we've caught up - they now live in the UK (Oxford but soon Cambridge).

My mood has lifted incredibly this afternoon - I'm bouncing around grinning happily. Yay! It's so good to see old friends and to feel like you've only been apart for a short time, not months/years. Nothing makes me happier* :)

Well, actually, quite a number of things make me happier, but it's still pretty damn awesome.

It's been raining...

The weather's been a bit wet lately. Not as bad here in Sydney as further North in the state, but still not the pleasantest of times for three children cooped up inside.

This is what our lounge room looked like after a morning inside yesterday...


Thank goodness it cleared up today (and thank goodness I was able to get five loads of washing dry)!

Good knitting value

In August 2007 I started knitting a cardigan for Elora. A gorgeous yet simple wrap cardigan designed by 6.5st.

I finished it in October when she was eight months old.


Now that winter's almost upon us and the weather has cooled, it's time to get the woollens out again. Lo and behold, Elora's cardigan still fits beautifully, all this time later. I have to say I'm very pleased! Now that's good value!

Gettin' my bake on

The oven has been running hot here, lately! (Arf, arf)

It started two weeks ago. A friend at work brought in scones for afternoon tea on Friday. Hmm... I love scones with jam and cream, if you recall. So that weekend (which incidentally happened to be the Mother's Day weekend) I made three batches of scones. They weren't great - the first batch had too much milk, the second was better but didn't rise as much, the third better still. But I had cream and jam and was going to take them down to tennis (our regular Sunday fortnight family tennis gathering) except that it poured rain. So we had three batches of ordinary scones to eat. Ack! I'll get better with practice, I'm sure. If we can face them again (of course I can!)

Then we had a cake stall at child care. I think my fifth or sixth? Getting better at organising them, I have to say. We had a terrific response from both parents and buyers. Lots of delicious treats to sell, lots of helping hands, lots of willing purchasers. We made about twice as much money as I expected - a resounding success. My contribution - a couple of dozen cupcakes and the same number of chocolate crackles (which were actually made by Dan!).


There was, of course, The Dinner. Incredibly, we had the kitchen pretty much completely cleaned up by mid-morning the next day. And on Sunday I couldn't shake the baking bug. I made banana+choc-chip cupcakes in the afternoon while the kids were napping, on a whim. From scratch, too :) Yay! They were delicious. Even my father said "not bad". Especially warm and fresh.

I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately.

I wonder when I'll lose the baking bug. Perhaps when I run out of flour?

Markets and dinner

The weekend's planned trip to the Finders Keepers Markets was heartily disappointing. Not because the markets were no good, but because we didn't get to go. Even more disappointing because when I read some blog posts about it I hear that it was a terrific success.

The reason we didn't go was a good one, though. It was Dan's birthday on Friday and I decided (copying a friend's idea) to have a surprise dinner party for him. I'm always doing this to myself. Have an idea for something simple and it turns into something huge! Just a few friends turned into dinner for twenty-one (including the kids).


A few dramas in the lead up - I had to work, Dan took the day off work, I couldn't leave work early enough and then got stuck in traffic and didn't get home until 6pm!! Dan ended up putting the meat on, my mother did more meat and the potatoes and my mother-in-law and I did the rest. We didn't eat until 8pm.

The best family shot of the night! Note the delicious passionfruit + chocolate gelato cake. I couldn't find a 5 candle so 4+1 had to suffice.

But all in all, it was a fabulous night with good company, lots of food and a lovely relaxed atmosphere. Nothing formal. But my friends don't care about that sort of thing. Dan was quite happy. The kids were fairly well behaved.


After dinner they took themselves off to the lounge room and flaked out in front of a movie until I was able to get them to bed - at 10:30pm! So late! No wonder we were a wreck the next day and missed the markets! As evidenced by this picture. Atticus, fast asleep on the lounge, just before lunch.


I don't think I will be doing it again for a quite a few years, even though it was a lot of fun. The markets, though, will definitely NOT be missed again!

Finders Keepers markets

Yay! Tomorrow I'm going to the Finders Keepers markets at Carriageworks (which, incidentally, is where they filmed So You Think You Can Dance).

I'll take some pictures and post more about it later.

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By the way, I cannot believe that it has been a month since I last wrote on this here online journal. Seriously! This crazy thing called TIME just keeps getting away from me. It's driving me crazy.

The youngest blogger

Well, the long weekend finally finished... I never thought I'd be so happy to get back to work yesterday morning! By day 4 (Atti, Elora and I had 5 days, remember?) Atticus was ready to go back to school. Now when I answer, "Yes, it's a stay-at-home day" to his question in the morning, he replies, "But I want to go to school!" The poor boy. He still has almost two weeks of holidays left!

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you what Dante got up to during the break. Well, actually only on Good Friday so far but there's still plenty of time. He started a blog! I don't think he was influenced by mine or Dan's - a school friend told him about it. He's been itching to start one up - he keeps searching for "blogspot" and keeps telling us "But, it's free!" so on Friday morning I gave in and helped him with it.

Technically blogspot is for authors aged 13 and over, but I figure that if I'm supervising and moderating it will be okay. He and his friend T have written some stories about "Smelly Sock and the Adventures of Garbageland". He has posted the first instalment already. Do you want to read it?

http://donskycesandtemo.blogspot.com

I hope he keeps it up - I love that he is using his imagination and building his writing skills. I know that when I was his age I would have loved to have access to this sort of technology!

Happy reading!

Good Friday morning

School holidays have begun. Hooray, I think!

It's a bit difficult for us this year because Atti is not old enough for Vacation Care (school age only) but the pre-school is shut down since it's part of the proper school. Child care doesn't have any spaces for him either, so it was a mad shuffle of days and calling upon grandparents and Auntie Bec to help take care of the boy (and the kids in general).

Atti is very happy to be home. I kept him home with me yesterday (my usual day off with Elora) as the pre-school had a half day and since Dan and Dante were both occupied until 5:30pm with work, school and after school care it was easier for Atti to stay. Both he and Elora were happy to have the time together. They play together beautifully. We had a lovely day - we visited the park, had some lunch, watched Hi-5. In the afternoon I took poor Atti to get his four-year-old immunisation shots. (A wee bit overdue). Poor kid didn't know what was coming. The first was a big shock - the second was a lot more trouble, trying to convince him to let us hurt him again! In the end he let us, very bravely and got spoilt rotten afterwards with an ice block and lollies, a balloon and a new pack of play-doh.

This morning the boys were up a little after 6am. Ack! First day of holidays and they are up at the crack of dawn! So much for sleeping in. Dante is busy at the computer. More about that later.

Have a nice Easter break everyone.

Poor worn out bub

Elora came down with a stomach bug on Tuesday night. In the middle of the night. The poor thing. I am, as expected, exhausted. We got about 4 hours' sleep yesterday (from 2am).

Today she's at home with Dan and obviously completely worn out. He sent me this photo. My heart is breaking!