Bald Rock....

What a lovely day we had at Bald Rock.  This place is great, the kids loved it, and I had flashbacks to when I was a kid & walking the same path.  Finny even walked most of the way, and it was quite an easy climb after I got over the initial shock of how high and straight up you have to walk!.  It was just a shame the weather was a bit cold and cloudy, but there were lots of people doing the climb (heaps of oldies), and it was quite a sociable day.  We will return here another time for sure.  Anyone keen??........

Thunderbolt's Hideout (we nearly didn't find it!)

A nice break......

I was well & truly ready for a break from the school routine, so these holidays have been a blessing, especially having Shane on holiday as well!. I finally made it up to Brisvegas for a couple of nights, and caught up with Jules & Fi as an added bonus!. It is getting to be way too long in between visits!. It was great to finally meet little Iago and hear the story of his birth and to see how much Lotte has grown as well. Can't believe I didn't get a photo with Jules!. We had a great time at Nits, it was just Summer & I on this trip. The boys stayed at home so Shane could do some more building. We had a great night out at a Turkish restaurant called 'Ahmets', at Southbank, thanks to the amazing generosity of Fi & Dave it was a feast to be remembered. Shane was spewing he wasn't there for that experience!. Thanks for your company Fi, I had a great time, and all I can say is thank goodness the pubs were all closed when we left the restaurant or I fear our night may have gone into the day! There is always so much to catch up on when spending time with old friends........

Logan got to catch up with his best mate Lachlan. They still keep in touch & see each other just about every holidays. It's so great to see the kids really make an effort to stay in touch, and I know they are creating friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime......

Cook off......

2010 Mid Winter Cook Off.......

The kids had their own fire going...

Rach & her upside down trifle cake...
The apron says it all.....

Koo, Anita & Dad....

Well our mid winter, full moon, lunar eclipse (added bonus!) cook off was a great success!. There was so much food it was shameful. We could have fed another 10 people at least. I didn't get to take many photos as it was pretty busy, getting everything organised, so much so, I forgot to even taste my dish before serving it!, so no surprises that I wasn't in the running!. My lamb & tomato masala wasn't the best and actually it's not really a dish that I would add to my repertoire either. But hey, I gave it a go!. The list of dishes on offer were........

Entrees-

French onion dip - Summer

Pumpkin Soup - Eliza

Wood Oven style Bread - Greeny

Mains-

Ox tail stew - Shane

Pig Platter - Adam - this consisted of the head & american style ribs ( a secret recipe!)

Lamb & tomato Masala - Brooke

Braised Honey Chicken - Koo

Beef Stroganoff & Sweet plain potato bake - Brodie

Desserts-

Lemon tart - Laine

Double nut chocolate torte - Brooke

Upside down trifle cake - Rachel

So we had a taste of each dish and slowly made our way through each taste, and got full pretty quickly...... and after we had to give a score between 1 & 5 to each dish and then we tallied it up and the unanimous winner of the 2010 Mid winter cook off was............KOO & her Honey Braised Chicken!!. It was absolutely delicious, a real standout & I will post the recipe here soon......try it, guaranteed the kids will love it too. And in second place was Rachels Upside down trifle cake. This dessert was a work of art and if you like sweet then this is a real treat!. And in third place was our very own up & coming master chef Eliza with her Pumpkin Soup. I am not a fan of Pumpkin Soup but this was absolutely delicious and had us all wanting more.......I will see if I can get her to share that recipe too. My chocolate torte was super rich..... a bit too much really & I was a bit dissapointed because it looked a treat, but it was actually better the next day, and the day after (!), as it mellowed and took on a whole new flavour, which Laine actually said would happen, it's kind of like spaghetti & lasagne - always better the next day!. Oh, and did I mention that Dad ate the pigs eye................

Sparkler fun......

A little bit of photo fun on an otherwise pretty boring Friday night.  The past couple of days have been very cold & dreary.  Miserable winter weather really, and no good for taking photos......but I think these make up for it......

They make me feel all warm & fuzzy!......

New Pages......

Just a few new layouts to share......

'Self Portrait'

Logan took this self portrait using the mirror in the car.

I didn't see it until we got home.

It instantly became my favourite photo.

'Summer Fun'

Finny, you had the great idea to put your chair

on top of the sprinkler & sit on it!.

And there you sat keeping nice & cool.

'Sweet Days of Summer'

We had such a great holiday at Wooli this year.  The weather was perfect & we basically had the beach & river to ourselves.  Not many fish were caught but we all gave it a go.  this was our most relaxing Summer holiday yet.......NO CAMPING!

Photos to share......

Well another weekend has come & gone, and they have been very productive for us lately.  We have been doing alot of work outside that we put off in Summer because it's just too damn hot to work in.  Our biggest achievement has been moving a heap of badly placed rocks from when we had the house pad escavated, and placing the giant ones in a new fire pit/bbq.  I shall show some photos of the fire pit next week, after our mid winter cook off.  The theme for this one is just simply hearty winter food.  You know heaps of meat, bread & potatoes!.  Adam is trying his hardest to get a suckling pig, which should be very interesting!.  I am unsure what to cook yet, am thinking maybe a goulash or lamb shanks, or maybe just doing a dessert this time. I have a great Jamie Oliver recipe for a two nut chocolate torte that I'm dying to try.  I also did my first bit of paving which I am pretty proud of, nothing major but it just neatened up out the front of the laundry, which will one day be the 'Parthenides Bungalow'!

Summer was sick again this weekend, bad cough has returned.  Poor Kid, she suffers well though & curled herself up & read a new book.  I think that's the best thing you can do when you're sick..........

Che' had a lot of homework to do........and I managed to get them to allow me to take some photos

of them since it has been so long............wasn't easy though, there was a lot of eye rolling going on!

Che's gonna kill me when she sees these here (he he he)!

Happiness is..........

Having my camera back !.  Yeah!  It has been out of action for 3 whole Months!!.  And I haven't wasted any time catching up. I have decided I am going to really start experimenting with all it's functions, I have previously been quite scared to start fiddling too much, because I really have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm the kind of person who prefers being shown what to do, rather than fearlessly stumbling around the unknown.  Which seems to be what kids do to learn, and they pick things up pretty quickly.  SO, no more fear with the camera!.  Well,  apart from the kids & I being sick on & off with the flu for the past month, things have been pretty busy. I managed to get in two days work pumpkin picking.  Love the job, you really know you're alive after tossing thousands of pumpkins around for a couple of days!.  I have been doing line dancing at the hall for a bit of fun & exercise, and I am learning to crochet, but not really getting anywhere & finding it very frustrating!. Che went on school retreat, and then went to her tafe work placement at the Lennox Head all girls Surf Competition.  Not a bad place to be for two days work!.  Logan & Shane have both been knocked out of the golf Championship, in the second round!.  Not very happy campers with those results!. We had a great Cricket Match for the Fletcher memorial cup, Shane & Greeny were the captains, and Shanes team won.  Logan was man of the match taking 5 out!.  Summer had a sleepover at Cleos, and for anyone who knows that story, it is big news.  Left me crying for a whole day after having Rachel call me for the first time in a long time.......Still not sure how to feel about it, but I'm getting there, especially seeing Summer so happy.  Finn is now saying two words together!.  What progress....still takes me a while to figure out what those two words are, but It's getting easier.  He has a bad cold at the moment and there are tissues strewn from one end of the house to the other.  Oh, and we have a new dog!.  Yep, I think I was in some delusional state of mind when I brought her home, but I love her despite the fact she has killed 2 of my free ranging guinea pigs!.  She is a corgie/collie cross and she's pretty cute.  She doesn't like Finn though,  as he's given her a pretty rough time.  But he loves to scream at the top of his voice, NO DAISY! when she's doing something naughty!.  Actually, they are two unmistakable words from his limited vocabulary.....NO DAISY!. Bless him.

                              

                                                               Isn't she cute.........

(This is the chair I re-covered Nits......)

This is Jen & Top Deck.  I had a lovely visit with Jen & Hayley,  sitting on their fabulous verandah & soaking up the winter sun!.