Quote about teachers

Tonight a teacher is somewhere in the world is preparing lessons to teach your

children. In the minute it takes you to read this, teachers all over

the world are not only saving lives, but they are also sacrificing

their own time for your child's literacy, prosperity, and future. It's

Teacher Appreciation Week.

Halloween in Australia

In the last few years  Halloween has become quite big. This year the shops here were cashing in on it popularity... lollies, costumes, accessories,  stuff toys and even big pumpkins.

The kids have fun and it shows what another country does.

All the cousins (and and extra)
Each year we have always dressed all the cousins up and taken them around to people we know. We usually take them around to mum and dad's neighbours and they expect it every year. As we were walking around this year we passed an old lady driving in her car who was just shaking her head at the kids. I felt like saying "Don't worry, we only go to people we know so calm down!" But I didn't!!!

We have been religously watching Junior Masterchef. These children are absoluately amazing and can come up with dishes that I haven't even heard of. Tamika aspires to be like them. Tonight Donna Hay a famous Australia Food Editor, Creator and Photographer was on. She made this most amazing choclate cake with four perfect layers and chocolate cream cheese filling. It looked moist and delicious. We will need to search for that recipe, Tamika is dieing to give it a go. Even if we just make it the once- once won't do me any harm.
Have a look at this show, they are amazing little cooks!

http://www.donnahay.com.au/

Pink Night!

Every year the ladies around mum's neighbourhood put on a Pink Night  to raise funds for Breast Cancer in the month of October as it is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Every year we take a plate and lots of coins to help raise money and have a good time. This year was the first years that all the girls of my family went. I even took along Lynne. We all had a great night, with lots of food, games, drink and money!



I had a go at making "Boobie" cakes.





Ettalong - Central Coast

In the second week of the holidays, Matt had some time off work, so we took the time to escape for a couple of nights.  Matt's work gave him an accomodation voucher as a "thanks for the work that you did in the move" so we booked the Mantra Ettalong Beach  on the Central Coast. We had water views with a great big balcony ( a great way to spend the afternoon sitting in the sun reading). We really did alot of nothing. We went for walks, played in the sand, wrote in the sand. Tamika and Logan even braved going in the water (it was freezing!!!!)  They found a jelly fish and dead fish which they both picked up and tried to feed it to the sea gulls, but even they didn't want it since it was already dead.

We walked the kids one morning 2.2km up to Umina. Had a drink on the beach front then decided that we had better start to hea back before the rain. Well, we should have stayed under the shelter as the heavens opened up...

We had a lovely couple of days away. A shame to go back to civilisation so quickly. Counting down to our next holiday away. Before we left we called into Umina shops and bought all their frangipani hair clips. You can only ever find them around these types of beach holidays areas.

Me and my Munchkins

It is amazing how time flies! I can't believe that I am the mother of a ten year old and a six year old. Children are precious human beings, that are like sponges who look up to us as parent for their learning in life. We are their first point of contact for education.

Sometimes I am so busy trying to fit everything into my day that I forget to tell them how much they mean to me and that I love them very much. We have so many demands and not enough time to fill them all. I hope that they grow up knowing that I only work full time to give them everything I can and to provide for their every whim.
I love you two gorgeous kids!!!! You make my heart smile!!!

Bored!

This October long weekend has brought nothing but rain and boredom. We spent Saturday spending more money on shopping. I have been wanting some new toning shoes that are suppose to tone your buttock, legs and thighs as you walk. Well Rebel had a fantastic deal that if you joined their new 'Season Pass' which is their in-store membership for FREE you get items discounted and a $20 gift voucher. These shoes  were nearly half price, so I did it, I bought them. Very eager to try them out when walking but it hasn't stopped raining long enough.

Check out the shoes web-site:
http://www.avia.com/avimotion/

I have done a lot of sitting on my big butt this weekend, especially on Sunday and Monday.  Logan has been sick with 'hands, foot and mouth disease', which has caused pain while eating. I hate just sitting around at home and looking at all the consistent mess for me to clean up. I will say that it has been good with Matt home that he has been cooking dinners and even made a chocolate cake today with walnuts and blackberry jam.

Mum and dad came over for dinner on Saturday night to show us their photos of their trip to The Red Centre. Awesome!!! Can't wait to go there one day.

The best holidays - Are the ones near water.

I am posting this as I think the best family holidays are the ones near water. As a child we had fun and created many memories down by the sea. My own family loves exploring in and around the waters edge.

I love Queensland holidays, they have so much to offer.

http://www.youtube.com/queensland

BEN 10 Live!

My first day of school holidays was spent taking Logan to see the Ben 10 Live show at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. I have never seen so many excitable boys all in one room. I thought I could have been done better but Logan loved it, so that is all that counts.

Logan took some of his own money and bought some Ben 10 figurines while the program was pathetic so I got Logan to have a photo taken with digitally enhanced Ben 10. 

The show went for 1 1/2 hours, when it was finally finished we found Matt and Tamika outside who had been walking around the city the entire time. By the end of the day we had walked 12.5 km around the city. I had bought more clothes too! We ate lunch on the steps of Darling Harbour fighting with the sea gulls. Matt also took us to see his new office. Quiet nice and clean at the moment. At Darling Harbour we had told the kids that they could play on this cool playground there, but guess what, they had closed it down and were rebuilding.

Dinner with friends

The Friday of the last day of term we went out for dinner with Mitch and Belinda. We travelled like a snail into the city and drove around and around with frustration setting in on the driver (Poor Binxs!). We just couldn't find the parking lot and ended up picking Matt up on a red light while sitting at the traffic lights.

We ate at The Malaya at King Street Wharf Sydney. Belinda had never eaten Thai  before as most of her life she has had a peanut allergy but this year she was retested and was cleared. She was very excited to be tasting Thai. We had a window seat with water views over Darling Harbour.

I probably ate a bit too much, but was able to control myself to small portions of most meals except for the meal which Mitch ordered - Blue Eyed Cod. EHHH! The funniest thing was it was a bit too spicy for even him.
The menu: San Choy Bow
Roti Cani with Curry Chicken sauce
Green stir fried vegetables
Blue Eyed Cod
Singapore noodles (spicy with chilli)

We ended the night with a trip to the Lindt chocolate shop. A sweet treat! YUMMY!

Horse Riding

Tamika finally celebrated her 10th  birthday with her friends. We were so lucky with the weather as there was a chance of showers but they never surfaced. The car was packed full and we even had to get mum and dad to help us take kids there.

The company were so much more organised this time around and very busy. They had so many rides on today. Matt decided that he was going to check out the saddle, while Anthony and I walked along side Catalina and Logan's horses. We also had to borrow Dad as one of Tamika's friends began to panic and wouldn't go without her horse being led. Though once she got use to the feel of it she was okay. I thought Logan would refuse to go, but her really liked it.  The girls all liked it too as they are planning to go again.

They went for an hour riding (walking it was a fair way around) but it was quite leisurely. Matt's horse had a mind of its own and Tamika was so excited that she got the same horse as last time 'Silver'. While we were walking the little kids had consistent rides on a pony, Zander and Cooper loved it!

After the horse ride we had some party food and then a sausage on a roll. The giant cupcake filled with chocolate ganche was quite sickly.

There's Nothing Like Australia!

Sitting at home during the last seven days I was doing a lot of internet surfing between grabbing buckets for sick children. This web site on Australia is awesome showing just how diverse our landscape is and giving some great advertising for the places around our country.

I have loved looking at the photos and seeing areas through other people's perspective. It also has given me ideas for trips around and places to visit.

Check it out!

http://www.nothinglikeaustralia.com/index.htm

Homework

I hate homework - setting it, marking it and getting my own daughter to do it. Every night the same resistance, same complaints and same whinging. So over hearing it! 

First day back at school for her in a week and the first things she said as she walks in the door is: "I don't want to do my homework."

A week of sickness.

Well what a week! I had so much on at work this week but all of that was put to a stop when Tamika became sick. I have spent four days  at home with her and then Logan came down with the vomiting bug as well. Now I just have to hope I don't get it... as I don't have enough sick days for that.
They are both missing their daddy dreadfully, even though he is only in the city for the week, I think that is why it is so hard for them to understand why he is isn't coming home for over a week.
Hopefully once this office move is over and done with that things will get back to normal around here and we can do some family things again and see him a bit more often.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all Dad's out there, especially all the Father's in our lives- Dad (Matt), my Dad (Russ) and Poppy Terry.

We had a relatively quiet Father's Day, a nice easy breakfast, presents and a late lunch then we had dinner out with family.

The kids spoilt Matt with lots of gifts and hand made cards. I would like to take this time to thank Matt for how hard he works at work and at home to up keep the family home and help to keep a roof over our heads. Even though we haven't seen you much lately with your work move the kids love you and miss you lots.

Photos of Tamika's birthday

September sees Tamika turn 10

Wow! Where have the last 10 years gone. This month we celebrated Tamika's 10th birthday.
I remember ten years ago before having Tamika I was in hospital for 2 weeks before with extremely high blood pressure. I was induced two weeks early much to the delight of my sister Rebecca who was taking off to go and live overseas for a year and was hoping to meet the baby before she left. Her wish came true as I gave birth to a healthy baby girl 6pound 2oz (she was small) the night before Rebecca and Anthony fly out.

Unfortunately her birthday was a miserable day so we had to change our plans at the last minute. We were going for a picnic but instead we went ten pin bowling and then had morning tea at Max Brenner. YUMMY chocolate! Later in the day we had some extended family over for afternoon tea.

She will celebrate her birthday later in the month with her friends at a horse riding party but we had to wait until Matt wasn't working to be able  to fit it in.

She received some lovely big girl presents. Jewellery both gold and silver as well as pearl earrings, clothing and even an iTune voucher.
Tamika is growing into a lovely young girl who would do anything for the people she loves, especially her brother (on a good day) and all her cousins. She has a wicked sense of humour, has a wonderful personality and is gorgeous. May you continue to grow in the right direction and know that anything is possible as long as you believe in  yourself.

Yeah- Tamika Won the Grand Final

What a proud start to the weekend. Tamika's school Junior Netball team made it into the grand final for the Seven Hills District. They were the first junior team at school to made it into the grand finals for netball. 

It rained on and off all day and we waited for a call to say it was cancelled. The ground was slippery, it was coming on dusk but they worked hard as a team and won the game 5-3. 

Blacktown Music Festival

It is always proud for parents to see their child participate in any activity. Wednesday 1st September for the second year in a row took part in the Blacktown Music Festival held at Bowmen Hall Blacktown. This is an event held over two night which celebrates the education of students from schools around the Blacktown District.
Tamika has been practising her songs for the mass school choir all year. Her most favourite (and the one we got sick of ) was Popular (from Wicked) and Rockin' Robin. It was an extremely long day for the students involved as they had been at the venue all day practising and then until 9:30pm performing.


This year saw Catalina (cousin) perform in one of the items. She was in the Junior Choir item from their school.
All school students did well and we could see that Tamika enjoyed her experience.

Experimenting - Jumbo Cupcake

The lastest crave in cooking is Jumbo Cupcakes. Tamika wants one for her birthday cake but I had to experiment with cooking times and the mould itself. A fancy little contraption....

We put together vanilla and chocolate. The base was vanilla and the top was marbled chocolate and vanilla. We decided this time not to fill it but next time I will, maybe with jam.

Poor logan had to sit back and watch Tamika lick the bowl and then eat the cake. He enjoyed the icing though, chocolate with M &M's. I wasn't impressed with the icing. How do you ice and decorate the cake and the cupcakes attractively? What is the secret? It is really annoying.