Hello 2011

Hi everyone,

I found myself dropping off planet blog over the Xmas/ new years period,

life was just a bit hectic,

filled with family & festivities!

Here's a bit of an update of how we filled our days...

We did Christmas dinner at our house twice, 

The first time was a few days before Chrissy for our family that were travelling elsewhere for the big day & then again on Christmas day for us & my parents.

It was a really lovely day & I was lucky enough to be given my first D SLR camera....

I haven't stopped taking photo's since, mind you I have NO idea what I'm doing.

Thank goodness for all of those talented bloggers that enjoy passing on tips to the newbie photographers!!!!

Although this is an old photo from my last house, I really did get to share a bottle of Moet with my lovely neighbor & friends for New years.

Maitland put on a fantastic fireworks display on the Hunter river each year & we had a fabulous view of them from our street, which was great!!!

Then it was time to take down the tree & put my house back together, the living area seems so much more spacious without a giant tree in the room.

We have enjoyed some great family days, this is my 2 favourite men fishing at Stockton beach

of course you cant go to the beach without building a few castles

dream child no.1 also got a DSLR off Santa so we had a lovely day snapping the sights of Newcastle & Stockton

My ultra gorgeous little sister is also the proud owner of a fab camera & the 3 of us wandered around like crazy tourists snapping up the sights & experimenting with different features on the camera....sooooo much to learn, soooo much fun!

We have also had to have a couple of skate park excursions for dream child no.3 to hone his scooter skills!

So this is what Ive been up to lately, plus a trip to the movies to see "Mega Mind", a few shopping adventures & several trips to our local pool.

We have so many exciting adventures planned just exploring Newcastle & The Hunter Valley, we don't have time to go on a holiday & that's why I love where I live!

What have you been up to so far?

CHEERS

Trish xxx





My Birthday Boy

My little man has turned 8 yrs old this week.

I can't believe how quickly he has grown up, especially in the past 12 months. He has matured greatly & is really growing into a nice boy.

We decided to let him have a slumber party this year & he invited the 6 boys that live in our street.he plays with these kids every day, rain hail or shine. we really are lucky to live in such a family filled street. between the boys & girls there is generally at least a dozen kids out in the street on bikes & scooters or just hanging out having a good time!

We call  the boys the scooter gang, 4 of them are 8yr olds & the other 3 kids are 11 yrs old. I was a little apprehensive about the older 3 coming, but they all got on like a house on fire & really had the most fun!

there was a lot of scooter action, they are certainly a daring bunch.

I purchased a NERF gun for each kid, instead of giving the traditional lolly bag.

They had some pretty awesome gun fights & once it got dark they launched a full scale night battle using nothing but lasers to guide them, total boy heaven apparently, or as they put it

"sick as!"

We took full advantage of Halloween & had a spooky theme for our party food.

Skeletons on the cake where a big hit!

We served lollies & chips in witches cauldrons...

Chocolate spiders in skull cup cake papers

&

unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of my best creation....eyeball jelly!

I made jelly in plastic cups & pushed plastic eye balls into them when it was set.

 Yes they where also described as "sick as!"

They went full speed until midnight & got back up at 6am, I awoke to a barrage of foam darts pounding my bedroom door!

They devoured an enormous amount of pancakes for breaky & then back to the gun battle & death defying scooter acts.

Believe it or not, the only injury was by the birthday boy himself...he was walking out of his bedroom & kicked his toe on the tall boy, split it open & it appears to be broken.

I couldn't believe it!!

All in all they had a wonderful time & I am exhausted, so I guess that's a sign of a great party.

Happy Birthday Big T

xxxx