My 43rd Birthday

I had another birthday, it came around too quick! Soon after I started this blog Jay had a birthday and I began a tradition with the first birthday interview. I feel a bit awkward about doing an interview on myself but since this blog exists so I can document and reflect on our lives I  figured I would do it so that when I am old, I can look back on where I was "at" in my 43rd year of life. The questions are the same as Jays except for number 3.

Here goes...

What do you like?

Hanging out with my family, travelling, snow skiing, bush walking, camp fires and chocolate, especially Turkish delight!

What don't you like?
Waste (our worlds resources, money,time), outrageous consumerism.

Who inspires you?
My family and strong woman who follow their passions.

Where is your favourite place to be?
In the bush or snow or any other outdoor environment.

Where would you like to travel to?
Northern Territory, Tasmania (again), Scotland, Japan, Machu Picchu, Antartica.....

What would you like to do when you get older?
Full time traveler or live on a smallish property.

What the best thing about being 43?
Waking up alive every morning and getting morning snuggles from the kids.

When the lights went out.

After the huge storm we lost power for four days. So what did we get up to?

Made sure that we had the cooker set up for the important cups of tea / hot chocolates.

Had a fire, cooked marshmallows and drunk wine.

Played Lego in pyjamas 

Dressed the dog up

Introduced Ivy to Jenga

Made houses of cards and "dominos" tracks while in pyjamas

Read to each other while still in pyjamas

Wrote stories in our story books

Painted with marbles while the chicken stood in the rain looking on

Played nearly every board game we own

Put on as many candles we could find

Read by head lamp

Slept on the floor by camp light

And of course, Face painted! 

Mumma bear

Xxx

One good thing

After many weeks of rehearsal's and lots of commitment, last week Jasmine took to the stage in the debut production for a newly formed local company called "Electric productions".The company is a dream come true for a school friend of Jasmines and the play was called "One good thing". It focused on issues that surround teenagers and their families and showcased how talented these young actors are, many were from her school so it was great to see some familiar faces that I haven't seen for a while. While Jasmine did face some frustrations along the way, which can happen when you are working closely together on a project like this, when it was all over she said that she was sad that it was finished and is hopeful that she will be involved in their next production.

Here are some links about the show:
Jasmines intro
one good thing promo

Mumma Bear

{this moment}

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

To see more from others check out Soulemama

We ran away to the Zoo

I was going stir crazy and needed to get out of the house and travel somewhere. It had been a week of fairly average weather and family activities had not allowed us to travel too far from home, but with a rare opportunity to have a Friday off, I jumped at the chance to escape. I gave Jay and Ivy a few ideas of where we could go, but I always knew that they would choose Dubbo Zoo, and considering that we had the annual Zoo pass to gain free entry I was pretty pleased with their choice. We packed up the always ready camp gear, chucked in some clothes and the kids new sleeping bags and hit the road for the 5 hour (including a stop) journey. Our first stop in Dubbo was the information centre where I asked the volunteer if he could suggest a cheap place to camp, I was pretty impressed when he pointed me in the direction of a free camp, you can't get much cheaper than that!. The camp was about 10 km of town, had toilets but no showers or drinkable water but that wasn't a worry. The limit of one night stay was a bit of a problem though as we wanted to stay 2, but after having a chat to our friendly caravanning niehbours who were planning on staying longer than us I decided that we wouldn't be pushing the boundaries too much for an extra night. After snuggling down for an early Friday night we left the next morning for our day at the Zoo. We had brought our own bikes to ride around the 5km track, Jay had blown out his tyre the night before at camp, so we hired him one, and set off following the one way road catching as many off the keeper talks as we could along the way. There were a few moments that I questioned why I was dragging a nearly 5 year old (who doesn't particularly love riding) around, but with the bribery of an ice block being a great incentive, she pushed herself till the end, only having a few melt downs where she insisted that she "can't do it anymore". The kids loved Dubbo Zoo and so did I, so much that we returned the next day to have a bbq lunch and play in the playground before heading back home. 

I'm not sure when our next escape will be what with the cooler weather coming and soccer season staring, so I'm glad we took this opportunity to leave the real world behind even if it was only for a short time.

Mumma Bear. 

Easter 2015

Early riser Ivy found the the trail that led to the first clue, collected the the pages, stacked them neatly and put them in her room. It was very confusing for her. When she woke me up shoving the first clue in my face saying " what's this say?, is it for me? " (she had seen her name on it!) I decided Easter had arrived!

    

                           

 

Previous years hunts have varied depending on where we are,who is home and how old they are. We have had general hunts where I hide the eggs around the house/yard/tent, following the wool trails to the eggs, and last year ( while Jasmine and I were away) a single clue had Amber asking a friend for help, as she couldn't solve it. This year it was return of the multiple clues ( not too tricky). The kids took turns at reading, solving and looking for the stash and at the end they divided them up. 

The morning finished with phone calls to loved ones and breakfast (which included chocolate pancakes) before we gave out hugs and kisses to the younger ones as they set off for round two! 

Happy Easter everyone xxx

Mumma Bear 

{this moment}

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

To see more from others check out Soulemama

Birthday celebrations.

We took the opportunity to visit Dad on his birthday, niether the girls or I  had work or any plans so we travelled down to celebrate with him.

Ivy had decided early on that she wanted to buy him a soft toy to cuddle while Amber bought him a "Scottish fine soap". Jasmine made him some of her famous chocolate brownies and Jay helped me pick out some of his favourite food.

                     

We made a cake and bought some party food with us but according to Ivy that wasn't enough, parties need decorations! So, after hunting down some at mums, the kids attacked the room, puttingup streamers (which were prone to fall down on our heads!) and balloons. The staff are used to our sometimes loud and crazy behaviour and kept checking in on us to see how things were progressing and have a chat.

After everyone having their share of cuddles we left him in peace to enjoy his sport on tv. I'm sure he enjoyed the party, we were grateful for the time we spent with him, and hopefully not too many streamers fell down on his head in the middle of the night!

Happy 74th Birhtday Dad xxxx

Love Mumma Bear.