Sometimes Footy Fans

It's hard to be an excited footy fan when you're the only one in the mix that barracks for the same team... but they have no choice, they know if they choose to barrack for another team then they have to find somewhere else to live - no excuses!
So for the first time in the girls' footy barracking lives the Crows made it to the second biggest game of the year.  The excitement built as talk circulated of our SA family coming over to see the big game.  Rumours were rife that there was about to be a family showdown - yes we have an infiltrator in our midst - a Hawthorn supporter in the family!
The big game drew nearer and the house guests were confirmed, air mattresses pumped up and sleeping bags laid out.
The girls got into the spirit of the day as the boys were preparing for the game but they weren't too fussed that they weren't actually going with them.
We took the photo whilst everyone was still smiling as we were pessimistically confident that only one would return so at the end of the day.
and so later on that night they all returned after a very exciting match, closer than anyone predicted and apparently the amount of beer consumed was necessary to counter the yelling they all did!

Sometimes Mummy's Get Time Off...

... and when we do we do it in style!

Trying to get a large group of Mum's to find one weekend that we could all "take off" is a bit of a task, lots of kids, lots of activities and husbands that are not around reliably make it near impossible.  At the end of a long and dreary winter, motivation in the form of a birthday was all that was required and being the super organisers we are eight of us made it happen recently.
With three car loads of more food and alcohol than is humanly possbile to consume in an overnight stay and one change of clothes, we made our way to the infamously relaxing town of Daylesford about an hour and a half away.
Maximising our time off we despatched the kids to their activities and hit the road by 9.30am.  Made our first coffee/cake stop by 10.45 and then rolled onto lunch at midday.
With full bellies we despatched the birthday girl to the day spa and headed to our lodgings to set up for dinner - birthday girl believing we were eating take away pizza that night so she didn't have to re-do her hair after day spa treatments.
Mission accomplished! birthday girl suitably surprised with the beautiful dining room we had created, cocktail lounge open and 5 star 4 course dinner in progress.
The night rolled on from one cocktail to another and one course to another with a bit of singing and dancing in between until we all fell into bed somewhere around 2am.
Breakfast the next morning was an equally luxurious and relaxing affair and after we'd cleaned up the mess we headed into town for some exploring (ok shopping).
Getting a bit weary by lunch time so we found a little cafe and spent a few more hours sitting on our butts eating, drinking and chatting.  Thoughts of the following day being a school day started to creep in and we all decided we had better make tracks so we were home in time to get ready for the week - conscientious bunch we are!
Well it doesn't happen very often but when it does it sure is a hell of a lot of fun...  worth waiting for even!

Starting a Tradition

Within our little family of four we don't have many traditions, those we do have seem to be centred around food - pancakes on a Sunday morning, morning tea from the local french patisserie on the way home from dancing on a Saturday, birthday person chooses whatever they like for dinner etc.
Dave was away in the lead up to Father's day this year and so I put it to him what he might like to do seeing as though he was only arriving home the day before.  I should not have been surprised by his response - "let's do what we did last year - that was great!"
I dutifully rang to make the booking and was left with two options at such short notice, lunch at 11.30am or 2pm, not ideal but the latter did work in well with not missing out on tradition #1 of breakfast pancakes so we locked it in.
Talk about throwing a spanner in the works, we arrived spot on time to find the restaurant was completely empty. We exchanged a few confused looks at each other but soon figured out that the recent renovations had seen the restaurant move into the extension of the newly acquired premises next door... panic over!
And so a new tradition was declared after a beautiful Father's day lunch with lots of new and interesting foods, we even got Miss A to eat some deep fried crab.  Dessert and coffee were had in the courtyard with some friends that popped in between family visits and then we all rolled home very happy and full!

The venue... http://www.thepostofficehotel.com.au/

The start of the tradition...  http://mccleanesdousa.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/to-briefly-digress.html

Boney Bob & the Fairy Tale Princesses

Well maybe if I was to ever write a children's story I could find some inspiration in this title, but instead it was the cast of characters at Miss A's schools' book week dress up day.
Her ballet school had a costume clearance sale a few weeks before, boxes and boxes of very interesting old costumes to use my imagination with and try to draw a connection with a book character that would be fitting for a prep student.
On seeing a skeleton costume, a tiny bit of wasted space at the back of my brain ignited and I remembered a book my now 20 year old nephew had handed down to my girls quite a few years back - Boney Bob, a book about a skeleton who couldn't make friends as everyone was scared of him. I convinced Miss A that it would be very exciting to go to school dressed up as a skeleton and not a princess as was pretty much guaranteed by the rest of the school's female population.  Truth be told I really didn't want her Snow White or Ariel costumes being dragged around the school yard and getting wrecked.