Showing off

We took the girls to the Royal Show recently, something we have done since Miss I was 4 years old, except for last year when we were distracted by our American trip.  Strange but it's not such a big deal amongst their friends but it's something they love to do nonetheless.
D usually takes half a day off work and we head off after lunch, this year we figured the girls were old enough to stay up late and watch the fireworks so had planned a big day out.
The day got off to a great start, D planned to drop us at the gate, go and find a park and meet us afterwards.  No sooner had he dropped us off than someone pulled out of park across the road.  Like lightening he slammed the doors shut and burned some rubber in order to get the close (and free) park.
The sun was shining so we headed straight for the rides, get that over and done with before the forecasted rain came.  The girls are tall enough to ride on their own mostly and they have no fear so we plodded our way through ride after ride (except the log ride as Mummy said no water rides!)
Something we have never experienced before and that there were no crowds, no queues for anything so we breezed through everything rather quickly.  It felt strange not bumping into people every which way you turned.
Miss I wanted to go on the roller coaster but Miss A wasn't keen so I volunteered my services, I couldn't see for my eyes watering by the time I got off.  I think it was all part of Miss A's cunning plan though to get Daddy to go with her on the dodgem cars to even up the ride count.  I love the look on her face as she was crashing into anything and everything.
We checked out the animal pavillion and the girls milked a cow and when we went outside it had got a bit dark and quite cold...  Mummy gets grumpy when it's cold so we headed to the showbag pavillion for the girls to spend the money that they had got from lots of generous rellos.  We wandered around and around and around and they still couldn't find something they wanted, reading between the lines - it was all crap and so the obligatory chocolate bags were purchased along with a  light up headband.
Fireworks kick off was still an hour away and we were finished checking out anything worth checking out so we decided that a nice warm pub meal would be more enticing than hanging around in the cold (well D and I did anyway and we still pull rank) so we pulled up stumps and headed there.

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.

The Real Reason

The real reason I temporarily dropped the blogging ball was that I spent much of the last month being distracted by a photo challenge and becoming more and more obsessed with Instagram (mobile phone app ((application)).  Every time I waved my phone anywhere near my kids they rolled their eyes and mumbled something along the lines of "O I guess that'll end up on instagram!"
The challenge listed a topic every day for the month of August which your photo should be inspired by.  I made up my own rules though and instead of taking a photo each day I sometimes brought one out of the archives to give the technological touch too.  I loved how some of them came up, but moreso I had a lot of fun doing it. 
All over now so I can make phone calls safely in my kids'  presence without the eye rolling and sarcasm - and hopefully get back to blogging.

O and I know there are more than 31 photos here so I chucked in a few extra to fill the grids.

Right Back At You Dad!

The creative blogging juices have not been flowing so freely of late, as my beloved Dad pointed out to me recently, so I thought I had better rectify matters.
The final piece in my trilogy of domestic appliance meltdowns eventuated in the form of my washing machine ceasing up one day, of course when D wasn't around to deal with it.  A super efficient repair man turned up on time the following day and sorted it out for < $100 which was pleasantly surprising.  Another pleasant surprise was the removal of an underwire that the machine had swallowed about 10 years ago...  it wasn't the cause of the problem but just an extra discovery in the investigative process.
My cousin recently sent me a photo I hadn't ever seen before...  besides the mystery man 3rd from left, it is my "Other Nana" (my Nana's Mum), my Grandpa (who my Dad is the spitting image of himself these days), Mystery Man and then My Dad - complete with a full head of hair, something else I hadn't ever seen before!  The mischievious look on his face reminds me of a face my sister pulls.
So in testing my family blog audience...  I never thought my Dad looked much like my Grandpa but he has slowly morphed into him, same goes for my brother, I think he is slowly morphing into my Dad.  My sister definitely does not look like my Dad except for that funny cheeky face in the photo.  I now understand where my daughter maybe gets her blue eyes from if the colours in the photo are accurate.  Not to let myself off the genetic hook, the older I get the more I remind myself of my Mum too, I love you to bits Mum but it's still a scary thought!