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Snowy Mountain Vacation

Posted: 17/05/2013 by Sharole in Family, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: Craig's Hut, Mansfield, Snowy Mountains, Tumut

We decided it was about time Toby got a week off work and so we decided that for the second week of the school holidays we’d take a trip south to the Snowy Mountains. We had an iconic Aussie location that we wanted to visit. It was Craig’s Hut from the movie “The Man from Snowy River”.
We were going to tent it but I changed my mind last minute thinking maybe it might be too cold, so we booked a cabin and off we set to Mansfield, a town nearby. It was a lovely town. We were staying just out of town by about 15mintues. Stayed in a place called Mansfield Country Resort. It was a good price and we were surprised by how nice it was when we arrived. We even had a washing machine and dryer in our cabin. They had a huge piece of land with 4 tennis courts, a big 2 storey games building with a gym, billiards, huge TV, sitting area, library and ping pong. Outside was a lovely pool area, then another building with a massive spa, then another smaller spa and sauna. There was 2 play areas, mini golf, skittles. A games room with ping pong (aka table tennis), pool and some paid games.

There were lots of cabins and we all had our own carports, we brought the bikes so the kids could bikes around and in Mansfield they had a big bike track where Toby got to take a bike ride, it spans for 134kms, he didn’t get that far.

The weather was fantastic the whole week we were to lucky. The first day we decided to go to Craig’s Hut in case the weather wasn’t on our side. We could drive a majority of the way but the last 2 kms we had to hike it. TJ did so well, not one complaint, and on the way back all the kids were good. Rocky had a good trip on daddy’s back! It was very up and down the whole way in, but worth it went we got the breathtaking views. I was surprised at how big the house was. I was glad they had toilets there for Gigi and I on arrival, too bad there was no toilet paper. Note to self: always take toilet paper with us when we got hiking. So Rocky’s wipe’s got some use thanks to Toby’s suggestion

Our second day we decided to take the kids to The Mansfield Zoo. They had two beautiful white lions. One was making the most awesome noises, I loved it. The other memory was the fact several of the animals were allowed to roam freely, the kids weren’t too happy about that. Lets say 2 screamed their heads off, from the peacocks, ducks and kangaroo’s approaching them. I said well it probably doesn’t help you have food for them in your hands kids. Toby and I had a big laugh about that. TJ seemed to laugh through his fear. Toby even managed to get some video footage of Gigi and William screaming, it’s rather hilarious.

Day three we took a nice afternoon drive down to Bonnie Doon. Mom you might remember this from the movie “The Castle” this was the families favourite place to holiday. We found the town right near where we were and definitely felt of the serenity. I nice little town.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the resorts activities and basking in the huge spa.

Next day we ventured back towards NSW from being in Victoria to Gundagai where we stayed the night in the aid to allow me to catch up with my best mate from primary school. Sadly her kids were all away holidaying with grandparents. So my kids weren’t happy about that, we went out to dinner Friday night in Gundagai to the Family Pub and then Toby took the kids back to the hotel and Amanda and I went for a hot chocolate and catch up. Gundagai is a famous town as there is a song called Along the Road to Gundagai, it’s an Australian folk song, one of the top 30 of all time. My dad also liked to mention that he’s a member of the local RSL there. The original town was on that flat where the big bridge is, it was flooded several times and so they moved the town up off the flat in 1853.

Saturday morning we ventured into her town of Tumut for the Falling Leaves Festival, they had a big area full of tents and activities, the kids took a ride on the blown up slippery slides, TJ loved it. TJ also went into the petting zoo with Amanda, the others weren’t keen. Before long she had to leave to go to Sydney of all places to attend a concert literaly across the water from us in the Acer Arena. We ventured around the town some more before leaving for the big trip home. It was a lovely town I could see why she loves it there so much.

We arrived home about 4pm and all enjoyed our Real Aussie Holiday Adventure.

When we caught up on the phone Amanda said the concert of Black Sabbath she attended was terrible, they ended up leaving early. Total bummer, esp. at ticket prices of $160 each, too bad you can’t ask for your money back!

FHE – Activity – The Digestive System

Posted: 04/04/2013 by Sharole in Family, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: digestive system, fhe

A few weeks back I did an FHE on the digestive system in our house. I enjoyed finding pictures of all the internal organs and cutting them out with separate name tags.

I decided to use one of the kids toys to be the throat/item to stick all the parts to it was also tubular so we could put pretend food in adn have fecal pretend matter come out the other end. They had to figure out what picture was what organ, then in what order do they go, once food goes into their mouths, and then I would tell them more about what each organ does. It kept their attention and it helped we let them stick it all on.

Easter Break – Oberon

Posted: 04/04/2013 by Sharole in Family, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: camping, Easter camping, Oberon

The abbreviation for our kids school is called REPS (Rydalmere East Public School). And they have a camping group that goes camping twice a year, this year we were invited and so decided to take them up on it.
The destination was out past the Blue Mountains near Jenolan Caves in a town just outside of Oberon in Wiseman’s Creek. We made sure to check out the creek to see if there were any wise men, turns out it was just us
We arrived on Friday and stayed till Monday afternoon. We got to try out our new tent for the first time. It’s a big thing, but I will say quite enjoyable. I did learn however best to close the inner pods during the day, due to when I was cleaning out the floor on pack-up Toby and I had a scorpian in our pod, I was glad to not have been bitten, so we took a picture then decided best to just kill it.

Our new tent has 3 pods and a communal area in the middle which is great for card games etc… This round we put Gigi and Rocky together the 2 boys together and we had a pod. You can sleep people in the middle if needs be. We put up our tarp out front for the kitchen dining room and covered sitting area. We were so lucky just a few sprinkles of rain the whole time we were there. After last months down pour whilst camping, we were glad for some non raining camping.

This property was one of the campers parents property and they had a lovely set up. A pit toilet in a shed and a hot shower in a shed behind. Tanks for plenty of water. A clothes line and we were even lucky enough for them to have a washing machine the old twin ones, where you have to put the clothes back and forth for the spin cycle. Reason being is our water can was placed on it’s side and it leaked on a bunch of our bedding, and stuff that never got aired out after our last camp that was pouring the whole time and then of course, Rocky had explosive diarrhea poo, that got all his bedding, boy did that pong. So naturally we were loving that machine.

The Easter hunt was on the hill near our tent. The kids got a tractor ride away whilst we planted eggs across the hill, then they came back found them all and then they were equally distributed.

They started on a cubbyhouse for the kids it only got as far and the floor but the kids loved it and provided them with lots of entertainment, and swings underneath. Bikes are there for enjoyment also, we didn’t have to pack them which was nice. A picture of all the kids before we all headed home at the end of the weekend.

All in all a great weekend, we even took a trip into Bathurst which had memories for Toby and I as I took him there when he came to visit back in 2005, we took my pulsar around the Bathurst 1000 track, I do recall we got the car upto 200kms. Looks like they’ve locked down that some with speed camera’s installed now. They had porsche’s racing on the weekend, we took the boys over to see it. This was my third attempt to get the porsche’s into the picture in the background below, sadly the boys weren’t as receptive to the repeated shots. Gigi deserted us for girls company, she went shopping and lost her birthday toy from her friend Chloe. Funny thing was one of the other campers went to the same store saw it and thought I wonder if that’s Gigi’s. They picked it up but left it, when they realised it was indeed hers, it was gone. A result of not listening to her mother that said “if you take your toys out to shops, you risk loosing them”, and this was a point in case.

Best Easter weather I think since 2010.

Out with the old in with the new

Posted: 26/03/2013 by Sharole in Events, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: camry, cars, VW Polo

Sadly we had to bid the (1993) Camry goodbye after 4 years. She was a quick purchase so as to get around when we first arrived in Australia. It was just wide enough to fit the 3 car seats across the back seat. My dad said it was gray, it sure looked more purple to us though I was trying not to spend money in the car department for at least another year, however she cost us a good $1000 over the last year in repairs for a car only worth $2000 and so with this last issue we decided it was time to upgrade so Toby had a more reliable car to commute with daily.

Toby was firm on his only choice of car, a VW Polo (2010). Toby’s been after me for a good year and a half to get one, he did start with the Gulf but then changed his mind to a Polo towards the end of last year. Toby found 2 cars to look at, I went and looked and did the wheel and deal and voila, a car was purchased rather quickly, it’s amazing how helpful a dealership will be when you have 4 kids roaming around the store to make you happy and get you out. We were also lucky enough to sell our Camry within 4 days of advertising, so that was a relief.

We ended up having to wait 2 weeks for a new part to get installed on her, the dealership gave us a car to use whilst we waited, a jetta, we weren’t impressed with it, and finally picked her up on Saturday just gone. That was the first time Toby saw her. She is a lovely zippy car and has lots of pump for a 1.2 turbo. I admit I am enjoying driving her on my trips to the gym and such, it feels good to have a manual car in the family again. It’s like having our odessey and honda back.

We had another victim in this exchange and that was our fridge. That in itself is a long story but the end of it is, the seals went and were not able to be replaced, so at 15 years old, we said our goodbye’s to Whirlpool and welcomed in the Fisher and Paykel. The kids made comments like, this fridge is hard to open, I said yes because the seals work, and another one said, it’s so cold when I open the fridge, and I replied yes I know isn’t it great, the fridge works properly. So now our food should last longer, yay!

So this month has turned out to be a real expensive month for us. I then decided to look into some of our bills seeing how to reduce costs and managed to find a $1200 saving for our health insurance a year, I was proud of myself. Then to top it off our rent just went up $1200 a year. So as least I evened out the costs. Please no more bills or upgrades needed for ages……..

Now the question is, is Toby happy now?

Our 8th Wedding Anniversary

Posted: 26/03/2013 by Sharole in Events, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: 8th, Anniversary, sharole, toby

For our wedding anniversary this year we decided, ok it may have been more me to go and see, Cliff Richard in concert in March. We bought the tickets last year and waited for it to come around.

Before it started. Bad lighting here but oh well. The theatre is beautiful all Art Deco.

Wow, what a lot of energy he has for a 72 year old, not to mention a great figure. I guess staying single and no kids, has kept him in fine form.
We had a nice time. My dad watched the kids and we jetted off into the city by train, grabbed our favourite snags, my favourite is the Greek, Toby likes to change his up each time. We were going to go the Reuban this time but it was closed, so we were still happy with our fancy snags. Then made a run for it to the concert and thankfully made it.

As it was starting. Awesome lighting throughout.

Obviously an older audience, though I will say we weren’t the youngest people there There was also one ning nong that kept calling out, one in every crowd, as they say. He came back for 3 encores and it went for over 3 hours. I enjoyed singing all the songs.
We were so impressed with his stamina dancing all over the stage. So many good songs, gotta love the goodies and oldies…. His sense of humour was great also, nice to know your going to get class at an event and not trash.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!!

Rocky’s Baby Blanket

Posted: 14/03/2013 by Sharole in Family, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: baby blanket, Rocky

This week we received a “Parcel in the Post”. Anyone remember that song from Primary school?

Rocky’s finished blanket arrived. We were all excited to see it, and Nana surely didn’t disappoint, it looks great!

Rocky loves it, this is what he instantly did.

And a front on, so you can all enjoy.

Yep Rocky got a dinosaur theme. This photo probably isn’t the best, but you can get the drift. This makes 4 for 4. All my kids have been really happy with their blankets and are grateful for all the time and effort and love that has gone into them.

Thanks Nana for sharing your talent with us, to make lasting memories for our kids, from you.

And on a side note I had to take a picture of this for you mom. Yep a candy, William even ate one, he said it was nice. We’d get one for you but it’s covered in chocolate, so it was out

Gigi’s new do…

Posted: 12/03/2013 by Sharole in Gigi, News, Pictures
Tags: Gigi, haircut

Gigi’s hair has been getting longer and longer. And her dislike to brush or have it combed has been getting worse and worse. I warned her that if she doesn’t take better care of her hair then I would get it cut off. Her father in support of her keeping her long hair then was put in charge of combing it.

That routine went something like screaming like a person getting abused, so much so the neighbouredhood new about it each and every time. Finally dad started to get annoyed with the noise and tears falling on the floor and slobber falling out of her mouth. I said that is enough, I’m getting it chopped off. Before Shot (I found one).

So we went together to the salon to get our hair cut. Mine was in dia need of some TLC and so it was time for a snip myself also.

I had everyone in that salon complaining that I wanted it cut off, how could you…. and such comments. I said well you don’t have to deal with it. The hairdresser didn’t want to cut it either. But as soon as it came to brushing it before the cut she began. Nothing like what we get but still instantly annoying to the hairdresser, she said I see your point, and off the hair went.

I wanted to get a before and after picture, but sadly Toby had gone to forage food with the boys and my phone, so I couldn’t get a picture. I managed to remember to get one afterwards though. They cut off between 12-15cms worth. Seeing all that beautiful red hair on the floor did seem crazy, but you need to do what needs to be done for, the sanity of all. It looked so gorgeous once brushed, so vibrant and shiny.

Well it didn’t turn out to be a lesson learned, instead she loves the haircut! That said she is now brushing it with no plm. So at least hopefully she will get in the habit of brushing it regular and if it grows once more she will go with it, without all the noise and slobber.

Gigi’s 6th Birthday

Posted: 02/03/2013 by Sharole in Events, Gigi, News, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: 6th birthday, birthday cake, Gigi

Toby was away for Gigi’s special day, doing work in Adelaide. So it was just me and the kids. First thing was Gigi waking up to her mother singing her “Happy Birthday” I got a morning photo as she made her way into the dining room to open her birthday presents. William was up and eager to see and TJ well was dragging the chain.

She had a great time opening her gifts and then before long it was time for school. She asked to take cupcakes to school for her class, which we did. We had some nice family time that night she convinced me to take them all out for dinner at the Ryde Eastwood Club. And before long it was bedtime. The main event was to be Saturday when Gran and Granddad come over and her friends are here, for the cake.

Gigi had a birthday party last year so this year she got a sleepover. She was allowed to invite 2 friends over for the night. She wanted all things Lalaloopsy, cake, clothes, anything for that matter.

Amilia and Chloe were her chosen sleepover buddies. I picked them all up from school on Friday and home they came. She opened her presents from her friends first up, yep more Lalaloopsy.

Then we had ice cream sandwiches. Water time with the hose outside. They watched the Lalaloopsy movie she got from Amilia. We had a hot dog dinner party and they had instant pudding and ice cream for dessert. I read the girls a story at bedtime.

The next morning we had breakfast and played a game. It was a dress-up game. I wrote small papers of all the different dress-ups we have. Then I put the papers all in an ice cream container. The game was.

Pick out a character and once everyone got one they had 4 minutes to find the outfit and dress-up in it. When the timer went they had to come in to me. If they had the whole outfit they got 2 points if they had half of the outfit they got 1 point if they didn’t want to wear the outfit then no points. The winner at the end of playing got 2 prizes. It was a lot of fun. The boys weren’t really willing to wear girls outfits but the girls were willing to wear the boys. Chloe was the overall winner she was the most willing to do whatever she needed to do, to get those 2 points each round.

Some of the costumes were: a bride, cowboy, frankenstein, genie, baby, hula girl, pirate, bell, ballerina, hulk, nurse, doctor and so on. It wasn’t until making this game up that I realised some of the fun costumes we have.

When Amilia arrived we did some dancing. The love that group – One Direction, and Taio Cruz.

Once Gran and Granddad arrived and Amilia. Amilia became overtired and had to end up going home, but her mummy brought her back in the morning. We played a chance game with a dice. If you rolled a 6 you’d get to put a hat and scalf on and then you got to eat, a piece of chocolate, once you finished that piece you could eat another, and so forth, well until someone else rolled a 6, then they’d put the hat and scalf on and get to eat the chocolate, until a block of chocolate was gone almost. We then sang “Happy Birthday” and had the cake.

Yep she got a Lalaloopsy cake. We cheated this year on this. We bought a cake topper made of rice paper in the Lalaloopsy design, then we asked a friend Angela to cover our cake with fondant and put some colourful buttons around the sides. She loved it and it was a success. It got eaton all up in one day. It helped that TJ’s friends came over meant I didn’t have to eat any cake.

These were the happy girls.

TJ’s 7th Birthday – Bouldering Party

Posted: 23/01/2013 by Sharole in Events, News, Pictures, TJ
Tags: rock climbing, TJ's birthday

TJ was up bright and early and waited patiently for everyone to wake up so he could open his presents. They were put on the table the night before so they can see them first thing in the morning. Once everyone was awake we enjoyed watching him open his presents. The present he’s holding above is one from Nana and G’Dad. Then TJ hopped onto Skype with Nana on google hangout, which was so cool. Before we headed off for his party.

TJ asked for a Ben 10 cake for his birthday this year. We were preping ourselves for that when he saw a cake at the store and said I want that cake, it will do mum, then you won’t have to work as hard and it will save you time. It was cheap also, so I said sure why not. So I decided to let it go this round. It was a Ben 10 cake just not home created.

One of TJ’s favourite things to do outside is climb, he happens to be quite good at it and so an idea hit me whilst I was trying to come up with a birthday party idea to do rock climbing/bouldering. There is a place near our home in North Pararmatta that does it and the owner George is lovely. It also helped with our big birthday gift. He got a harness for his birthday, so he can go anytime, and it actually fits him and that small toosh of his.

The party went from 10-12.30pm. It went great. They were climbing up a storm. Then lunch which was pizza and whilst that was taking place they put lollies on the rocks and so when it was time to go back in I gave the kids their party bags and they climbed for candy. And put it in their bags. Below is them waiting in anticipation to get in there and get their candy fill.

They climbed ladders and swang on a rope and held onto balls, I even did some climbing. I didn’t have the right shoes for it, but went ahead anyway it was fun. And Toby did also, along with Uncle Seth and Uncle Edgar. TJ was very happy with his new Ben 10 watch from Uncle Edgar.

Everyone had a great time and it was over before we knew it.

Speedway/Demolition Derby – New Years Day

Posted: 23/01/2013 by Sharole in Family, Informative, Pictures, Uncategorized
Tags: Edgar, Family, new years

I was so excited to see a demolition derby coming to our speedway. My brother Edgar had dropped his kids over New Years Eve for a sleepover, we went to a pool party in Kellyville and sadly everyone fell asleep before midnight, except TJ. I managed to get a few pictures, so angelic asleep

So we grabbed all our 7 kids and headed home we made it just in time to get all the kids in bed except TJ and we watched the midnight fireworks. My favourite is always the waterfall effect off the bottom of the Harbour Bridge.

We did some hard playtime at the Armory park come morning time, it’s across the water from our place it has flying fox’s, a water area, climbing towers, going in tunnels, slides, swings, climbing over ropes etc….

I could add lots more pictures, they had a blast. They all got ice creams – bubble-o-bills and then we headed home for lunch they played for an hour or so at home then I took the kids to another park over in Putney, they weren’t as impressed there.

The cousins all got on so well. We then headed home to change and headed off to the Speedway for our evening event. The kids got face painting, the girls got flowers and the boys got spiders. We had Monster Truck tickets for the kids. By the time we found a plot and got seated and ate some food, Toby took the kids over for the Monster rides. Sadly the queue was huge and wasn’t moving anytime fast. After about an hour or so, they gave up hope once the kids started arguing (Gigi and Amilia), so back they came. They were all getting tired. The speedway put on some fireworks and it was fantastic, I hasen to say that it was better than the New Years Eve ones I thought. The kids loved them also. Then one by one they dropped off to dreamland. (below Gigi and Dakota)

The evening was supposed to finish at 10.30pm, but when it arrived, we still weren’t anywhere near seeing the derby however I wasn’t willing to budge till I saw it, my childhood memories coming back here. About 11.30pm it finally started and boy was it worth it, so much fun, one car turned into a U-shape, and another car just wouldn’t die, it was smashed all over and still keep on, moving on. Jordan was the only one that saw it, but the other kids got to see it on the way out all the smashed up cars. One more sleepover and then it was time to them to leave. But not before a slip’n'slide which ended up biting the dust after one use, they sure don’t make things sturdy nowadays. When Uncle Edgar and Aunty Karen came, TJ got out his R/C car and they had a spin of it, it’s rather fast.

The cousins had a blast together and we were sad to see them go. But glad we’d see them again at TJ’s birthday party in a few days before they head back to Queensland.

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