Aaron turns 11.....

yup that's right, my little guy turns 11 today, I can't believe it. As I said in my earlier post on Renee's birthday I get so meloncholly around their birthday's, makes me sad and happy and proud, and all those motherley feelings come out in me LOL.

Aaron did quite well for his birthday and he is stoked. Renee and I went out looking for something for him on Saturday and struggled to come up with anything. Renee had suggested a Nintendo DS, but I just thought that at $200 and then the accessories and the book and potentially a game was a little pricey. However, it was what he reeeeaaallly wanted!!! So we came home and spoke to Rod and to him. It was decided that he could have it, but he would need to put $100 towards it, as the budget was set at $150, plus his party on the weekend, so he was very happy with that idea.

So along with the nintendo he got the accessory pack and the book that he wanted to go with one of the games that he has in mind.

How happy does he look in these pics.

And how sweet is this pic with his sister, doesn't happen very often LOL

He so did not want to go to school today, he just wanted to play. After opening his presents, he then started counting all the people that he was hoping to get money from LOL, because now he has a game in mind. So there was Papa, who he had got $20 from last night. Aunty Celina told him he was getting money (the card hasn't arrived yet Celina, should get here tomorrow), he had hoped that he had dropped enough hints to Aunty Donna and maybe some of the kids that are coming to the party on Saturday night will perhaps help him out a little. It was so hilarious watching him working all this out.

Granny, Grandpop, Aunty Donna and Ben ( he is technically uncle now, but the kids find it a strange concept) have just left after having tea here, and yes he has cleaned up again and money was what he got, totalling $50 so we are off to the shops tomorrow, cause he has it spent LOL.

Here he is blowing out the candles and cutting the cake

and some family pics

He has a party on Saturday night, five boys over for the night (well four have responded just one more to reply) and then that will be Birthdays over for another year! So look out for more pics after Saturday, I am sure there will be plenty LOL

Friendship Forever.....new layout

When Renee had these photos emailed to her from Teagan's party in February, I just loved them, they just screamed fun....I had so much trouble doing the first page of this layout, ink going everywhere etc from the Zig pen...ARGH...ended up having to cut the patterned paper and photo away from the cardstock at the back and sticking onto a fresh piece...even then I still managed to write Teagan's name wrong in the second line, oh well it obviously was not my night to scrap LOL....

Do you remember when.....

..........you started High School and the excitement that you had ahead of you with all the new lessons and discoveries that awaited you........hmmmmmmm I don't think it was quite like that for me, was just another school, with more homework and I remember feeling quite deflated being one of the "little ones" again, after being on top of primary school for the last 12 months!

Renee is in Year 9 now, so she has already felt and moved on from the above feeling. However the excitement of the woodwork, metal work and plastic class is still very much in her. She enjoys this stuff...I loved these classes too at school and you forget how excited you got until you have your own child come home with their projects.

She has made several things, the classic keyring (I remember making one of these myself), a pencil holder, a metal pencil case - she didn't do a bad job of this - although her soldering was not quite as good as mine LOL, I was the best in my class!! not bad for a girl, eh...

However, her latest project is brilliant I am quite impressed with it, check it out.....a footstool! It could have been sanded a little better, but all in all it's fab and she got 18 out of 20 for it, so not bad at all! Renee said she was a little afraid of the sander, and as a result this let her down a little in the marking.

I remember being afraid of the machinery also, particularly the lathe, especially after I nearly took one of the students heads off with my flying chip bowl that hadn't been attached to it properly....flung clean off the thing, as a result it ended up with huge chunk taken out of it from where the chisel had gouged in to it, right before it went flying across the room.

Hmmm memories they are good aren't they.....I love that our kids help us re live some of them from our own childhood.

And Baby makes Three...

Just as the title suggests there is a baby on the way, whose baby could that be? Yep you guessed it - my newly married littlest sister is going to be a mummy in February.

I must admit I was a little shocked at first - especially the way she announced it, it kinda came mid sentence between something else - if I had have scratched my ear or something I probably would have missed it LOL.

Renee is stoked she thinks it is quite exciting about having a new baby cousin, one that she will actually be able to be quite hands on with, and as a result she has jumped right in to making the baby something. She has decided to knit a Humpty Dumpty - ironic really because that is what Donna made for Renee when I was pregnant with her. I figured it would be something relatively easy for her to do, given that she hasn't really done a lot of knitting before. So we did some practicing on Saturday and now she has got right into it. I just hope that it's only one baby, because I think Renee would be pushing to get two done before the baby arrives LOL.

CONGRATULATIONS DONNA AND BEN

Here are some pics of Renee, concentrating on her knitting.

So Cute

Isn't this just the cutest pic of the kids, was taken so long ago. Renee 5 and Aaron 2, how sad!!

I'm not so sure about this one, now that I have done it. It is a total Scraplift from Scrapbooking Memories 2007 Volume 8 - Artist is Sandra Gerdes.

However, having said that I was only able to do it, thanks to my gorgeous friend Patty, who bought me the medium and small retro punches for my Birthday, along with a white Zig pen, I'll tell you they are the best for writing, love it!!!

The picture is a lot clearer in real life, looks a little blurry and washed out here. TFL

Evermore Rule

The rock chic came out in me last night, we had so much fun at the Evermore Concert at Thebarton Theatre. Rod and I took the kids, they had a hoot, Aaron thought it rocked! He had never seen a live music concert before....I'm not so sure that the Wiggles and Banana in Pyjamas really fit the bill!

Renee had seen Evermore at the Scout Jamboree in January this year and said it was awesome. The atmosphere at the Jamboree would have been amazing given they had 10000 scouts or so there from all over Australia. So seeing them last night didn't really compare to her first experience but she enjoyed it all the same.

At the end of the show, which finished at about 11pm, we waited at the back entrance for them to leave. We went with the kid's Scout leader and his wife and daughter - Jayne has obviously done this sort of thing many times before and knew exactly what needed to be done LOL. It was absolutely freezing, but was worth the wait. Aaron (in the red hoody, darn that red hoody it was so in the way) got their autographs. Unfortunately the drummer was in a hurry to get in the car - he was totally awesome, so we weren't able to get his, no matter.

It was after midnight by the time we got home, the kids were exhausted so was I, jeez it was fun though.

Oh and just in case you are interested here is a link to a small video that I took on the camera whilst I was there. I wanted to attach "Light Surrounding You" but I was singing way to loud when videoing it and it has kinda spoiled it LOL....the video is a little shaky think I may have been bopping a little too much as well, hehehehe.

http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=2969871698795218958

Hillbilly

I have had three days to scrap and this is all I could come up with LOL, we have had girls here all weekend, see post below...

This is Renee ready to go to Lauren's Birthday Party last year, May 2006. She made the cutest little hillbilly LOL.

Girls, Girls and More Girls......

Our long weekend has been taken over by girls, good girls but taken over all the same LOL. We have had Cyra stay since Friday night, she's a great kid!!

Cyra went home for a little while Saturday afternoon with Renee, to help her dad find their snake, yup thats right, their pet snake "Monty", its only 6 months old so still quite small, they did find him eventually wrapped up inside the spine of the computer chair, but that wasn't until they pulled the whole house apart LOL. I wasn't going anywhere inside the house until the snake was found, ewwwwwwwwwwww. Renee thinks it's kinda cool.

Whilst they were looking for the snake, we went and bought a slow cooker. I have wanted one for ages, but was a little scared of the whole concept of leaving it on all day whilst you're at work. Anyway the girls at work finally convinced me it was safe and they were on special for $49.95, so why not!!! I then remembered reading on Tess's blog about her yummy homely smells with her slow cooker and bread maker, so I blogged her for her Beef Strognoff receipe and I ended up with whole a recepie book for slow cooking, THANKYOU so much TESS, yummy yummy yummy.

We went to the drive-in Saturday night and saw Shrek, that was great, really enjoyed it. We also stayed to watch Pirates of the Carribean, it went for nearly 3 hours, it was far too long and it didn't really hold my attention, so that was a little disappointing.

Renee did another shopping trip with her girlfriends yesterday, had birthday money this time, and did really well with her efforts. She bought two tops, a pair of cargo pants and a really nice jacket, money very well spent. Whilst she was out she rang and asked if Tegan and Katerina could stay over. Given that we were having dinner at Donna and Ben's house last night, I suggested that she ring there first. It turned out all cool, so we then ended up with 3 extras last night.

DONNA and BEN did a beautiful roast, THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS, it was so yummy and they kindly fed the rest of our extended family.

The girls thought the arcade machine was fab and Aaron was in his element with the X Box. Aaron and Ben even had a bonding moment later on the Arcade machine, such a guy thing!!!

After dinner it was out to the hot tub. Aaron got in first to have some peace time without the girls. Water temperature a beautiful 38 degrees, pity the night air wasn't something similiar, good way of getting sick, but the kids loved it!!!! The girls were in there forever.

Once we got home, the girls decided some girl time was in order, so the face packs came out again, right after some silly snapshots were taken, check them out. You ask for them for a nice photo and this is what you end up with. I guess they are good pics to blog though and I figure eventually if I continue to blog them, they will get sick of not looking their very best and maybe eventually give me something to decent to work with LOL.

and pics of the face packs LOL

Girls are still here, not sure what time they are heading home today am in no hurry, they aren't in our way, slow cooker is doing its thing for lunch, yummo, its a perfect day!!

I got "Layout of the Day" at Scrapjazz

How exciting. I got layout of the day at the Scrapjazz site with my new layout of Renee, how cool is that!!!!!

Layout of the Day:06-06-07

Browse 100,000+ scrapbook layouts!

Here is a link to the Gallery, the layout itself will probably disappear after today, but it truely was there LOL!!!!

http://www.scrapjazz.com/gallery/

Renee turns 14..celebrated with a weekend of pampering.....

Wow, what a weekend we have had, it has been so much fun, (I just wished I was feeling a little better, bugs are still with us). Renee's 14th Birthday has now been and gone, I can't believe she is 14. I get so meloncolly about 2 - 3 days before each of the kids birthday's, you remember when they were little and reflect on all those precious moments and then you look at how beautiful and handsome they have become and can't wait to see what another 10 years or so brings....

Her birthday started about 8.30 in the morning. Aaron came in and woke me up (just me because Rod had already left for his Cub camp) he wanted to give her the presents, poor kid she was still completely out to it when we went in there. Most of the unwrapping was done virtually with her eyes closed LOL, however her little eyes lit up when she opened the card from us and $50 fell out it, my how they all love the money!!!! From us she got a Adidas tracksuit, her first Dolly magazine, chokkies and money, not a bad haul, even if I do say so myself.

A little while later we visited Granny and Grandpop, I needed to drop around the pizza vouchers so that they could pick them up for us for tea. The present haul continued. Mum made her a Teddy Bear, which Renee has now called "Betty" due to all the Betty Boops around Teddy's apron, so cute. She also got a signet ring, which is something that she has wanted for quite some time. She loved it.

Lauren arrived at about 1pm, and we picked up Cyra at about 3pm. At this point I was about ready to die. I still have my dreaded bugs, although I am feeling a little better today, yesterday was pretty crappy though. Renee has woken up this morning feeling pretty ordinary now so am hoping that none of the girls end up catching our bugs. Lauren, Renee and Cyra spent an hour or two watching some old Calisthenic videos of Renee, was so much fun, they were so darn cute back then, Lauren being in some of the videos as well, memories are great.

Briannah arrived at 5.30pm. Donna, Ben, Granny and Grandpop arriving shortly afterward with the food. Pizza, Garlic Bread and coke - what a hit!!! The Birthday Cake was a White Mud cake from the Cheesecake Shop - yummo.... The Party was underway!

Donna stayed on for a while after Granny and Grandpop went home. Ben also left, I took Donna home a little while later. It was good having Donna there, an extra pair of hands for the serious pampering that was about to be underway. The girls had such fun, Cyra and Briannah had never had face packs before, so they loved it!!! We had non-alcoholic wine and strawberries and foot spas and chocolate, what more does a girl need!

After the removal of the face pack, it was then an opportunity for a photo session, and wow some of these girls sure do know how to pose, it was so much fun and with the scrapbooker in me, I was in my element LOL. The girls played the chocolate game, although they kinda cheated with warm chocolate and a real knife LOL and also the marsh mellow game, see how many marsh mellows you can get in your mouth and still say "white fluffy bunny", I tell ya that game was so darn lady like NOT.

The evening was spent watching "chick flicks". I was in bed by about midnight, the girls apparently were still awake at about 2.30am or so. I never heard them thankfully.

Renee, Lauren, Briannah and Cyra

They slept in too which was excellent, I tell ya girls at this age are fantastic! I crawled out of bed at about 10.00am, turned on some music which got them stirred up and cooked pancakes for breakfast. All of us then had a look through the photos taken from the night before - someone, I think it may have been Cyra said can we do some Scrapbooking - well as Patty (my girlfriend) said I was then automatically elevated to a very "happy place" LOL. So the rest of the day was spent in my favourite room of the house Scrapbooking - check them out, how much fun were they having?

And here are the layouts that they created. Lauren even did some sewing on hers, how clever was she. I was so impressed, didn't they do a great job!