Around Here

It's school holidays here in Queensland and we are having a nice and easy week.  We went to see Johnny English at the movies, hanging around in our pj's, baking and basically chilling out.  Here's a few pics for you.

This girl of mine is always smiling.....

This is the "pullback shot" of the pic I took above.  She was leaning over the fence.

Below "what you see" and above pic "what I see".

Love your big kids....

Trying to squeeze in the frame with my camera rested on some rocks for a family pic.

Pretty afternoon light.

We met this horse on our afternoon bush walk.

Our new budgie Charlie.

He's still only a baby.

Sienna giving him some love.

Kelley's amazing "Day in the Life" Album arrived.

Leather cover, thick pages and a special coating on the pages to protect them from accidental spills.

Kelley and her cute kids giving her a kiss and cuddle.

Oh no...sometimes I feel the same way when my spaghetti falls off my fork too Em.

Another double page spread of Oscar feeding his metal bird and Kelley showing Em a funny video.

I had the pleasure of taking some photos of a local High School Senior for her formal last week.  She has had a difficult year due to heath issues and she was glowing with excitement getting ready.

Caitlin wore a beautiful navy jump suit with a blush pink belt and shoes.  

All dressed up ready for the senior formal.

Birthday Tradition

Yesterday was my birthday and every year I take my "Birthday Photo" with my kids and 4 cupcakes.  We have been buying the cupcakes from the same bakery for 13 years for this photo with the exception of one year when they had sold out early and I had to purchase some cakes from the supermarket.  This is the 13th photo in this series and when the kids have grown up and left home they will still have to come home for Mummy's birthday photo.  Here is a blog post with the previous 12 years of photos starting when James was 2.5 and Sienna was 6 months old in 2006.  They both made me beautiful hand made cards and we went on a family BBQ so a lovely Birthday and it's all over for another year.

Here is the 2018 photo

Here are some outtakes

Around here

Around here things are pretty much the same as usual with school and family life.  I have done some decluttering of the medicine box and lots of outdated paperwork which is no longer needed which felt good to get rid of and have some extra breathing space.

Last week I loved reading this book which is all about the laws of attraction and putting steps in place rather than just "dreaming" about things.  Denise shares her story how her and her husband won the 6 months all expenses paid Honeymoon Testers Competition which was out of 30,000 couples.  Remember the brilliant Queensland Tourism campaign for the Best Job in the World in 2009 and all that free publicity was a gold mine for Queensland and Australia.   Back to the story about Denise and her husband who at the time were living in London in a cold dreary flat with jobs they didn't enjoy and they put steps in place to win this competition and did.  They got through to one of the 50,000 couples then 1 of the 10,000 couples then 1 of 10 and won it knowing the whole time they would be the chosen couple.  It's a fantastic read and I borrowed the book from our local library and read it in 2 days as I loved it so much.  It's a great story and lots of take away thoughts for living your best life.  She also has another book that I'm reading as well which is equally as good.

Here's a few recent pics from our life.

Sienna bathed in golden sunset hour.

Local dam.

My soon to be in 3 months time 15 year old...very handsome if I do say so myself.

Loving finding all these shadows in the afternoon light inside our house.

More light and shade in the kitchen.

 I found these stripes really interesting...haven't seen that look before.

Some words above Sienna's desk...she is such a positive and happy girl.

So happy I threw out all the expired prescriptions and medicines.

Around Here

Around here things are travelling pretty normal and it's hard to believe that it is mid August already.  Only one month until my birthday where I take my traditional birthday photo with my kids.  Hand made cards and my birthday photo are the two things that are important to me and makes my day.

We had the family over for a pizza party last week which is always great fun.  The pizza dough recipe we use is here.

Pizza's made in our pizza oven like this one.

Some backyard Bocce with the family was loads of fun.

My niece entered an Australian Art contest and had her artwork selected as 1 of the 26 pieces to be displayed at the Gallery from the 220 entries.  There was a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize and she won the Directors Encouragement Award for a High School Student.  It's done in pencil and is a picture of her brother with water having been poured on him.  The picture was about anxiety and depression and how people who struggle with it feel like they are drowning.  I'm just pointing out that he does not have anxiety or depression, however it was the interpretation of the art piece she drew. As you know this is very big right now along with sustainability. Peoples minds and our planet.

Did anyone watch 60 Minutes last night about Penguin the Magpie?  This is the Instagram account and this is the blog page and can highly recommend you watch the 2 minute video.  The husband is a photographer and took the most incredible images and video of this little bird that saved their family.  They were holidaying in Thailand when the Mum leaned back on a railing and it gave way and she ended falling down a level onto concrete and severed her spine and is in a wheelchair.  It's heartbreaking and moving and the magpie is adorable.  The magpie is in the wild now but he turns up unexpectedly at their house on special occasions like one of the boys birthdays recently and there is a little video of on Instagram when he realized Penguin is home on his birthday...it's amazing.  They are making this story into a movie at the moment. 

I recently came across this UK Thermomix Baking Blogger and she shares fantastic recipes if you have a Thermomix.

The Brisbane EKKA is on now and even though we won't be going it was nice to revisit some photos of when the kids were little and my sister and I took them in 2009.  OMG time goes so fast when you go back and look at old photos. This is a little history of the show.

The beauty of photographs is that it takes you back to a memory for you to feel it all over again.  So grateful I have taken lots of pictures of myself with my kids over the years.

Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens for a wander around.  I haven't been there for about a year and it's such a nice place to look at the different trees, ferns, flowers, veggie patch and the beautiful Japanese Gardens.  The Gardens close at 5.00 pm and I will tell you that we were locked in at 5.10 pm and couldn't get out which is another story.  The entrance is being renovated so we went through the cafe and that shut at 5.00 pm.  It took a little while before one of the staff heard us and got a key to unlock the door so we could get out.  It all added to the excitement of our walk around the gardens.  We only saw half of it because we ran out of time so we will go back another day.  Here's a few pics from our afternoon.  The statues in the first pic are "The Butterfly Catchers" which were part of World Expo 88 in Brisbane.