Tuesday, January 31, 2012

What's been happening in January?


"Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie - not perfect but who's complaining?" Robert Brault

Happy New Year! Here’s hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to 2012! We brought in the New Year from the comfort of our lounge room and got the kids up as a special treat to watch the fireworks. Needless to say they thought that was wonderful!

New Years Eve Fireworks - Sydney
We braved a 5-day camping trip to Rover Park near Tenterfield and enjoyed the adventures it had to offer. The trip didn’t start out well as our alternator in the Delica broke before we even got out of town. We were so disappointed as we had been planning and looking forward to this holiday for months and we were all packed up with our car and trailer loaded ready to go. As it was still Christmas holidays it was impossible for Chris to find parts to fix it, so after much deliberation we decided to hire a Pajero 4x4 and continued our journey. We were so glad we did. There were endless motorbike tracks to ride, giant waterslide, 157 meter long flying fox, 4x4ing, and a lovely sandy bottom river, which the little ones had fun splashing in, while the older ones horsed about on blow up boats. They also enjoyed the crackling campfires, roasting marshmallows, songs and stories around the campfire and good camping food. But the fun and friendship of spending time with Cousins was the best of all! Everyone was sad to leave and wished they could stay another week.




ROVER PARK HOLIDAY PHOTOS






ENJOYING THE WATER SLIDE

Now THAT'S a water slide. 76 meters long - Not bad for the bush anyway!

Lining up!


Go Byron!

Go Eric!

Cousin Robyn & Isabella

Eric

Go Alesha!

Daddy & Byron

Wooo Hooo!


CAMP LIFE

Enjoying songs and stories around the campfire

Shelley in her port-a-cot


Yummy juice!

Stories with cousin Alan

Waiting to go to the river

Ewww Mum, she's dirty!

Who's been playing with charcoal?

Campfire...the best part of camping!

Eric selecting a stick

Shelley enjoying a bath camping style!

Alesha's turn

Checking out the bearded dragon

bearded dragon

bearded dragon

Byron enjoying the fire

Having a lemonade

Cousins hanging out

Cousins & friends

Buddies!



MOTORBIKING

The Cousins ready to ride!

Eric

Byron catching big air!


Byron & Eric ready to ride

Isabella, ready to ride

Cousin Calvin & Alesha

Cousin Calvin with Alesha and Chris with Isabella

Chris & Isabella

Mummy helping Eric with his helmet

Chris on his KTM

The adults ride

Eric catching big air!

Byron


FUN AT THE RIVER












 KIDS CLUB

Eric & Byron were excited about joining Kids Club and doing their first correspondence bible lesson! For craft time afterwards they made a small treasure chest box. The girls enjoyed an “I can help others” ladybug craft, which they colored and decorated very nicely and hung on the wall. It was a great rainy day Sabbath afternoon activity.












 FUN TIMES WITH FRIENDS

Another highlight in January was a visit from our good friends Neroli and her 3 children Hadassah, Sarah & Matthew (sorry you couldn’t visit too Warren!). They stayed with us for 5 days and the kids had fun doing school together, playing, doing crafts, playing Mario Cart, jumping on the trampoline, going to the Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival and generally having lots of fun and creating more great childhood memories!
Dancing princesses

People and pillow sandwich!

friends

princesses

Mario Cart - serious stuff!

trampoline fun

crazy faces!




GUYRA LAMB AND POTATO FESTIVAL

It rained nearly all 5 days our friends were visiting (well for nearly all of January for that matter) but we did get a small break in the rain so we decided to go to the Lamb & Potato festival. The rain held off but of course when we decided to board the train, Murphy came along for the ride too and it rained all the way. As soon as we got off the train, the rain eased off and stopped!









The old Guyra station (no longer in use)

A photo in front of Guyra's iconic BIG SHEEP!
Everyone enjoyed a lemonade ice-block



AUSTRALIA DAY CRAFT

Great job!

It was a group effort to complete the Australia Day Patchwork Quilt.








FINISHED!




 MUM

We found out this month that Mum (Audrey) was placed into St Agnes Lodge at Port Macquarie, NSW on a permanent basis. It is a small facility, which is nice and the nursing staff there say that she is just lovely and is one of their best residents. She has made some friends and enjoys the activities and going on outings.  We enjoyed a visit with her there in December and it was so nice to see her happy and in such good spirits.
Mum gave us all a big scare on the 25th January when she was rushed to the hospital but fortunately, Mum’s condition turned around and she picked up considerably and was able to be discharged back to St Agnes Lodge on the 27th January.

Mum & the kids at St Agnes Lodge


  

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!

Guyra seemed to do what is does best during the majority of January. It was quite cool and sometimes cold, along with plenty of rain! Therefore a lot of time was spent indoors. We have had to think of creative ways to keep ourselves occupied. Schoolwork takes up a portion of the day, and the kids have gone outside every opportunity they got when the rain eased up or the sun tried to poke through the clouds, but other than that it was computer games, iPods, Wii, board games, card games, DVD’s, TV, books, music and lots of crafts. But I think the thing they enjoyed the best was making some new play dough! Here’s hoping for a lovely warm and sunny February!

Byron adding the flour

Alesha adding some flour

stir, stir, stir

more mixing

Nothing better than nice, new, soft play dough

molding

shaping

My little pastry chef

Byron's creation

Hmmm, its a ball

another ball

Eric's pastry chef creation


Eric's play dough car





  That's all for now! 
Thanks for reading January's Household Happenings!

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