Spontaneous Sunday Snow Trip

One of the good things about living in Hobart in the winter is you can take a spontaneous trip to the snow.

Within 30 minutes of leaving the house we were trudging about on the top of Mt Wellington!

We timed our arrival perfectly - no queues up the mountain, no waiting for parking, not too many people at the top, space to enjoy the snow and the views.  I think it was partly because we left home reasonably early and because it was the second weekend with snow on the mountain so the hoards had visited last weekend!

Trev had the forethought to throw the boogie board into the car before heading off and the kids enjoyed scooting around with their dad.

There has also been a lot of bike riding this weekend after finding training wheels and properly fitting helmets for both the kids.  Needless to say there have been early nights and sound sleep from our little ones this weekend!

Blog Revamp

After nearly 3 years of the same blog look I've decided to give it a bit of a revamp!  What do you think?

Cheesy grins all around!

It was time to tart things up a bit around here since I have a couple of real-life friends recently start blogging - I have to keep up appearances (not really, there's no such thing as keeping up appearances when you're in our Mum's Group)!!  If you haven't already you must check out the blogs of two of my favourite people - Sarah at Oesch & Doots and Kirstan at From Z to A!

Matching Beanies!

We went to Canberra for the weekend.

Pretty good family self-portrait taken at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

I madly knitted us all matching beanies in the lead-up (using Patons Jet and an altered Roll-brimmed Beanie by Amanda Keeys - ravelled here, here, here and here). 

Family self-portrait with silly faces!

 We wore them most of the weekend.

Family self-portrait with angry faces!

Yes, we're dorks!!

Wonderful Weekend

I had a great weekend.  Nothing happened that was amazing but it was a good two days.  I think it was made better by the fact that I was a seriously cranky-pants mother on Friday and could have been seen ranting loudly at my two tantruming children at the local swimming pool at about 4pm!  But none of that (or at least not too much of that) was required on the weekend thank goodness.

I managed an unaccompanied browse at Spotlight and brought some new wool for a Milo vest for Kelvin.  I finished my first Milo on Friday night (using Sean Sheep wool bought at Big W - total cost about $5, for 100% Australian wool!).

Then Trev took the kids to the local football game with another family with similar aged kids.  Sarah came over to my place for a chat and some crafting (but mostly chatting, and some devine lemon tarts from Hill Street).  And because neither of us had plans for dinner so decided on pizzas to share and the kids had a lovely time - the girls decorated their feet and I couldn't help but snap a picture of their tootsies!

I finished a long unfinished quilt top during the week - part of the Fat Quarterly Quilt-along.  I love the colours in this quilt - would be perfect for a baby girl.  The colours are feminine without being too pink.  I used a Moda Jellyroll but I'm not sure what the fabric line is now!

So one quilt top finished means I have my next quilt project planned.  I cut this out yesterday and started sewing last night.  Shh, it's a secret!!

Counting Down

Well today marks three calendar months to go until our #3 baby is due to arrive - the day after Trev's birthday and the same week as my mother-in-law turns 60.  So I'm sincerely hoping that this little one arrives a bit late - like both his siblings did.

And yes, I did say "his" because we found out some time ago that we're having another boy.  Kelvin is happy to have a brother and Matilda doesn't mind, since Kelvin is OK and another one like him would be alright!

From here

We didn't find out the gender with the other two kids but this time around I have been feeling like doing the complete opposite of nesting and really want to declutter cupboards and get rid of outgrown clothing and toys.  Knowing that this little one will not be requiring "pink or frilly" means that plenty of space will be gained through the donation of 4 years worth of "pink and frilly" to the new niece.

However, this 3 month milestone also has me thinking we need to get the cot back at our place, find where all the 000 growsuits and singlets are and think about how and where we're going to house this little man!

From here

She's older than yesterday!

Happy 5th Birthday Matilda-girl!

We were really, really, really fortunate to have the most magnificently sunny winters morning to have Matilda's birthday party (with a ridiculous number of kids - note to self, just because her birthday is in the school holidays and on a public holiday does not mean you need to over-invite - I forget that families with 5 year olds don't really go away!!).  Anyway, 20+ kids descended on the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens for a Carousel Party to celebrate my daughter safely surviving (and in fact thriving) the last 5 years.

And now that I have completed my study I seem to have a bit more time to go over the top with party planning!  Apart from the obligatory cheesels and chips we made most of the other party food including the incredibly easy, ridiculously popular but stupidly time-consuming rainbow jelly cups.

I also attempted my own transportable version of a carousel cake using a cake stand (rather than trying to balance a massive cake on a cardboard tube on my knees in the car as suggested by the WW Kids Cake Book) surrounded by some cupcakes with cut-out carousel horses (yes, I was cutting those out at 11pm last night).  I think it needed the party-goers to use their imagination a little bit - but that's meant to be good for kinder kids isn't it?  The cake is a fail-safe boiled chocolate cake that can be easily adapted to be dairy-free (and works well with egg-replacer too).  I'll post the recipe sometime!

We played pass the parcel and managed to wrangle the kids up to the carousel using a photo treasure hunt around the Gardens (to run off all that jelly and cake)!

 

And the big hit for the party was a ride on The Gallopers Carousel.  I can't rave about Judy and Mark enough (they're the restorers/owners/operators of the carousel) - they were so helpful in accommodating a large group and Judy is always lovely to anyone on the ride (her day job is in childcare).

And (because this blog is all about me!!) the piece-de-resistance were the party bags which contained colouring books (thanks to the plethora of freebies images available on the internet - happy to share the pdf, just ask!!) and little boxes of pencils (thanks to Bunnings, but disguised with more carousel horses - although Trev did say the dads would have been impressed if I'd just left them as-is), and a restrained amount of lollies (I think).

Thanks to all our little friends and family for coming along and making Matilda's day so special.  I think my gorgeous girl has had a lovely day and we look forward to another year of fun together!!

Oh, and the invitations we made for the party are over here!!

Grateful for ... the end!

It's been 10.5 years since I started my Masters in Traffic Engineering.  I have been doing this externally and it seemsm to have been forever since I started it.  However, I justify the time it's taken by saying over that period I've also spent nearly three years out of the country and had 2.5 children - in fact two of my exams were completed in the middle of horrific morning sickness!

But this week, I finished my last subject - a Case Study in Transport.  The result of which is an insomnia inducing report about the merits (or otherwise) of traffic calming and its impact on residential amenity!

And like Maxabella - I work best with a deadline.  So the report was due in the post on Monday which meant a frantic weekend (thanks to Trev for entertaining the kids) and a 2am session on the Monday morning.  It's school holidays so I was meant to be looking after Matilda on the Monday but dropped her at a friends for a "couple of hours" in the morning - this turned into more than 6 hours whilst I finalised a few bits and pieces, fixed endless paper jams in the printer and bound and posted the wretched thing!  I couldn't have done it without the last minute help from K, Z & A.

Playing along with Maxabella again.

This week I'm grateful for...

This will be my first time linking up to the very popular Maxabella "I'm Grateful" series!

But I woke up this morning overwhelmingly grateful for friends who are happy to send you home with some of their tea bags because they know you've run out and how difficult it is to just "pop to the shops" to replace them when you have pre-schoolers in tow!!

Image from here.

So thanks Mards - you're a legend!!

I'm desperately hoping that next week I'll be grateful for studies completed.  There is an end in sight, submission required by Monday!  Wish me luck!!

Carousel Party Invitations - OTT!

So Matilda will soon be celebrating her 5th Birthday - my word how time has flown.

Anyway, we've decided to tempt fate and plan for and outside party at the Botanical Gardens including a carousel ride on the Gallopers Carousel - believed to be the second oldest steam powered carousel in existence!

And in typical over-the-top-I-can-make-that style I have made invitations for the party with assistance from the birthday girl.

We cut paper, we stuck paper, we cut flags from the scraps and stuck those, we've licked envelopes and found stamps and hope that not too many people will be away for the school holidays!

All paper is by Cristina Re (from Officeworks) and the font used on the invite is Boopee.  The horse was a freebie off the internet with a black line drawn through the middle!

Now to stop procrastinating and finish my wretched thesis before next Monday.

Loving Rita @ Red Pepper

I have been following Rita's fabulous blog (Red Pepper Quilts) since almost the beginning.  She is a prolific quiltmaker and I love her quilt designs and the fabric combinations and the straight line quilting and everything!

Anyway, I was the lucky winner of a Pave the Way quilt kit (including backing and binding fabric). The Anna Maria Horner fabric is gorgeous and I'm itching to get cutting and stitching. So this will be my reward once I've finally finished my Case Study in Transport (yawn)!

I have snuck in a little bit of sewing and finished a couple of blocks for the last month of the Australasian Quilt Bee.

A Rainy Weekend in Melbourne

We had a quick trip to Melbourne on the weekend to meet a new niece / cousin and play tourist!

But before that, I had 24 hours away from the kids to accompany my mum to see her old school friend perform with Andre Rieu!

We had fabulous seats, in the middle of Centre Court at Rod Laver Arena...

...and Mum got to catch up with Gary (although it was brief and the whole time he was being hounded for photos by adoring fans).

It was a great concert and we enjoyed ourselves but I really don't understand the mass-hysteria surrounding Andre.  Nanna's screaming in adoration of Andre, much as a 13-year old girl might do for Justin Beiber - quite surreal!

Trev bought the kids over the following day so I managed an afternoon of shopping at one of the big DFO's and was very pleased to have found a good raincoat for Kelvin - otherwise he would have been very wet over the weekend!!

New raincoat from Kathmandu, grumpy face is models own!!

We stayed in a great hotel off St Kilda Road - can highly recommend it and if you book far anough in advance you can get great room rates.  It's away from the inner city hustle and bustle, close to the Botanical Gardens should energy need to be expended by little ones, right on a busy tram line and the comfy rooms included a little kitchenette.  The only thing we'd do differently next time would be avoiding the cafe at breakfast time - the business suits did not appreciate hungry hypo pre-schoolers!!  Needless to say, Weetbix and milk were purchased for consumption in our room and everyone was happy.

Mirrors on the ceiling of the lift provided entertainment everytime!

We met our new niece / cousin, Maisie.

Caught lots of trams.

Went to the Zoo in the rain.

And had pasta on Lygon Street.

We also got to catch up with Pa (my Dad) but didn't really manage any decent photos!

It was a fun weekend and despite the weather I don't think we'd have done anything differently if the sun had been out.  I love Melbourne as a place to visit but I also love being home and we lapped up the sunshine on Sunday once we were home.

Pedestrians!

Just a quick post so you know I'm still alive!  I'm reading lots of theoretical traffic engineering guff at the moment - with less than 4 weeks to get my case study finished and hopefully a Masters awarded I am head down bum up in the books.

But this I just had to share...

Pedestrians are the world's greatest 'Pythagorians' - always preferring the hypotenuse!

- Professor John Adams

From here

Happy Easter!

I hope the Easter Bunny left his messy magic footprints at your house...

...as well as some chocolaty treats! 

We'll be overindulging on this banoffee pie after a lamb roast with the extended family at lunchtime today.

And I can't resist sharing the curious toddler footprint made this morning!!