Cameron's Christmas Artwork (from last year)

Cameron and I made these pictures last year for our Christmas cards.

School Holidays!

After a (very) hectic end to the school year, I am so glad to be on holidays! Wahoo! (To cut a long story short, Muphy's Law was playing havoc with our reporting software and the computers....)

On Friday night we had our School Presentation Evening. It all went very well, and the slideshow that I did showcasing the years events went well. We're selling a DVD of photos from the year as a fundraiser and have got several orders for that which is great. I will miss our 5 Year Six students next year, they are such lovely girls. I know it will be great to see next year's Year Six students grow and mature through the year.

Cameron received a certificate for being
a 'great listener, thinker and contributor'

Sunday saw our Sunday School Christmas Production. Cameron and Nathan were both shepherds. Cameron was the 'head shepherd'.



Yesterday Nathan's Kinder had their concert - so cute! Nathan was a elf and so were his favorite kinder friends Joshua, Ned and Kaiden. He has one day left of Kinder and then it's no more Kinder ever for our family. Bit sad, but am really looking forward to Nathan being at school with Cameron next year. Nathan is really looking forward to it too. We've been really happy with St Andrew's Kinder, Anne and Helen-Mary have been fantastic teachers.

Nathan and Anne

Nathan and Helen-Mary

'Singing in the Rain'

Since Nathan loves to dress up he can't wait to try on his school uniform, he has been taking his school bag wherever he goes and showing anyone who comes to our home.

This week I'll be busily sewing as I have quite a few hooded towel orders to do. They will be done by friday (that's the plan anyway) and then I'll be getting ready for my family's Christmas lunch which will take place this Sunday as Andrew is working on Christmas Day. My Christmas shopping is almost all done. I musn't forget to wrap the presents - last year saw us busily wrapping presents at Midnight on Christmas Eve as we had forgotten to do it earlier - something we don't want to repeat this year....

Nathan loves to dress up

Had to take a picture of Nathan today, all dressed up, trying his best to look as scary as he can. He has a cape on which is hard to see, and two belts of course!

On yer bike!

Today we bought a tandem bike thingo to attach to Mark's bike for Nathan to ride. Nathan was so excited! Mark has decided that we only need one thing more to be all set up for family bike riding - and that's ear plugs! Nathan squealed and sang and cheered the whole of our bike ride tonight. It was so cute, I wish I could have video recorded them riding alongside me. Nathan was pedaling and having a great time. It sure has made riding a lot easier - well not in some ways for Mark, it takes a bit more effort to get going with Nathan on the back. Now we need to get Cameron a bigger bike, he has grown so much in the last few months and his legs are far too long for his bike. Lucky Christmas is not far away......

Milo Cricket

Yay! It's Cricket Season!

I'm being sarcastic.... Cricket is rather boring as far as I am concerned, but Milo Cricket on the other hand is fun. We registered the boys on Friday night at Rupertswood and they couldn't wait to try out their new cricket bats and balls and put on their t-shirts and hats!









Nathan wanted to know why his bat is so small.... We had to tell him that it is the right size for him, but he was not impressed, he wants a bigger bat!

Cup Weekend @ Rosebud

We had a really good time away at Rosebud in our new van. It was so much easier being in the van than the tent!

all set up

Mark and I bought ourselves some 'Giant' hybrid bikes while we were in Rosebud, so we spent some of our time riding our new bikes.

His and Hers - corny hey?

Mark's parents and Kylie were in Rosebud too, staying about 1km up the road, so we rode our bikes back and forth between their site and ours. Poor Nathan had to peddle so fast to keep up with us on our bigger bikes! When we go to Beechworth in the new year, we hope to ride on a bit of the Rail Trail - but I think we'll have to get one of those tandem bike attachments for Nathan to use.

The boys had fun down at the beach, where they paddled in the water looking for interesting shells and buried themselves partly in sand. We also caught up Greg and Phil who came to visit on Saturday, and Chris, Joy, Deanne and Gilbert who came down to stay as well.

buried in the sand

Nathan and Gillie

On Monday Mark took the boys for a ride so that I could have a Nanna Nap, unfortunately, only minutes after they left some workers started up their chainsaws and tree mulchers - only meters from our site! There went any sleep I might have had! UGH!

Bring on the long weekend!

Yesterday we went down to Geelong to pick up the camper trailer. It's really hard to believe that we actually now have our own caravan - especially after wanting to get one for several years. After every camping trip in our tent, we've come home and looked at the trading post at caravans. So finally we have one of our very own!

We set up the van after lunch today. We couldn't do it last night as we wanted to go to our fortnightly Bible study group as we haven't been able to get there too often this year due to Mark's trips to Singapore. We spent most of the afternoon out in the van showing it to my parents, Tracy and her kids, and Kerin and Rick and their girls.

Tonight we are having a movie night in the van. The boys are watching Star Wars VI. They wanted to sleep here, but we thought we'd just have a movie night and then go back inside. Tomorrow we'll put some stuff into the van - crockery, pots, pans, and other things that we plan on keeping in the van. We hope to only have to pack our clothes when we want to go away in the future. We can't wait till next weekend when we go to Rosebud for the weekend and use the van for the first time.

Winding up the van.

Pulling out the bed ends.

Ta Daaaaa!!!!!!!

Movember

Since next month is Movember, I suggested to Mark that he grow a Mo. I don't think he is too keen on the idea, so this might just have to do - perhaps he might use this pic for his profile on facebook for Movember....

Fun at the Barbershop.

a bit of a sleezy, cheezy one of Nath

STOP IT!

Sometimes I have to tell myself this, if I don't, Mark and the boys do! LOL!



October is ADA - Anxiety and Depression Awareness Month - and next month is Movember! Grow a Mo (if you are a guy that is - I wouldn't recommend girls to do this....) to help raise awareness of depression in men.

Our New Caravan

Yay!!!!! We've finally done it! After debating on and off for the past three years, we finally decided that it was time to get our own van. We decided to buy second hand and had been looking in the Trading Post for a decent used Jayco Campervan.

Presitge Jayco were having a sale on the weekend, so we thought we'd go down to Geelong for the day, have a picnic and see what the campervans were worth brand new so we know whether the used van prices were reasonable or not. Well, after seeing the new vans and realising that they were cheaper than vans that were 3 years old, we decided that we'd buy a new one! Go figure??????? By the time we add an awning and flys to the cost of the van, we're up for the same price as the second hand ones. Why not get a new one with warrantee and it's new?!?!?!?! So we pick it up in less than two weeks. Can't wait.

Our New Van

We bought the one that we saw 'on the floor', otherwise we'd have to wait till March next year to get the van - far too long in our opinion - we want to use it at Christmas time! The colors in this van were what we would have chosen anyway.

The layout of our new campervan

At Prestige Jayco, they had a jumping castle, face painting and balloons for the kids - which was a great way to keep them happy while we looked at vans. After our purchase, we went to the foreshore park for our picnic. The boys had fun wading in the sea, and then riding their bikes.

The Master and the Padawan!
(my niece - Keira)
I couldn't resist putting them in a picture together!