After school fun

Yesterday was such a gorgeous, hot day so after school we decided to head to the playground around the corner for some fun.

Little Miss R rode her bike and Master M scooted there but first of all they decided to play on the swings, slide and climbing things.

If you enlarge the above photo you'll see a huge open area behind the playground then in the distance a small building.  That's where the dog 'playground' is.  It's an enclosed area for dog owners which has all types of things for dogs to play over, under and around.  It's brilliant and really, really popular!

What my kidlettes love though is the above little track area.  It's made for kids with bikes and scooters and they absolutely love it.

There's bumpy things to ride over.

Different paths to take.

Things to zig zag through as well as other things to ride over to test their balance.

After the obligatory push on the swings, I got down to important business.....

...my new book which I bought yesterday.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

xx Susan

Knit and natter

On a Wednesday morning I usually head over to my sister's house for a knit and natter morning.  Our Mum comes too and we're all loving the fact that were finally having some regular time together.

There's always a cup of tea to be enjoyed.

And you couldn't have a knit and natter without doing some sort of crafty stuff.  In my case it's some more crochet.  I've started on a cushion cover in brightly coloured stripes from some acrylic yarn I found in my stash.

I was making it in treble crochet (UK/Aus) but it just seemed to me to be too holey.  I wanted a tighter stitch with the 5.5mm hook I was using so I've changed it to double crochet and think it's looking so much better.

I seemed to be the only one doing crafty stuff today.  There's ALWAYS plenty of nattering going on because we're a group of women who like to have a chat. Maybe we should call it Craft and Chatter or Crafty Chatter instead!

My sister and mother are working on some family tree stuff so instead of doing their crafty stuff, it was reading over a lot of the info that they've found this week.  It was all pretty fascinating to listen to and that's something I love about crochet, you can still do it while chatting to people or just watching tv. 

My favourite time and place to crochet is when the kidlettes are playing in the backyard and I sit on my lounge and watch them.  They seem to stay outside for longer if I'm there so I'm happy to indulge them and continue to crochet.  It beats housework!

The above photo is how much I got done on our knit and natter morning this week.  I was firing on all cylinders I think to get that much done!

Hope your all having a fantastic week.

xx Susan

Mexican and Margaritas

Friday night was just the loveliest night.

It was my friend Jodi's birthday and we were having a girl's night out at Mooloolaba.

Now the last night I had a night out was for Jodi's birthday last year.  Shocking to know it's been a year since I've been able to be free of kids (and husband) and have some time with the girl's.

The weather was VERY different this year though.  Last year it was the most perfect evening and this year it was raining and stormy.  When I say raining, I mean RAINING!  Torrential.  Downpours.  MUST really concentrate on driving or the water will shoosh you off the road type rain.

So where did we go?  Well Mexican was the choice this time so we headed to Montezuma's at Mooloolaba.

A dip and corn chip platter is always good for starters...

...and of course a Margarita had to be sampled.  I didn't even think about a photo until I was nearly finished.  (Oooohhhh it was sooooo delicious!)

Then there was the HUGE meal.  We really shouldn't have had a starter even though we all shared it.  We couldn't eat all our meals so it's lucky they give you a doggy bag if you want one.

As Jodi and Crystal picked the meal I was intending to order, I decided to try something new that I thought sounded pretty interesting and Sandy had the same dish that I did too.

It's called a Mole Poblano and I'll quote from the menu here:

Centuries old chicken dish invented by the nuns of Puebla for the Bishops visit, served with a spicy Aztec nut sauce, 32 herbs and spices, coconut, banana and pineapple.

It was DIVINE!   Then again you'd expect a dish made by nuns for a bishop to be pretty divine wouldn't you?

After dinner (and collecting our doggy bags), it was off for a coffee at a nearby cafe.

More chats and catching up before we decided that the rain really was getting heavier and that we'd better think about heading home while we hopefully still could.

...and home we did get.  We weren't flooded out which was a possibility considering the water laying around everywhere but it was a bit of an interesting drive home.

I'm glad I was in the 4x4 because the water was rushing across the road most of the way and there were a few nasty potholes that we hit because you just couldn't see them in the dark and the rain.

Once snug in my house I enjoyed listening to the rain on the roof and knowing I wasn't going to be dragged out of bed early because the kidlettes were having a sleep over at Nan and Poppy's so I had the house to myself!  Bliss.

xxx Susan

In need of colour

I've found many of my pictures in my recent posts to be a little dull.  That's dull in colour although you may decide that they're a little dull in content too but that's my life...

As the weather has been rainy and stormy, I decided to go through my photos and find some with a bit more colour.

The ones below weren't necessarily the brightest, but they were colourful in their own way and had some special memories attached to them.

Enjoy!

I hope this has brightened things up a bit.

xx Susan

A morning at the beach

I love living so close to the beach.

Sunday dawned clear and HOT and by 7.30am I decided that we really needed to get out of the house so off to the beach it was.

Did I say it was HOT.  By 8am it was 30 degrees cel so Happy Valley and the crashing waves was the perfect spot for a play to cool down.

There were lots of families and surfers out and about enjoying the gorgeous day and cooling down too.

After about an hour playing in the waves we headed up to the playground in the park at Happy Valley in Caloundra for more play.

It's such a great playground with a sunshade over the ship, swings, a fortress and other great play things for the kids.

The fact that the playground is right next to the beach is such a bonus.

By just after 10am we were done for the day and it was starting to heat up a bit more so we decided to have some ice-cream before heading home.

I know there are plenty of ice-cream places in Caloundra but we headed to McDonalds for the kids first ever sundae and of course another play on the playground there.

The sundae's were voted "Delicious", the morning was "so much fun", and I drove two very happy and tired children home and not even half the day had gone by.

I wish I could say that they were deliciously tired and were fantastic for the rest of the day and even though my boy was asleep by 5.30pm that night, it wasn't quite an incident free day.

While I was washing up in the afternoon my darling boy got hold of some green paint and proceeded to paint my car, the house, the garage doors and himself (legs, arms, shirt, shorts, hair...).  Thank goodness it was water paint and came off easily.

The school holidays start soon so I think there'll be more outings to the beach on the cards.

Susan xx

Saturday

Things are starting to get a little easier but then hubby's been home so that always helps.  He left to go back to work this morning so we'll see how we go for the next 4 or 5 days.

Today we went to Nan and Poppy's for a bit of a play for awhile.  The kidlettes always LOVE going around there and I don't mind having a chat either.

One of their favourite things to play on is the pot plant stand.  It's great to sit on and zoom around the verandah.

Picking carrots from Nana's garden is always a treat too.  My two love carrots so Nana usually has some growing so they can pick them, wash them and chomp on them bugs bunny style while they're playing.

Once we got home then the kidlettes had some play time and I got to do a bit more of the blanket I'm re-doing.  It's been slow progress making this one with everything else that's been going on (mainly Master M and his disasters).

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

xx Susan

A day at the beach

Well a morning it was not a full day and you couldn't get a more gorgeous day than today.

Little Miss R's prep class went on an excursion to the beach and everyone was so excited about it, especially when they all turned up at school in their togs (swimmers, bathers, whatever you all call them).

We met down at Kings Beach in Caloundra on this most gorgeous of days.

Here they all come.......

After a quick snack it was off to the beach to build sandcastles.  We all split up into groups and each child had a small crab that they got to hide somewhere in their sandcastle.

 

There were plenty of supervised visits to the water to fill buckets with water and to collect shells to decorate our castles.

There were some fantastic castles made by the kids (with a little help from parents).  The one below is Little Miss R's group's castle.

Even a pyramid made it's way onto the beach!

The most popular kind of castle by far was one surrounded by a moat.  They all had these I think and lots of water went into trying to fill the moats up but to no avail, it kept sinking straight into the sand.  Not to be deterred, the kids just went and got more water.

Once the castles were built and all the crabs found then it was up to the fountain for some very wet fun. 

The kids had an absolute ball here but then why wouldn't they?  It's SO MUCH better than being at school.

Then what better way to top a morning off at the beach but with an ice block!

I have to say I was a bit apprehensive about going to the beach with a class full of children as I don't cope half the time with my own two but there were so many parent helpers and we all had an absolute ball. 

Once the bus left to go back to school I did enjoy a lovely leisurely lunch in one of the beachside cafes and a much needed coffee. 

xx Susan

An unexpected day

We honestly hadn't planned to do much on Sunday.  We'd had a big enough day with the party on Saturday and decided that a quick visit to see hubby's mum was on the cards and that's about it.

Hubby really needed a new pair of shoes so instead of coming home from Caloundra, we headed to Maroochydore where the particular shoe shop we wanted was.

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to enjoy the beach for a bit and headed to Mooloolaba for some fresh prawns and fish and chips for lunch.

Yum!

After that it was a walk down the beach to enjoy this gorgeous day.

We studied shells on rocks.

We studied jellyfish.

We also studied the waves.  The kidlettes didn't have their togs on because we weren't expecting to go near the beach but that didn't stop them getting soaked.  They had an absolute ball in the water and luckily I'm organised and had a change of clothes in the car.

On the way home we called into Skippy park (the venue for the birthday party).  We didn't have our bikes with us either but went out the the oval in the middle and threw frisbees for awhile.

It was such a lovely family day and a great time was had by all.

xx Susan

A family outing

It's the first day of the September school holidays and building to be another hot day so we decided to get out and do something as a family before the heat REALLY hit.

We haven't been up to Skippy Park to ride our bikes for awhile and the kidlettes have really been hassling us to go so that's where we went.

We loaded up the bikes then rode around the track on this gorgeous day looking up towards Mt Mellum.

There's been some work at the park earlier in the year so now there's a few extra play spaces and not just the bike track and toilets.

They've added a playground area and a couple of picnic tables and barbeques which has made it just a perfect spot to go with families now.

Little Miss R just loved making music.  There's sandpit areas, rocks and logs to climb...

...and grassy areas with lots of bumps to run over.

The gardens are done out beautifully with lots of native plans including these gorgeous bottle brush trees with their bright red flowers.

I love the fact that in animal friendly park areas these days they're putting in a drink bowl just for the dogs.  So handy and it was well used in the time we were there from a few different families that had their dogs there.

Of course, when you have this fantastic playground and bike track area, what is it that the kids really want to play on. 

The big pile of dirt at the back of course!!!  So much fun.

Hope you all have a great week and if it's school holidays in your family right now then enjoy.

xx Susan