Happy Birthday Kylie!

Happy  Birthday to my friend Kylie!

It's a day late I know and with your three girls I know you can understand a few possible reasons why things happen with kids and why I didn't post yesterday.

I hope you had a fantastic day.  We think of you often even though you're far away and I miss you more than you will probably ever realise.

Happy  birthday to a beautiful and lovely friend.

xx Susie

Where's Rapunzel when you need her?

If you haven't seen the Disney movie Tangled then you will have no idea what I'm talking about.

Those that have..you know the scene where Rapunzel heals Eugene's cut hand with her hair?

That's what I need now....

It's not a huge or deep cut but it is sore.

I was chopping up pumpkin to put in the slow cooker with the lamb shanks and the knife got stuck.  I pushed down on it but everything sort of slipped and my hand got sliced.

This is why my darling hubby gets a little scared every time I pick up a knife.  Lucky he's only home half the time hey!

Hope you all have a great day!

xx Susie

A candle lit...

For Amanda Lecky who tragically passed away yesterday from injuries sustained in a car accident two weeks ago.

She has left behind a loving husband and 3 absolutely gorgeous children (9, 6 and 18 months).

Amanda, you will be missed.

Aunty Rob's

What a fantastic family weekend we've just had!

On Friday at midday, we picked Little Miss R up from school and started our 3 hour journey to Shane's Aunty Rob's for the weekend.

She lives on about 80 acres of land out at Clifton on the Southern Downs about halfway between Toowoomba and Warwick.

It was the first time we had been there so we followed my father-in-laws VERY BASIC map and actually found the right place (after a couple of phone calls).

I just love rambling old farmhouses that seem to have such character. 

We set the camper trailer up just outside the house yard, had a cup of tea and some scrummy homemade fruit cake, then it was time to explore.

I just love the wide open space feeling on the downs where you can see for miles.  The below photo is what we saw from the side of the camper.

The next photo is looking over the back of the farm to the neighbours house.

Of course you can't have a farm without a shed and this one is filled with hay bales.

They've had so much rain out there that there's plenty of grass growing, it's pretty green too so the stock have plenty of sweet, yummy grass to munch on.

You can't be on a farm without animals either.  Aunty Rob has 3 dogs which were a bit excited to see the kids.  It took awhile for everyone to get used to each other, especially Little Miss R who was TERRIFIED of one of the fast running and jumping dogs.

The kids were in their element though and while hubby and I finished setting up the camper, Aunty Rob took them around to meet and feed the animals. 

Mud, poo and everything else didn't worry them at all.  They had a ball and just loved being there.  In fact they both didn't want to come home and wanted to stay there forever.

There were goats to be fed.

Chickens and ducklings to collect eggs from.

Pigs that wanted attention (and food).

...and of course, cows to be milked.  The four calves were a hit too.

Yummy!  Fresh milk twice a day. 

It's interesting to note that my lactose intolerant boy could drink fresh cows milk without a problem.

It's a little difficult to make out on the next photo but a calf escaped so the round up started.

Little Miss R (in green dress), with Daddy and Master M following, had to chase the calf back towards Aunty Rob so she could get it back in the paddock. 

Now the kids thought that was great fun.

It was just such a relaxing couple of days with everyone enjoying good company, being around the animals, doing something different and just relaxing.

Oh and the storms each day were pretty good too.

It was a fantastic weekend and we're all looking forward to heading out again sometime soon. 

I hope you all had a great weekend too.

xx Susan

Do you remember this?

Our beloved camper trailer.

We've had two trips away in it, both had plenty of torrential rain moments.

We're really hoping this time will be different.

We're off to visit Shane's Aunty Rob tomorrow.

She lives on a farm 3 hours drive away with cows that she milks, some new baby calves, pigs, dogs, chooks and who knows what else.

The kids are excited and so am I.

Will let you know more when we return!

It's hot!

It's sticky, humid and the sun burns your skin if you're out in it for a few minutes.  Not my favourite kind of weather at all!!

At least we have air conditioning and it's certainly going on early today.

The grass is growing so unbelievably fast that we virtually need to mow twice a week.  Once a week is all it's getting though and it's nearly a jungle by that time!

Aaaah, much better..



My parsley has gone beserk after all the rain we've had and the heat.  Little Miss R's happy about that as she loves chomping on parsley.  In fact, she broke off a piece to eat in the car on the way to school this morning.

My garlic which I planted months ago and thought had died has miraculously sprung back to life.  I was pretty excited about that!

 

Now I just have to keep Master M out of the sun during the hottest part of the day so it's indoor activities in the cool air conditioning for us.

 

It looks like we'll be doing puzzles, colouring in and watching the current favourite movie Peter Pan.

 

I'll hopefully get some crochet done and look through some northern hemisphere blogs where the snow is falling and just looking at the pictures cools me down.

 

Have a great week everyone.

 

xx Susan

Karate

Little Miss R has started Karate.

It's something she's wanted to do for quite awhile and we thought that the discipline etc would be good for her.

She's had 2 lessons so far and has enjoyed it.

The only complaint I have is that the lesson goes for well over an hour and you can see all the 5 to 7 year old kids really struggling by the end.

Lets hope she continues to enjoy it and stops trying to chop and kick her brother soon!

xx Susan