Hockey round up and quilts

Long time - no posting!!  And I can't promise I'll be any better in the future.  But since the whole family is watching the All Blacks quarter final match against Argentina - I have five minutes to myself.  Although I have to admit, I am keeping one eye on what is happening around the corner...

Anyhow,  a couple of weekends ago we had the hockey award presentations for the end of season.  At the adults do on the Friday night, hubby was awarded Fairest and Best for his team, a nice beer mug which was promptly put to good use.

Saturday morning saw the kids turn, with quite a few bleary adults in attendance.  The children had their awards and medals presented by Chris Ciriello, a member of the current Hockeyroos team - a real treat for the kids.

Blondie won Coaches Award for her team...

And Redhead and her team were presented with their grand final winner's medals...

And weren't we the proud parents?!

And this bit of the post is for Miss Lottie.  I promised I'd show her photos of a series of quilts I made a few years ago.  The first one was Air - Spirits of Aurora Australis...

This was a piece of fabric that Miss Lottie and I dyed and then divided in half.  This is what I saw in mine.  Inspired by this I found another piece of my hand-dyed and Water - Spirits of the Deep Blue evolved...

Which naturally led to Fire - Spirits of the Bushfire...

And lastly Earth - Spirits of the Forest...

All the "Spirits" were shapes that I could see in the dyed fabric.  They now hang, two either side, in the little hallway outside our bedroom door.

AWOL?

Despite all appearances to the contrary I'm not actually AWOL.  Just very busy and lacking in organisational skills to upload any photos!  However, events are afoot that will free up my time somewhat - just not in the next two weeks.  The annual school book fair is about to descend and as one of the volunteers, life is about to get slightly crazier.

I hope to back to something approaching normal in a couple of weeks - I'll keep you posted!!

The birthday boy!

It's official - he's eight!  Where does the time go?

Look at this face!  That was after he licked out the icing bowl before being banished from the kitchen.  And he didn't see the cake again till he blew out the candles...

We had Anakin and Obi Wan fighting on a cooled lava platform...

After having jumped across over platforms...

Watched over by the Emperor and the clones - ready to pick up the pieces...

 and some lava monsters...

FJ was as happy as a pig in mud!  And he got to wash the Lego later - playing with water - even better!!

A birthday looms...

My baby boy turns eight tomorrow.  And it's a good thing he currently has a friend over keeping him busy.  Otherwise he'd be trying to get into my bedroom to look at these...

Cake preparation is under way - another Lego Star Wars themed one.  This time it's an easier one than last birthday!  He wants the lava fight scene - you know, the one where Anakin loses to Obi Wan, and loses his arms and legs?!!  I'm going to need lots of red and yellow icing (gotta love that food colouring - thank goodness it's only once a year!).  The kids have prepared all the Lego bits to go on top.  So one more chocolate cake to bake today - then decorating tomorrow.  Wish me luck!!

Our weekend...

We have had a very busy weekend - more so than usual!  It started when we left home at 7.40 am on Saturday morning when we all left in the one car for various hockey fixtures.  I dropped Miss Blondie and Daddy at one location ( 1/2 an hour's drive from us) for a 9 am game.  Which was a nil all draw.

Then I drove another 20 km south with FJ and Miss 12 for her game at 10 am.

They won 4-1 - yay!

Meanwhile Blondie and Daddy had been dropped off at home by a team mate so she could shower and change for her next event.

Miss 12, FJ, and I arrived home about 12 and grabbed the lunch boxes, activities, Daddy and Blondie and piled in the car again, to drop Daddy off to his hockey game before an hour's drive south for a gymnastics tumbling competition.

FJ made faces...

Miss 12 buried her nose in a book, between biscuits...

And Blondie?  Well, she won a gold medal!

Congratulations, baby girl.

Total kilometres travelled?  300 for the day!!  Hence why we are getting a second car - my new toy arrives on the 20th july - I can't wait!

Kids fantasy photos

Not quite what it sounds like!  We gave the kids our old digital camera so they could play around with it.  Normally we get random shots like - fingers, dogs, bits of faces, the TV etc.

But this week FJ decided to see what would happen if he took a photo through his binoculars.  And this was the result...

This was taken through the small end.  And the next one was taken through the large end...

And then Miss Blondie took it one step further and took a photo down through the play telescope of a very large marble...

And I have no idea what this was but this was Miss 12's attempt...

Aren't digital cameras a wonderful invention?  Could we have had the satisfaction of such random, fascinating, instant results when we were their age?

PS The top one is now my computer background!

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Sorry for the hiatus guys!  I've been suffering a bit of bad luck with the health of my left foot over the last two weeks and haven't felt like blogging.  The latest incident last night began with me starting to move my sewing table and not realising that one of the shelves in it was loose - and ended with me in emergency having my toe x-rayed and the side of my foot plastered, yes, my big toe is broken and I am on crutches!!!

Anyhow, back to the trip.

DAY 5:  This was our day for Uluru.  We headed out relatively early to do the walk out to the Mutitjulu Waterhole.  On the way we found some gorgeous rock art...

which the kids had fun trying to interpret as they've all done a few Aboriginal studies at school.  The walk culminated in a beautiful still pool...

where the peace was only broken by the buzzing of flies.  Don't you love the fly nets?  An absolute necessity!  We then did the walk into Kantju Gorge where the kids found a rock outcrop that looked all the world like a cresting wave...

We followed up the walks with lunch and a visit to the cultural centre - well worth the visit.  It really gives you an insight into the Aboriginal beliefs about the area and why it is so sacred to them.  

Then back to Yulara for a swim (and some much needed laundry!) before we headed out to watch the sunset.  We managed to snag one of the viewing platforms where the kids and I set up to do some painting...

 as Uluru dressed up in it's evening finery...

That night hubby and I were startled by what we initially thought was a mouse or rat scurrying around under the trailer.  But then we noticed it was hopping!  We were being visited by a little marsupial mouse and the next morning the kids and I scouted around for it's footprints...

DAY 6:  We then headed out to Kata Tjuta for the day.  We started with the Walpa Gorge walk...

admired the local wildlife on the way...

and found this gorgeous pool at the end.

Then we did the Valley of the Winds walk up to the 1st lookout - where the kids took a well-deserved rest!

Oh, and check out the next generation of tree huggers!!

We're back!!

Our two week road trip ended on Monday with a triumphant return to Perth.  For those that are interested I have a bit of a map to show you where we went - all 5,815 kilometres of it!

The trip is a bit long to talk about in one post so I'll just tell you about the first four days this time.

DAY ONE:  Perth to Kalgoorlie.  Left early from home - breakfast along the way.  This road is well used and winds through from Perth, through the wheat belt and into the southern goldfields.

DAY TWO:  Kalgoorlie to Tjukayirla Roadhouse.  Now the fun really began.  Kalgoorlie through to Laverton is bitumen. Laverton is where the Great Central Road starts - and so do the dirt roads.

The car still looks relatively clean here!  This bit of road is fairly good - since the graders have been through recently.  That night we stayed in the camp ground of a little roadhouse called Tjukayirla (often called Chucka for short.  We met a couple from Perth with their two teenage kids also doing the same trip and a couple from Brisbane (he Swiss, she Peruvian) going the other way.  They own a 4WD and campervan hire company and were returning one of their vehicles to Perth - more on them later.  The kids got to experience their first open fire ever...

...and reckon that bread toasted on an open fire tastes SOO much better.

DAY THREE:  Tjukayirla Roadhouse to Warakuna.  Camels!!

(And flies!!  Oh boy - the flies!)  Before we left the roadhouse however we had a minor mechanical drama to deal with.  As we were pulling out, the camper trailer wheel started making horrible squealing noises.  Our new Swiss mate Bruno (who also turned out to be an auto mechanic in a previous life)  had the trailer up on a jack in a jiffy, wheel off, drum off and the three small rocks that were causing the noise out.  Ten minutes later off we went.  What a legend - thanks Bruno.  This turned out be a day of more wildlife - more camels, snakes (on the road!), goannas (also on the road) and some very unfortunate birds who wanted to try flying across the road as we were going past.

DAY FOUR:  Warakuna to Yulara.  We started the day with a visit to the Giles Meteorological Station...

where the kids got to pretend to be radar dish operators...

and watch the daily release of the weather balloon.

We stopped along the way to look at various historical sites, including this tree which has a plaque with all the names of the original road builders - and their dog, Lassie!

A couple of hours later and we were in a different state...

Still lots of dirt driving to go.  We drove through the most spectacular scenery as around this area are the Petermann Ranges.  We finally made it off the dirt with about 40 km to go until we reached Yulara.  5 km later hubby shouts, "The back window's up!"  Lou jumps out to close it only to find that the back window no longer exists.  Somewhere along the last stretch of track the tailgate had popped open, forcing the back window up which then smashed when going over a bump.  Thank goodness it was in the canopy of the ute and not the car - or it would have made for a very breezy trip - no chance of getting another one till we got back to Perth.

Then we saw this...

Our first view of Kata Tjuta, or the Olgas as most people know it.  To be followed further on by...

Our fist view of Uluru.  Magnificent.  Yulara township beckoned, with The Pioneer Hotel for beer and pizza.  But we couldn't go to dinner without first going up to the lookout behind our trailer for our first sunset...

Just gorgeous - the photo doesn't really do the colours justice.

More tomorrow!

Pencil cases?!

We are due to leave on a two week road trip in a couple of weeks and Miss 12 asked for a really big pencil case so she could take her entire art shelf!!  In the search for suitable material I went through the "dragged out of a skip and might be useful one day..." pile.  Voila!  Unloved place mats to the rescue...

Of course as soon as it was finished, another use was found for it...

I know she's in there somewhere!

Oh - there she is!  Don't you just love the grin of pure unadulterated mischief?

Of course then Blondie and FJ wanted one too.  And Blondie just had to take the idea one step further...

Go, horsey, go!!

Autumn has arrived - finally!

Since my last post, autumn has finally arrived.  The nights have cooled down to about 15 degrees and we are getting some sleep at last.  The days are a beautiful 30 degrees, and when the sea breeze blows through in the afternoon us parents sitting on the sidelines of sports training actually need to put a jumper on!

Some photos of a lovely surprise the kids got at nippers a couple of weeks ago...a fly-by from Rescue 1 - the surf life-saving helicopter.

Which then dropped a rescue diver into the water to 'rescue' one of our life-savers.

Who was then airlifted back to the beach.

Before the helicopter came in to land on the grass outside the club!

Watched over by our trusty lifeguards (hubby behind and best mate Scotty in front)...

the kids all got to go and talk to the pilot and look through the helicopter...

before it took off home again.

From all accounts the other nippers club's further down the coast are very jealous because their council wouldn't allow the helicopter to land on their beach.  Our kids had an absolute ball.  Thanks to the guys at the club who made this happen.