Mackenzie's FIRST DAY of school........

............today marks the beginning of her journey of formal education & it was an "AWESOME" one to quote her directly!

She'll be having the same wonderful teacher Lily had in Kindergarten which is fantastic.

Both her & I trouble sleeping last night, she finally fell asleep in our bed around 10.45pm after having gone to bed hours & hours earlier when Lily went to bed & actually zonked out within 2 minutes of her head hitting the pillow. Mackenzie was just so full of questions & very cuddly which was very sweet but then of course my mind was racing overtime & I tossed & turned pretty well through the whole night, a bit nervous but mostly excited for Mackenzie.

She started at 9.30am & was the 2nd child to actually get to the classroom & promptly sat down at a table & began a tracing activity & writing her name. Not a tear in sight, she was just so grown up & immediately comfortable in her new surroundings. She looked so grown up but also so small in her seriously oversized size 4 uniform.

Lily of course is the very proud & protective big sister who played with Mackenzie at lunch time & also bought her an ice block from the canteen.

After walking Buster home & having a snack I took them both down to the beach where they had a great time boogie boarding in the choppy surf with our good friends Russell, Charlotte & Alex.

............a special day with lots of special memories for our family.

Lily's first day of Yr 3

After a little sadness of not being in the same class as some of her friends, Lily is most excited to have her very first male teacher. She has spent time with the odd male casual & the RFF/ computer teacher for the past couple of years has been a male but all her class teachers to this point have been ladies, so it's all very new & exciting. Being such a big school classes won't be finalised for a week or so & then they still have to be placed into their respective classes for Numeracy & Literacy which of course also means getting to know 2 more teachers! I am thrilled at the prospect of her having a male teacher as I have such fond memories of both Yrs 3 & 4 when I was taught by male teachers, my Yr 4 teacher Mr Costello being the one who really stands out in my mind as having made the most wonderful & profound contribution to my education.

Australians all let us rejoice

Wishing all Aussies out there a fantastic Australia Day today!

Some snapshots from our day.

Overall it was a pretty good day filled with awesome weather & some great company too. We went to the Woy Woy foreshore for the fireworks & what a fabulous display that was. Many thanks must go to Gosford Council for such a fabulous event, even if it really isn't the best way to spend rate payer $$$......lol!

Unfortunately a good few hours were spent with a second Telstra tech to-ing & fro-ing between our place & the phone exchange trying to sort out our phone line & internet issues caused by damage from a lightning strike outside our place on Saturday. Thankfully all issues have been resolved & everything is pretty well back to normal other than the fact that I can no longer walk around the house & chat, which is definitely going to make for much shorter conversations for the time being. We were extremely lucky to have gotten away with only having the phone line, modem & phone blown. One of our neighbours fared much worse in the appliance stakes.

The countdown is definitely on now for the return of school for Lily & Mackenzie's first day a day later. I really wish we had an extra couple of weeks, it all just seems to have gone all too fast this last few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back in a couple of days with some first day of school photos.

Good luck to anyone with littlies starting for the first time too & also for all the slightly bigger ones going back.

Mini Strings Summer School

Lily has just completed 4 days at the Conservatorim this week, culminating in a little concert performance by each of the groups taking part in the program. Lily's group played 2 pieces which were just lovely to listen to. What a clever bunch of little kids. She had a great week & was particularly happy to have had her wonderful teacher Alexandra as their conductor/tutor for the 4 days.

I must also thank the wonderful Nat & her 2 lovely kiddies for entertaining Mackenzie & I for a few hours 4 days this week in the interim which saved us many mindless hours wandering around the shops & petrol costs by letting us hang out with them.

It's been an absolute scorcher here today, I took the girls as promised to the pools for a quick dip during Lily's lunch break so they could cool down & have play on the inflatable slide. Lots of fun & very refreshing.

When we got back in the car to head home after the concert the ambient temperature was reading 45.5!! Granted the car had been sitting in the full sun & therefore was reading a few degrees higher than the actual true temperature but even so, there really aren't that many days here on the coast where it really is that stifling. Hopefully we'll get a sea breeze to cool us down a little before bed & give the A/C a rest.

Craig has also fixed up the pool today whilst we were out & honestly he could not have picked a better day!

What a fantastic way to end the final full week of school holidays after we had so many days of rain early on.

In memory of Michael Hutchence

who would have celebrated his 50th birthday today.........



Your talent & music will never be forgotten. Still very sadly missed.

1st ever sunset surf

Lily & Mackenzie are now the proud owners of their very first surfboard, a pink (of course) 6 foot 2 inch softboard. We picked it up on Thursday & we waited for Daddy to come home from work to give it a test run. Lily rode a few waves, she'll get the hang of it all much quicker now that she'll be able to practice.

Check out Mackenzie's lovely writing in the sand, with her first day of school only a week away she is madly obsessed with writing her name & learning her letters.

It's only Wednesday & I am exhausted!

What a day, so full of running around but got plenty done which definitely is a good thing. Lily is enjoying her week at Summer School at the Conservatorium so far & learning some lovely new musical pieces. It's meant a drive into Gosford every day this week & I've been lucky enough to have the wonderful Nat & her gorgeous kids to hang around with in the interim, other than today when we operated the Uniform Shop at school for the 2nd & final time this holidays. Gosh that was so busy but thankfully I am so lucky to have the help of some very lovely ladies with whom it really is a pleasure to spend the time volunteering with.

Lily also had a check up at the dentist today & Buster got his yearly heartworm injection whilst Mackenzie went off on her first real play date on her own. She went with beach with her little friend & his family but unfortunately the beach was actually closed due to very rough surf conditions, so they didn't get to have a swim, she did get a lovely ice cold slushie bought for her though & she had lots of fun..

I've been doing quite a lot of scrapping (for me...lol!) using my stash to coincide with the challenge currently going at 3 Angels Scrapping. Nat has taken over organising & posting challenges for "Use Your Stash" this year, the first challenge on the 3AS calendar which was actually started over there a few years back by former DT member Alison.

Jo has also set a fun challenge to scrap an Australia Day L/O, check out the criteria here. Come over to 3AS & join in the fun!

The fantastic 70% off all products sale is coming to an end as well, so be quick & grab an awesome bargain or two before the sale finishes at midnight on Friday 22nd January. Jo & Rosy are still loading stock into the shop & yes, it's all on sale too!

Our surfer girl

Lily's just had her first 2 lessons ever to surfing, she's getting the hang of it & having fun which is the main thing.

Here's a video from this morning's session. Her last lesson is tomorrow morning so hopefully the waves will be a little bigger but the water still nice & calm like today. I'll add some photos later on tonight as we are off school shoe shopping shortly.





Also had a bit of a celebrity "run in" today almost literally. Whilst in the queue to purchase some Icy Poles at the Sea Lion Cafe, I turned around to see where the girls were & right behind me was the one & only Steve Waugh, ex- Australian Cricket captain, who was grabbing a bite to eat with his kids. As a huge fan I'd have loved a photo seeing as I had my camera & all but he's entitled to his private time too, so I got my excitement out by ringing Craig & telling him......LOL!

Check this out........AWESOME!

3 Angels Scrapping Massive 70% off sale

Go check it out here.......lots of fantastic bargains at prices you really can't beat! Thanks Jo & Rosy.

70% off every product, storewide starting right now!!!

**Conditions:
No free postage during the sale
No coupons/other discounts apply
$25 minimum spend

Remembering Dakota

It's been 2 years today since we lost our beloved Husky. His memory is still very much alive in our hearts & minds. He is very sadly missed & hopefully is running amuck up in Doggie Beach Heaven.

01-01-10

We had Stef & Yoshimi join us on New Years Eve for a Teppanyaki BBQ, complete with some authentic Japanese cuisine....yummo!

We then had a lazy evening & ended up watching the Gosford fireworks from the waterfront at Point Clare, then went for a stroll along Umina Beach before coming home to watch the Sydney Midnight fireworks on TV.

On New Years Day we took some time out from a very stressful morning due to some very unnecessary family drama for the kids to ride their scooters on the path around the oval & then cool down in the surf. There were hermit crabs aplenty there that day & they certainly kept lots of kids amused including Lily & Mackenzie......not to mention ME!

Then there was the most beautiful sunset to end the day but by the time I realised the only good shots I could get were above the neighbours houses across the street which was a bit of a shame but amazing just the same.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Welcome 2010 & lots of new possibilities & experiences!