AN AWARD AND GARAGE/YARD SALE

Arte y Pico Award

With all that’s been happening here (babysitting and sickies) I forgot to post about this wonderful reward I received from Deb of Posted from Home. Thank you so much Deb. She has a delightful blog showing us some fabulous garden photos and some yummy recipes too. There is always some wildlife hanging around her home.You are meant to pass this award onto 5 people but I will have to do that on a later post

GARAGE / YARD SALE

My mother-in-law is having a Garage/Yard sale tomorrow so we are off this afternoon to help her set up. We have already helped her sort out most of her goodies in readiness.So any of you girls out there from Victoria, Australia if you happen to be in the Sale area tomorrow then pop on into the little town of Wurruk (just before you get into Sale) and follow the signs. Bring the hubby too as there will be lots of tools and things for them.

Hope you enjoyed the Toy party in the post below.
It was a fun event hosted by Jessi of Scrappy Jessi

Have a great weekend.

CHILDHOOD TOY PARTY

LET’S PARTY

The Doll's have already started their Tea Party.

Jessi from Scrappy Jessi is hosting a Favourite Childhood Toy party.

I have some dolls from my childhood .
One of my favourites was this sweet hand knitted golliwog. This remember was a time when ‘Politically Correct or Incorrect’ had never been heard of. Sanna was just my beloved little golliwog to me so I hope she is not offensive to anyone. She was knitted by my Grandmother’s sister, Aunty Jude. She was a bit of a rebel in my eyes as she used to dye her hair all sorts of colours. Every colour of the rainbow over the years. So unusual for the time.
These next 3 dolls have a special meaning too. They have all had clothes knitted for them by my Aunt Nancy about 10 years ago.
The doll dressed in pink belonged to my 86 yo Aunt Nancy when she was a child. Whenever I visited her I was always allowed to play with her as I was always aware of how special she was. She is a celluloid doll. Nancy gave me this doll about 15 years ago.
The sweet little black doll in the blue suit was also Nancy’s childhood doll.
The gorgeous big black baby doll was given to me by my mother for Christmas when I was about 8. She was then dressed in a beautiful pale blue velvet full length baby suit with blue lace down beside the front zip. Sadly I don’t know what happened to her outfit.

This beautiful little girl’s china teaset was also given to me by Nancy. It belonged to my Grandmothers youngest sister named Flo who was killed in a motor scooter accident when she was 18yo. It was handed onto Nancy as a child. It is also something I played with as a child. It was very battered and well repaired way before my time but I still treasure it. I guess it must be about 80 years old

Enjoy the party

THOSE LITTLE FAT HANDS MADE US SICK

OH DEAR!!!!! what did those little fat hands do??

Thusrday morning as I drove the 45 minutes to Amy’s to look after Riley Amy

rang to say Riley had been sick!!
When I got there he also had diarrhoea. So off Amy went to work and the poor little man wasn’t feeling too good. Lots of cuddles and a little sleep in Grandma’s arms. Then a small bottle of water. As he kept that down I thought I would give him his bottle of milk.

Oh oh … big mistake - Grandma what were you thinking!!!!
Out it comes again. So I got Amy to get a doctors appointment and meet me there with him. Poor little man had gastroenteritis. Lots more cuddles for the day, some small amounts of water and some gastrolyte in the water too, until his Mummy and Daddy (Ryan)got home from work to take over. Lots of handwashing and extra care with cleanliness was undertaken.

Come Friday Riley was improving and able to have some half strength formula/milk in his bottle and even had some vegies. He and his Mummy came to visit.
Look he’s even smiling as he sits in his seat at Grandmas to eat those vegies.

Come Saturday 4am his Mum has it – oh no. She rings me in the morning to see how I am and I tell her I don’t feel so good. So now that’s 2 of us down.
Next to go down is the daddy and then on Saturday night the Grandmadaddy – that’s Max. He is never sick and can’t believe he has got it.

Mmm… this is what Max and I are sipping away at.

It is supposed to be good for you and make sure you don't dehydrate.

So come today Monday Max is home from work, I am still feeling yuck, Ryan is able to work from home, Amy has gone to work and the little man that gave it to us is back at crèche.

Oh no – we think that’s where he got it.

Hope we don’t all get it again.

THE OWNER OF THESE LITTLE FAT HANDS

BABYSITTING

For 2 days a week for at least the next three months

I will be babysitting the owner of these little fat hands

Guess who it is?

Yes sweet little Riley.

Amy had the opportunity to go back to work for a few months for 4 days a week, so Riley will go to crèche 2 days a week and me for 2 days.Riley is now 6 months old and at a fun stage. He has his 2 bottom teeth and his 2 top ones are trying to come through. .He sits up by himself and has also recently started on solids. So far he loves his rice cereal, banana, potato and adores pumpkin

It will be fun watching all the changes over the next

three months, so long as he does some of this too - sleeping.

A SUNNY SUNDAY

Fabulous Autumn/Fall weather and a picnic lunch on Sunday.

Sometimes you just have to get out of the house. For me that was Sunday.

Max and I went for a drive over the other side of the Mornington Peninsula to Westernport Bay.

We stopped off at Hastings and watched

‘the world’ go by.

Lots of families walking down the pier and also feeding the pelicans.


Next we went to Flinders and just sat in the sun and relaxed.

I love the length of this pier.

From on top we could look down and see this.
See my shadow taking this photo,

Watched the fishermen coming in and then putting their boats onto their trailers.
Love this one using his red tractor.


I zoomed in with my little camera and saw some resourceful fishermen using an old ironing board that they topped with timber to clean up their fish.
From the photo above you can see one of them
carrying 2 white
buckets and heading to where they put the board.

Great way to use an old ironing board

I did zoom in a lot with this so it's not very clear.



There is really so much to see and do on the Mornington Peninsula

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

A GREAT BOOK FOR MOTHER’S DAY

I bought this book in Target the other day.

All You Need is Love
Fifteen Journeys to Motherhood by Suzy Zail

As it gets close to Mother’s Day I tend to get a bit melancholy and miss my Mum
I may be 53 but every girl, even this old girl needs her Mum.
Being the ‘baby’ of the family I guess I was a little spoilt and close to my Mum.

It is now 15 years since she passed away.
Every year on her birthday and near Mother’s Day I usually buy myself a little something.

She was forever telling me to buy something for myself as I always put myself to the end

of the line and bought things for Max or the kids, hardly ever for myself.

So this is what I bought this year.
It is a great book.

All about different types of Mothers

A Mother in a Commune

A Disadvantaged Mother

A Grandmother being the Mother figure to her grandchildren

A Foster Mother

A Surrogate Mother



Mother’s with children with disabilities - Single Mother’s struggling to make ends meet
A Vision Impaired Mother - An Older Mother
Lesbian Mothers - A Mother that was a Donor Egg recipient
An Adoptive Mother - A Mother in prison
A Relinquishing Mother -A Mother of triplets
A Surrogate Mother - A Working Mother

Many Mother's with different stories to tell.

Any one out there looking for that little something for Mum or
to add to her gift, I am sure she would enjoy it.


To all you Mother’s out there look at your beautiful children no matter what age they are and be proud of yourself for creating these wonderful people.

HOME AGAIN

WE ARE BACK

What a week it was in Port Macquarie!!

For the first time in the 3 years we have been going to Port Macquarie for the Ironman the weather was terrible. No sunshine!!!!! Boo, hiss, plenty of rain!!!
After telling family what a wonderful holiday destination it was at Ironman time we were so disappointed for them all. We had said we will be at the beach every day – not so this time. Oh well, we can’t control the weather.
The trip up was fun.

Check out my side mirror to see the trail of cars behind me.

Our own little convoy.

The day we left we stopped for lunch at a park.

Here are our 4 cars parked side by side. Mine has the bike and luggage Pod on top

We slept the first night at a motel in Wahroonga NSW. Not so easy to get 4 motel rooms.

Sunday was the big event.
Up at 4.30am and at the race venue by 5.15am. When we got there it poured.

It was raining oh so heavily.
By the start of the race 6.30am it was not raining.

Nervous anticipation

Daniel helping Max with the zipper on the wetsuit.

Imagine battling through all of these bodies to try and swim.

Out of the water 1 hour 20 minutes later and you have to find your bag in this lot

There he is in the white top, with the blue cap up near the middle of the marquee.
After a quick change in the marquee it is off on the bike

Here he is after 6 hours 1 minute out on the road.

Another quick change and he is off running .

Nearly done.

Oh dear it is so tough out there after running for 4 hours 27 minutes.

I was relieved when he finished the race after 11 hours and 48 minutes.

SOMETHING SPECIAL WAS YET TO COME

On the Tuesday afternoon Ryan asked Max’s permission to ask Amy to marry him.
They went out to dinner while the rest of the gang stayed back at the

appartment and babysat Riley.

He even went down on bended knee!! Sweet.
Everyone was so excited and happy for them.

After 5 years of being together they finally got engaged.

THESE CLOWNS ARE ON THE ROAD

GIBBS FAMILY CIRCUS LEAVES TOWN

These clowns Lachlan and Chloe (photo taken way back in 2006) and

the rest of the family are hitting the road

Tomorrow, Thursday morning 5am we are heading off to Port Macquarie (1375km – 854 miles)meeting some family members along the way.
Car 1 Max, Alison, Michael
Car 2 Melanie Daniel Lachlan Chloe
Car 3 Amy Ryan Riley
Car 4 Sue John (my sister & BIL)

We will get to Port Macquarie Friday late morning.
Once in Port Macquarie we will meet up with more family
Car 5 Kylie Phil Olivia (niece & family)
Car 6 Sue Bill (Max sister & BIL)
Car 7 Megan Andrew (Max sister & BIL)

So this circus is all holidaying at Port Macquarie to watch Max compete in the Australian Ironman starting at 6.30am on Sunday 6th April. Check it out.
He hopes to complete the race of 3.8 km(2.36 miles) swim, 180km (112 miles)bike ride followed by a 42.2km (26.2 miles)run in about 11 hours.
Mad Max indeed.

We will all be wearing a team shirt like this one that Max is modelling for you

The back only looks crooked cos Max is standing awkwardly.
It is an amazing event – the stamina these Ironmen and Women have is unbelievable. The training that goes into it is extremely demanding but if you want to compete in such a gruelling event then you must be prepared or suffer the consequence. They have to make sure they have enough fluid and food along the way grabbing what they want from the various aid stations along the course.
As the wife of someone competing in an event like this it is emotionally draining because I have seen first hand what can happen if they are not properly prepared and don’t get enough nutrition. There is nothing more gut wrenching than seeing your loved one struggle to complete this event.

So wish us well as we head off for our adventure.We will be back on 13th April when I will hopefully be able to post that Max finished the race in a time that he is happy with