Welcome home Oma & Opa!

Oma and Opa's return means gifts! My beautiful antique recycled kimono from Japan courtesy of my aunt.

The day started early with an orthodontist appointment for Elliot at 8am, followed by one at the KNOX uniform ship. Elliot would be getting outfitted for next year. We left $536 poorer with a return date to pick up his boater and house T-shirt.

Please don't lose any of that cargo...bags full of...uniform

We were scheduled to rush to the airport but was pleasantly surprised that my cousin had volunteered to make the journey instead. The full complement of babysitters are home! Hurray! Oma and Opa returned from their travels to Hong Kong, China and Japan this morning bearing gifts as per usual. My parents stories were fascinating. The Chinese country towns that they visited sounded much like how Beijing was 20 years ago. Their story of buying oxygen tanks when they were in a high altitude town cracked me up. My parents then said the unspokable...they were sick of Chinese food! Apparently, the food was so bad in mainland China that they lost weight. They managed to put it all back on once they hit Hong Kong and Japan. Poor Elliot was torn between staying with Opa and Oma or heading over to Nanna and Grandpa's where Lara and Jonah were. The latter prevailed. A scurry across to Cabarita, and I was free! Time to re-acquaint myself with American states...

Embroidered linen pants from China.

One of those "tie in many ways" bags Japanese style

Bible Bag

On Friday, we started a project to make Elliot's bible bag. Well, today we made a dash to complete it. Unfortunately the dash was so efficient that we forgot the appliqué that was meant to go on the front of the flap! Luckily the bible fits...

The flap and the strap

The body of the bad

The bible fits! Phew...

Very happy with his new bag

The design that we were aiming for.

Strawberry Ice-cream

The hectic long weekend took its toll. My newly acquired sexy voice developed into a cough which in turn gave me asthma. It gave me a day off work which was very welcomed.

The children, however, took no notice of this. So in a motherly effort, I asked if they wanted to try making ice-cream. It was a unanimous yes. We made use of the 1.4kg of strawberries that we purchased at Costco last week.

The process was relatively simple. What took a long time was the cooling of the custard mixture. It had to be in the fridge for at least several hours for the ice-cream maker to work properly. We started making the ice-cream in the morning and didn't finish it until 6pm! I also substituted thickened cream for double cream and halved the cream mixture as well as reducing the sugar in an attempt to make it healthier. Fortunately it worked! The ice-cream was a hit!

Hulling the strawberries

Heating up the milk and cream

Making the custard mixture

Lara happy to keep time

Elliot doing the stirring

The cooled custard mixture

Straining the strawberry puree

The ice-cream maker churning away

Hmmm...a little boy trying to lick the mixture on top of the ice-cream maker

The final product....Mmmm

24 Hours 24 Minutes

The busy weekend continued as we gathered after church to farewell the much loved Kohsino. The owners of this lovely home, have bought another house and so the house has been sold. What better way to commemorate the many days of gaming bliss that the Kohsino has hosted, then to have another one!

We arrived after lunch bearing drinks for the mob. The gaming commenced and kept going well past midnight. We slept over as I was exhausted. We woke up to another beautiful day, and helped the Kohs finish their leftovers and played more boardgames! Exactly 24 hours and 24 minutes after we arrived, we finally left to go home for some more much needed sleep!

The beloved Kohsino, venue for many weekend gaming sessions

The gorgeous bush outlook

The games that we all love

Loving the cubby house in the backyard

And the swings!

Jonah loves going "speed"!

Sausages galore

Variety available!

Children settled for movie

Adults can begin serious gaming

Viking meeple

Social games that make us look silly...

Playtime before breakfast

The girls have their own corner

One last play before saying goodbye

KFC Anyone?

Today was the designated boating excursion day to the fish markets. Jonah had slept from 3:45pm yesterday right through until 6am this morning, so the rest of the family were up shortly after. The children were excited and looking forward to fishing afterwards and so were on their best behaviour! A quick breakfast, followed by piano practice and we were all ready for breakfast round 2 at 9am. So yoghurt and fruit it was.

We picked up Poppy, waited for Natasha and drove towards Nanna and Grandpa's at 10am. With the arrival of the Yeohs, we hopped onboard. Unfortunately, the wind that was blowing picked up just as we cast off. Despite the engines running, the gusts literally blew the boat into the pier which gashed a hole into the side of the boat. Poor Grandpa was devastated, he thought he had ruined everyone's day. Looking on the bright side, the insurance will cover the bill to fix the damage and the boat was due to be slipped anyway. That didn't console Grandpa much though.

A child who is a homing beacon for anything dirty...

Natasha, a colleague from my previous company

Walking down the pier, the one next to Natasha is where the great tragedy occurred!

Nanna and Grandpa's boat

Getting the boat ready

Arrival of important dignitaries

Jonah is ready!

Children blissfully unaware of happenings outside...

We trooped up to the apartment for a change of lunch plans. Emergency KFC came in handy which made Poppy very happy (his favourite chicken dish). Some lovely wine helped Grandpa feel better. It didn't take him long to return to his happy self. It was a leisurely afternoon of lunch, followed by pumpkin pie, a spot of tennis, watching some of the AFL grand final, and finally heading home. Perhaps not what we had planned but still filled with fun.

We made some pizzas at home for dinner and the children crashed not long after. It will shortly be bedtime for the adults as we have another big day tomorrow!

Lara, now aware that I blog, wanted a photo of her hair taken and recorded

Home made pizzas

Content with a different kind of water activity

Awwww...My Heart Melts!

Dearest Lara only just discovered that I blog! She was trying to leave a comment for me after reading a post, and was disappointed to discover that she couldn't. Bless her!

So I promised to blog her comment on her behalf. Here it is...

" Thanks mum for making this website. This website is really cool. I wish I could make one of these websites just by myself like you. I think this website is cool because it reminds me of my holidays with you. I also like this website because you put pictures in it and make it to share with the family."

Prelude To A Long Weekend

It was always going to be a good day for the children. I woke up with no voice, and anything I squeaked out just made me sound like Scooby Doo. We got dressed for a very warm spring day with a top temperature of 33 degrees Celsius and set out for our first stop of the day, Costco. We had to replenish our weekly 9L supply of milk, stock up on snacks for our boating trip tomorrow and drinks for a party the following day.

Unbelievably, there was no traffic at 8.51 in the morning. This is unheard of for Sydney roads. Consequently, we arrived rather early at our destination. We took the opportunity to get poll parking position with the Costco carpark and strolled across the road to the conveniently placed Spotlight. We had things to purchase.

Elliot's much loved bible needed a cover. Having looked at the stock standard covers, we then decided that perhaps a bible bag might be better. The inspiration came from a pin on Pinterest. Luckily, instructions were included. We had Malcolm's old jeans to use, as well as Lara's old school uniform to recycle. All we needed was the magnetic snap closure.

Hopefully what Elliot's bag will look like when finished...

The bible that is to be protected

It was rather fun wandering around in Spotlight looking at buttons, various snap closures, materials, bits and pieces for arts and crafts. We ended up walking out with a glue gun prepared to make some hair bows for Lara and a flower corsage for me out of my old pyjamas...Stay tuned to see how far this whim goes!

Walking out of Spotlight with our loot

We headed back to Costco to line up for entry. We had our obligatory Costco lunch and churros after our shopping spree. It was then back home to start on our project. With all the pieces cut out, we needed to wait for Daddy to make our way up north to Oma's house to borrow her sewing machine. Alas, when we got there, we discovered that we forgot to bring our keys! So no sewing for today. Once again, stay tuned for the results of the bible bag!

Costco rope drop!

I don't know why I keep taking photos of churros...I can't help it!

Cutting up daddy's old jeans

Is child labour illegal?!?!

Time to chop up Lara's old uniform for the lining

We went back home and picked Malcolm's grandfather up along the way for a dinner of butter chicken and roti. Everyone loved it! Its an early night tonight in for another big day tomorrow.

Butter chicken, roti and beans

Someone enjoying it just a touch too much!