Monday, November 30, 2015

Go Socceroos!

Andy, Ella and Katy joined Susie, Patrick, Josh, Mia and Nana along with 20,000 others to watch the Socceroos play Kyrgyzstan at GIO Stadium in Canberra. Thankfully the thunderstorm and cold conditions forecasted held off, but with many arriving late (after the rain) our cousins had trouble making the ground on time.

Ella was pretty pumped. Sitting next to Mia, she was riveted to the game, talking about the players and having a great time. Katy was a little overawed -- and when Timmy Cahill almost scored in the 2nd minute, the crowd went up as one ... except for Katy who cowered in her seat. I bought her some chips at half time and that perked her up a little. By mid-way through the second half she was more comfortable, and almost fell asleep on my lap (stipulating clearly that I wasn't allowed to jump up when it got exciting).

Anyway, it was a great game, a great atmosphere, plenty of chances for the socceroos and they won pretty comfortably. Took us a while to get home, by which stage Katy was shattered, but both were happy.








KYRGYZSTANKYRGYZSTAN

All Fired Up

Wednesday afternoons now alternate between little a's training and orienteering. The primary factors which influence which activity is chosen includes weather and location so little a's more often than not comes up trumps.

Recently orienteering was at the Pinnacle, in the next suburb. With Ella keen to continue practicing for next years easter champs, we decided to go. Luckily Nana had picked the girls up from school so she took them straight to the event. By the time Andy and I got there, Ella had finished her course and Katy was not too far behind. Content to play around with the gang of kids, Andy and I both headed out for a run. I began first and was on a shorter course so it was decided that once finished I'd take the kids home and begin dinner while Andy did the long course plus ran home.

As I began to round up the girls, Ella stormed off upset/angry. I wasn't sure what the problem was however I haphazardly said " You can run home if you're not in the car when we leave!' With that said Ella took off running toward the car and continued on past it.

Oh dear I'm thinking I didn't actually mean that. The route home was a total distance of 2.5km but there were 3 fairly major roads to cross and at 6.30pm were still busy with traffic. I quickly told Jase, to tell Andy when he saw him that he may have to run fast to catch up Ella!

Stalking Ella in the car, I had expected her to run out of puff but no. She was now determined to finish what she had started. Watching from a distance, she carefully crossed the 2 major roads thankfully without incident and began the downhill stretch. As we were rolling along, I noticed Andy in the rearview mirror. This only spurred Ella on again as she wanted to beat him too!

So much for Andy's casual warm down jog home. He was running pretty fast to catch up and eventually made contact with Ella around 300m from home. I was relieved of my stalking duties and continued home.

Over dinner we discovered the source of the problem - her cousin had asked to look at a cricket Ella had caught. Ella handed over said cricket and her cousin threw it away! Now if we could only transfer that determination and grit to the 800m at little a's!!



Friday, November 27, 2015

Ticking off Little Things

We are still crossing off the little jobs on the reno list. Recent changes include -

handles!!



shelves up in the girls rooms (photos to come),
brackets on the downpipes,
painting the flue,
more screws in the door hinges,
insulation check,
silicone around the mirrors,
and the list goes on a little longer but I'm sure you get the picture.

We also manage to keep adding to to the list - we noticed while putting up the shade shade, that there was water in one section of the gutters so a new downpipe was installed and the beading on one of the doors was coming off.

Plus then there are things we have decided to change like the bookcase in the kitchen. 

Pre renos it looked like this - 


Post reno we felt that it was a little too closed in or cluttered and had lost its uniqueness (even after moving all the books). There was discussion about moving it completely but we struggled to find a suitable wall to put it on.


In the end Paul suggested cutting off the ends which is what we he did and I think this does the trick. Now just to decide on a buffet/sideboard for underneath!


More Little A's Action







Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Getting Back In Order

Lollipop legs and Holly returned to the veggie patch after 4 month hiatus and did a fantastic job of turning over the soil post weeding. I managed to plant lots of seedling - tomatoes, zucchinis, potatoes, capsicum, eggplant, various lettuce, lebanese cucumber and beetroot! Although not in the veggie patch, I also purchased two blueberry plants and am excited to see how these grow.

It's now 3 weeks later - the cucumber has disappeared (thanks to the possums) but everything else is doing ok despite this crazy November weather - cold, wet and hot. Unfortunately we received a letter in the mail this week from icon water advising us that they will be cleaning the sewer sometime over the next four weeks. Only problem is that the sewer manhole is in the middle of the veggie patch. I think it is the first time in 8 years that someone has wanted access to the manhole. Hopefully their big feet don't squash too many of my seedlings.

Teacher Appreciation Day

Aranda Primary surprised all of the teachers with chocolates (and wine for their christmas party). The children were encouraged to draw/write a letter to their teacher. Here is what our girls did -



Katy to Mrs Kennedy 
Dear Mrs Kennedy Thank you for teaching me lots of things and I love you. Love from Katy.


Ella to Mr Boland (whose favourite animal is the Echidna)
Dear Mr Boland Thank you for being a great teacher you are an excellent teacher because you have the skill of funniness smartness, kindness and you know when to be serious and when to be funny. I like you teaching and I will be sad when its time for me to move on. From Ella PS your much more funny than Mr F.

Cute.


Spot the Anomaly

Have a good look at this photo of our fridge. Can you spot something that shouldn't be there??

Need a hint...bottom left...
Yep  the handle of a paint roller which has been living there for nearly two weeks. It is an attempt to save paint and minimise time spent washing out rollers. The painting is progressing well with our attention focussing on the doors. Of all the painting so far doors are definitely the most painful to do for several reasons - everyone has their way of how to paint them (brushes versus roller versus brush after roller...); you can only paint one surface at a time; you need a place (like the loungeroom) which is free of dust and bugs with appropriate things to stand the doors on; need to lightly sand between coats and finally the painting only takes about 10mins. Anyway we finally got there after our first attempt in the garage was really unsatisfactory. 


We discovered one of the laundry sliding doors has a funny extra piece that acts as a stopper and on seeing this, Andy suggested we put our own time capsule note in the house inspired by the note we found behind the return air placed there by the former owner. So here is what we did!!




Foxes at the Fete

There was no way that the girls were going to let us miss the Aranda School Fete. There was constant chatter at school getting all the kids excited and it seemed like every other week there was a note about it requesting help and/or donations. Obviously there were some very dedicated and hard working volunteers leading the way!

Blessed with beautiful weather on the Saturday afternoon, we arrived with the fete well under way. With money in hand, Ella was off and subsequently disappeared while Katy was drawn to the ballet performances so we watched several girls dance. Over the next few hours, we darted between various stalls and activities bumping in many familiar faces including Nana and Grandpa.

We left the fete hoping that the Chinese restaurant we were going to stop at for dinner would allow foxes in to eat!!




Friday, November 20, 2015

Little A's

It is time to get back on the track with Little Athletics. Both girls are very keen this year. Katy and the under 7's had all 3 throws - discus, turbo jab and shot put on their first day. Understandably many of them were quite confused with all the different techniques! Meanwhile Ella was a little shocked with having to run 800m as her first event for the year!



Another Year Wiser Dad!

It was a very early start for Andy on his birthday as the girls wanted to give him his present before I left for work at 7.15am! He was pretty happy to receive a Nespresso coffee machine. Ella was keen to make him the first coffee from it and was sad that it was heading into his office.


Earlier in the week we had accepted a dinner invitation with a few friends. The day was warm, making it a perfect evening to cook pizzas in the outdoor pizza oven and hang around outside. I even managed to whip up a birthday cake between finishing work and dinner which topped off a lovely evening. Thanks to Michelle and Ben for organising Andy's party!!






Juggling Painting and Life

Those who cross our path in our daily life no longer say "How was your weekend?" but instead ask "How is the painting going?" We have been juggling painting with life and work which has been fairly extremely exhausting and we are only now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been referring to the painting as my third job! On the weekends we often take turns to paint or do reno related jobs while the other looks after kids/cooks/goes for a run etc. The kids have been fantastic managing to find something to entertain themselves. Marbles appeared one weekend while Andy was out attacking the stump with his new wood splitter. Stump is still winning on that front!






.

Ella has also shown us a new skill learnt at vacation care...making damper! She is very happy to make us all a damper lunch and has done by herself on several occasions now which has been such a blessing while we are hard at work. Nice one Ella!


Correcting Mistakes

After much discussion, t was decided to try to fill up the boo boo hole with black resin to match other such marks in the original bench top. Of course once done, the bench top then needed to be sanded and then have two coats of oil applied. This meant the sink, cooktop were removed and thus we had no kitchen for a few days! No one is really complaining as the end product looks great so we are really happy with the outcome of what was initially looking to be a difficult problem to fix.


 The original hole!


The filled hole!


All sanded and oiled!!



Reclaiming the Veggie Patch

Finally some spare time not painting! Ventured outdoors to reclaim the veggie patch from the trampoline and weeds. While I was busy in thee back corner, Mr Gnome was introduced to his new friend and moved around the garden until the right spot was found. Katy also kept herself busy by finding a caterpillar, known as Mr Hairy Legs and subsequently made him a home. Lovely to be enjoying life outside.