Ella's Corin Challenge Birthday Party

Inspired by a recent trip to Corin with Grandad, Ella decided it would be fun to have her birthday party there. She whipped up an invitation and decided on the guests before managing to pin us down to commit to a date. And so Ella's Corin Challenge Birthday Party was soon upon us.

The weather was not so kind with the threat of rain looming. The morning dawned dry, with high cloud and the radar showed rain off to the south looking like it was going to miss Corin. An 11th hour decision saw us keep with the original plan of taking two cars up to Corin for a morning of challenges (to earn the bobsled tickets), bobsled rides, wood fired pizza and marshmallow toasting.


Firstly though, a cake needed decorating!!

Unfortunately in the last 10km, the heavens opened up and the bobsled rides were looking dubious and at Corin, our worst fears were confirmed when staff informed us that the bobsled would not be open as the bobsled brakes don't work in the wet! Had we known that, we probably would have done our back up plan of indoor bouldering.

Nevertheless we had 7 challenges for the kids to complete.

1. Untie the Knot - in a circle, kids take two different peoples hand and then without letting go they have to untie themselves.

2. Face the Cookie - balance an oreo on their forehead and without using their hands, get the oreo into their mouth

3. Save Sam- in pairs, save Sam the snake lolly by putting his life jacket (another lolly) on and placing him back into his boat (a cup) by only using paperclips!

4. Precious Cargo - in height order, spaced between two points, throw the cargo via each person from one end to the other without dropping it.  The cargo was a beanbag, tomato and an egg!

5. Tallest Tower - in groups, using uncooked spaghetti, sticky tape and a marshmallow build the tallest tower.

6. Balloon Balance - in pairs back to back with a balloon in between, go around a course without holding or dropping the balloon.

7. Riddles - solve the riddles.


There was lots of laughing and the kids looked like they were having fun. We timed it perfectly with the wood fired pizzas arriving just as they were answering the last of the riddles. In fact the riddles continued on over lunch with kids sharing ones that they had heard too!

A trip outside to find marshmallow sticks and visit the non running bobsled before returning to toast the biggest marshmallows ever! Then birthday cake before it was time to return home. Despite the weather this party was great and would have been awesome if the bobsled had been running!

Galaxy and Thunderbirds!

Soccer season has started! Katy is playing in the U8/9 division in team Galaxy (all the team names are space theme). Her team is made up of 7 girls, 6 of whom haven't played soccer before. Of her team members, Katy knows 3 from Little Athletics and all the  other girls are new faces.

The first game against the Comets was a steep learning curve for the Galaxy girls and quite confronting with the number (~12!) of goals scored against them. Thankfully though they showed great resilience and determination and only in the last few minutes as their energy levels dropped did they show any sign of having enough.

The last two games have been more even and much more fun. Galaxy scored several goals giving them a much needed confidence boost.

As for Ella, who is playing in the U10 girls, their teams are graded. She made it into the the Div 1 team, which was originally called Belsouth Red but they are now known as the Thunderbirds.  This next step up to graded soccer means travelling around Canberra to games! With only one car, and overlapping game times, the logistics of getting to and from soccer is challenging! Unfortunately it also means that we only get to watch one girls game unless of course Ella is scheduled for Hawker. Oh well I suppose it was always going to happen.

Anyway the Thunderbirds have played very well winning their first two matches. Today's opponents gave them a shake up, especially since they haven't been defeated very often in the last two years! The score was 3-0 at half time. The Thunderbirds can back in the second half scoring 2 goals, but so did the other team and the final score was 5 - 2.

Autumn has Arrived!

Autumn is such a magical and colourful time in the garden with all the deciduous trees. The Chinese Pistachio out the front blankets the lawn and deck with golden yellow and orange leaves. The crepe myrtle turns a lovely shade of burnt orange while the maple's leaves are deep red. On a sunny clear day these colours seem even more vibrant.

This year I have brought some Hyacinth bulbs inside. The idea is to try to grow them a clear glass container in water. This way you are able to watch the roots develop and the plant bud then blossom. We will see how we go...

In other news around the house, Midnight and Maggie have made the transition from the laundry rabbit hutch to the chicken coop outside. Holly has done her best to make the chicks feel welcome, only giving them the occasional peck to let them know who is boss!

Double Digits!

On the first day of Term 2, Ella turned 10! Double Digits! Hard to believe that it was 10 years ago when we arrived at Calvary Hospital knowing that Ella's arrival was imminent! Being a school and work day, there wasn't much time for lazing around. Presents were quickly opened before I headed off to work. The main presents -a Garmin Vivofit junior watch and Blue Jay 'Big Dreams' canvas were very much appreciated. Cupcakes were shared at school and more celebrations plans were in the  draft stages....

Enjoying the Great Outdoors

They say things always happen in 3's...well I tend to agree. So with the previous night's lack of pasta counting as number 1, my next blunder I discovered as I begin to organise our breakfast of eggs and bacon rolls. There were no eggs!  I've left the eggs further than the car...actually back home in the fridge - number 2. Luckily Emily came to the rescue with spare eggs for us. As for number 3 well that occurred at dinner. Now I must say this one is technically not my fault - we ran out of gas despite the gas bottle only being filled up the previous week!! Dodging filling we suspect and no more business from us. Thankfully the trangia needed for the overnight hike saved us.

Our relaxing day at Bittangabee was mostly relaxing! The proposed trail 7km hike to the Lighthouse was aborted and post breakfast, we ambled back down to the beach once again. Several people - Andy, Tom and Al went for a 'proper' swim ending up across the bay ~ 200m. The bigger children of Max, Mica and Ella accompanied by Emily found themselves up for the challenge and made their way across too. Everyone returned safely, only to have the little girls waiting to go on adventure too! So back across Al and Emily go. This time with Alma, Isobel, Mira, Katy and myself. They were all amazing and felt very chuffed with themselves on their return!

We played games, frisbee, built sandcastles, had swimming lessons(!), races and generally lounged about. As we were packing up, a pod of dolphins swam into the bay. It was picture perfect!


At some point in the early afternoon we returned to the campsite for a late lunch. The kids explored and played while the adults chatted. A big goanna strolled through the campground and a lyrebird was digging nearby. Once refreshed we made our way down to the rock shelf and explored the numerous rock formations and pools. Not much marine life was spotted though.

Back to camp, Andy found this humongous log which provided much entertainment for the rest of the evening. After a bit of glow stick fun and marshmallows, the kids went off to bed rather early. Katy and Mira successfully camped in their own tent together after the previous night's attempt was thwart with a scared, tearful Katy retreating back to our tent! Meanwhile the adults enjoy another evening of wine, cheese and goodies!