Only Time for An Overnighter

These holidays we stayed close to home working and holiday programming in order to save a little more for our bigger adventure at the end of the year. We did manage to head off for one night of camping at Cascades Campground, on the banks of the Tuross River in Wadbilliga National Park.

We left at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning driving to Cooma before turning off towards Numeralla. The trip was about 2 hours, with the last 15km or so on dirt road. Dropping Andy and Rob off 10km from the campsite so they could get a mountain bike ride in, Al and I continued on to the Cascades only to discover a large group had apparently booked out the whole campsite. Obviously a double booking mistake by the National Parks people, the camper we were chatting with wasn't ecstatic that we'd arrived, and suggested we camp over at the day area. We checked out the area which looked fine and proceeded to set up out tents.

The kids didn't hang around for long and were off exploring the nearby river. They reappeared to find their swimmers and wetsuits before disappeared once again! It wasn't long before the boys arrived and we all sat down to eat lunch.

Post lunch we were all keen for some rock hopping and walked the short distance to the Cascades. The Tuross River tumbles over massive boulders, eroding the rock to create perfect round potholes and trickles over large rock slabs before creating an ideal swimming hole. Not content with wandering around the base, the kids all clambered upstream and so we followed.

It wasn't long and we were back to our base with a roaring fire going. The kids were all obsessed with poking sticks in the fire with several near misses despite our constant warnings! The embers were perfect in time for toasting marshmallows. I brought a packet of chocolate digestive biscuits for an Australian version of s'mores. We squashed a toasted marshmallow between two biscuits and the results were delicious!

Women T20 Cricket International - #watchme

From the hot sunshine, to a bitterly cold evening! We watched the T20 Womens International Cricket match at Manuka on Friday night,  the last match of the CommBank T20 series against New Zealand. Australia was leading the series 2-0 and were determined to make it a clean sweep.

Despite being rugged up including blankets, it was a freezing night. The Kiwi's were first to bat. Australia had moments of brilliance - a one handed catch by Haynes and a near hat trick by Molineux but also some shockers. The Kiwis were all out for 103 with an over spare.

The Australians came in with Healy and Mooney. They did a sterling job. Healy shot for six to clinch the series in the 11th unfortunately didn't come off and was caught. Gardner came in to score the final few runs. A convincing win.

Ella scrambled to the fence in anticipation for signatures from the Aussie girls. She managed to get all but two with her shirt now proudly hanging on her bedroom wall. We were all glad to return to our car so that we could finally warm up on the way home.

Floriade

Floriade, an annual school holiday outing. Theme this year was Pop Culture and it felt smaller than previous years or perhaps it was the changed layout. Meeting up with friends, we ventured over to the kids zone but there wasn't much there to hold the girls interests. We marvelled at the giraffe (a person in costume on stilts) and laughed at a busking circus performance which had with a nice variation on gender roles. Again the beautiful weather always seems soo hot at Florida despite the temperature only being around 24! An ice cream on the walk back to the car helped. Always a great way to enjoy the outdoors.

Aviary Fun

As Katy was on a sleepover, it was Ella's choice to go to The Walk In Aviary and Bead Barn. We arrived at the aviary right on opening time, 10am hoping all the birds were hungry! First in, we wandered around the small enclosure with Ella encouraging various birds to eat her mealworms.

The Golden Pheasant was out and about trying to woo one young lady without much success. It was interesting watching his moves and fluffing himself up at attract her attention. The morning quickly warmed up and the birds retreated to the top of the aviary only flying around when they became startled. We knew that feeding session was over and time for us to move on.

Into the Wild

The snow was hanging around and the ski resorts still had the majority of their runs open in late September! Crazy. Andy, Rob and Paul took the opportunity to go into the wild on the Main Range. Beginning from Dead Horse Gap in Thredbo, the boys had a rough loose plan which would adapt as the day went on.

They found Cootapatamba Hut otherwise known as the Red Hut looking a little different to the last time they saw it. Rob tested out the ladder once again!

With the mild weather and everyone skiing well, they ended up summited Kosciuszko, a first on skis!

Snip Snip

Ella has been growing her hair for a while now. In fact a month or two ago, she came out one night to inform us that she was going to donate her hair. A quick google search revealed that the minimum length of a ponytail was 12 inches (or 30cm). Not quite there, Ella put off another haircut.

However as time ticked on her hair was growing very, very slowly, she finally cracked. The ponytail ended up only being 20cm long as she decided not to cut her hair so short. At least now she can brush her hair again.

In a Spin

With a throw of 14.73cm, Ella placed 4th in the Belconnen Region School Athletics Championships and made it through to the next round, the ACT State Champs. The winner, who threw 22.53m, did so by doing the spin while all the other competitors did standing throws. Ella was enchanted by this and exclaimed that if she made it through then she'd try and do the spin.

Sure enough, Ella practiced a few times mostly successfully completing the spin. And so on game day she had a plan...first throw she was going to do the spin. Depending on how that throw went, she would either repeat or go back to do a standing throw.

On the day, Ella managed to do three successful throws! Although Ella did three awesome throws, she was bitterly disappointed with the distance (a meter less than her PB) and her placing.

Egg Production is Established

Sadly Clover died in early winter without laying an egg and from unknown causes. We went out to feed them one morning and she had died overnight having shown no signs of being sick. So we are now down to three chickens - Maple, Mystery and Willow - who are all doing fantastically.

I have almost stopped buying store eggs since Willow has begun to lay. Here are the three eggs. - from left to right -  Maple, Willow and Mystery. Finally my egg basket is beginning to look rather full!

Just 50 Words

is an all inclusive writing competition at school with 4 finalists selected from each year group from which a Winner and Runner Up are announced at a special assembly. Both girls have success in this competition before - Katy with her Wombat story (see here) and Ella with her Aves story (see here).

This year, the teachers were a little sneaky in an attempt to alert parents if their child had been selected by sending a note home with the sibling! So Ella presents us with a yellow envelope addressed - To the Parents of Katy Hogg. We open this together (with Ella and not Katy) and read the letter which states your child (Katy) is a finalist and inviting us to attend the Just 50 Words assembly.

Instantly you could read Ella's mind - disappointment not to have gotten a note. We swore her to secrecy. Several weeks passed and Andy was putting Katy to bed, when out of Katy's bag came a yellow envelope address - To the Parents of Ella Hogg. Katy had forgotten all about the note! He opened it with her and read it out. Katy burst into tears distraught that she hadn't got a note!!

It was quite a funny situation really - Ella was angry she hadn't got what she had worked so hard for and Katy was distraught that hers hadn't been chosen!! Oh if they only knew :) We safety tucked the envelopes away in the junk drawer and noted the date in the calendar.

Sometime closer to the assembly, I got up one morning and Katy who was already up had a yellow envelope in her hand. Apparently she had been looking for something and had been ruffling around in the bottom drawer of junk and discovered it. She wanted to know what was in the envelope, despite already having high suspicions and so I opened it with her and read it out. At first she was surprised but this turned to tears after she'd realised it was no longer a surprise!

Andy attended the assembly. Ella was stoked to say the least and Katy pretended to be surprised! Their stories were read out to the audience and although neither were chosen as runner up or the winner we are super proud of both of them.

ABANDONED - The inky house stood tall and dangerous! Without warning a door swung open. A horned creatures shadow glowed through the mist. I dove behind the decaying deck. 'Please don't find me' I said barely whispering. Pulling myself from the cramped hiding spot I fought back tears. I was safe but abandoned.

SNAP - It was there. Gleaming brightly in the golden sand. I had to take it but was it mine to have? I wanted it badly so badly. I bent down carefully inspecting it. I slowly reached out but just as I was going to snatch it SNAP! I hate hermit crabs.