Ash's B'Day

This week Ash turned 11.  I can't believe it!
She got: a SIM card for her iPhone (pre-paid of course), a necklace with Eiffel Tower pendant, Thomas Sabo bracelet (imitation from Thailand), some more Littlest Pets and underwear.
As you can see by her gifts of choice, she is slowly outgrowing toys.  The highlight was the SIM card for her phone.  I got a $15 credit for her so hopefully she will be responsible and not waste it.
She had a quiet birthday this year.  We had the family over for a BBQ lunch as her birthday fell on a Saturday this year.  It has been raining constantly so I was a little worried it would be raining on her birthday AGAIN!  It rains every year on her birthday!  BUT, this year it was brilliant sunshine!  It was a gorgeous day so we were lucky.  As usual, her birthday landed on the Queens Birthday long weekend so it was extra nice for her!

 She went to her first out of school disco this week.  The dance studio she attends had their yearly disco and she was so excited.  She is growing up so fast. I sent her off with her own mobile phone to call me if there was an emergency. 

We are currently dog sitting a chihuahua (Midget).  She's a gorgeous little thing - a little bit skiddish but only around strangers, kids and other dogs.  She has really become part of our family - we will miss her when it's time for her to go but the girls are well aware that we have to give her back.  The hard thing is we're dogsitting for 6 months which is a really long time - plenty long enough for us to become attached but we'll cross that bridge when it comes!  Here she is fast asleep on my lap:

Aaron's away on a fishing trip this weekend.  He's gone for 4 days - out in the middle of the ocean on really choppy seas!  Glad it's him and not me!  He left on Thursday night and I only just got an email from him today (Saturday).  He hasn't had much mobile phone coverage out in the middle of the ocean (understandable).  He said that the other guys have been "feeding the fish" over the side of the boat!  I'm not surprised I would be too!  I get incredibly sea sick!  Not my cup of tea but he's having a blast!  He said that he can just see land wayyyy off in the distance!  I swear it's his imagination, I can't see anything. 

The girls and I took a drive to Wollongong (in the rain) to visit with Deb and Trev.  One of their chihuahua's had puppies.  Here is Ash holding all 3 puppies:

The girls had a blast playing with these gorgeous little things!  They are so playful and cute!
They also had a Ward Carnival today so we went along to that.  It was such a great day!  The kids had a blast.  Here are some photos:

The hot dog stand and milk bar:

The Can Knockdown:

Target practice with a nerf gun:

And the ping pong ball toss:

School 2012

The girls went back to school this year pretty much without a hitch!

Of course, Lauren was upset about returning to school - she'd much rather be home with Mummy.
I had the same problem with Ashleigh - in fact, Ash was still crying when I dropped her to school throughout Year 2 so hopefully this will be the last year of tears - fingers crossed!

I was a little disorganised this year so I didn't get around to taking a photo of them until their 2nd week back at school.  And of course they had to clown around!!

We were lucky to have had a visit from Poppy Brown last week.  It was lovely having him stay with us and spending time with the girls.

Lauren Turns 8!

On Saturday our baby turned 8.
I can't believe it!
How time flies.
We will be getting her baptised on 3rd March (hopefully).
She was a little apprehensive about getting baptised in the lead up to her 8th birthday so our bishop suggested we have a "wet run" for her.  So last weekend they filled the font and she went dressed in her swimmers to do a practice run.  They had the font filled for another little boy in Lauren's class, Levi McCormack as he is very sick and has only been given a few weeks to live but he really wanted to get baptised (his birthday is the day before Lauren's) but they had to do a practice run for him as he is very frail.
Lauren did so well.  In fact, she enjoyed it and now can't wait to get baptised!
After the practice she didn't walk back to the stairs to get out - she swam!  I hope she doesn't do that on the day - dressed in her white dress and all!

We got some photos taken of Lauren in her baptism dress as a momento of the day.
Here are some of the photos:

We had the family over for lunch on Saturday for her birthday and she had such a good time.
She loves it when the family gets together!  Here are some photos:

Of course she had to taste the icing to see if it was OK!!

Happy Birthday my little angel!

Gerringong

A couple of weeks ago we decided to take some time off our usual busy life and go down to Gerringong for the weekend.  A weekend is never long enough, but we managed to enjoy ourselves regardless.

We stayed with friends who have a family holiday home there!  It's a massive house that sleeps around 10 people so there was plenty of room for everyone!

It was great catching up with friends and discussing everything from life to politics and spiritual experiences we've had over the years!  We're so lucky to have such great friends!  The only problem is we've had about 4 different couples say to us "we need to go organise a weekend away" and we can barely get time to do this on our own let alone with everyone else!  It's nice to be loved!  :)

Here are some photos of our weekend away:

The drive down to Gerringong - such a pretty view!

Walking down to the beach:

One of the many rock pools at the beach!  They are full of fish and crabs!

Pelicans sunning themselves

And of course, no trip to Gerringong is complete without a visit to my favourite shop in Berry: