Happy Mothers Day

To our Mum and Nana Pat

You are always there when we need you!
You have looked after us all and our kids!
You deserve the best this life has to offer!


Close your eyes and wish for the one thing
You cannot do without, and when you do,
Near your heart you'll find it, always there,
Treasure that is dear but not so rare,
Held in the mesh that all your dreams flow through.
In truth, no gift more happiness can bring,
And so we give our love to you.

We love you and wish we could be with you.

As Ballerina would say My Nan Rox!!





To our Nan and Grandma Bet and Grandma Josie

Grandmothers are mothers who are grand,
Restoring the sense that our most precious things
Are those that do not change much over time.
No love of childhood is more sublime,
Demanding little, giving on demand,
More inclined than most to grant the wings
On which we fly off to enchanted lands.
Though grandmothers must serve as second mothers,
Helping out with young and restless hearts,
Each has all the patience wisdom brings,
Remembering our passions more than others,
Soothing us with old and well-honed arts.






To Nitos mum

Happy Mothers Day - we love you.

A heart that can hear
every unspoken need,
Wisdom to know
when to quietly lead,
Hands that reach out,
always helping and sharing–
A mother is caring!

Eyes that reflect
every joy that you find,
Arms to encircle,
but never to bind,
A talent for making
the most out of living–
A mother is giving!


A voice that can soothe
or inspire or delight,
A smile that keeps shining
when things don't go right,
An angel God sends us
from Heaven above–
A mother is nothing but
caring, giving and love.






God took the fragrance of a flower,
The majesty of a tree,
The gentleness of morning dew,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The beauty of a twilight hour,
The soul of a starry night
The laughter of the rippling brook,
The grace of a bird in flight,
Then God fashioned from these things
A creation like no other,
And when His masterpiece was through,
He called it simply...MOTHER.

We love you all - have a happy day!!

Recipe of the week

Salt and Pepper Cuttlefish





Serves 2

Ingredients:

400g Cuttlefish, cleaned, trimmed and scored
2 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
1 tsp freshly ground Szechuan peppercorns (from Asian food stores)
Peanut oil
Salad leaves or stir fried vegetables to serve




Method:

Cut cuttlefish into chunks roughly 2cm squared.
Heat a dry wok and stir fry salt for about 2 minutes until lightly coloured.
Toss in peppers and spice and then set aside.




Heat a little peanut oil in the same wok and stir fry cuttlefish for 1 minute.

Sprinkle over salt mix and toss for another minute or 2, until cuttlefish is just cooked.

Serve immediately on a bed of salad leaves or vegetables.

Saturday Snippet

I love to dance!! Ballerinas dance school has classes for adults. So earlier this year I undertook to do some dancing, not only as a form of exercise, but also to have a great laugh with other ladies. And boy do we have a great laugh. It is the best thing I have done for a long time. I really enjoy it so therefore it must be good for me. I wear the singlet below when I'm dancing because it's true!!




Happy weekend.

Photo Hunters #17 - Five

Only FIVE days until we move into our new house!!!

The tiles are being laid today, carpet goes in during the week and then we can move in yay!! Yes we still have to get landscaping, but we will do that once we are in.

The front of the house

Our ensuite

The front doors from the inside.

Looking towards our kitchen.

Our stove.

Looking from the kitchen to our meals area.

The light in our meals area - I love it.

So yes after a very emotional week we will finally be moving into our new home in FIVE days.

Will keep you all updated on our move.

Enjoy your weekend.

Goodbye Kevin

Today we say goodbye to my dear friends son Kevin. Kevin was tragically taken from us on Sunday night. Kevin was a beautiful young man, a reflection of his family. About to embark on a new life, getting married in September, Kevin was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had his life cut short. He will be sadly missed.

Pink

Last night Ballerina, myself, my cousin and her nephew went to see Pink in concert. I can unashamedly say it was the best concert I have been to in years. More of a show than a concert, Pink gave it her all! Ballerina and I sang and danced (in our seats)and thoroughly had a wonderful night. The only downside is that Nito was not able to be with us. I would certainly have no hesitation in going to see Pink in concert again.

Tommys first haircut

Tommy had his first official 'haircut' yesterday. We dropped him off at the groomers looking like this:



and he came back to us looking like this:



I must admit I do prefer him with his puppy fur, but he needed to have it clipped to prepare his coat for winter.

Either way we think he is still cute!

Photo Hunters #16 - Childhood

The age of innocence. Carefree, fun and innocent - everyone childhood should be like this.

Happy weekend.

Happy Birthday Nito

Today we celebrate your birthday.

Sometimes, we seem to take for granted
the people we love the most…
Those who are so important
to our daily lives;
And, who are so important to us.
It doesn’t mean we don’t care;
and no disrespect is intended…
It is just that sometimes, life gets crazy
and there isn’t time to do it all,
or say it all.

Especially today,
I want you to know how much
I appreciate the loving things you do;
And how much I admire you
for being the kind and giving person you are.
I hope you know how very much
I Love You…
Not just sometimes,
but Always.

We love you and wish we could be together today.

Oh by the way - these were very enjoyable!!!



Happy Birthday - we love you!!

Photo Hunters #15 - Rare

Ok this week was a little difficult. However I came across this photo taken on Wednesday when we were celebrating Skaterboys 18th. What's so rare about this photo you may be asking - well the rarity is that in most of our photos my joker boys Nito (hubby) and Skaterboy (son) normally pull faces, turn their heads (so the side or back of their heads are captured) or have fingers above each others head. So believe me this is a rare photo - and I love it. Thanks boys I love ya!!





Happy Weekend everyone.

Anzac Day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Our boy grows up - Happy Birthday skaterboy

It's hard to believe that it was 18 yrs ago that we were blessed with our litte boy. In that time life has taken it's course and our baby boy is today officially an adult. These past 18 yrs have been the best of our lives. We have seen our young boy grow into a wonderful person.

Oh yes don't worry we have had our ups and downs, but I can honestly say that he has grown into a polite young man. Yes he has been in trouble over the years and done things that he probably shouldn't have, but he is our boy and we love him with all our hearts. He still kisses me goodnight and goodbye and for that I am eternally grateful.

No hoopla just straight up and down, we love you Skaterboy and thank you for providing us the adventures of a young boy. We look forward to the coming years and sharing them with you.

Love you always
Dad, Mum and Ballerina

Wordless Wednesday

Our skaterboy is 18 today - Happy Birthday!!

Photo Hunters #14 - Steps

Our photos are of our Ballerina showing us some of her dance STEPS - she does lots of dancing, ballet being one of her favourites. Her dance school will be visiting Disneyland at the end of the year to perform - we are all very excited.





Happy weekend!

Photo Hunters #13 - Hobby

One definition of a hobby is a spare time recreational pursuit. So our hobby is holidaying. We particularly like going on cruises. We have been lucky enough to cruise with our family and friends on a few occassions.





We intend to go on many more.

Happy weekend to you all.

Photo Hunters #12 - Clean

Yesterday, we spent the day at one of our local theme parks, Movie World, and were lucky enough to find this clean table at lunch time:



We have a few theme parks around where we live and it always amazes me at how clean they are kept, considering the amount of people that walk through them each day.

Happy Weekend to you all

Happy Anniversary to us

Yesterday we celebrated our 21st anniversary.

My wonderful husband bought me these:




21 years of love, friendship, fun, happiness and most of all our wonderful children.

We are both looking forward to the next 21 years and beyond.

I love you Nito.

Happy Birthday Mum

M is for the miracle of Being.
O is for its origin in love.
T is for the tenderness of seeing.
H is for a home no wind can move.
E is for the ecstasy of living.
R is for the recklessness of giving.




Mothers are the gardeners
Of wind-blown wild flowers.
They water them with happy tears,
Happy with them many years,
Even as the hours
Ring with sweet, sad melodies
Sighing through their bowers.




Happy Birthday Mum. Enjoy you day, have fun and stay happy.


We all love you and are thinking of you.




Luv ya heaps.


xxxxxx

Wordless Wednesday 12

Puppy School for Tommy

As I posted a few weeks ago, we have a new addition to our Family - Tommy the Toy Poodle. He has been giving us hours of pleasure over the past few weeks and we are really enjoying him and his mischevious ways. Officially he is Ballerinas dog and she decided we should take him to Puppy School. Well what a delight - it was wonderful seeing him mix with other puppies (all breeds, shapes and sizes) and of course the aim is to teach him some discipline (you know his name, sit, come etc etc). We will keep you informed of his progress over the coming weeks, in the mean time here are a few pictures of him:






The picture above is of his first bath at home. I don't think he minded the bath so much, I think the blow dryer afterwards was a bit too much for him!!

Enjoy your day.