The weekend was spent in Canberra for Tory's 21st (sarah's sister). Not much to add to that but here are some of the photos...

It's been a while since I've posted - I'm trying not to get too far behind but time flies. It's all still happening out at the house - Paul's dad is still here but is going home on the weekend. A sneak preview of what they've been up to, with proper photos to come after the weekend...

The boys and I have been going out there on and off to both help and hinder. I'm informed that when we leave Paul and his dad find that tools have mysteriously disappeared, glue containers have been emptied out, and numerous nails have been hammered into pieces of wood. Not to mention the drawing of 'daddy' we found on the floor in one of the bedrooms (carpet will cover it fortunately). Paul and Deda do seem to enjoy the ice-creams we often take out to them however...

Finally, we thought it would stop with Jacob but it appears to run in the family. Isaac has now also become obsessed with lining up his toy cars - and yes, they also must all face the same way...

We've progressed from washing up to cake making. Isaac that is. He helped make a pretty good mud cake the other day and did a great job at cleaning up the bowl afterwards too!






Paul's dad is now out helping to build the house, so we should see a lot of movement in that area over the next four weeks. Although the other day the digging was put on hold whilst Paul helped clear out a cubby for the boys to play around. Seeing as it's snake season you can't be too careful. Their 'house' was a lot quicker to set up then ours!

The boys have been doing 'jobs' around the house for a long time, but mostly in the form of non-destructive activities such as dusting, clearing the table, etc. Yesterday morning they wanted to do jobs, but 'washing up' jobs. They've been eyeing the bubbly water for a while now and itching to get their hands into it. So I gave them a chair each, set them going, then left the room! They did a pretty good job for a 3 and 4 year old - no breakages and I only had to redo one saucepan!





Isaac has always slept on top of his blankets rather then under - most nights we play a game of putting the blanket over him then coming back an hour later to find him on top of it, so we add another one which he ends up on top off. Usually in the morning he is on top of a mountain of blankets. Yesterday for his day sleep I went to check on him and found him sleeping like this...




And finally, as promised here is one of the layouts I did at Louth. Will upload some more later!

The Outback Scrapping Experience

Just got home yesterday from the Louth Scrapbooking Retreat, held at Trilby Station. I spent four days with a group of ladies and almost the only thing we have in common is scrapping. It was a fantastic weekend. The fewer numbers meant we got to know each other better and we had heaps of time to scrap. I completed 10 layouts and 3 OTP's - i haven't taken pics yet but will post them here when i do.

We had minimal sleep and ate far too much thanks to Liz's (owner of Trilby) wonderful cooking. The weather was typical drought weather - hot, dry and dusty, but we had cooler nights.

Like last year we scrapped in the woolshed and so had to blow the dust off our layouts regularly and keep our rulers handy for swiping at the moths at night time. We had a couple of incidents with spiders and goats, but it's all part of the Outback Scrapping Experience and I can't wait for next year!

Summer is definately on the way. The days in Cobar are beautifully warm and the boys are spending more and more time outside again. Their latest fad is playing with the cardboard boxes we get our groceries delivered in. I knew that the boxes could be a great source of entertainment but I underestimated how entertaining they could be! They slide in them, sit in them, push each other around, make towers, put sand in them, pretend they are boats, cars, trains etc etc. Maybe I'll chuck out all the toys and just keep up a steady supply of cardboard boxes that we can throw out once they fall apart - that would solve the storage problems!

When it came to drawing on Deda's Fathers Day Card Jacob wasn't cooperating. He didn't want to draw anything and so when kindly asked to just draw something he did - "Mummy I drew a dead flower".

Only one week to the Louth Scrapping Retreat. Paul is so looking forward to having the boys all to himself for four days!!! Hopefully I'll get HEAPS of layouts completed. Here's one I did a few weeks ago...

Another nice quiet weekend, with Paul's birthday on the Friday. For Jacob's birthday he had requested a bulldozer cake and Jeremy had ordered a train cake, so I asked them "What cake should we make for Daddy?". I was expecting them to answer a truck or a grader but after thinking very hard for a few moments Jacob replied "a Bible cake"!! You can't get much easier then that, so a caramel mud cake was made into a 'Bible cake' and greatly enjoyed.

We've finally had time to get back to working on the house. Paul's been getting up early and going out painting to get the north and eastern side finished before the hot weather arrives. We had the boys out helping dig holes last weekend but the rate they were going it'll take a while to get the house finished. Better get Isaac onto the job too! I'll put a house photo here when I take an updated one.