Australia Day

How about this for an Australia Day Long weekend. The Parises who never seem to go away for long weekends actually got to Nambucca Heads for two nights. Terry had a great time christening his brand new surfboard. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch the nanosecond he was up for! Grace had a really great time with some fishing gear - caught her first ever fish. Yes I know we should have put it back in but it had swallowed the hook and we put back the two smaller ones! The last shot is of Ellie being a typical teenager. One minute complaining that I don't put many pictures of her on the blog and the next, not wanting to turn around for the camera - well here she is. Grace and I contemplate Ellie's lack of rationality at times and Grace says that she is just not going to go through this phase. Well we shall see!

Our boy, Samuel

There has been a comment lately that Samuel hasn't been featured enough - well here he is. The first is him calling in after a full on week at Planet Shakers to be quickly followed by a week at Jindabyne as a cabin leader for the Young Life Summer camp. He called around for a little chat and ended up on the floor asleep. I'm not sure of the occasion with the balloons but the blue hair was after they had painted the Drop-in-Centre and things got a little out of control. I'm also not sure of the story behind the Coke can blowing up photo but there are a few things a bit unexplainable about our dear and fun loving boy.

Student accommodation at Mt Gravatt

Here are some internal shots of the house at Mt Gravatt (upper Mt Gravatt actually!) We had one week of removing old furniture, sugar soaping all the walls, painting the bedroom walls, and installing new furniture. It was a huge effort and we couldn't have done it without the help of Rory, Jacob, Talitha and even Grace. The end result was a house nearly ready for students to move in and help us pay the mortgage and make inroads on a more comfortable retirement. As of a week ago, three of the five bedrooms have been taken. Yeah!!

Christmas snaps

Christmas time at Grandma's. Again it was 'Ellie the Creative' who had made a beautiful gingerbread house for us all. I thought that in this photo Samuel doesn't even look like her brother!

We had a great time catching up with Yolanda, Rory, Talitha, Mark and Grandma, surfing lessons for Terry, cards, watching videos, shopping, walking on the beach, eating, oh and of course a few presents were opened.

One day I will work out how to get rid of the underlining e-gads I've done and I don't even know how!

Summer Sewing

What a pair of angels! Before Christmas Ellie did some sewing at school and made these beautiful medieval dresses, one being for Grace for Christmas. They have been worn heaps, commented on by all who see and are a credit to the creator.

The first couple show the lace-up back. Ellie did a prototype first and has since done a peasants dress out of calico dyed with brown onion skins with an overdress made from our old doona cover.

Who'd da thought that Terry and Fay would take up dancing lessons! 18 months ago Jacob was asked to escort a young lady to the local debutante ball and we went along for the free lessons as learning to waltz was something that had been on our 'want to do someday' list. Now we attend dances on a semi-regular basis and some would say cut a fine figure on the floor. It certainly keeps the gray matter on the move as well as mixing with a whole new swathe of people in Armidale.

Visiting the Cousins

December saw us visiting the cousins at Cedar Creek between Beenleigh and Beaudesert. The first shot shows Talitha, Jacob, Grace and Rory on or off horses, Rory (now 15) with Grace and then Minty and Chonsey having a short moment of tolerance on Talitha's lap. We had just one day here before heading up to Mark's.