Night, picture 3 of 30

Picture 3 of 30 in the 30 pictures in 30 day challenge is a night picture. 
I have done a few night pictures before so I tried to do something different.  In this picture, the moon is shining bright and the sun is setting.

the houses are all facing the setting sun.  It turned out well. 

Chores, picture 2 of 30

Today's 30 pictures in 30 days challenge is to take a picture of chores not yet done and then write about it.
My picture:

This is no ordinary basket of laundry.  This is a basket full of size 3 clothes.  Size 3 clothes that Sammy has finally outgrown.  More than half of these clothes have been through at least 2 kids.  Many have been through all three of the boys, and some were even passed to us before my boys went through them.  That hood that's hanging out of the basket.  It's the first winter coat that I ever purchased for Joe.  My mom bought Joe's first coat, but I picked out his second.  Joe wore it, Tom wore it, and Sam wore it.  Now, someone else will wear it. 

This pajama shirt was also bought for Joe.  It's been a favorite for all three boys. 

It's a little hard to bag up these clothes.  It's saying goodbye to yet another milestone in our kids' lives.  Of course, with the three boys, I have this about every year as we get rid of clothes that get outgrown.  I, however, feel like I have more memories of the little kid clothes rather than the bigger boy clothes.  So, until I get around to bagging up the clothes, they will sit on the basket on the couch.   

Slice of life

This is our weather.  For the most part, it's been raining. A lot.  I mean, seriously, it's been pouring here.  We've missed some soccer practices; we've done some in the rain.  We go stir crazy.  And we play Monopoly Jr.

So, if you've ever wondered about the body of water that we can see from our house...

The water and beach we overlook is Bagnall Beach Reserve and Nelson Bay.  The beach there is a dog beach.  We tend to visit it on weekend mornings, if it's not raining.  All it takes is the time required to walk there, about 20 minutes one way.

All the black stuff on the beach...it is sea grass.  It covers the beach here during low tide.  During high tide, there is no beach.  This is probably the reason why this is a dog beach. 

Lacey got a new bed.  This one stays in the living room so that she has someplace to lay when she's not in the laundry.  I thinks she likes it. 

Joe has been trying for the last several months to get a friend over for a play.  It's been tough to schedule, but it finally happened.  This is the first time that Joe has had a friend over (just for him) to play.

They had a lot of fun bouncing on the trampoline and playing video games. 

This week, it was my turn to watch Joe and his team, the Raptors.  They played in Newcastle as the away team and lost, but they tried hard.  The Raptors are the ones in the yellow shirts.

Joe, center of screen, in bright blue shoes

Joe, center screen, bright blue shoes



Joe, getting ready to kick the ball



 It is amazing the view we have when it doesn't rain.

sunrise

Of course, when it's gone, we miss it.



pouring rain



Me, picture 1 of 30

So, I am working on a 30 pictures in 30 days challenge.  I take way more than 30 pictures a day, but these are supposed to help me improve my photography skills and hone my scrapbooking prowess.  I have way too much other scrapbooking to do so I thought I'd do the challenge and share it on the blog.

 Picture number 1: self portrait- a picture taken by me, of me and then write about what the picture makes me feel or think. 

So first, I did just the standard, hold your arms out, smile and snap.

Now, this is not a horrible picture.  However, what it makes me feel when I look at it is...old.  I'm not old.  I don't typically feel old.  However, the crows' feet in this picture...well, they make me feel old. 

So, I thought about trying again, but all I could think was old and oldness.  So, I decided to do a self portrait of my oldness.

There it is.  My gray hair.  It hides under a few brown hairs on the right side of my head.  It is the reason I gave up on trying to grow out my bangs.  When wearing a headband, all those carefully hidden grays are showing up, big time.

Now, I am sure that you are thinking that Clariol makes a great product to cover this old hairs.  Yes, they do and I use it, from time to time.  I use the temporary dyes that wash out in a month.  'Why don't you just visit a salon and have them gone?' you wonder.  Well, because Jay thinks they're beautiful.  Trust me, if your hubby gets all swoony and calls your gray hairs beautiful, you'd keep them too. 

I hope one day that I can feel like I rock my gray hairs, but I am not sure that I am much of a rocker. 

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your gray hair and get it in focus, etc?  It's pretty darn tough.  While I was trying, I managed to get this picture.

And I love it.

Mrs. Claus story

So, I meant to actually put this at the bottom of the last post, but I forgot.  For everyone who doesn't know the reference of the Mrs. Claus costume in the last post about sewing Tom's wings the night before the pary.

When I was in the fourth grade, I had a starring role in the Christmas play, A Cause for Mrs. Claus.  Our music teacher had told Mr. Claus that he had a costume, so I assumed that I had one too.  However, I didn't.  My music teacher called my mom two evenings before the play and asked about my costume.  Of course, my mother didn't know that I needed one.  Neither did I.  My mom had to take the next day off from work in order to got to the fabric store and then make me a costume.  The costume rocked, and I only made one mistake during the whole play (I was supposed to be on stage and wasn't). 

It teaches a lesson that one should not trust a fourth grader to relay messages to parents.  It also meant that my mom had something to hang over my head.  (Love ya, Mom!).

A little creativity and some soccer

Before vacation, Tom got an invite to a birthday party.  This little girl is one of Tom's favorite friends.  Unfortunately, the party was scheduled for the same day as Tom's first soccer game.  We had to wait to RSVP until we knew what time the soccer game started.  The game and the party both started at 10.  Soccer only last 45 minutes, so we'd be to the party by 11.  The party was scheduled to end at 12.  If this wasn't one of Tom's favorite friends, we'd probably just passed. 
Anyway, I didn't find out the time of the game until late Wednesday.  We were then able to plan what Tom wanted to be for the party.   You see, this was a dress up party.  The theme was pond creatures with the idea that the kids could dress up as frogs, fish, tadpoles, dragonflies, bees, etc.  I looked around for some sort of cheap costume on Thursday with no luck.  Our local area is very limited in what is available.  The closest place that would have a larger selection would be an hour away.  I'm not driving that far with fuel this expensive.  I decided I could try to make some dragonfly wings.  Should be easy, right? 
Well, our closest fabric store is an hour away.  So, I have to make do with what is in our local Kmart.  I found some silver organdy curtains and some garden wire.  Along with my mini sewing machine, I made wings.

I only have my tiny craft sewing machine as we didn't want to move my bigger, heavier one.  It isn't a fancy machine, but it gets the job done.  I had no pattern and only a few hours.  I managed though.


A single wing, one of four



Here's Tom trying them on with just a plain white shirt.  I didn't manage to get a picture of him with the gray shirt and the wings.  He looked pretty cute and was very happy with them.  Everyone was very impressed with the wings at the party.  He was the only boy at the party and only wore the wings for an hour.  Oh well, I sure that this experience was karma revenge for the Mrs. Claus costume.*
Before the party though, Tom had his first soccer game.

Tom, warming up

Tom, number 3

Tom is getting ready to kick the ball. 



The Taipans, at half time.

 Tom's team did manage to win, 5-1.  The little boy with the yellow on his shorts on Tom's team is a fantastic player for his age.  His dad has been coaching his older brother's team for a few years.  He scored all 5 of his goals. Though some of our other players got really close on their kicks. 

Joe also had his first real game on Saturday morning, the same time that Tom was playing.  I wasn't able to watch Joe and I had the camera so Jay couldn't take any photos.  Next week, we switch.  I'll get to watch Joe and Raptors.  Joe's team lost their first game, but hopefully they'll do better next time. 

Slow return to the real world

Today (Wednesday) is Jay's first day back at work after the holidays.  It is also the first day back at school for Sam.  Joe and Tom's school has a pupil free day today so they'll be hanging with me.  Tomorrow, Joe and Tom will be back at school and Sam will be home.  Friday, all three will be at school.

If you are wondering why Wednesday is back to work and not Tuesday...it's because of where Easter fell this year.  Australians have a public holiday on April 25 every year, ANZAC day.  It happened to fall on Easter Monday, which is also a public holiday.  So, they observed Easter Monday on Tuesday in order to give everyone the correct amount of days off.  This gave almost all of Australia a five day weekend! 

Easter in Australia-  So, it is a little bit different than in the States.  Just about everything (grocery stores, shops, public buildings, etc) are closed on Good Friday.  No alcohol sales either that day.  Most restaurants are open, but shorter hours.  Easter Sunday, most stuff is open, though maybe shorter hours.  Aussies also do not dye eggs.  They also don't hunt for plastic eggs so plastic eggs aren't available.  Aussies shops don't have Easter baskets either.  There are a few here and there, but not many.  They do egg hunts, but for chocolate eggs.  These eggs are the same size as a normal egg (or larger!) and wrapped in bright foil.  Almost all Easter candy and treats available are chocolate.  No Peeps or Sweettart chicks anywhere. Typical US stores have shelves and shelves of candy and plastic junk.  Aussie stores have shelves and shelves of chocolate eggs and rabbits.  I've rarely seen so much chocolate in one place!
This was the first year since Joe was 16 months old that we have not had an egg hunt.  There was no way that I was going to hide enough chocolate eggs to make the egg hunt fun.  Once found, the kids would have wanted to eat them all.  Way too much candy then!  The boys each got a small bag with a chocolate rabbit, a chocolate carrot, and some chocolate eggs.  Good enough.

ANZAC Day- Originally, this day is a memorial to all the Australian and New Zealand troops to fought and died in the battle of Gallipoli in World War I.  It later became more of a Memorial Day to all troops in general.   All over the country, memorial services are held at dawn and dusk.  Shops are only open from 1-5.  Restaurants are open, but public buildings are closed.  It is a fairly serious day overall. 

Jay seems to have gotten his car fixed enough to drive.  He is still riding his motorcycle to work, but at least the car is fixed. 

All in all, we are settling in and getting back into the swing of things.