The Renovators

Is anyone watching "The Renovators" on Channel 10 at the moment? Last week they had a design challenge with metal and had to design and make an outdoor chair for Southbank in Brisbane. Natalia who by the way is actually from Brisbane designed a seat with the birds at the side of the chair which are everywhere at Southbank. The name of the bird escapes me right at this minute but we were walking along and I saw the chair and had to take a picture of it. Also included a picture of the city skyline as well. More pictures to come tomorrow on the big mirror ball which was set up for the "Santos City of Lights" which is part of the "Brisbane Festival".

A trip to the beach

We had a lovely couple of days at the beach with our good friend Donna and whilst the surf was too cold for the adults, the kids didn't mind one little bit. Enjoy the pic's.

Happy Birthday to me....

Today is my birthday and I was woken up at 6.10 am by James and Sienna (he had to go and wake her up first so they could come in together) and give me my presents. James got me a beautiful necklace (previously purchased by mum for him to give me). It did have a red ribbon around the present because red is his favourite colour (again, mum was thinking of him) and Sienna gave me a beautiful bracelet. They both wrote out cards and James helped Sienna finish off her writing (which was so thoughtful of James - he even told me he wrote the letters like Sienna would write them rather than his writing)...that was so adorable and I love him for that.
Every year on my birthday I take a photo of me and the kids and 4 cupcakes with candles in them. The birthday girl gets to eat 2 cupcakes and the kids each have 1 cupcake. Here is my 2011 birthday tradition photo.

I had lots of text messages, emails and phone calls from family and old friends which made the day special. Sienna made me wear a "it's my birthday" broach/ribbon to school this afternoon which I did.

I also wanted a cake for tonight and given that I have had school commitments every day this week and have been out I headed to Coles this afternoon and picked up the most adorable hedgehog cake for myself. Hey at my age a girl can have a silly birthday cake. He is so adorable and the kids just loved it. His spikes were made of chocolate white buds...how cute is he.

So the night is nearly over and I need to head to bed to get some well deserved beauty sleep.

Visting the old trams

Yesterday afternoon we went with some friends to the Tram Museum for a ride on some old trams. We end up going about once a year and it's still such a hoot even for me riding up the little hill in a tram that is over 100 years old and finding out about it's history. It was a beautiful afternoon and very relaxing.

Timeless Games

Do you remember this game when you were little. It may look a little space age because I put a "solarize filter" over the photo in Photoshop so it makes it a bit fancy but when I was a kid we played Ker Plunk and loved it. I bought this game ages ago and put it away and yesterday decided it was a good afternoon to get it out. Maybe the end of term tiredness was not considered as the one that lost...lets just say they didn't cope too well but we just need to get through one more week of school and then we can all have a rest.

I find it really amazing that the "classic" games last through the generations like Trouble, Monopoly, Drafts, Chinese Checkers etc. and Ker Plunk has made it through another generation. What games do your kids play that you used to play when you were little?

Riverfire

Saturday night was Brisbane's Riverfire fireworks spectacular and we were lucky enough to know friends in high places (ha, ha....aka some one's rooftop) to get a birds eye view of the fireworks off the Story Bridge. The fireworks go for 30 minutes to music and also get aired on Brisbane TV at the same time. I didn't take a tripod with me (regret) but next year I'll know better also I would have taken a different lens to get in closer but doing my research the advice was use a "wide angle lens" ISO 100 and f8 to f16 and a long exposure of 4 seconds (B = Bulb). It's still a great reminder of our little night out with very lovely friends.

Friday afternoon

I don't know about you guys but my kids are getting exhausted nearing the end of Term 3. Having them get sick for that period of time just added to the exhaustion. Sienna was having a jump on the trampoline yesterday afternoon and I needed a "photo of the day" so she lay down on the trampoline at the entry point. Over the holidays I will have to plan a photo shoot with James as he hasn't been in that many photos lately due to his own choice.