Matt has left

Matt, Edward and Nick (I think)
The pack at the airport

After a very hectic week of trying to organise a boy who doesn't like shopping but has no clothes for colder weather(!!) Matt finally hopped on a plane to France on Saturday morning. We went out Friday night to his house mystery dinner - always an enjoyable night. For once we had actually managed to pack Matt up the night before so didn't have to worry about that during the night.

One of Matt's friends, Tyrone, looked after Henry and Meaghan. Ty's parents were in Sydney from Friday onwards, so I took Ty to meet his Radford College rowing team for their trip to Sydney at 7am that morning. Matt had to be at the airport by 9am so there was some chance of organising the boys by 11:30 when their plane left. As they were all well and truly organised by 10, this left a lot of time sitting around the airport, to be repeated for 5 hours at Sydney airport.
He arrived in Singapore at midnight (our time), left there two hours later and arrived in Paris at around about 6pm (again our time) the next day. They then had to spend four hours on a coach to get to Alencon where they are billeting for a fortnight.

Got and email from him saying he had arrived at his host family OK but of course very tired. I suspect time will fly for him over there (and be very slow here).

Death by Chocolate

After receiving a phone call from Curtin Primary school (always a moment of panic - "which child has thrown up ?" leaps straight to mind), good news (??) this time in that we had one not one but two prizes in the Easter raffle. Upon arriving at school I discovered that Henry had won 2nd and 4th prizes, after having only 3 tickets in the draw. He was still in shock and Meaghan was beside herself with joy.
I think in this case winning just one of the prizes would have been exciting - two is overwhelming. If only I liked chocolate.... (Hah, OK it destroyed my intention of only having small amounts of choc over this week, damn)

Sky Fire

Always a high light. Henry loves fireworks (Matt does not - absenting himself). Meaghan brought along Tilly this year and we managed to get a spot at the end of Anzac Parade. Could see everything and a quick getaway. Good fun.

knitting

Very into knitting at the moment. After making a version of Mr. Beans' teddy (way bigger than I thought), made 1 sock (never again- way too much concentration and wrong sort of wool), one scarf (blue and green chunky moss stich - pleased with that) and have started on my own simple top for a baby. This is made from an orange/pink bamboo fibre, so very nice to knit with, almost a cross between wool and silk. No elasticity though making it useless for my 1 sock.
Hope to do more interesting things over winter which, of course is the ideal time to play with wool.

our new pictures

When we were in Hoi An, we found two art shops that dealt with the same artist, Tran Huu Duong, (turns out the stores were owned by the same family). The artwork was so striking (and so well priced) we had to get some. We ended up with four paintings, three with a similar - birds, fish, whispering men - themes and one with a woman washing her hair.
We took two of them in to be framed in January (the price of framing so much more than the artwork that it was ridiculous) and they were finally finished yesterday. So very pleased with the results, now have to save up to frame the other two...

Athletics carnival

Henry's first athletics carnival (and Meaghan's last at primary school) was eagerly anticipated as they had been preparing in PE class for the different events. Running, shot put, long jump and novelty events were on the cards.

Henry missed the start of his race (too busy getting the correct pose) but recovered to run as hard a he could and was very happy with the ribbon that all the kids got. I realised that I could never be a sports photographer as I missed all the action with the exception of a few poorly timed or blurry shots. Poor old Meaghan is so tiny in the one shot I got of her that it was hardly worth while.

Shot put was a great success as all the kids got in rows to throw an old hockey ball, I was nearly taken out by a wayward shot but years of defensive training finally paid off and I managed to catch it (miraculous my male relatives including husband would say).
Unfortunately summer had finally arrived and the kindy kids only had half a day, but I think that was enough.

Not Sure..

Whether I like this yet or not. Made it from some scraps of fabric that came in a pack. I do like the red flowers on the sides, they came from a scrapbooking kit I got last year, a big roll of felt flowers, love their texture.
I guess in the long run it doesn't matter whether I like it or not as it is on or family table so will spend at least 90% of its life covered in junk.

New Layouts

Finally getting back to scapping - these are two digital kits so very easy. Just add photos and you are done. Probably need to click on them to get the detail on each layout.
The calender is a free wallpaper for desktop kit done by shabby princess through their blog, although they are American and so themes tend to be 6 months out (hence the spring flowers).