Little Sis - H-Ho turns 6

H-Ho is growing up so fast and got a pony for her birthday. It was her last Christmas wish but Santa had trouble finding one suitable.
So "Sonny" has come to us from Taragla and is 11h gelding about 12 years old. We are guessing he is a Welsh x Shetland pony and is very quiet. The kids are really enjoying him riding each weekend. We are still very much learning about horses again as we were kids when we last had anything to do with horses.
H-Ho has started riding lessons and we will see how she goes.
At least Sonny has come from a similar climate as we have had a substantial snowfall since his arrival, while he has a great winter coat we have made him a stable.
H-Ho had small family gathering as we have the every second year rule for parties in our house.

Missy's Starlight Wish

Our family was extremely lucky to have Missy's wish come true in May with a trip to the Theme Parks on the Gold Coast QLD.
Our Starlight Volunteer Laxman has been conversing with us for a number of months organising the trip to ensure everything was in order.
This made a real nice change for me, having someone else organise the many considerations our family has for transport/accommodation and attractions.
Our trip started with a Rex Airflight and the Rex staff were fantastic, then onto a JetStar trip to the Gold Coast. We were meet by our friendly hire van representative and shown the ropes for our hire van Kia Carnival which we drove to our accommodation at Miami Beach.
Each day we went to a Theme Park, starting with MovieWorld, we picked up Missy's good friend who left her school last year on the way and this was a real highlight for Missy to spend all day with her, share rides and laughs. Missy went on the Rollercoaster seven times and went on a scary log ride.
The next day we went to SeaWorld, which was lovely, although it rained most of the day, the kids enjoyed the animal displays and dolphin show.
The next day Laxman had organised a special treat for Missy, wetting her appetite for speed and the wind in her hair. Jet Boat Extreme were waiting for her, Michael the owner of the business came in to give our family our very own personal ride. It was fantastic, loads of 360's, fish tails and water sprays and Missy didn't want it to stop.
Our last day was spent at DreamWorld, with more rides and lots of fun. The crowds were really good and many rides we were able to just stay on and go again. Our last night was spent with relatives and the kids caught up with their cousin and enjoyed a lovely dinner.
The night was short as we had to wake the kids at 4am to get to the airport and catch the 6am flight. The kids were devastated when they woke up and realised that they really had to go home, both of them started crying. A problem free plane flight home finished a fantastic holiday.
Missy had the most wonderful time, she has loads of photos and memories.She took a powerpoint presentation to school and shared her wonderful times with the class.
We could never thank Starlight enough for this wonderful wish for Missy.
Starlight is such a wonderful organisation, so giving in generosity and compassion. If you ever have the opportunity to support this organisation I would really encourage you to, not only do they provide wishes for serious ill kids but also kids with disabilities.

Lots of catching up..

I have been without a computer for a number of weeks now and I'm sorry for not keeping my blog up todate. I now have a new hard drive in my computer and hope no more problems come my way. So much has happened in the last month and over the next few days I plan to catch up.

Some May Snow

They predicted the snow and it certainly came in last night, we awoke to a blanket of snow, it has been a number of years since we have had snow in May.
H-Ho was so excited about the snow, she soon grabbed the nearest coat (being mine) a beanie and headed outside to explore and make some snowmen.
Missy who is battle a cough at the moment I let sleep in and with the road being pretty ordinary I keep the kids at home today. Missy was happy just to look at what snow was left when she got up at 10am.

The Van - nearly all done

Well, I have been blogging about it for a while now but we finally have our replacement van up and going.
Not without a few problems and us having to take it back again to Sydney to get the seats refitted. We still have a few auto electrical problems that we will be getting fixed soon.
VW Diesel is certainly more ecomocial than the Petrol Mercedes not to mention the considerable more torque is also has.
Its been a real busy time lately (whats new) our family has had 40th Birthday celebration. I did three trips to Sydney in 9 days and the coming month will continue to be jam packed.
The photo also shown above is at our local dam, where we've seen a 60% increase in it's water level which has allowed Sailability to get back on the water briefly before the end of the season.

Autumn Colours

We have had the best Easter weather, cool nights but beautiful days.
While the school holidays have been busy and sometimes exhausting, today I stopped to appreciate the wonderful Autumn colours in the garden.

Anzac Day

A very special day in Australian History today, it marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.
For international visitors to Missys Blog ANZACS stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The 25th of April was officially named ANZAC Day in 1916. During the 1920s ANZAC Day became established as a national day of commemoration for the 60,000Australians who had died during the war. In subsequent years the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include Australians killed in all the military operations in which Australia has been involved.

Missy's school always takes on an active and proud role in the ANZAC day March in the early hours of the morning. Both H-HO and Missy were very excited to be part of the remebrance ceremonies, many school kids attended with their rosemary attached, various marching styles and chests out proud behind a rousing pipe band performance. At the ceremony, after the wreaths were laid, the school kids sang a song "One more Parade". Our schools presentation and involvement in Anzac Day is a real credit to them.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. Lest we forget.

Show season continues

Well it's been a busy end to the school term with Athletics carnivals and Easter hat Parades happening, closely followed by the Sydney Royal Easter Show, which we had 10 chooks entered into. We all travelled done and enjoyed a very long day at the show 9am to 8pm, the chooks went well, the kids had lots of fun and we didn't see everything, so the girls and I went back again the next day. The girls enjoyed the Giant Slide again this year and picked out showbags along with some crazy colourful wigs, we caught up with lots of people at the show. Missy spent quite some time studying the photgraphy and artwork (both painting and drawing)sections, choosing her favourites and expressing her desire to enter something in the kids section next year. She recently told me she was going to University to study Art.
we all got home safely from the show but the chooks are still at the show until the end, they are feed,watered and vet checked each day by show officials.

Some wins at our local show

Our Local show was held under sunny skies but was very wet under foot, that didn't deter our numerous entries.
We took two Murray Grey Bulls and ten chooks to the show along with the kids lolly necklaces (1st & 2nd), fruit & vegetables, flowers, Creature made from fruit (Won Champion kids exhibit)Missy's photography ( she won the 12yrs & under section- see photo titled "Gran's Rose").
Wow what a day.