New Zealand Earthquake

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Christchurch and their families.


My Hubby is a Kiwi and his parents and one of his sisters live in Auckland.  We are grateful they are safe but our hearts go out to the people of beautiful Christchurch, lets hope there isn't too much more loss of life and damage.


There are just way too many tragedies taking place lately, it is so hard to comprehend.

Should I,,,,,Shouldn't I,,,,,,this my friends is today's million dollar question!!!!!

 I have been humming and hahhing over my blog for a while now.  This blog started out as a way to document our lives in a way,,,I was never much of a diary or journalling kind of girl.  Once I got into blogs I found a world of treasures just begging me to read them....and read I did.  I have spent many, many hours taking in glimpses of other people's lives and gaining more knowledge and ideas for my life and my home in the process.  I love the blog world and all it contains......However, in that process I also decided that I am boring lol. 

I am a bit of a procrastinator, the kind of girl that hesitates, knowing what she wants to do, but the little "Perfection fairy" hangs around my head saying that unless I make it perfect it ain't worth starting.  So needless to say many of my ideas never get off the ground.  I have this huge want list that I have mentioned several times on this blog.  I have so many craft ideas that I want to do, but often feel that I won't make them good enough to look any good so I don't try (yes I know practice makes perfect lol).  I like to cook, and have hundreds, actually more like thousands of recipes, sitting here both on my computer and in folders waiting to be tried out but due to a strict budget and fussy kids, I don't try too many because I always think if the kids don't like it it will just sit there until it goes off or hubby and I will eat it which makes losing our excess weight we are both carrying very very difficult.

Anyway, I had a thought over the weekend that I might start up a new blog, keeping this one as my "diary" of sorts and my crafty show off one (when I get to craft that is!!) and a new blog which will become a cooking one.  One purely for sharing my recipes with the world lol.  At the moment I am trying to come up with a catchy name for it.  My son, Mr16, is doing cooking for his Community Studies task.  He will be cooking at home and has to come up with menu plans and then he actually has to cook a couple of meals each week.  I said to him he can try out a few new recipes each week and in the process give me the push I need to maybe get this new blog up and running.  I want to do something that will inspire others with some new cooking ideas and also help other families to provide healthy and nutritious meals at a reasonable cost.

This was dinner on Saturday night,,,,,,,my Impossible Quiche.  This is a recipe that never, I repeat NEVER fails!!  It is cheap and easy to prepare and tastes divine.  We served it with chips (at the kids request of course) and fresh garden salad,,,,,YUMMY!

Anyway, I will let you know how I go!!  I'm not sure if there are already way to many cooking type blogs out there or if the world can handle one more lol.

FLOTILLA FOR KIDS Raising money for Paediatric Cancer

The weather was kind for this year's Flotilla For Kids, held at Port Adelaide yesterday.  The weather was cool, a welcome relief from the heat and humidity of last week and was as beautiful day to spend watching boats go by.  The Flotilla is held every year and raises money for kids with Cancer, a great cause.  We took the boys down for a look.

 My youngest two little munchkins, Mr10 and Mr8

 The older "boys" lol,,,,as you can see, in this family anyone over the age of 10 doesn't like having their picture taken,,,,,they all look like they have been tortured in this pic!!

 Even Pooh Bear got to come along for the ride!

 These guys were awesome dancing along to Beach Boys music

 The Pink "ladies"

 AHOY THERE YE LAND LUBBERS!

The Birkenhead Bridge in the background, opened up for the 2 hours to allow the Flotilla to pass through.

Gorge Wildlife Park - what a beautiful day!! WARNING PICTURE HEAVY!

On the Monday of the last week of school holiday (Jan 24) we took the boys up to the Gorge Wildlife Park which is about 40 minutes away from our house.  It is a beautiful drive up there winding through the foot hills and around the reservoir.  It was certainly nice to see at this time of the year a healthy water level, so very different from this time last year, that is for sure!!

The Gorge Wildlife Park has been operating for many years, I remember going there many times when I was a kid and I have always loved it.  It is a privately run park and one that hasn't really changed much over the years.  We all adored the monkeys.  If you are brave you can actually hand them peanuts or a biscuit to eat.  One of them was so funny, Mr8 was dancing around and the monkey was copying his swaying movement, going the same way as Mr8.  When Mr8 stopped dancing the monkey got stroppy and through a "monkey tantrum" as Mr8 called it lol.  He ran screeched and ran down to the bottom of the cage to grab an apple out of the dish.  Then he ran back up and tried to throw it through the bars, when it wouldn't fit he grabbed it with both hands and started banging it on the bars so that apple flew everywhere, straight for Mr8.  I said to Mr8 that he had best start dancing again, so he did and the monkey was happy and started swaying again.  I so wish I had taken the video camera (silly me forgot about the video function on the camera duhhhhh).  Needless to say we spent quite a while at the monkeys and the monkey through a tantrum each time Mr8 stopped dancing lol.

Here are a few photos of our day.....

  meerkat

Mr10 

 Mr 8

 Mr 16

 Mr14

 Hubby (looks really thrilled doesn't he,,,,,,he is a kiwi and this was the first time he has held a koala and thats the best smile he could give me lol geeeeeeeeez!!)

 Me....I love koalas, I so wanted to take this one home (excuse the bad hair day lol)

 A little duckie friend

 THE monkey!!

 Albino wallaby and baby

 Kangaroo

 These camels were so cheeky (the one closest to the front even reached out and licked Mr16 right up the side of his face lol)

 I love eagles!!

 Isn't this dingo beautiful - he was a real poser........on the last Sunday of each month they get some animals out and walk around the park with them, the dingos are one of them......will have to go back again!!

Mr 8 also made good friends with a few of the kangaroos in the park lol  This one kept following him and was letting him hug him.....I haven't seen a kangaroo that was quite so affectionate before.