Happy Birthday

Today is my little brother's 28th Birthday.  He's quite a bit younger than me (although we look the same age....jokes!) and I can remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.  When he was a little boy, about 4 years old and suffered growing pains he would wake me up and I'd give him a warm bath and he'd snuggle in my big queen size bed with me and drift off to sleep. When I moved out of home when he was 8 he cried and wanted to come with me but of course he couldn't but he would stay over at my place every chance he got, he was jnr groomsman when I got married and he's now one of my best friends.  I can tell him anything and I KNOW it will stay with him.  I love my brothers with all my heart but I have a special bond with Nath.

Here he is with his little family.  Happy Birthday little brother....love you!

Happy Birthday

On Saturday we celebrated my MIL's birthday.  The kids had a fun visit together (even if it was a quick one).  There is nothing quite like meeting your cousins at your Nanny' and Poppy's house for a play.  Brings back my own childhood memories......so fun :)

Here's a pic of the kids with their Nanny.  Love it!

what's happening in my world....

so much going on right now.

I started my new role as Property Manager at work this week.

so right now I am living and breathing rental properties.  I've had 3 massive days and I'm loving every minute of it.

In order for me to be able to do this job and do it well my wonderful husband has had to take on a little bit extra for the next couple of weeks so that I can work late to get on top of things at the office.  I love him so much!!

Abbey has settled back into school really well and loves being in year 3.  She thinks her year 3 teacher is "the best and is so pretty".  I'm just happy that she's happy.  She is currently preparing for her very first Naplan test and is pretty confident she's gonna do OK.

I went to book club with my gal pals this week and had a lovely dinner and chat.  The book was....

I still have about 15 pages to go.  It's just been impossible to finish it this week but I'll get there.

That's my last couple of days covered.  It's been hectic but I'm loving every minute of it.  Looking forward to a rest on the weekend to recharge and spend some time with my family.

Until next time,
Shell xx

A fun letter B

After much debate we stuck with something very simple and fun for the letter B of our Alphabet Weekends.  We decided to go bowling.  I normally don't enjoy bowling but they had the lights off and the 80's tunes pumping and I don't mind saying, I had a ball (pardon the pun).  Daniel decided it would be funny for me not the have bumpers but didn't warn me.  Needless to say I got a gutter ball the first go so yeah...I ended up with bumpers after that but I still got beaten.  I don't know what it is, I'm just no good at ten pin bowling. 

All 3 of us are really enjoying out Alphabet weekends so far and the letter C will be upon us in a week....got any ideas?

We've made 3 new rules:
1.  It can't cost more that $120
2. All 3 of us have to join in - even if we don't particularly like the idea of that activity
3. It has to be something we haven't done before or a place we haven't been to before

My idea is canoeing.  Will wait until Sunday when we're all home to talk to the family about it.

I'll leave you with our B pics.  Can't wait to get these printed and scrapped this weekend.

Leave me a comment and let me know what your ideas are for "C"

Shell xx

Alphabet Weekends

I'm currently reading a book called Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble. I started reading it a year ago and couldn't get into it but have picked it up again and I'm really enjoying it this time round. It spurred a fun discussion in my family about doing our own 'Alphabet Weekends'. We laughed so hard at each others suggestions but finally came up with a list that will get us out of the house and spending time together all year round. No doubt I plan to scrap these little adventures of ours and look forward to sharing them here.


We're doing 'A' in a couple of weeks and will continue with it every fortnight or so until the end of the year. I'm sure this will be a really fun album to look back on.

my little cutie

Abbey had her Hip Hop and Broadway dance recital this morning.  Her and her little group did a fantastic job.  We're so proud!!

Here she is all dressed and ready to go...what a funky little monkey she is, that hat is so cute!

Hope you're all having a great day

Shell x

Mission Day 2010

Today is Mission day at Abbey's school and the kids had to dress as if they were students of Mary Mackillop.  It took me a few days and 2different secpnd hand shops to find all the bits and pieces I needed to create an outfit for her.  She was so pleased with the end result!

Here she is with her brown (ladies size 10 skirt with 20 safety pins in it) skirt, white cheesecloth blouse (that was originally a dress that has been cut off) , calico shawl (that was originally a curtain) and plaits with cute little martha stewart ribbon bows

At assembly this morning the kids were all so happy to see the teachers had also dressed up and they had to march into class rather than walk - complete with marching music!  It was all very cute.

They will have lots of games and things today pretending they are living in the 1800's.  They even have to write with their right hand which is going to be quite difficult for Abbey being a lefty!!

Hope she has an really fun day.
Shell x

Hi Ho Hi Ho....

..... off to work I go!



Wish me luck everyone. 

Hope you all have a great day

Shell xx

My name is Michelle and I have an addiction.....

to McCafe cappuccinos. 

I'm quite fussy though, it's gotta be a tall skinny decaf cap, 1/4 strength and I savour every drop!!  My addiction has now rubbed off onto Daniel as well, as soon as I leave the house these days I get a text message or a phone call asking me to bring a coffee home.  I think it may be time to invest in our own machine - this addiction is more expensive than scrapbooking!

what are you addicted to - other than scrapbooking products??

lots of emotion....

This past couple of weeks have been emotional for me.  I was so pleased to get a new job after having 6 months off I was ready to re-enter the work force and start contributing again at home (other than the cooking, cleaning, shopping etc) and then it hit me....for 4 months I'M GOING BACK TO FULL TIME WORK!!

All the coordination that full time work involves is really difficult and to try to arrange sitters/after school care etc without my little girl missing out on the after school activites she loves so much can cause a mum to go a little crazy!! 

I'm going to miss hanging out with this funny little munchkin every afternoon. 

Shell x

A fun day

yesterday was spent celebrating the upcoming birth of my cousin April's first baby.  Doesn't she look wonderful!!

We played fun games, ate glorious food and had a nice girly day together....all 22 of us :)  I won a bottle of Champagne and Abbey was the cutest little helper ever.  It was her job to take the orders for tea and coffee and tick them off as they were done.  My Nanna paid her $5 for the day, how cute!

Can't wait until this little bundle is here.  We haven't had a baby in the family (local) since Abbey was born, lots of cuddles for me!  Tell me....when your adult cousin has a baby, do you become a cousin to the baby or an aunt?

Shell x

My Husband was so happy yesterday!!!!!

His beloved St George Illawarra Dragons won the NRL Grand Final against the Rooster 32-8 in a great game of footy!!!

I think everyone that lives in the Illawarra was happy with the scoreboard and the way the boys played yesterday.  The weather was terrible yesterday so we stayed at home to watch the game and had a really fun afternoon.  Abbey was so funny with her red t-shirt on, asking me to put a white V on her shirt - even though it's supposed to be a white shirt with the big red V lol.

Hope you all cheered on the Dragons with us :)

Oh what a night!!

This morning I woke up at 7.30 wondering where the heck I was...I stayed at my brothers new place last night on a very uncomfortable air matress that had a slow leak so in actual fact...i slept on the floor and to top it off, I packed everything except pj's so I had to wear nathans clothes to bed....talk about reliving my early 20's lol

I can't even put into words how much fun I had last night. Meeting up with old school buddies was wonderful as was watching Australias greatest pub band at my old local haunt....waking up with that stamp on my arm made me giggle, and hanging out with my little brother was priceless. LOVED IT!
 

Today I am feeling tired and a little under the weather (a few too many drinks) so we're having a PJ day and about to watch a movie.

Hope you're all having a good day :)
Shell xx

Taronga Zoo

We had such a fun day today at Taronga Zoo.  The baby elephant put a show on for us in the water, the chimps were hilarious and the giraffes and seals were amazing!  This was Abbey's first time at Taronga zoo and I'm so pleased I waited until now so she could really appreciate it.  She was smiling the whole day and didn't complain once about the heat or the amount of walking we had to do.  Getting such a big girl now!!

Here are a couple of pics of our day - non edited so the quality/colours are not great but you get the idea.  I took so many pics my memory card was full and Abbey took almost 200 on her camera....typical tourists!

TFL....can't wait to go through all the photos and work out which ones I'm going to scrap first.  I can see a massive order of new patterned paper and thickers being put in very soon!!

OK, time for bed....need to rest this weary head.
Shell x

my baby turned 8!

Here she is all happy to see the present she had been praying for

Having 8 mini pancakes (for an 8 yr old) for breakfast...

All ready for school with her prized posession, Go-Go the walking pup

a family pic....this one is for the CH girls, notice the black and white! lol

thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, she had a fab day!! xx