Day trip to Mt Baw Baw with the family!

Well it was supposed to be a quick day trip to the snow at Lake Mountain on the one day that Danah, Karen and I could all make it. Due to some warmer weather, Lake Mountain had no snow, so we had to drive a little further for the "white" stuff.



It had been an extremely windy night and there were very large trees down all over the road up. It was an interesting drive to say the least - over, under and around some massive gum trees. It took us a little while to actually locate the snow - we had to walk up to the ski slope rather than the toboggan one. We got a good hour or so of slipping and sliding fun in before we got too cold and hungry. It was a fun morning and was a great trial of the kid's new ski gear!

1200 trees...

1200 trees seemed like a heck of a lot work, and Rich and Cath had come all the way back from the UK to plant them! We had a heap of people at Mashado all raring to go. I was a little worried when, by 11am on Saturday, not a single tree had gone in yet, but it soon became apparent that the setting out and prep-ing was the hard part. Once we started planting, things fairly zoomed along!

There was plenty of time for rest and relaxation and the kids had a ball as per usual. There were a few issues with Fred and Angus both believing the quad bikes was theirs, but all else went swimmingly!



We can't wait to get back up there and check on the trees...

Big Boy Bed!

From this:

To this:

Angus has absolutely loved sleeping in his racing car bed. But since it takes a cot matress, and he's well and truly 3 and ahalf now, he was growing out of it. Quite literally! We thought it was time for a big boy bed and our "Prince of Darkness" chose the black one. He will always choose black for anything he has a choice about!

He LOVES his new bedside table and light too. It makes it much easier for him to read in bed at night. He has taken to reading a book or 2 (or 3 or 4) to himself and then putting them away and turning the light off and tucking himself back in! He is such a little cutie. Even when he isn't ready to sleep, he will look after himself in his room.

Sleep well in your big boy bed, beautiful boy!

Spooky six year olds...

Lexie turned 6 the other day - my how the time flies! She chose a Spooky Dinner Party from 5.30 to 7.30 on a Friday night and was able to invite 11 friends. Angus had a couple of his friends too, so we had 15 children all up. A bit of present opening...
A bit of craft for the girls...
A bite of Duncan's delicious pizza and fairy bread for dinner...
And some spooky ice cream cake and spidery cupcakes for dessert!
And I will leave you with a picture of our adorable little boy who informed me at 7am on the day of the party that he wanted to be a cowboy that night! Some quick calls to Spotlight and Lombards to locate a costume in the right size, and a quick drive by Dunc who luckily had the day off work, and we had ourselves a little size 3 cowboy. (For all of about an hour until he decided he wanted to be spiderman afterall!)

Easter @ Mashado

We finally got back up to the farm for the first time in far too long! Such blissful peace and quiet. We were going to take one lot of family, then one lot of friends, then another and with only a few days to go we decided to stop trying to find someone else to share the beautiful countryside with and just go up by ourselves. Best decision ever! :)
Lots of quad biking (Angus really doesn't like sharing the front seat with Lexie...), lots of roos, lots of swinging on Pop's swing, lots of gorgeous views!

I had to dye some T-Shirts for work and had intended to do them in the washing machine. But then I thought, with 4 days to ourselves up there, what better place to play with dyes? Who needs electricity when you have a nappy bucket, wooden spoon and 3 huge tanks of water? Builder's line and 4 posts destined for a carport make a very good washing line too!
Of course we had our annual visit fromt he Easter Bunny as well. The children had made him a lovely and comfortable nest to have a little rest in (its a long way to Mashado) and he left behind some yummy chocolate eggs. He must have heard us when we told him that we really didn't need any more bowls (as that's what he has bought every year) and this year he left some gorgeous egg cups for all the yummy eggs that Mia and Lemon give us.
The children enjoyed their chocolate eggs. Well, OK. We enjoyed ours too!For the last 4 or 5 years, we've been going to the Moonambel Easter Arts Festival. It just seems to get bigger and better each year. This year we went to the local primary school so the children could do the Art activities. Great fun! Dunc got roped in to washing line duty and I became official photographer. A delicious meal at the re-vamped local pub was wonderfully followed by world premiere of 'Foule's Gold', a musical written, directed and performed by locals. It was a great night with more than a few good laughs. See some other pics from the Art Festival here:
Moonambel Arts Festival on the Avoca community website.
Our last night was capped off witha walk around the property after dinner. We took our dessert with us (yoghurt) and enjoyed it while we watched the sun set. We will not leave it so long between visits next time!

water water everywhere...

I've always been a bit of a waterbabe, and it seems our 2 darlings are taking after me! Angus started "big boy swimming lessons" this year, and in an effort to get him used to wearing goggles, the children wore them in the shower:


Fun stuff!
Had I only seen the weather forecast, I could have waited and sent them outside instead. We got rain! Real rain - the pouring, puddling, extremely-loud-on-the-roof kind! It was such a novelty that the children took their chairs out to the porch to watch! Oh for the days of my youth when we could run through sprinklers and use the slip-and-slide...

A big family "do"

A couple of weeks ago marked Rob D's 70th Birthday. We all gathered at Rob and Joke's house to eat, drink and be merry and to watch his inauguration as an "elder of the Dutch mafia". :)


Rob and Joke cooked the most delicious meal, as per usual. Peking Duck in Pancakes for entree followed by Seafood Paella for mains - yummo!

The kids had an absolute ball playing together upstairs and since Anouk and Harry were here too, it was a great opportunity to get most of the little ones in one shot.

Its a pity that Lexie still had her facepaint on, but that seems to be a way of life these days. She's currently fast asleep in bed with green and glittery hair that we will tackle in the morning! Oh and the pic above is attempt number 4. Here's my 'warm up' shot!