BIRTHDAYS & BUSHRANGERS

Every July we head off to Melbourne for the school holidays, it has become a tradition now! This year was a bit odd because Victoria's school hols are all skewiff having been changed to fit in with the Commonwealth Games earlier this year. Usually we have one overlapping week and get to do lots of stuff with my nieces and nephews. This time it was life as usual with school, work and all the basketball training and games, so that was a bit of a bummer! However my lovely sis (thanks for having us Di!) let her kids stay home and go with us to Belgrave for a ride on Puffing Billy, the vintage steam train. As you can see we had a ball! Especially my little guy, who is quite train crazy anyway! But even the bigger ones enjoyed it! It was cold and overcast but there was no rain and it wasn't at all uncomfortable! I took these pics with my sister's little snappy Kodak digi, as unfortunately my camera recently had a fall and is taking all sorts of weird photos - off to the camera shop to see if it can be repaired I think! I feel so sad and lost without it, life is passing me by and no photos :(

While in Melbourne we also got to spend time with my brother, sister-in-law and their four beautiful girls, my SIL and 3 of my nieces actually having birthdays while I was there! My nephew Rhys (see top photo) turned 14 last Friday. He is the oldest of my sister's 2 boys, the oldest of all the Cavanagh grandkids actually, and it seems like only yesterday he was brand new! We also caught up with my parents at their lovely unit and again for lunch in the nearby township of Kilmore (the oldest inland town in Victoria!) Unfortunately I didn't get to catch up with my own cousins, as I came down with a 48hr flu bug and was laid up for a couple of days. Sorry Karen & family! Maybe next time.

On the trip home we decided to stop in at Glenrowan, site of Ned Kelly's last stand. We enjoyed looking through the souvenir shop, had a delicious devonshire tea at Linda's Coffee Shop and toured the museum. Ronin went for a little spill while we were there, and out of his p

ocket tumbled a little pottery train from the Souvenir shop! Eeek, a shoplifter! I checked his pocket and it was FULL of them, over a dozen in all! Obviously imbued with Ned's spirit, I m

arched my little bushranger back to the shop to return his contraband. The store owner nearly split his sides laughing! How apt my baby committed his first criminal offence in the same town our most infamous outlaw committed his last! LOL!

Anyway it's finally back to school time. Thank goodness, the kids are so ready to be back into routine! We started on Sunday with Taylor's first dress rehearsal for her upcoming dance Eisteddfod. I had to take Ronin with me as Chris headed off to Borneo on a dive trip (some people have a hard life!). Poor Roni, it was a long time to sit still and watch prancing mini-divas! At first he was horrid and I had to take him outside to calm down after chasing him from studio to studio like an old Charlie Chaplain comedy! Then he sat still and quiet, clapping after each performance, like a little angel. But he reverted to type by the end and my arms are still aching from trying to hold him still! The dancing was fabulous, especially Taylor's jazz solo (do I sound biased?) It should be a great competition!

As for scrapping, I've done a couple of layouts since my return, but my whole approach is rather lazy. I need to get into the groove a bit more I think! I might go back through the gallery and look through the fabulous layouts and OTP stuff done at The Scrap Heap's retreat held last weekend. I was so jealous, but I'm sure the talented ladies that attended will inspire me with their talent! I can't wait til October for the next weekend, I'll be pulling out all the stops to go to that one!

Will try and keep my BLOG up to date from now on!