"hot" hair & camping goodness

on Friday's after dropping the kids at school i always catch up with the mums from school at Gloria Jeans and have coffee. Fridays has now become my day!
last Friday was no different except we had to leave coffee early because at 10am three of us were getting our hair done.
a few years back i got red foils put in, they were lovely but weren't as fiery as i hoped. well.......... i got them again and they are perfect. i love them. as Sam was blow drying my hair i sat there with this mammoth grin on my face - i looked like the Cheshire cat!
i rang Anthony straight after leaving the salon and explained my hair as "hot hair"
this is the new look........ and i LURVE it





Friday afternoon we headed up to soldiers point for our weekend away of testing out the camper.
we had a fabulous time and tomorrow morning we are booking in again for another couple of weekends there.
the park is on the tip of soldiers point and has it's own beach. around the corner is a boat ramp and next door is the yacht club and coffee shop. the park had heaps of cabins on the hill and the powered site were all by the water all under shade. there was a massive pool just perfect for all aged kids.
we sat around the camper Friday night after a few funny moments putting it up for the first time. we forgot to unzip the annex awing before winding the camper up all the way, so i had to put Anthony on my shoulders so he could unzip it! shanice took photos on her camera!
Saturday morning we woke to Connor coughing and he had a nasty throat - i thought was tonsillitis! GREAT!!!! mum, mandy and hunter arrived for the day at about 11am - just in time for coffee and ice cream. i needed to catch up on a weeks worth of aunty love.
trac and the kids arrived just after lunch. the kids were in their element! off at the pool then down at the beach and scooting around the park on their scooters and bikes.
connor was getting worse so we found out where to take him to see a doctor - nelson bay hospital was the only place available. and there we sat for nearly 1.5 hours for the doctor to see him for less than 30 seconds. no antibiotics yet - just panadol! great, i could have done that and saved the drive. but better off knowing than not!
we got some fabulous shots down by the beach at sunset.

this morning we rose to start packing up and come home.
we cant wait to go back up there again. next time we are getting a cabin for mum and mandy and are going to talk anthony's mum and dad into coming with us too. maybe next coffee friday i can talk the other mums from school to coming too.
here are a few of the piccies i took.........................

our camper - for some reason it looks very small here, lol


3 cheeky monkeys laying on the bed


putting up Trac's tent


scooting is not just for the kids apparently!

the beach

swimming - more like posing at the beach


mum and the grandkids



the 3 cousins



shanice - because she ASKED for me to take her photo

the 4 kids - felicity, shancie. alastair and connor

Scrap Girls teacher WANTED......

Early today i posted on the Scrap Girls that we are looking for a Scrap Girls teacher to share with us their own unique style at future scrapbooking retreats.

Go here to find out more - SCRAP GIRLS BLOG

booked.......

we have booked to finally christen the camper this weekend.
we couldn't go away last weekend cause Ant's asthma was really bad, so we are headed up to Soldier's Point at Port Stephens this weekend.
it's going to be weird going back up to that neck of the woods again. Anthony and i haven't been back up there since we lived up there before we had Shanice.
Hopefully, with fingers and toes crossed, Trac and the kids will come up too! It would be so much fun.
Mandy and Mum and Hunter of course are coming up for the day on Saturday too.

YAY!!!!! so looking forward to the time away

quote of the week.........

There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul.

~Edith Wharton

play day & sleepovers

Yesterday, being Saturday, turned out to be a rather eventful day here at the sheppard-morris house.
Shanice went with Anthony down to Plumpton to pick up her new glasses.
she looks so grown up in them and they are just HER! her two favourite colours - Black & Red



Shanice had been invited over to her Bestie's house for a sleepover as they were going down to Canberra today for the day.
so i dropped her off around 11am before heading down to Tracy's for a play day and a good ol' fashioned "Cheer Up" day :) felt weird going to Trac's with only one child in tow.
the boys and fliss had a great day playing every electronic game they could get their hands on.
fliss came to the shops with us and helped me spend a fortune in the junk shop.
Trac needed some encouraging to drag out some scrapping stuff - well, not that much. We both made some cards. mine were for the LSBS 52 Pick Up challenges and trac's card is for a class for the Scrap Girls March retreat.
We did a bunch of chatting and laughing which is completely normal for us.


While making our cards, Fliss sat on the kitchen bench and made some Strawberry Baby Cakes all by herself. When it came to icing them Connor just had to help - and lick the spoon.


I mentioned to Trac after dinner that i could so go a Macca's chocolate super sundae. So trac made us an even better one
It was to DIE FOR!!!!!!!! YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..........................

Early this week i decided to join the LSBS 52 pick up challenge. I had been lurking since the start and umming and arrring, so i bit the bullet and just said YES!

i love the fact that it's all about using up old stash........ not about the latest and greatest.

I started with Challenge #7 to create a journal to keep all the challenges in and a picture of our finished creations.

This is mine.

gone..........

Yesterday was a big day for me
i finally threw out all shanice and connor's baby spoons and forks.
sounds silly but i wasn't ready to part with them until now.
the kids haven't used them for so long it just seemed stupid keeping them and cluttering up the cutlery drawer for my own sentimental reasons.

This week was shanice's school assembly
her class did a great presentation. they did it like the nightly news on the rising of Jesus at Easter. it was best assembly I've been to in a long time.
shanice was a dancer.................. and all she could do was smile the entire time at her baby cousin.

it's FINALLY here.........................

I've been waiting soooooooooo long for this to arrive

my FAV tv show ever
Nip/Tuck Season 5 - YAY!!!!!!
i wonder what christian will be up to in this short season (due to bloody writers strike!)
Plus i got 2 of my favourite movies that you cant get here in AUS at the moment

Today was the kids swimming carnival.
shanice told me at the beginning of the school year she didn't want to go and i didn't want to force her as neither of my kids have a competitive nature and even though they could out swim most of the kids in the entire school they just aren't interested in racing. So i let them stay home.
some might think I'm a bad mum for making this decision, but quite frankly i don't care :)
Shanice's bestie came over for the day as she wasn't going either, so we went to the movies and saw Hotel for Dogs. The kids loved it.

we did a bit of shopping while we where out too........
I got a new Guess handbag - well i actually got it yesterday, Anthony bought it for me as a "happy anything day" pressie
i just added the cupcake keyring to it while on our ventures today. it's also a mirror - too cute!



when i bought the cupcake keyring i couldn't resist this gorgeous cupcake earring holder.
It's so me, lol

the shop i got these from had some really nice stuff and i could have gone insane. i did buy the girls some cute tubs of lip gloss.

I got 3 sets of the pj's below
They are for the Scrap Girls Pink pyjama party at the March retreat. i got a set for me, trac and sherri.
we'll all match with our pj's, slippers, eye masks and pink frangipani hair clips :)



dont know if i mentioned it, but Connor started karate this year. he has been wanting to do it for about 2 years now but could find a good local place to try and we just got too busy. well........... shanice's bestie goes to a great place, so Connor joined.
today i picked him a karate outfit. and i think he looks too cute



before i go and have a shower before LOST starts i want to send and ENORMOUS cyber hug out to MISS TRAC. luv you hunnie

quote of the week...............

I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

~Marsha Doble

rain, hail & smiles

well.................... didn't it pour up at mums yesterday?

connor, pat and i had drove thru a smallish shower, but an hour after getting to mums the rain came down and then the hail followed............ no ordinary hail mind you ................ massive, cricket ball size hail.

the storm was unbelievable. we thought it had stopped and then the hail and rain and wind started again.

Shanice was absolutely terrified and was on the verge of hysterical - sweating and hyperventilating!

but it passed and then i went to check the damage to the truck and there is hardly any hail dents! i cant believe it! was expecting massive damage and broken windows it was that bad.

here is the evidence towards the end of the storm

My girlfriend Dallas called into mums on her way home from seeing here dad up the coast. I love chatting to Dal and her girls are just too precious.

every time we do a clean out of shanice's older toys that she has outgrown, Dal and the girls always het first dibs. yesterday we had a massive garbage bag full of My Little Pony - ponies and playsets. the girls just loved them. and i'm so pleased they will be loved and not chucked out.

here is a pic of the token "Hunter Sleeping" photo :)

i just cant get enough of my gorgeous nephew!

shanice and hunter just before bed time.

today was mum and dad's 40th wedding anniversary (Ruby). it was a day of mixed emotions but mostly good new ones and this is a new beginning for us all now.

we decided that we couldn't;t let the day pass unnoticed so we took mum out for lunch to the cafe at Flower Power Glenhaven.the kids love it as they can play indoors and the food is good, even though the drink service is a tad slow.

the camera is always on hand when we go here as it has become a bit of a tradition to walk around the pond and take photos. here are my ones from today.

well that's it for tonight.............. i have a HUGE day tomorrow - I'm going to start back reading for the kids at school then it's off to coffee with the mums, run a million errands, come home to return phone calls, an after school meeting with shanice's teacher and then movies with hubby .

I managed to talk Anthony to seeing "He's just not that into you"!!!!! god i hope it's not too girly as I'll never hear the end of it, lol

shanice made THIS....................

all by herself.................. no i'm not kidding

as part of year 5's homework this week they had to cook the recipe for Weetbix Slice. last week they had to write a recipe. it has something to do with following procedures.
I stood in the kitchen with Shanice and supervised......... that's it, she did it all by herself.
She got all the ingredients out, measured everything, spilt brown sugar everywhere and cleaned it up, stirred, melted butter, turned on the oven, pressed the mixture into the pan, put it in the oven (using an oven mit of course), got it out of the oven, read in the recipe perfectly.
I was just there to talk her thru it when she asked.
can we tell i'm having a proud mummy moment. hopefully she takes after her aunty and is a better cook than me!
all the kids had to take some slice into school today for the teacher to taste and the best one get a special award. we added melted chocolate to the top........... so i reckon that's a winner :)