Happy Christmas!

At least the urchins let us sleep until 7am, but there was alot of excitement in the house from 5.30am, I guess they couldn't sleep any longer.

Finally, Breakfast!

White Christmas

It's been a tough month for Oscar and Anneke.  Anneke asked for a White Christmas.  Going to Canada or China for Snow is not an option this year...instead we did this once the urchins had gone to bed.  Thanks to Gina and Oliver, it didn't take as long as we thought.

"Before"

"After"

"Before"

"After"

Summer Solstice

Yvonne, Greg, Patrick and Andrew, Brad and Maxxis all joined us for Summer Solstice.

Little red sausages and Oliebollen for the entree - super yum!
Roast pork with vegies and apple sauce - don't forget the crackling.
And of course dessert - teddy cars, lemon bonito, meringues, and Christmas bark.  Thank you Quinn for all your efforts in preparing the food.  It was fantastic.

Brad's favourite - Teddy Cars

Ruth's Favourite - Lemon Bonito

Oscar deciding which to have first...

He chose the Teddy cars too!

The children spent the rest of the evening playing Ghost and the Grimness....

Kite Flying

While I was hard at work at the office, Erik was flying kites with Oscar and Anneke.  I was so jealous, the weather was perfect.

Anneke's hair - beaded and unbeaded

Crazy hair day at school, so we beaded Anneke's hair.  Each braid took 5 minutes to finish, so we only put in 20 braids.

Anneke walking to Carols by Candlelight

Unbraided again - looking beautiful!

Christmas Decorations and Candlelit Dinner

Quinn decided to make some decorations for his tree.

Porsche tree decoration

Dodge tree decoration

We have 3 dragonflies on the tree.

My first violin decoration

We also celebrated the start of Advent with a Candlelit dinner - 28 candles!  It took Quinn a while to set up, and light them all.  The warmth coming off them was amazing.

Took a while to blow them all out!

Quinn is still waiting for the "Eat Junk Food all day" part of the Advent Calendar.

Christmas stuff...

Anneke with the Village tree

Anneke putting the star on our tree

Quinn hiding in Santa's sack

Pink Diamond

Tighe knows how much I love Pink Diamonds (to be honest, any diamond is awesome), so after school he gave me a Pink Diamond!

I love you too Tighe!

Santa Parade

Oscar has been awesome at school at the moment, and as a result, has recieved the "good behaviour" mascot Tom the Turtle 2 weeks in a row.
Tom has been doing everything this weekend with Oscar.

Oscar and Tom at the Santa parade

Tom and Oscar enjoying a slushy

Putting up the Christmas Trees!

I have to admit, this is my favourite part of Christmas.  This year Quinn wanted to set up the tree, but we all decorated it.  As is tradition, there were no decorations left in the box.
The Children all have trees in their rooms as well, so for the festive season, there are 5 trees in the house.  Merry Christmas everyone!

This Nativity Scene belongs to my Nana Agnus Krippner

JPC 2013 Leavers Dinner

My gorgeous young lady has finished College, and is ready for the big wide world.  It was great to see all her friends, and how everyone has become beautiful butterflies. 

Gina's original award was going to be "Wild Animal Tamer", but I guess her Speech about working at PaknSave changed that.
Gina, may your life be filled with amazing adventures, and may you feel the fear, and do it anyway.
Love you!

Taste of Summer

Scorching sun, and the ciccadas are chirping.  Had to cool off at the lake on Sunday.  The boys certainly are lapping up the warmer weather, reclining on Vlad, and enjoying strawberries.

Quinn, Vlad, and Munchos

Tighe's favorite rock

Tighe and Strawberries