Belmont-Kleingeld Family

Family Update - July 2011

2011-07-25T08:18:00.000+08:00

I don't have much to report this time. It's winter now and it's been cold, wet and miserable this year. Needless to say, there have been no camping trips recently :)

The most exciting news is a new addition to the family. Some friends of ours went away for 4 months so we babysat their budgie, Poppy. We loved having Poppy here with us and when it was time for her to go home again we were more than a little sad.... so we decided we were up for having a budgie of our own. We managed to pick up a hand-reared bird about 8 weeks old. We racked our brains for a funky name but the best we could come up with was "Blu".... so, introducing "Blu"...

We've since found out that Blu is a boy. He is settling in rather quickly and appears to be quite a playful bird. Now I just have to work on Megan not screaming in fright every time he flies around the room :)

"Dad, I dug a hole" - The Castle (1997)

(Quote from an Aussie film)

Dave dug this hole to put in another soak well... of course, he had that kind of "special" help only young children can provide...

Finally, I have been coaching Aiden's hockey (minkey) team on a Sunday morning. He seems to be really enjoying it. I am coaching and encouraging his hockey for a very selfish reason.... if I am to spend the next 10 years of my weekends watching my children play sport then I would at least prefer it to be a sport I'm interested in!

He's actually doing really well. We found with Auskick (Aussie Rules Football) last year that he lacked any aggression and wouldn't fight for the ball. Surprisingly he's not like that with hockey. He gets in there and has a good go.

The blue stick coming in from the left to tackle him is mine...

Look at the smile on his face when he gets past me!

Scrapping...

2011-07-25T08:00:00.000+08:00

Mum and I have been scrapping up a storm again..... here are a heap of layotus where we've both used the same kit...

Sara

Another birthday celebration for Megan

Glenise

Sara

Our new budgie, Blu

Glenise

Mum's friends in the UK... she had an absolute ball on her recent trip there

Sara

Glenise

Vicki is my awesome friend in the UK who made the effort to meet Mum and take her out for the day. Vicki and her hubby are in the process of buying this house shown below...to say they are a little excited is an understatement

Sara

Glenise

On her trip Mum became friends with a hairdresser..... he gave her a "new do"

Sara

This photo was taken at hockey yesterday

Sara

Megan all dressed up for her "Princess Party" for her birhtday

Camping - April - Dwellingup

2011-06-21T10:29:00.000+08:00

We can now say we've done our first ever total bush camp... no electricity, no running water, no toilets.... Ok, it may have only been for one night but at least we can say we've done it!

Dwellingup is a gorgeous spot about an hour inland from us. A very popular spot for weekend campers and day-trippers.

Breakfast was a bit chilly...

Our campsite

Treasure hunting.... a very steep climb through the bush

A moment of respite

Where we stopped for lunch....

Camping - April - Uncle Clive's Farm

2011-06-21T10:22:00.000+08:00

Last year we headed to my Uncle Clive's sheep farm for Easter... we had such a great time we decided to do it again this year.

We did some exploring around the area which included some dirt tracks. We had to cross this massive puddle below.... and now we're calling it our first ever water crossing!

Easter morning wouldn't be the same without an egg hunt... check out the look of delight on both their faces. Luckily Aiden wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny before we left home explaining where we were so he'd know where to deliver the eggs.

There's a hill at the back of Clive's property... it has heaps of beautiful big gum trees. A few months back they had some crazy, wild weather come through and these monster trees were simply blown over...

On top of the hill looking back down over Clive's farm. Note the complete absence of any grass or anything green... Clive reckons in the 17 years he's been there he's never seen it so dry.

Kids being kids...

First lost tooth!

2011-06-21T10:11:00.000+08:00

Yep, we had to endure a month of Aiden showing us his freaky loose tooth that bent every which way.... until it finally fell out.

Oma & Opa & Golf!

2011-06-21T10:09:00.000+08:00

Hank & Vicki came for a visit back in May. On one of our day trips we headed up to Wanneroo to the Botanical Gardens Mini Golf. It was a beautiful setting for a fun day of golf.

I have actually scrapped a few of the photos taken that day...

(If you want a closer look just click on the picture to open it up in a larger view)

Camping - June - Yanchep

2011-06-21T10:03:00.000+08:00

We recently did a camping trip up to Yanchep (it's less than hour north of Perth). It was a bit chilly at night but we managed with lots of layers of clothing and blankets. The days were perfect...

On yet another treasure hunt.... we were trekking to that hill in the background behind Aiden.

The view from the top of the hill.... by the time we got there we all had multiple scratches and scrapes up our legs from the parrot bush and other spiky plants we waded through. Oh, I should mention that everyone EXCEPT Megan had scratched legs... she seems to think that Dad is her personal carrier... he is such a pushover and piggybacks her through the scrub, up the hills, over rocks...

This was pretty cool, I've never seen a beehive in the wild before

One of our best treasure hunts EVER! We followed some GPS coordinates to park up at the side of a busy road then trekked through some more hideous bush to find "Dave's Cave". The photo below is the entrance... down behind Dave there was a little metre by metre hole we crawled through to emerge into a gorgeous cavern complete with stalactites and stalagmites. Of course, the photos don't come anywhere near to doing it justice so I haven't shown any here.

This is why we love our treasure hunting so much, you discover these unsign-posted locations that are worth all the effort!

We spent a day 4 wheel driving along the beach tracks between Yanchep and Two Rocks.... so much fun!

Dave letting down the tyres ready for our adventure

Other 4 wheel drives on the tracks

Over looking the river mouth at Guilderton.... the most likely location of our next camping trip

Megan's Birthday - Part I

2011-06-21T09:15:00.000+08:00

We had a special "Princesses Afternoon Tea" for Megan's 4th birthday. She invited three friends from school and they all donned their prettiest dresses... on arrival, they oohed and aahed over each other's dresses then got down to the serious business of play.... I'm pretty sure they all had a fabulous time :)

A table setting fit for a Princess

Needless to say, Megan had a ball...

Megan's Birthday - Part II

2011-06-21T09:11:00.000+08:00

This is the morning of Megan's actual birthday (it seems our birthday celebrations go on for days!)

The obligatory family photo

She had picked out this Barbie herself when we were at the shops

Of course, Aiden wasn't left out.... he'd been eyeing off this big barrel of army men for months

This is the present from Oma & Opa

Scrapbook layouts

2011-06-21T08:59:00.000+08:00

The next two posts are some scrapbooking layouts I've done over the past few months... I haven't really done all that many when I look back...

Wandering through the bush looking for treasure

One of the things we've picked up treasure hunting

Aunty Willy in The Netherlands

More layouts...

2011-06-21T08:54:00.000+08:00

The next two are photos taken of Megan at her school Happy Walk.... they walk laps around the oval to raise money for the school.

Photo of Mum lining up for a turn on the waterslide at Adventureworld (Aiden's B'Day)

Scrapbook layouts

2011-03-31T13:13:00.000+08:00

For these next two kits, Mum sent me her page first so not only did I use the same kit, I chose the same photo too...

Mine

Photo taken Christams Eve 2010

Mum's

Mine

Photo taken on Aiden's birthday (13th March)

Mum's

Scrapbook layouts

2011-03-29T16:14:00.000+08:00

Mine

Mum's

Scrapping for fun...

2011-03-28T16:10:00.001+08:00

Mum and I have re-established our game where one of us picks a scrapbook kit then we both do a layout... here's our first couple...

Mine

Megan blowing out candles on Aiden's birthday cake

Mum's

A day out treasure hunting

Mine

We're actually sitting on a boat on our way out to Penguin Island

Mum's

Dave's Birthday Present

2011-03-28T16:03:00.000+08:00

What do you get a guy that has everything he needs? A day of rally driving!

We headed out to Northam yesterday (2 hours from here, north east of the city) for an afternoon of fun. Dave got to drive two different rally cars (one was a Subaru WRX and I can't remember the other one) then the instructors took them for a "hot lap" at full speed. I think it's safe to say Dave had a blast.

This is the track they drove round.... very dusty

A smile of anticipation

He drove pretty well..... we re-discovered a well known fact - red cars go faster than blue cars

Getting ready for his second go around the track

More Scrapbook Layouts

2011-03-24T09:28:00.000+08:00

Scrapbook Pages

2011-03-24T09:23:00.000+08:00

That's all the highlights so far.... here are a few layouts I've done...

The first three layouts have one photo from every month of 2010

Aiden's Birthday

2011-03-24T09:11:00.000+08:00

The night before Aiden's birthday Grandad & Grandma came over for a fish & chip feast (the choice dinner of a 6 year old)

His birthday was off to a fantastic start with some Star Wars Lego...

The next day was his actual birthday. Nana came over early so we could do presents then we took the kids and one of Aiden's school mates to Adventureworld.

There are lots of rides at Adventureworld.... most of which Megan was too little or too scared to go on. But Dave managed to get the boys on a few. The most popular by far were the water slides...

Nana (my Mum) confessed she had never been on a waterslide in her life. So, we took a group vote that decided today was the day.... she loved it! We turned her into a waterslide junkie.... she went on them again and again.

This is a tandem slide... me in the front, Mum in the back

A brilliant day was had by all....

Dave's Birthday

2011-03-24T08:18:00.000+08:00

The early morning wake up call...

Dave wearing his new Richmond hat

Lucky my husband loves me.... I (and the kids) managed to bake the world's dodgiest (burnt) cake.

Poppy

2011-03-24T08:12:00.000+08:00

Some friends of ours are traveling around Australia for 4 months so we are babysitting their budgie, Poppy. These are some photos taken not long after she arrived to stay with us. The kids are pretty excited about her but Megan still hasn't worked up the courage to go near Poppy when she's out of the cage.

Beach 4WD Part II

2011-03-24T07:51:00.000+08:00

Check out this scene below... why would you want to go anywhere else in the world when this is just down the road? It was beautiful...

Shark bait...

It was a big day for the kids.... we'd been in the car for about 5 minutes and Megan was gone...

Beach 4WD Part I

2011-03-23T14:15:00.000+08:00

We hit the beach with some friends to do some 4WDing, fishing and general relaxing. It was a magnificent day, the weather was perfect and the kids had a ball.

This is the beach about an hour south of us.

We drove down the beach for a bit then pulled up at a nice spot to set up camp. The boys threw in some fishing lines... but the two fish below are the sum total of their catch!

Lunch

There wasn't much surf but that didn't bother the kids. They spent a heap of time running up and down the beach collecting dead blowies (blow fish, puffer fish or toadies). They had a bucket full by the end of the day.

See next post for more photos...

A Weekend Away

2011-03-23T14:03:00.000+08:00

We headed down south to Busselton for a weekend of camping and treasure hunting.

First up we headed to the beach.

Guess who found this one? I love these photos where you can see nothing but joy :)

Next, we went to Sugarloaf Rocks (pictured here)

We actually climbed the rocks on the left but I wanted to show this photo becasue it's the best shot showing how steep the rocks are.

This was truly a beautiful part of the world. In the bay behind them there was a pod of dolphins lazying about.... it was magic.

These are the rocks we climbed to find the treasure. Look at the guy fishing on the left to get some perspective. Yep, we managed to get a 3 1/2 year old up there (mainly on Dave's back) and even Nana kept up.

First Day of School

2011-03-23T13:50:00.000+08:00

First day back at school for Aiden.... first day EVER of school for Megan. Both very excited :)

More treasure hunting

2011-03-23T13:46:00.000+08:00

With our shiny new car, off we went hunting... with Nana wedged in the back seat between the kids :)

Dave enjoying his new toy

Nana & kids

A rare whole family photo

Megan playing the part

The kids holding a sprocket that has come from a motorcycle in Germany

Enjoying the bush

Yep, that's the look of pleasure when you're the one that finds the treasure (check out those double chins!)

This is Madam Megan telling Aiden how SHE found the treasure and HE didn't

Another beautiful place we discovered

New car!

2011-03-23T13:37:00.000+08:00

Obviously, with our love of treasure hunting in the bush and camping, the next move was to upgrade our car to a 4WD so we could go off road. So, Dave got himself a new toy...

2011.....

2011-03-23T13:32:00.000+08:00

It's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted. So, I've gone back through the photos and will post a few of the highlights of the year so far...

We are into an activity called "Geocaching" which invloves gettting GPS coordinates to find hidden caches. You wouldn't believe the number of caches hidden around the world. We love it because it has taken us to many places that we didn't know existed.

The best thing is the kids love doing it too. They refer to it as "Treasure Hunting"....

Here is another typical spot not far from our home and we never knew it was there.

A different location on the same day. Check out Aiden's hair. We bought some clippers so I could cut both Dave & Aiden's hair. We usually do it on a Saturday morning so Aiden can have a mohawk for the weekend.... we then cut it off before school on Monday.

Master Yoda's new apprentice

2010-12-21T21:46:00.002+08:00

More tinkering...

2010-12-21T21:44:00.003+08:00

Here's a photo I started with and the finished product after I 'played' with it in photoshop...

Something a bit different...

2010-12-21T21:42:00.003+08:00

My wonderful hubby bought me a graphics tablet for my birthday.... so I've been tinkering...

Another one for today

2010-12-17T21:33:00.002+08:00

That's 2 in one day.... it truly is a holiday :)

Some layouts

2010-12-17T14:27:00.000+08:00

I've just been cleaning out my email and I found a layout of Mum's I haven't posted. This is another kit where we both did a layout to compare... I have reposted mine too.

Mum is currently working on a little Christmas project but when she's done I'll get her back into our little game ;)

Wooooohoooooooo!

2010-12-17T13:58:00.000+08:00

School holidays are here at last! It has been an incredibly busy couple of weeks but now it's all over! Hooray!

Although, I'm a bit unsure how we are going to cope.... in the first two hours this morning the kids asked me if we could paint their faces, play the DS, play the computer, go to the playground, watch a movie, do some craft, make a paper plate animal, do some colouring.... These are all things we've talked about doing over the break.... but they wanted to do them ALL in one day!

Haven't had much chance to scrap lately but I squeezed in a page this morning:

My friend Paola has been working her butt off over the past few years completing her PhD and then giving no less then 6 presentations on her research. She attended her graduation the other day and sent a photo of herself and her beautiful family...

Finally, here's a layout using one of Vicki's kits.... the one underneath is Mum's

Bombie Pool...

2010-12-06T19:24:00.001+08:00

A fun weekend...

2010-12-06T12:25:00.000+08:00

We've just had another chock-full weekend. Yesterday we took the kids into the city to watch the Christmas pageant and then we went to a leisure centre/swimming pool for another work Christmas party. Let me just say Santa delivered presents AND there was a bombie pool! The kids AND Dave were in heaven! I will absolutely be scrapping the photos of the boys doing bombies so keep an eye out.

Here are some photos I took of the family while we were at the pool....

Here's another layout I've done with a photo taken when Oma & Opa were here...

And I have some good news about Mum.... my friend Vicki saw Mum's layouts I had posted last week, and has asked her to join her Creative Team! Mum was stoked! She's since done this layout which is absolutley fantsatic... did I tell you... i taught her everything she knows! ;)

How clever am I?

2010-12-03T20:22:00.000+08:00

I am feeling quite pleased with myself that I thought of this title!

Most of you know that my mum retired a few months back... so I took the opportunity to get her into scrapbooking. She started out as a complete beginner, but trust me, she has come a long way since she started!

Anyhow, we have been playing a bit of a game where we both have to scrap with the same kit so we can compare layouts. So, under my layout I will show you hers too...

Mum's layout

My layout

Mum's layout

It's bushfire season...

2010-12-02T13:38:00.002+08:00

We had our first ever brush with a bushfire on Tuesday. You may have heard on the news about the fires in the Golden Bay / Karnup area... well, that's just across the road from us. It was close enough that I evacuated the kids over to mum's place then spent the entire afternoon perched on a hill watching how the fire was progressing to see if it was going to jump the road into the bush next to our house. Thankfully, it didn't and we are safe. It did, however, take the firefighters over 2 days to get the fire under control.

I took this photo standing in the bush next to our house. See the houses on the left... follow that fence line back behind where I am standing and at the bottom of the hill, we are the second house in. You can see why I was panicking about the fire getting onto our side of the road. About a couple of hundres meteres down the road is a petrol station which the fire fighters defending furiously... and directly behind this wall of flames is a Wildlife Park which they also managed to save.... these people truly deserve a medal.

By the way... this little section of fire is just a very small part of the entire length of it

For 2 days it felt like we were in the middle of a war zone. There were helicopters and water bomber planes everywhere flying super fast and really quite low. Aiden was actually getting a bit freaked out about the amount of air traffic above our house.

Some layouts...

2010-12-02T13:27:00.000+08:00

A couple of weekends ago we went with some friends out to Serpentine. We introduced them to geocaching or 'Treasure Hunting' as we call it and we spent some time exploring the area and the dam. Here's a pic of Megan playing on one of the playgrounds in a picnic area.

Megan...

Another one of Megan...

This photo of Hank & Vicki was taken when they were here visiting us about a month ago

We recently bought some clippers to cut Dave & Aiden's hair at home. This was the first time we had done Aiden's so we left a mohawk which he spiked for the whole weekend....and yes, we cut it off before school on Monday!

On Sunday we went to the zoo for Dave's work Christmas party... the kids had a blast. They got all sorts of treats and had their face painted. I'm yet to scrap the cool dragon had on his face.

I'm on a roll...

2010-11-25T13:50:00.001+08:00

I've scrapped two days in a row!

It's all in an effort to get well... I had an appointment with my ENT specialist yesterday and he spent five minutes congratulating himself for finally getting rid of my sinus infection after 3 1/2 months and then he informed me that my residual pain was all due to stress... he then spent the next half hour lecturing me about being a stress-head. So, here I am... doing something I particularly enjoy in an effort to make me happy ;)

You know what else would make me happy? I feel like I am talking to an empty audience. If you're reading my blog then it would be nice to let me know you're there and leave a comment once in a while.... pleeeeeeaaaaase...

Hellooooo out there!

2010-11-23T16:54:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm still here! Wondering where I've been? In one word... sick. The last few months haven't been much fun for me...

Anyhow, I have managed a couple of pages recently and thought you might like to see them...

This one was taken on my birthday back in November:

Last weekend we were trecking through the bush doing some treasure hunting (geocaching):

The Girls...

2010-09-29T16:11:00.003+08:00

I LOVE this photo.... the girls are all sitting together in the water taxi in Rotterdam.

From left to right... Rachel, Michelle, Megan & Mariaan

Mandurah Quays

2010-09-27T16:21:00.001+08:00

We headed over to Mandurah Quays this morning for a walk/ride/treasure hunt. Dave and I worked out that we hadn't been there for several years... I had forgotten how nice a spot it is. We also managed to find a local geocache adding to the adventure for the kids.

A whole lot of layouts...

2010-09-27T09:39:00.000+08:00

It seems like every time I write on my blog it's to tell you about the million excuses why I haven't written more often! Anyway, my excuse this time is that I have been really sick... as well as the chest flu thing that everyone else has had, I have also had a sinus infection for about 5 weeks now... I have been in a world of pain the last couple of weeks. Poor Dave has had to deal with tired, cranky children as well as a tired, cranky and in tears wife...

On a positive note, Hank & Vicki are coming for a visit! We're now on the countdown... 4 weeks to go...

Here are some scrapbook layouts I've done over the past few weeks...

These photos were taken last weekend at an open day for Dave's work

A photo from Father's Day at the beginning of September

This was our cabin we stayed in whilst in the Netherlands... it was perfect!

Megan in Rotterdam

Rachel & Michelle... gorgeous as ever

Our beautiful, generous, loving and much loved Uncle Chris & Aunty Willy

One of the rides at Disneland

On some steps out the front of St Paul's Cathedral in London

Our whirlwind tour of London... thanks to Rob

Some photo's of Megan on her birthday back in June

An old photo... taken last summer

He loves the water...

2010-09-18T07:27:00.002+08:00

Some layouts

2010-09-18T07:24:00.001+08:00

Croissants in France

2010-09-08T09:08:00.001+08:00

When we drove from Holland down to Paris we stopped in Antwerp (Belgium) for morning tea then in Lille (France) for lunch...

Aiden & Ben

2010-09-07T14:19:00.002+08:00

Everyone knows Aiden ADORES his cousin Ben... the give away is the following around like a lost puppy, the hanging off his arm, the parrotting everything Ben says... need I go on? Lucky for us, Ben is a real sport about it!

Here they are all dressed up in their Dutch outfits:

Look what I've been reduced to...

2010-09-06T15:18:00.001+08:00

... domestic duties!

Merit Certificate

2010-09-06T10:33:00.002+08:00

The Friday before last, Aiden received his very first Merit Certificate at school. He even got to stand up in front of the entire assembly to receive it. To say he was chuffed with himself is an understatement! Yes, we were pretty chuffed (& proud) too...

If you're wondering why he's a tiger and the Deputy Principal is a scarecrow, it was Book Week Dress Up day.

Father's Day

2010-09-05T16:16:00.000+08:00

It's Father's Day today! Here's a look at how Dave's day started:

A special HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my dad, George, and to Dave's dad, Hank... we love you both ;)

Castle Spotting

2010-08-31T15:36:00.001+08:00

Ride

2010-08-30T12:25:00.001+08:00

Megan enjoying the bike ride yesterday too...

No trainer wheels!

2010-08-29T16:36:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was a milestone day in the BK household... Aiden rode his bike without trainer wheels for the first time ever! Of course, I didn't have a camera with me yesterday, but I managed to get some happy snaps today when we went up to the park to practice.

Mother's Day

2010-08-25T19:43:00.003+08:00

Megan

2010-08-24T20:22:00.000+08:00

Clogs

2010-08-24T19:27:00.003+08:00

Family Portrait

2010-08-23T13:44:00.006+08:00

How much fun was this? We went to a fishing village called 'Volendam' and got all dressed up in traditional Dutch costumes just for this photo. Do we look like a nice Dutch family?

I don't know if you can see but we all have the traditional clogs on too... and no, they are not comfortable nor easy to walk in!

Pimm's

2010-08-23T12:54:00.003+08:00

Vicki posted a challenge to do a scrapbook layout with only pictures of inanimate objects (no people allowed). So, I scrapped about her introducing me to Pimm's while we were in the UK...

Vianden Castle - Luxembourg

2010-08-20T20:11:00.003+08:00

We're home

2010-08-20T10:57:00.000+08:00

I know, I know. Some of you had hoped to track the progress of our holiday while we were there. But we were so busy! For the last couple of weeks we were up and out on the road first thing and we weren't getting home till 7-8pm. I really didn't spend any time at home, let alone on my computer to keep up with my blog posts... so sorry about that ;)

You will just have to be happy with my scrapbook pages... I promise to post all my pages here...

Europe Post #7

2010-07-28T04:36:00.000+08:00

Our second day in Paris was spent at Disneyland. The kids had a ball and believe it or not they lasted all day from when we arrived at 10am till we left at 8.30pm... Trust me, it turned out to be an expensive day. We reckon we spent 300 Euro - that's $450 AUD.

Here are the kids when we first arrived - you reckon they were excited?

The pink fairy castle at the entrance to Fairyland... Vicki will be happy to know that Megan finally saw her real life princess!

There was a carousel that Megan wanted to ride. Anyone that knows Aiden, knows he is a wimp when it comes to rides that move under him... check out the first photo... he was sooking and whinging that he was too afaraid to ride the horse...then check out the grin in the second photo when it actually started moving...

There was a Buzz Lightyear ride where you sat in these carriages and went through a dark tunnel shooting the bad guys with you laser gun... it was waaaaaaaaaay cool! Dave and Megan were sitting in the carriage behind Aiden and I.

This was the car ride Aiden really wangted to go on... Dave has his foot on the accelerator but Aiden is driving...that is one happy grin!

Megan and I in our "Princess Yellow" car. (Turns out she fell in love with Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast... and Belle wears a yellow ball gown)

Megan's favourite ride was called "It's A Small World". It would drive most people insane... we went on it 3 times! You sit in a boat that goes through a tunnel with the song "It's a Small World" playing over and over and over again and there are dolls dressed up from all around the world... believe it or not it is actually quite well done. This is the look of anticipation on her face when we are entering the tunnel for the second time (so she knew what was coming)

Europe Post #6

2010-07-28T04:15:00.000+08:00

Now to the Dutch part of our trip...I will try my hardest to remember to say "The Netherlands". I have been saying we were going to "Holland" but have since found out that is like calling Australia by the name "Victoria" or "Queensland"...

Thankfully, when we first arrived we were invited to our Uncle Chris and Aunt Willy's house for a meal... they are the instigators of this once-in-a-lifetime family reunion... Here's a shot of Dave standing in their back yard... yep, that's right... EVERYONE here has water at the end of their backyard or their driveway crosses over a canal or there is water somewhere near the house... it is incredibly nerve-wracking when you have two young children...

We had barely set foot in The Netherlands when we took off and headed for France with Dave's mum & dad, brother, sister-in-law and family. Coming from Australia is was down right freaky getting in a car and travelling through 3 different countries in one day! Our first stop was in Antwerp in Belgium. It seems that every European city has a "Market Square"... here are the buildings and statue in Antwerp... VERY impressive and VERY different to what I'm used to in Australia.

Next stop was Lille, just inside the French border. Again, photos taken in the main square.

Of course, when you come to France you eat croissants!

Unfortunately, it took us the most part of a day to get to Paris, so we only had one day to look around. Do I think we did Paris justice in a day? Not at all. We missed out on seeing the Notre Dame, I didn't get to Sacre Couer and no doubt there are many more interesting things that will just have to wait until next time...

What we did see was the Arc de Triomphe

and the Eiffel Tower...

We climbed to the second floor and trust me, that was A LOT of stairs. Poor Dave had to do it all carrying 15kgs of added weight since Megan has pretty much refused to walk ANYWHERE since we got here...

This is the view from one spot... it was magnificent to say the least...

Next we found our way to the Louvre... this is obviously taken downstairs inside the building

And this is when we met with a HUGE disappointment... the sign says the Louvre is not open on Tuesdays... and yep, we were there on Tuesday. We had decided to go in and at least find the Mona Lisa so we actually were quite disappointed.

This is the Louvre from outside... like all the buildings in France it was very classice and elegant. I have to say that Paris is one of the prettiest cities I've been in and I love the style of architecture.

The 'thing to do' outside the Louvre is sit around the water fountain with your feet in the water (it WAS hot - about 32 deg C I think). Here's our two having a play.

Europe Post #5

2010-07-28T03:46:00.000+08:00

OK, I know it has taken a while to get to this post but trust me, we've been busy!

Our last full day in Bristol was spent with Vicki at the Bristol Zoo. It was pretty cool seeing some animals we don't usually see in our home zoo, like the okapi below, the prairie dogs, flamingoes, pygmy hippopotamus and of course, the gorillas (there were more but I can't remember right now).

We went to a hands on demonstration where Megan happily held this Tasmanian (that's in Australia) stick insect... of course Aiden wouldn't go near it!

After the zoo Vicki took us to see thre famous Bristol Suspension Bridge... it is veeeeeery high up! Of course, it wouldn't be summer in England without rain LOL! So we didn't get to walk over the bridge...

Here we are making our way back to the car... in the rain... that's English weather for you! Vicki reckoned she's a local so she should have known better than getting caught out without an umbrella or a jacket...

Unfortunately, the next day we had to bid Vicki and Rob farewell and head over to the The Netherlands. To say we enjoyed our time with them is an understatement... we had a blast! Now I will wait patiently for them to come and visit me in Australia...

Europe Post #4

2010-07-15T14:56:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we took a train into London to do some sightseeing. It was a looong day, we left here at 9am and arrived home at 10pm. 3 hours was sitting in a train to London but other than that we walked the whole day... and unbelievably, Aiden managed to keep going the whole time (can't say the same for Megan, poor Dave had to carry a dead weight for most of the day).

Here are some happy snaps from our day...

As soon as we got to London we headed for the Underground

We walked through St James' park to get to Buckingham Palace

A happy snap of the group.... Rob & Vicki on the right. Rob was our 'official' tour guide for the day... he set a fast pace but we managed to squeeze in a lot of stuff!

Next stop, Trafalgar Square... unfortunately, it was too hard to get a photo of the entire square

Another pic of Trafalgar Square... notice Big Ben in the background (to the right of Dave's head)

These were street buskers. They were statues and when you put a coin in their bowl they would move slightly. Vicki gave Aiden some money to have a go... I missed the photo op after this when he bent over to take his coin back out of the bowl... that's Aussie class for you!

The kids standing in front of St Paul's Cathedral. The only disappointing thing of the day was not going inside, but it was quite expensive and I don't think the kids would have appreciated it

Our final sight... the Tower Bridge. We were even fortunate enough to watch it open to let a boat through

So that's how you do London in a day...

We have been on the go since we've been here so today, at last, is a day of rest. Aiden has been hassling Vicki about the zoo so I think that's the plan for tomorrow.

Europe Post #3

2010-07-14T15:18:00.000+08:00

Our next day of sightseeing was to a town called Bath... in one word, beautiful. It is so European... and VERY different to Australia. The buildings are all made of the local Bath stone which is a light sandstone colour and there are actually hanging baskets of flowers everywhere... on shop fronts, on lamp posts...

At the moment there is a charity event where 100 lions have been decorated and placed all around the city... we managed to spot about 30 of them.

This is the Bath Abbey. Again, Dave and I have never been in an old church like this so it was extremely impressive. The detail everywhere like the ceilings and the stained glass windows were mind blowing.

To end our day we visited Audrey & Brian, some long, lost friends from Australia.

Europe Post #2

2010-07-14T15:08:00.000+08:00

You wouldn't believe the day we had... Vicki took us into Wales to go castle spotting. It was absolutely, positively AMAZING. Dave and I have never seen anything like this so we were blown away.

The first castle is in Chepstow... this photo below doesn't do it justice AT ALL. The right side of the castle is actually built on a cliff face overlooking an estuary and the whole thing extends quite a way back.

Here's an overhead picture I found on the net:

Vicki and I posing for a photo somewhere inside the castle:

I had to show you this... we stopped at a little pub for lunch and over here it is typical to have potato chips (crisps NOT hot chips) served with your lunch....

Next stop was Tintern Abbey... we weren't really prepared to be impressed.... but believe me, we were! It was massive! It is such a shame these beautiful buildings are in ruin.

Finally, we visited Raglan Castle... this was almost exactly like the stereotypical picture I had in my head of a castle. The second photo is the view from the top of the tower (the tower is shown on the left side of the first photo). We searched high and low for the resident princess but in the end had to convince Megan the princess was out shopping for shoes...

Europe Post #1

2010-07-14T14:47:00.000+08:00

We're here! Believe it or not, getting here was not too bad... We had 5 1/2 hours to Kuala Lumpur and the kids were VERY well behaved (not sure why?? but we were grateful). We then had a 12 1/2 hour flight to Amsterdam and the kids slept for about 7 hours of that... so again it wasn't so bad. Things turned a little pear shape by the time we had to sit around the airport in Amsterdam and the bus station in London... but all in all I don't think I have too many more grey hairs!

Our first day in Bristol was spent meeting Vicki & Rob's friends and watching Holland not win the World Cup... despite the loss it was a fantastic day and I now know the wonderful world of Pimm's (a VERY English alcoholic beverage).

Rachel...

2010-01-31T11:05:00.003+11:00

Check out this photo of Rachel (my niece)... isn't she gorgeous! I instantly fell in love with this photo. It was taken at Phillip Island when we were in Melbourne at Christmas time.

I couldn't help myself... I had to have a tinker with it...

Here's the original:
A bit of colour pop:

Background added:

All sorts of stuff added:

Another Photoshop picture...

2010-01-31T11:00:00.001+11:00

Photoshop

2010-01-26T23:41:00.003+11:00

I bought a graphic art magazine the other day... I have always wanted to try using Photoshop in a more sophisticated way. Anyhow, here are my first three attempts...

You can see Aiden standing at the water's edge...

A (very) brief family update

2009-12-16T11:17:00.004+11:00

Here's a look at a few events that have occurred over the past six months...

We had Dave's work Xmas party for the kids on the weekend.... here's a look at how Megan reacted to Santa last year...
...and here they are this year.... sitting patiently waiting for Santa to give them their presents... Megan was so keen she was slowly creeping closer and closer...

But she still wasn't quite keen enough to sit on his lap

Aiden & Santa

Santa asking if Dave has been a good boy??

The most exciting thing in the B-K household is the installation of a shiny new pool. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't figure out how to sink a full size below ground pool (mainly due to restrictions about how close you can be to a fence/house, etc). So, we went to K-Mart and bought this $500 metal frame above ground pool. It's only 3 feet deep so Aiden can stand and we have only actually filled it to about 3/4 so Megan can stand too. Of course, the kids LOVE it...

The patio had had a bit of a make-over to go with the pool. A general re-arrangement of furniture and some clear alsonite sheeting to replace some of the patio roofing...for the first time since we have lived here the patio area is actually appealing to be in...

It's that time of the year... the Christmas tree is up...

We tried very hard to get a family photo with all four of us in front of the tree... but this was Megan's thought on that matter...

They had an open day at the place where Dave & I were married so we took the kids for a look... this is just a nice pic of Dave & Megan. He was standing in that very spot for some of our wedding photos.

We were lucky enough to have some visitors back in September. Dave's Uncle Frank and Aunty Ellie were here from Melbourne... the kids adored them! The day they turned up was Frank's birthday... so we celebrated with some cake.

Hank & Vicki (Oma & Opa) came for their usual mid-year visit too.

Scrapbook Pages

2009-12-16T10:50:00.002+11:00

It's been about six months so I thought I should post a few pics. The next six posts are all the scrapbook layouts I've done since July. The layouts are in the order that I made them... the date written above each page is the date the photo was taken.

December 2009 Hmmm.... obviously not a photo of one of us... it was a cat theme kit so I found this picture on the internet

Aiva... one of Megan's friends

Scrapbook Pages

2009-12-16T10:46:00.000+11:00

December 2007 February 2007

August 2008

September 2009

June 2009

Scrapbook Pages

2009-12-16T10:41:00.001+11:00

August 2009 July 2009

October 2009

July 2009

October 2009

Scrapbook Pages

2009-12-16T10:37:00.001+11:00

October 2009 October 2009

September 2009

October 2003

Scrapbook Pages

2009-12-16T10:32:00.001+11:00

October 2007 September 2009

September 2009

July 2009

Scrapbook Pages

2009-12-16T10:27:00.001+11:00

August 2009 September 2009

September 2009

October 2008

February 2009

Scrapbook Pages

2009-12-16T10:07:00.002+11:00

January 2009 April 2006

August 2009

July 2009

April 2008

Scrapbook Pages

2009-07-27T10:01:00.004+08:00

Sorry.... it's been a little while since I posted some stuff. Dates are when the photo was taken.

April 2008 - 10 mths
July 2009

December 2007 - 6 months old

March 2008 - Aiden's 3rd birthday

May 2009 - our farm visit when Oma & Opa were here

August 2007 - Aiden 2 1/2 yrs

May 2008

March 2009 - photo taken by Kerri at Jordi's birthday party

Photos

2009-07-06T07:26:00.002+08:00

Here are some photos that Kerri took at Megan's birthday party.

Megan & Grandad

Charlotte all dressed up!

More scrapbook pages

2009-07-06T07:19:00.003+08:00

The kids helping me make the cupcakes for Megan's birthday...This is the look on Megan's face just after Nana had lit the candles and everyone started to sing Happy Birthday

This is an older photo from Dave's birthday back in March

I designed a baby theme kit for my store so I had to pull out some old baby photos to scrap!

Scrapbook Pages

2009-07-06T07:11:00.002+08:00

It's been a couple of weeks so I have a few pages to show you...

Photo taken at Easter earlier this year
A really old (but gorgeous) photo of Charlotte

This was the morning of Megan's birthday... of course, Aiden got a present too

Walking to school in the rain... Aiden wore this jacket and I also had a particularly attractive bright yellow one... we looked like mother duck walking baby duck...

Another one from Megan's birthday... she hadn't quite woken up yet thus the faraway look

Megan's Birthday

2009-06-21T07:59:00.003+08:00

Megan had a fantastic birthday! We had 18 kids (plus parents) here for a party and becasue of the bad weather we were stuck inside. They ran amok and let me tell you... it was noisy and chaotic... but fun.

Thank you to all the well wishes and birthday gifts.

Here are some photos of the day...

This photo was taken just as we started singing the Happy Birthday song... she turned a bit shy when she realised they were all looking at her.

This is our favourite photo of the day. When Megan first woke up we all piled into her bedroom bearing presents (she was a little overwhelmed by Aiden's enthusiasm!). They both received books from Oma & Opa and here they are inspecting them.

I decided to do cupcakes this year instead of a single cake - it worked a treat and I would DEFINITELY do it that way again.

Nana lighting the candles and Megan showing her excitement

Megan didn't quite wait for us to finish the hip hip hoorays before she blew out the candles so we weren't ready for the photo opportunity.

Enjoying her cake

Thanks to everyone who came along to help us celebrate Megan's special day. And a special thanks to Cass who took most of these photos for me ;)

Scrapbook Pages

2009-06-19T21:38:00.003+08:00

This is a reeeaaally old photo of Aiden This photo was taken on Aiden's birthday back in March

This photo is a recent one - taken two weekends ago

Scrapbook Page

2009-06-07T20:17:00.003+08:00

Me having fun on the bouncy cushion in Busselton...

Scrapbook Pages

2009-06-06T20:47:00.001+08:00

Both photos taken in Feburuary this year by my friend Kerri (professional photographer in the making)

Hello again!

2009-06-06T20:32:00.004+08:00

Yes, yes, I know... it's been 6 months since I posted here. I have been SO busy with my scrapping stuff on my other blog that this one fell a bit by the wayside. BUT, I am back now after succumbing to incredible pressure from my inlaws :)... OK, maybe it was just a little bit of pressure!

Apparently there are some of you out there who 1) are still on dial-up internet speed so you don't want to wade through all my scrapping stuff just to see pics of the kids and 2) some of you just don't want to see the scrapping stuff! So, here's the solution. I promise when I post a page where I have used photos of the kids I will attempt to remember to post it here too. And I will try to post some family photos too.

Here's your first instalment... some photos from our little family holiday down to Busselton when Hank & Vicki (aka Opa & Oma) came to visit.

It was Aiden's turn to take home his class dog, Dopey. Dopey came everywhere with us and featured in quite a few photos.

At the place where we stayed there was an awesome bouncy cushion (a bit like a trampoline) the kids (ahem... Dave) thought it was pretty cool.

Oma & Opa watching the bouncing

Our accomodation was just across the road from the beach

You can't go to Busselton without visitng the historic jetty (this isn't it... it's right next door to this one). I managed to snap a shot of the whole family all looking at the camera which is a first.

We made a special trip to an animal park where they gave each of us a bag of food to feed all the animals... Aiden was surprisingly fearless from the start...

Megan took a long while to warm up to the idea... it wasn't until we got to the small animals like rabbits and guinea pigs that she felt comfortable.

Some pages

2008-12-10T19:21:00.002+08:00

Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been bad at keeping up with this blog. I hope you've figured out by now that all the action is happening on my Sweet Blossom blog. As of this morning I have had 100,000 hits on that blog. Yep, you read that right, 100,000!

Anyhow, I am posting a heap of pages for you to look at. They're all on my other blog so you may have already seen them.

This is my latest kit called Happiness. I created it specially to scrap our wedding photos.

2008-12-10T19:16:00.002+08:00

This photo is Aiva, one of our mum's group kids. She's a couple of months older than Megan.

An old photo of Megan (a few months old)

An old photo of Aiden (taken early last year I think)

2008-12-10T19:09:00.003+08:00

The first two pages are photos of the kids putting up the Christmas tree this year. Each year it's getting more and more exciting now they are getting to the age where they know that Christmas time is something special...

Photos of Aiden playing in the backyard taken a few weeks ago

Hellloooooo...

2008-11-30T20:03:00.005+08:00

...long time no post! Sorry about that. Things have been a bit busy here at home and with my scrappin'.

Firstly, a super quick update:

Dave: work, work, work... but he's finally got off his butt and gone back to volleyball and is enjoying it

Aiden: is doing REALLY well at swimming lessons. He had a year or so off because 1) Megan was born and 2) he was playing up at the lessons we were doing. The time off has worked wonders! He is loving the lessons, doing really well AND is well behaved!

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not but we went and got his school uniform a few weeks back. He is super excited about starting school next year.

Megan: has started swimming lessons too. She was pretty miserable for the first few weeks but for the last two lessons she seems to have got the hang of it. It is just now starting to be fun to take her to the pool.

We think she said her first sentence today and it was, "Get my shoes"... which gives you an idea of what a 1 1/2 year old thinks is the most important thing in the world... her shoes!

Megan has spent most of her time playing with Aiden's cars and it is only recently that we gave her a doll in a pram... and what do you know... she has turned all girly on us and dotes on her "Baby"! Apart from her Baby and her shoes, Aiden is still her favourite... she does whatever he does, goes wherever he goes... but still screams blue muder if he takes a toy away from her!

Me: I have just finished marking 100 maths exams for uni... yes I'm over it!

My scrapbooking has taken me to places I would never have imagined. I have been selected to join a digital scrapbooking magazine as a Digital Designer. It means I will do layouts to be published in the magazine, I will be part of designing the actual magazine pages and I will be creating digital freebies to be given away on their website... hmmm I think I'm gonna be busy. If you want to check out the magazine (it's free to subscribe) or just have a look at the forum the link is http://www.scrapnart.com/news.php

OK, that's enough gossip, here's some pages I've done.

Photo of Megan taken October 2008

Photo of Aiden taken November 2008

Photos of the kids taken back in January 2008

Here's a couple of pages done with the latest kit I have designed... I'm pretty chuffed with how this one turned out. I've included a preview of the kit:

This is a photo of a girlfriend's daughter:

Dave and I on our anniversary:

More scrapbook pages

2008-11-19T18:39:00.003+08:00

These layouts are all CT pages done for Nini-lolo Designs.

This photo of Charlotte was taken about a year ago (I think):

Aiden and I at the Royal Show after he got off the truck ride - he was pretty excited:

Kit: Black Gold by Nini-lolo Designs

These photos of Aiden are waaaay old - I had to go digging through my stash of photos to find christmas shots.

These photos were taken last christmas:

Kit: Bientot Noel by Nini-lolo Designs

Scrapbook pages

2008-11-19T18:28:00.002+08:00

I love this photo of Megan - it was taken when she was in the bath a couple of weeks ago:

Kit: Candy Dreams by A Work In Progress - Designs by Vicki

The next two pages are done using the latest kit I gave designed called Surf's Up.

An old photo of Megan taken back in Janurary:

We have just bought Aiden a pair of goggles for his swimming lessons so of course he needs to wear them in the bath! And yes, he says 'gobbles'...

Oui - Another CT team

2008-11-15T20:16:00.001+08:00

I have had the honour of being selected for a third Creative Team. Laurence (also know as Nini-lolo) is a French lady who designs some pretty awesome stuff. Here are my first couple of pages using her latest kit "Envie de Douceur". It took a bit of effort for me to get this kit - Laurence doesn't speak a word of English and I, of course, wouldn't know French if it bit me in the bum! So as you can imagine, communication is a bit tricky, but with the help of Babelfish I think we'll manage!

Also - thanks to Cass for these fantastic photos of Lucas.

A Layout

2008-11-12T13:22:00.002+08:00

These photos of Aiden are his poses when he is playing catch with Dad...

Kit: 10 Novembre by Tinette Designs

Some scrapbooking pages

2008-11-11T18:50:00.002+08:00

Here's a couple of pages I've done recently...

This photo of Aiden was taken about two weeks ago

This picture of Megan & I was also taken about two weeks ago when we rocked up at Kings Park to watch the Red Bull Air Races only to have missed ALL the aeroplanes by about 10 minutes - DOH!

Here's my current pride and joy! I made a collaborative scrapbook kit with Vicki called "Enchanted Forest". Here's a look at my part of the kit:

...and here are a couple of pages using a combination of mine and Vicki's kits:

More layouts

2008-11-06T07:43:00.002+08:00

The first couple of pages are from my birthday. The top page has the photos of the present opening in the morning - note on the bottom photo that the kids are pointing out the wrapping paper that they decorated for me and the top photo has Megan playing with my new shoes (she LOVES shoes). The second page has our bithday dinner party with obligatory cake/candles/song.

The photos on these pages are from a couple of weekends ago when we went to Kings Park... it is a beautiful spot - hopefully we will take the kids there more often.

Some layouts

2008-11-06T07:32:00.005+08:00

I was speaking to my mother-in-law last night and she pointed out the fact that I have been a bit slack of late and haven't posted much here... Well, I can't deny it, I HAVE been a bit slack! I have been spending pretty much all my free time on designing scrapbook stuff rather than scrapping my family photos. I have, however, done a few CT pages and pages for my kits which I've just not got around to posting. So here they are:

This is an old pic of Megan from back in January (I think):

The next two pages are photos taken about 2-3 weekends ago on an outing to the playground:

Our weekend

2008-11-03T10:49:00.002+08:00

We had a busy one! Saturday morning we hit the shops for some serious shopping... coming home with a new portable DVD player for the kids and new bike seats.

We have been considering buying a portable DVD player for a while to help us deal with two bored children on long car trips and flights. We ended up getting one that has two screens which easily attach to the back of the car seats. Our first test run was on Saturday afternoon when we had to go up to Perth. These photos show the kids all set up - movie on and a snack box full of food - life doesn't get any better than this! Megan had this funny look on her face for a while - I think she wasn't sure what was going on... but Aiden knew he had it pretty good from the start:

Our other big purchase was a bike seat for Megan and this bike attachment thingy for Aiden. You probably think he should be riding his own bike by now... and that's what we think too... but he just wont pedal all by himself. This is a great setup for Dave and I to get off our bums and do a bit more exercise... I am imagining some riding trips to the beach over summer.

Aiden loved his setup but Megan wasn't so sure. She got quite upset when we were trying the helmet on her and when we first put her in the seat. However, once we got going and she could see Aiden on the back of Daddy's bike next to her she settled down and was happy to be there.

I have scrapped a photo taken of her when we first put her in the seat:

Father & Son

2008-10-27T15:03:00.002+08:00

Brett & Lucas - another photo from the collection that Cass gave me:

Kit: Reflection - Digi-designs by Nicole