Happy Birthday Isaac!

Isaac turned 9 a few weeks ago!  9?  Can he really be that old already?

He brought popsicles to school (it's getting warm here in Gladstone) and wanted to open his presents right away after school.  He got a Star Wars Rebels Lego set.  (We found the first season of Star Wars Rebels at the library about a month ago and REALLY enjoyed it!  We're eager to get our hands on the next season!)

And Isaac got a remote control quad copter.  It's been tricky to learn!

Isaac was lucky enough to have soccer on his birthday and get home in time for his Jaffa cake!  Jaffas are orange flavored chocolate balls (which are the red balls on the cake).  The whole cake was a chocolate orange.  It was not my prettiest cake, that's for sure.  Luckily the kids are easy to please.

Happy birthday to our wonderful son who is getting handsomer every day!  We sure do love him!

Cania Gorge Camping

We survived a family camping trip!  And (wait for it)... we all really enjoyed it!  We drove 2.5 hours to Cania Gorge Camping and Caravan Park where we stayed for two nights.  It was a great place for such novice campers such as ourselves.  They had flushing toilets and electrical ports (for caravans), which came in handy for our griddle and electric kettle.  We were lucky to borrow some things from our more avid camper friends: a Dutch oven, gas camping stove, a foldout "kitchen" which was a neat contraption of countertop and shelves, a canopy, and a trailer to put everything in!  That's what gets me is all the STUFF you need to go camping!  

We got there and set up the tent in the rain.  We were SO grateful for the easy-up canopy so the kids and I could huddle under it while Mike did all the hard work in his rain coat.  Then we reheated homemade beef stew on the camping stove and I made funny flat biscuits on the griddle.  We were grateful for the amazing rain fly on our tent because it rained more in the night.  Cozy in the tent.

Here's me catching up on some sleep.  Cuz guess who heard ALL the rain?  And ALL the coughs and grunts and cries in the middle of the night?  This mama.  Next time I'm using ear plugs.

The sun came out the next morning and dried up all the rain and it was gorgeous!  Beautiful king parrots came to visit us before breakfast!  Our caravan neighbors gave us the tip that they'd eat almonds out of our hands. 

Mike cooking scrambled eggs and hashbrowns in the background.  Our awesome tent.

Lydia when two of the parrots came for the same almond.

There was even a pair of kangaroos that hung around the place.  I love Australia!  

Evelyn making hot chocolate for breakfast.

Chilling with the littlies. 

After breakfast the kids tried out the jumping pillows.  Giant air filled bladders mounted in sand. These things are cool!  

And even a separate smaller one for littler people.  

Then we set out on one of the many walking trails.  We went on a short hike and saw some beautiful rocks!

Can you see the handprints, hunter, and painted emu?

Another handprint on the ceiling.

We climbed into the Two Story Cave and saw tiny bats!  Too dark for bat pictures, but the cave itself was neat!  

On our way back to camp we did some off-roading and drove by the beautiful Cania Lake, which would have been fun to stop at if the kids weren't so crazy excited to get back to the... WATER SLIDE!

Yeah, this caravan park has the coolest amenities!  A miniature water park!  Too bad the water was so COLD!  But the kids didn't care.

Every evening they have bird feeding (when it's not raining).  Lydia was the only one who wanted to come.  Everyone else wanted to stay and watch Daddy set up the campfire.  Lydia with some lorikeets.

Wild cockatoos and galahs even come for the free meal, but they're not as friendly as the lorikeets.

Hooray for a fire!  What is camping without roasting marshmallows?  Good thing we still had some American ones tucked away.

And Mike made a Dutch oven peach cobbler!  Yum!

The next morning we were eager to get the fire back up as it was a might chilly!  

Bridget feeding Alice.

Nothing like a good game of soccer with camp neighbors to get the blood flowing.  We met a lot of really nice people.

Enjoying our last meal before packing up.  Pancakes, cantaloupe, and leftover cobbler.  Mmm!

It was so much fun!  I surprised myself that I could say that when it was over.  We all had such a good time, except maybe for Alice because we didn't let her eat nearly as many leaves as she would have liked.  We just may go camping again sometime!

Camping!

LWe went camping!  And survived!  Not only survived, but we all had a great time.  We drive 2.5 hours to Cania Gorge Camping and Caravan Park where we sent up camp.  In the rain.  I was sooo grateful our next door neighbors let us borrow their canopy.  It was the first thing up so we could huddle under it while Mike put up the tent in his rain coat.  Once the tent was up it stopped raining.  Go figure.

We were grateful for the generosity of other friends and coworkers who lent us things.  Being novice campers as we are, we own a tent and sleeping bags and that's about it.  That first night we reheated homemade beef stew on a borrowed gas camping stove and I made flat biscuits on our electric griddle.  Oh, we had a powered site, meaning we had an electrical outlet.  Hence the griddle.  I know, I know, having electricity is hardly camping, but you know, this was a step beyond our back yard so there.  AND there were flushing toilets.  I am not a "roughing it" kind of girl.  

The next morning the sun came up and dried up all the rain and gave us a beautiful day!  And we got visitors.  King parrots which, from the advice of our caravan neighbors, ate almonds out of our hands.

 

Bake Sale

The kids put on a bake sale.  All by themselves!  I supervised, but they did all the work.  They even washed all their dishes (especially since Mike threatened to charge them $5 a dish if he had to wash any).  Isaac made a LOT of chocolate chip cookies.

Evelyn made lemonade.

And Lydia made cinnamon rolls.

They set up in the front yard (after having made and passed out fliers to the neighbors a few days before).  Our next door neighbor let them borrow a canopy to keep the lemonade cool.

Another neighbor even brought chocolate crackles for them to sell.  We have such good neighbors. The sale was a success and the kids made bank!  $81.  Well done, kids!