the midnight scrapper

operation christmas child...

I first learnt about this charity project from Mel's blog and thought it would be a good project for the boys and I to organise for Christmas. Operation Christmas Child send shoe boxes filled with gifts to children that live in very poor areas of the world.

The idea is to fill the box with items that include personal care items, educational items, clothing like socks or undies or hats and shirts and a toy or something special.

We decided to put together both boy and girl boxes and each time I did the groceries I threw a couple of items in. Boxes were picked up last week and are now on their way.

If you would like to send a "shoebox" to a child this year, you will need to get to it becaue boxes need to be in by the end of October.

 

Is it wrong that I enjoyed putting the girl boxes together just a little more than the boys ones!!

world masters games: third place...hell yeah!

Just to add to the general craziness around here during the October school holidays, Gary competed in the World Masters Games in Sydney. We arrived home from New Zealand about lunchtime on the Wednesday and Gary tipped out his bag of dirty clothes, packed fresh gear and headed back up to the games.

He was playing indoor volleyball in the 45+ division. The team had not spent a lot of time together before the games and we were very excited when they came second in their pool. Next up he beat out the team his brother was playing in (sorry Rod) and then went on to play off for 3rd. And they did it.

Very exciting indeed. We went up to see him play on the Friday and took a few action shots...

And here they are...winners (3rd place) are grinners!

 

And if you are really good, and put your cotton gloves on, he might just let you touch it!!!!!!

 

Well done Gaz!

And the title of this post is a sort of quote from the movie "Bring it On", only they came in second, but then you would know that if you have watched it 400 times like we have!!

he's home and he had the BEST time ever...

While we were holiday in freezing New Zealand, Oscar was sweating it out in Vietnam on his 11 day history excursion. Nice. I know I sure was excited when I had one night at Jenolan Caves as my senior school excursion back in the day!

I took the day off work to meet him at the airport...

After a little public display of affection (in front of his mates!!!!) we headed home to stories, presents and photos...

 

I was so happy with the great photos he took; he must have listened to my advice: stand still, use natural light and get in close for some detail shots. Ahhh, made his mum proud :)

I am sure we are only hearing half the stories that he has to tell LOL but he is now on a mission to save up and go somewhere else for schoolies next year (OMG - year 12, where did those years go????)


  

nearly time to get our spooky on...

Plans are once again underway for byron's spooky party. After last years party byron declared that he wanted to do it every year because it was so much fun. And it was!

So we have been looking for inspiration...

The $2.00 shop had some little treats...

 

We worked on the invitations...

 

We had a little look around etsy and found these cute cake toppers...

To use on the top of these cupcakes ...

Now we just have to drag down the "spooky" box from the shed and countdown the days to the 31st.

BOO!

 

 
 
 
 
  

kia ora...

We are home from New Zealand and we had a great time though the lead up to this holiday was not perfect:

5 days out - I am in bed with a chest infection.

3 days out -  I am sicker than I have been for a long time and I am getting worried. Byron starts to show similar symptoms.

1 day out - I have cried and sooked that life is not fair (oh, the humanity LOL) but at 4.30pm the doctor clears me to fly and I have a bag of drugs to take with me.

30 minutes before limo pickup to the airport - Byron passes out in the shower, but we soldier on.

After all that me make the flight (a little under the weather) and fly into Auckland with our friends (we travelled with another family) to pick up our campervan. Let the holiday begin. Ha!

Our KEA campervan was great, though bigger than we had expected and a sharp learning curve in the driving department for Gary.

Making a travel plan; we basically followed the thermal highway from Auckland - Hamilton - Waitomo - Taupo - Rotorua - Te Puke - Waihi Beach - Auckland, just under 1000km's.

Having your home with you at all times means you can stop anywhere for a picnic...

We got all extreme with a ride on the Rapids Jet. I screamed and laughed and coughed so hard and it was freezing cold and pouring with rain, but lots of fun...

Craters of the Moon geothermal park...

Hell's Gate geothermal Park...

Gary went all extreme and bungy jumped in Taupo...

We went to a traditional Maori hangi...

Byron decided to go all extreme as well and "Zorbed" down this hill. The large plastic ball is filled with some water and then you get inside and basically slosh around like a washing machine as you roll down the hill. He loved it so much he did it twice!

Another entry for our "Big Things" mini album; this time it's the Big Kiwi...

Traditional wood carving...

Arriving home with lots of photos, memories and dirty wet clothes!

 

I have about another 500 photos of this trip and so many more memories, memorabillia and stories. Although Byron and I were not quite 100% we still had a great time.

Now to get the holiday album underway :)

And just incase you were wondering were Oscar was hiding on this holiday, he was not with us. Oscar is on his school excursion to Vietnam (yes, that's right, Vietnam) for 2 weeks. We are missing him terribly and can't wait to see his photos and hear his stories (40 kids + 4 teachers = you know there will be stories LOL)

an exciting scrapbooking development indeed...

As of October 1, I am an official member of the write.click.scrapbook collective. Pretty exciting stuff don't you think?

My bio and first gallery layout have gone up and I keep shaking my head at all the fantastic scrappers who are part of this fab group. 

It's going to be an exciting journey and I am looking forward to the creative challenges ahead (and of course I will be mindful that as the lone Aussie, I must do us proud LOL)

And my very first layout...  

...is all about a silly game we play in the car!

Come over and check out the October gallery, it's pretty good, and I'm not just saying that. Ha!