Gymkhana Junkies...

Miss A & Miss A were THRILLED to take part in their riding school's

Ribbon Day!

They had to circuit arena first, walking and trotting. Then work
horse out in figure of eight (trotting) then bring horse to
controlled stop - both girls nailed it (Pippa with help!) Then they
had to lead the horse, trotting, in a small circle - Megan just loved
it; Pips was not quite so sure about being that close to her horse,
Magnum's head!!

They both won ribbons (everyone did but not all 'placed'!) - Megan
won third place for posture, second for workout and first for
controlled stop; Pips won special awards for posture and workout...
and first place for clean boots (ha ha ha ha!)

Megan wants to buy her horse, Cressida.... she is blind! ... the
horse, not Megan!?! :oD
x

Face fun with pizza dough!

Every so often the Family A head to GPK - a groovy pizza place in

Castle Hill.

They give kids 'raw' dough to play with (Mr A always asks but never
receives!) - up until recently, Pips used to eat the dough leaving no
room for pizza!

... it seems now we have progressed to faceplanting the squidgee stuff!
x

Gone Fishin'

Spring is well and truly on it's way and it's a great time of year to
be out on the water!


Captain A was hoping to make a warranty claim on the fishing rods...
as we didn't catch anything! ... but just quietly, Mrs A knows the
rods weren't to blame.... more the fact that any fish blind enough to
fall for our frozen tiger prawns would have been knocked out by the
significant lead weights sitting about half an inch above the hook!


Suffice to say, we arrived back home with no fish and Captain A once
again in his undies.... :oD 


Don't ask, please, don't ask!
x

Finished!

Yay! ... or boo? Finished the mural... Mrs A is 'unemployed' again!?!

Well... Apart from painting three large canvas pieces, making 450 invites & RSVPs for a school function and designing the next project in the school library!  Oh, and trying to sell greetings cards through the new cafe (not yet open) and making Christmas card samples!

ha ha ha!

Fave bit on mural is the little bird, added as a final adieu!

x

Day two...

"You might want to think twice about boating in Sydney Harbour on your first weekend" a wise King said to Captain A.

"oh-argh me hearties, how bad can it be?" he thought dreamily, "Let's head to Watsons Bay for Fish & Chips".

And so Day Two with our boat unfurls....

Our cruise to the Bridge was fun, fast and fab!  That was, until Crew Anscombe became marginally airborne in the wake of an obnoxious ferry...

We slowed down!

We smoozed into Watsons Bay under a golden sun and with a light wind behind us - how cool we looked...

Captain A hopped off the boat to hunt for lunch.... the water was deeper than the fully clothed Captain had anticipated...

He carried the mini-mates ashore to play on the beach whilst he continued to forage for lunch.  

The anchor hadn't taken properly and the trying-to-remain-cool- Mama A was wondering whether grounding our boat on sand would be ok?  After the third wave nearly joined Mama A IN the boat, she firmly called the Mini-mates to "GET DAD!"

Glad that we were providing some wonderful entertainment for the queuing Doyles customers, (A world-famous fish & chip shop) Captain A, still fully dressed but much heavier for the sodden jeans and full cotton rugby jersey, pushed the boat to safe distance and went back to collect lunch.

The boat, quite fairly, drifted deeper... Captain A had to get mini-mates back on-board.... he only swallowed one mouthful of sea water.

We set sail from Watsons Bay with fish & chips untouched as we were quite keen for our foreshore show to end... Captain A's encore, however was to remove his pants and sail off in his undies.

Grey clouds gathered.

It started hailing... not just little bits of hail - frozen pea sized hail that hit like paintballs on naked skin.

While the mini-mates sheltered under the bow cover, some git was throwing bath-tubs of water over us, pelting us with ice cubes and stirring a few pretty darn evil swells too.

By the time we reached the Harbour Bridge, the sun came back out, the swell dropped and the ferries continued to glide past Captain A in his undies.

All seemed well again.

But we had to get the boat out... and Captain A was still in his undies.

It only took three attempts.... of dropping the boat back in and getting it back on trailer... for Captain A and his undies to be happy to head home.

Lesson from today??  Always take a few spare pairs of pants for the Captain.

xxxx

Boatees!...

Ahoy there Ship Mates!

Captain A, 2nd Mate Mama A and the mini-mates pipe you aboard the mighty vessel that is .... AGA446N (ok, so naming will come later!!)

Our first trip out with our new family member took us up to Bobbin Head on the Hawkesbury River, and we headed to Shark Bay (oh ha ha!) for a picnic and chillout!

And seriously, we looked like real pro's!  Captain A dropped in beautifully, Mama A parked the trailer and off we went into the sunshine!

Landing back ashore (bhahahaha!), Captain A scored the perfect ten getting the boat back onto trailer (after Mama A had reversed it down ramp with equal precision!) and voila!  Day one... done.

x 

Gainfully employed... temporarily!

OK, not so much 'employed' as accepting payment in the form of Diet Coke but it's keeping Mrs A out of trouble!

Mama A is having a fab time doodling over what will be, the kids' area in a new cafe opening over the next couple of weeks!

The cafe is opposite Miss Megan's school and is being opened by one of her classfriend's family.

The space is about 4x2.5 metres!  An overwhelming task at first but it's coming together!

The three black lines mark out where the final blackboard will go.  There'll also be a glass 'fence' around the area to keep the kiddies safe (or contained!!).