"It's not that big!"

: : Diana : :

On New Year's Eve I dressed Diana up and did a photo shoot with her. We finished with a grand total of 112 photos! These are some of the better ones.

Card-Making Spree!

Once a regular crafter, I rarely make the time for such things nowadays. What with school {work}, music, and other commitments, I usually can't justify some of my old hobbies.

On December 25th though, I decided to throw away all justifications and have a relaxing day of card-making (after I'd done some tidying and things :P) I produced 16 cards and two bookmarks (not counting the mess!!). The little ones joined me from time to time during the day, while Mum worked on sorting the clothes boxes. It was quite a nice way to spend the day, and afterwards I was pleased with my efforts. :)

Cool quotes...

Congratulations!

Here's congratulating my Uncle Mike (Dad's brother) and Sonia on their engagement!
We were all really excited to hear the news on December 25th!

Bryce's Birthday Party

Despite my good intentions, the planning for Bryce's birthday party got left to the last minute. With a team effort (and a day without school work!) we managed to pull it off quite nicely, I think!

On the day preceding the party, we went to several shops, purchasing the needed items for games and lunch, wrapped the pass the parcel, decorated the house, and made some of the food. Meanwhile, Mum dropped Jarrod off at technology to finish his project (which didn't quite make the last day of class the afternoon before), and picked up the de Boers' two Maltese dogs to look after since their owners were away. (Well, all except for Dieuwe, and he had to work all day, and was going to be out late that night so it would be good for the dogs to come here, see some people and get some exercise.)  

The morning of the party, none of us were up as early as we should have been, so we had a fast-paced two or three hours, cleaning the house, finishing the games (i.e. spread two bags of chocolate bars through the sandpit), and preparing the food. Unfortunately this party lacked much of the baking which usually characterizes any party I organise! 

The day before the party, we knew of only one family who planned to attend, however despite that, we ended up with a good turnout! 

 : : Lunch was somewhat late in coming, but hopefully it was worth the wait! : :

: : Unwrapping lots of cool presents - thanks everyone! : :

After reading this post on the Wissmanns' blog, I felt inspired to try my own hand at piping chocolate to put on a cake. (Historically, icing cakes hasn't exactly been my speciality.) And no, this isn't an ice cream cake; one new thing at a time, right? Maybe next time . . .! I printed a stencil (search Google images for a colouring picture lol) of the train, and also the text. We didn't have any wax paper so I substituted with baking paper, taping it to the bench, with my printed paper underneath. I melted chocolate buttons, and piped them through a plastic bag. Then the paper went into the freezer until I was ready to put the chocolate onto the cake. Overall, I was quite pleased. Next time though, I think I'll put the paper onto some kind of tray in the freezer; pipe the chocolate thicker - I had trouble with it cracking; and do the text cursive, so they're all joined together. It was a bit awkward having so many small, delicate pieces and I was glad I had two sets of the text!

: : Singing Happy Birthday : :

Rainbow's End!

My friend Becks and I went to Rainbow's End together in November on the day homeschoolers could get in for only $16. Although the weather looked a bit dodgy in the morning, it soon cleared up - to the point that we got sunburnt! We spent much early part of the day queuing for rides, so it was nice when the schools all left at 2pm - suddenly we managed a whole lot of rides in a much shorter time! Somehow, though, there were few enough people there that I managed to be the only person on the Invader once! (awkward lol). Anyways, we had an AWESOME day!! :D

: : Me, Becks, Katherine : :

: : Ruth and me : :

: : About to ride the {18-storey}Fear Fall : :
Do I look nervous? lol

: : EEEK! About to drop! : :

Mum's Birthday

: : Present from Maria : :

On each of our birthdays, Mum makes us a 'birthday dinner' (in past years we have chosen what to have, this year Mum just made something she knew we liked), dessert, a cake, and gifts (everyone gets to give something). For the last few years, I arranged something for Mum's birthday. This year, though, her birthday fell on a Wednesday, meaning I was at work, so Monique decided to coordinate something (as a surprise for Mum), with help from the little ones. Dad and I received numerous emails and calls throughout the day, with various questions. I received one email asking, "Bianca, how do I hide the emails from you so Mum doesn't see them?" A call involved talking to me from a bedroom, hiding the phone and running to the kitchen to check the instructions on the roast chicken packet, then back again to the room to tell me what they were. I think the girls learnt a lot that day (lol) but they did quite well, considering. :)

After work, Dad and I made a rush trip to several shops to buy presents. Then came the task of smuggling them inside and getting them wrapped, at the same time dodging children who wanted me to help with dinner and make dessert.

(Mostly) The girls made a roast chicken, roast potatoes, veggies, and gravy; for dessert I made blueberry crumble cake. When Danielle called me earlier in the day, I told her to make a quadruple batch of chocolate cake and put it in a large dish. Unfortunately, I didn't think to specify to use the one egg chocolate sponge recipe, so she followed the one titled chocolate cake. Basically, one dozen eggs were used, instead of four individual eggs. lol.

: : New cake server! : :

: : Presents : :

We gave Mum her presents after dinner, then had dessert. The cake had been made at the last minute so wasn't out of the oven until quite late; we left it for another night.

: : Blowing out the candles : :

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

To all my readers....

Happy New Year!! :D :D

I wish you all a great 2013 :)