Painting with the Cousins

Mum had seen a painting idea on a kids TV show and wanted to do the same project with all the boys, so we decided to take advantage of the hot & sunny weather and have a swim and do the painting.

Kate & the big boys had a swim in the pool, while Clay paddled in the little pool with Ma Ma on life guard duty ;)  Jaxson decided to hop in the little pool for a bit too.

After the swim we got the paints, brushes and some foam balls out ready to try the painting.  It was a bit of trial & error working out how much to thin the paint down so that it splattered.  It was organised chaos - trying to get the kids sorted to throw the splat balls, flick paint, etc.  Ma Ma instructed the kids on where to put the paint, I manned the paint table to stop kids spilling it and making a mess and Kate was in charge of taking photos.  Lots of fun and giggles!!  

The finished painting - Ma Ma is very pleased with it.

New Christmas Decorations & Boxing Dale Sales

There was a slight colour change to the Christmas tree decorations this year - I added light pink to the hot pink and silver to give the tree a monochromatic look.  Absolutely love it!!  Will hopefully add a few more light pink decorations next year.  We also changed the star on top from hot pink to silver - only due to the fact that the pink one broke when we went to put it on top of the tree.  I would also like to change the tree skirt to match - Kmart had lots of gorgeous tree skirts this year, but none matched my colour theme.  I wasn't too worried, because the presents cover it usually anyway.  Maybe I could make one next year.  Clay took a few decorations off, but after a few days lost interest in the tree :)

Knowing I have a LOT of Christmas decorations  / decor, I decided to just buy a few "must have" decorations this year.

Another marquee light decoration - how cute is this arrow?!?!

Some cute baskets  for the cube shelving.

I couldn't resist this Advent calendar!  I know Clay is a bit too little to play with it this year, but it'll be packed away and brought out every year to go into the advent calendar.

I love the bottle brush christmas trees!  These were meant to be tree decorations, but I just pulled the strings off and used them as decor instead.  The star dish was going be for lollies / nuts on the Christmas dinner table, but instead I used it to hold the Advent lego pieces :)  

I didn't feel like braving the crowds for the Boxing Sales so skipped it this year, however mum and Kate both went on different days and picked up some fabulous bargains for me!  Mum got me the hessian Santa Sack, book and another set of baskets all fot $5.  The cute penguin garden stake was $1.50.

Kate got the best bargains - the marquee light words for $3 each (origainlly $49 each!!).  

Christmas Day

Better make a cup of tea and get comfy, cause this is a long post with LOTS of photos :)

We had a decent 6am start this year.  Clay wasn't really interested in opening any presents :(  There was some excitement about the new play kitchen when we first came out to the lounge though :)  We got Clay dressed and headed back to our bed to have a look at what Santa left in his stocking (and to let grumpy wake up a bit more LOL).  Then back out to the lounge to open a few presents.

After opening some presents, we packed the car and headed to spend the morning with Mum, Kate and the boys.  We opened and had a play with more presents, then enjoyed our traditional hot breakfast.

Then it was time to head back to our house - we were hosting Christmas dinner with Craig's family this year.  Craig's mum cooks a hot roast dinner with the trimmings - so she busied herself getting dinner ready while we just chilled out in the air-con with Craig's dad.

It rained for most of the afternoon - so we weren't sure it we would try and squeeze everyone (9 adults and 5 kids) into the dining room or just set up in the side garage.  Just before everyone arrived the rain cleared, so instead of enjoying xmas dinner under our shade area by the pool, we set up in the open garage on the side of the house.  

The kids enjoyed a swim in the pool while the adults enjoyed a chat and a few xmas drinks :)

We put a very tired, but happy little boy to bed that night :)  Hope everyone had a fun filled and joyous day with family and friends xo

Elf Antics Day 21-24

The last 4 days before Peppermint heads back to the North Pole to tell Santa if Clay has been naughty or nice ;)  

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Christmas Lights 2016

Due to rainy weather and clashing schedules to finally get organised to go see the Christmas lights around town tonight.  A group of us met at our house and we headed over to a street that has all the houses decorated in lights.  We parked out on the main road and walked to the street.  At some stage we all got separated, but still enjoyed seeing the lights, the different displays and catching up with other friends along the way.  Clay was more interested this year - pointing out lights, clapping his hands and talking up a storm :)  It was a lovely night and one of my favourite things to do at Christmas - so glad we managed to squeeze it in!

Elf Antics Day 17-20

Peppermint can be cute when he's being mischievious - kind of like Clay ;)

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Santa Photo 2016

Oh boy, this year's photo is the definition of awkward family photo!  It makes me laugh out loud EVERY time I look at it :D  This was our second and final attempt - we are going to frame and scrap this photo and enjoy it :)

Work Christmas Party

There are only 2 other employees at the kiosk Craig manages, so we decided to have a casual BBQ  at home yesterday as their work Christmas party.  It was a lovely afternoon - the kids swam, we chatted and enjoyed yummy cobb loaf, BBQ & salad and an amazing pavlova and opened presents :)

Clay REALLY liked the fresh fruit on the pavlova :)

Craig had found this bearded dragon earlier when he was mowing and put it in the pool area so it was safe.  He got it back out to show Sina & Bryan's kids - they thought it was wonderful and were so brave to hold it :)