Finally it's not about the house!!

Well, it has been another busy week. Friday night 21 Sep. I was asked to teach a cooking class at church. I decided to do 'A year in chocolate' and made recipes for each month and demonstrated a few of them. I included all my favourite recipes including my version of the Ferrero Rocher which I call the Ferrero 'no-share.' It was a lot of work, but it seemsed to go well. I am cured of chocolate now. These are white chocolate baskets with chocolate mousse. April's Easter recipe.For October (halloween) these are chocolate mice, made from dates with almond ears. (Could be used for tricking kids...I don't know many who would opt for dates over other lollies.)

Andrew came home from his work trip to USA on Saturday morning (22nd Sep). The weekend flew by and then he was off again Monday morning to South Africa. He got back Friday morning (28th sep-Jordan's birthday) and will stay home until Wednesday and then leave for a brief trip to China. I spoke too soon in my first blog when I said Andrew's travel has slowed down! We should have bought a house near the airport. It takes about an hour to get to the airport without traffic. On Monday morning it took 2 hours. The traffic was horrendous and we thought for a while that Andrew had missed his flight. We left home at 7am and I didn't get back until mid-day.
Later that afternoon Craig and Kate Anderson came over for a visit with their two gorgeous boys. It was nice to catch up with them. They are visiting from Perth for Kate's sister's wedding and I was pleased that they could spend the time to come and see us.

Craig, Kate, Benjamin and Samuel.

That night, the boys started their new Summer sport (Oztag) which is kind of like 'touch football.' Mitchell and Josh play on the same team and Jordan plays on a different one. Bailey is an unhappy spectator. We will try to find something for him to do during the Summer.

On Wednesday Mitchell was competing in the regional athletics carnival in the 800m at the Sydney Olympic Stadium. He made it through last year too, but it is still an awesome experience to run on that track. He did not progress through to State level, but I am proud of him for trying his best. He never gives up and I love that about him. Bailey scored the day off school too because we had to leave home at 6.45am to get Mitchell there as his was the first event. Bailey was great in support.

Too hard to see clearly, but Mitchell's name was up on the big screen.
Mitchell is the maroon shirt in the middle.

Thursday night the two youngest boys were involved in their school concert spectacular. It is the major fundraiser for the year and they have been rehearsing for weeks. The theme was showtime under the sea and Mitchell was a surf life saver and Bailey was a band member for their classes rendition of 'Yellow submarine.'

Mitchell, my cute little life saver!

The following day (Friday) the same two were both selected to represent their school in rugby league in a gala day for the district. They were in different teams, (Junior and Senior) but played at the same place. Their teams did really well, Mitchells team were beaten in extra time in the grand final and Baileys team won their grand final. Bailey was thrilled to be playing amongst the older boys. The team has to be selected from kids 10 years or younger. At 7 Bailey was by far the youngest selected and the only 2nd grader, but he was in the starting team and didn't have to have any bench time. (What they didn't know is that he has been playing since he was 3!)

Mitchell's team with their teacher.

Bailey with mouthguard smile and team mate.

From the fields and went to Emma's house to drop Bailey off to go on a trip with them to the beach for the long weekend. (Emma will post pics for that.) Straight from there I went to the airport to pick Andrew up and then back home to make Jordan a birthday dinner. (He is now 15!)

Jordan cutting his birthday cake.

Jordan and Josh have been involved with a youth camp during this weekend. They had to hike 15km through thick bush on Saturday. We met them at the other end and they were thoroughly exhausted. So tired they opted to go to sleep rather than watch the Wallabies in their world cup clash against Canada. Tired!

As part of the camp, we had the fireside at our house last night complete with bonfire. It was a good opportunity to burn some dead branches and logs, but ended up being huge. I am sure at the heart of every teenage boy, there is a pyromaniac waiting to be unleashed. It was a bit of a challenge to avoid the bonfire turning to bushfire as all the boys crowded round with burning sticks, but it all ran smoothly. We had 5 of the youth spend the night, then they have all gone to a wave pool for the day today. Finally a moment to catch up.