Birthday Bash at Bribie...

A year ago DH started planning a holiday in May 2019 for the immediate family as part of the celebration of his 70th. Each year his 3 daughters, their partners and children spend a long weekend away with his first wife to celebrate her birthday, and DH thought that sounded like a good way to celebrate this special birthday. Finding a property to rent for our blended family of 11 adults and 5 children turned out to be quite a challenge. But we found a large house for rent which overlooked Pumicestone Passage.

Lovely views from the balcony on the first level as well as from the lounge room on street level.

The family went on lots of beach walks...the beach was just over the road...

The sunsets were gorgeous! 

A few group photos were taken on the beach...

Getting up off the sand after this series of photos was ‘interesting’ to say the least! Lol

One morning the family all walked up to the museum and we spent nearly 2 hours looking at the exhibits. On the Sunday we drove up to where the mini trains run...

How’s this for the cutest little steam engine?




We had visitors one day and we went to the Bribie Island Bowls club for lunch as I’d had enough of cooking for a crowd by then, lol. 

The photo shows the meal one of our sons in law ordered 🤪

This was my more modest whiting, chips and salad lunch...

That same afternoon DH and I met 2 friends for afternoon coffee at the same club. These 2 sisters were at school with DH and I so our friendship goes back a long way. 

On the morning of our last full day, DH’s cousin and her husband visited us for morning tea. By then the young people had all gone home so it was just DH and I. 

I did mention in passing just before, that I’d spent a fair amount of the week cooking meals for a bit of a crowd. But I had a lovely kitchen in which to work. I particularly loved these corner drawers and wished I had them at home instead of those difficult to get into corner cupboards that my kitchen has...

Bribie was a perfect venue for our family gathering as where else would you find a main road named in honour of our family? 🤣🤪

Now the back story of this blog post.

The house he found that we eventually rented was very large...but not large enough. It was meant for 8 adults and 3 children. We thought some family members would be happy to sleep on mattresses for the nights of the weekend when it was planned for the whole family to gather...nup, all expected queen size beds. Some stayed many nights and felt that they should have the 3 extra bedrooms. That meant that the other family members with work commitments felt slighted and one couple would only come for the day as a result. I discovered that adults with young children are hampered from being able to offer much help and meals are delayed by baby needs. 

Every day some of the granddaughters had mega ‘meltdowns’ when it came time for bath or bed. And it wasn’t only the grandies...siblings sniping at each other was also observed. 

My 70th might be different! 😉😄

Wool on Sunday...

Joining in with Rainbow Hare’s blog and Janine’s monthly feature, Wool on Sunday. https://rainbowhare.com/category/wool-on-sundays/

So what yarny things did I get up to in May? Most of what I did was for the charity I belong to...especially after I read these posts from the founder of K4BN on the group’s Facebook page. 

And...

But what about this post? This sort of thing breaks my heart...

So firstly some items I’ve made from donated squares;-

A baby blanket made with squares from Cheryl E

A large blanket mainly made with squares from Susan W



I had 5 of Susan’s squares left over...

So I’ve spent a week or so crocheting the 25 granny squares needed to make up 30. So I’ve crocheted in the car and at Trivia night at the RSL club as well as in front of the telly or sitting in the sun on the verandah 😉

And I’ve now got a bundle of 25 to make another blanket! 

And I thought I’d share some photos of a K4BN Knit and Natter...

 

This is at the Zillmere Community Centre and here are some of the May donations...it’s amazing what this group contributes to make life a little better for those in need.

So while we watch the first State of Origin match for 2019 with DH yelling at the TV ( coaching points maybe?) I’ll calmly keep on crocheting 🧶😆. 

A month of birthdays and cakes!

It looked like my birthday was going to be a bit of a non event this year. But I was wrong! On the actual day the girls, one son in law and I were driving from country Victoria to Melbourne airport. Our brunch stop was in Ballarat and we found a lovely cafe in a homewares store and there DD2 bought me breakfast...delicious! 

Originally I had planned a birthday brunch here in Brisbane at a friend’s cafe but this had had to be cancelled. My darling stepdaughters organised a birthday dinner for me when I arrived home late Saturday afternoon instead. 

The main course was from my freezer 😉😜 but DsD2 made me a special birthday cake which was delicious.

DH had bought me a new wheelbarrow as a gift and it was the perfect spot to prop #5 granddaughter while we had dinner 😆! 

On the Monday it was Miss Holly’s birthday. DD2, Holly and I went out for morning tea. No cake but a babycino and a profiterole for the birthday girl...

May 2019 was the celebration of a special birthday for DH...one of those birthdays ending in a zero 😉😄. On a weekend that suited all the family we gathered at Bribie Island. 

Here’s one of the many photos taken on the weekend...

The birthday cake made by DsD2 was magnificent! 

Mind you she had some help with the final touches...😍

And then those little helpers helped Grandpa blow out the candles...

Finally on the last Sunday of May, Miss Holly had her birthday party. 

The cake was made by a Filipino lady and was a purple yam cake...it was so light and delicious.


There was also a unicorn piñata which defied all the thumping that the children gave it! 😄

One of DD2’s friends took pity on the children and using brute strength she ripped the tag to open that unicorn 🦄. 

In another post I’ll write more about our week up at Bribie. Next family birthday celebration is in 7 days...DH’s brother. I guess it means another cake 🎂 lol. 

Some outings on our Victorian visit.

Just to assure you that I wasn’t stuck in a motel room with 2 little girls all the time we were away recently, I thought I’d write about some of our outings. 

Although I must point out that our ‘grazing plates’ of cheeses and antipasto in our motel room were fun and delicious! 

One particular day I ended up having a most enjoyable outing in the town of Maryborough. My girls, along with their daughters were paying a condolence visit to their dad’s partner who had suggested they lunch with her. So the girls dropped me at the Maryborough library with me clutching a bag which contained my knitting and the library book that I was currently reading at that time. I read a chapter of the book, then thought that a cup of coffee might be nice, the day being quite cold.

So I went for a walk. I came to a bakery but thought the lack of a coffee machine might indicate that the style of coffee I like wasn’t available. Have I ever mentioned that my children describe me as a ‘coffee snob’ 🤨😜. 

Any way I kept walking and saw this imposing brick building on the corner in the next block.

I think the sign might have been the original business because as I got closer I saw a smaller sign on the corner door saying Madame Chi Chi. I went in and received a really warm welcome, both from Madame Chi Chi herself ( Belinda) and also from the beautifully heated interior of the cafe. It was like someone had just wrapped me up in their arms and said ‘There there, no need to worry...’ 💕

Belinda described the items she was offering for lunch.

The view through the servery showing all the delicious panini fillings...

Belinda explained that she used local products...

I chose a vegetarian panini and a cup of coffee. While my lunch was being prepared I sat in the dining room and admired this lovely old building’s interior. 

A poster in the dining room...

My lunch...

After my delicious lunch, I settled down to knit as I expected to need to fill in a lot more time before the girls would be back at the library to pick me up. 

I’d hardly knitted a row when my phone rang. It was DD1 and they were at the library waiting for me...a bit early I thought! So I directed them to the cafe. 

Turns out their stepmother was too upset to make lunch after all so they’d left after a polite interval. So now Madame Chi Chi made them feel very welcome and then took their orders for some lunch and I had another coffee. 

And because there were 3 of us, I felt no guilt whatsoever of buying a very exotic looking slice that was in the glass case in the store part of the cafe. It’s made locally by a Romanian lady and those eclairs on top are filled with berry flavoured cream.

We got it cut into 3

Delicious and almost guilt free at only a third each! Lol 😆 

What a special place to find on a day when I think I needed some TLC. 

My son in law Cam ( DD1’s husband) has an uncle who lives in the town of Avoca, and this Uncle David would be celebrating his birthday on the Friday and mine was the day after. So the girls took us both out to lunch in Maryborough on the Thursday. The venue was the Highland Society Club. Holly was rather taken with the statue out the front...

( My choice from the menu wasn’t great but the rest of our party said theirs were good...don’t you hate it when you make a not so good choice 😏😂🤪)! 

An unexpected trip interstate

Last week I had an unexpected trip interstate to Victoria. Unfortunately my daughters’ father had passed away and I was needed to accompany them to help with their 2 children. 

Here we are at 6am at Brisbane Airport...

Travelling with little children has always been a challenge and in our case we had a 2 hour flight, followed by a 2 1/2 hour drive before reaching our destination. 

The girls had lots of appointments etc so my job was to look after the little ones. Most of the time we stayed in the motel room as outside was quite cold and there was even some rain. 

I had brought some items in my luggage to help occupy a 1 and 2 year old.

Two little cuties ‘reading’ some of the picture books I brought with me 😍

And of course I had a scribble pad plus some coloured pencils...


And who doesn’t love a picnic? Even if the picnic cloth is a towel and the picnic is inside 😜

No photos but one day that I was minding the girls, we went outside to a little grassed area in the motel grounds and had ‘races’. Holly loves playing what she calls, ‘Ready Set Go!’ So with me pushing little Carrie in the stroller, Holly, Carrie and I played races...I got puffed before them! 🥴😂

We also played dressups with items in my suitcase...

And because DD1 and DD2 are modern young mums, they had downloaded children’s shows on their iPads and this Grandma was quite happy to use these to amuse my charges. 

And 2 of the teddies that live at my place also came on our trip as I knew that Miss Holly loves playing with them...

The brown bear is called Billy Bob and he averted a few ‘meltdowns’ as he is a particular favourite of Holly’s. 

The 5 days flew past and we were all relieved when the funeral was over.  It was in Maryborough where the girls’ dad had eventually relocated. I made sure I introduced myself to their dad’s partner as it was ridiculous how we had both pretended we hadn’t noticed each other. 

And so on the Saturday we drove from Avoca where we had stayed, back to Melbourne to catch our flight home. 

It was great to be home!