Mother's Day 2013 - you may call this a late post. A late LATE post.

Was 'ages' ago now but Mother's Day this year was a lovely one, bar the fact that MrL was at work on the other side of the country.

The girls spoilt me with gifts and after I cooked us breakfast (lol), the girls made me a tea party via the iPad.

Monet had suggested we go to Fatelli, a southern Italian inspired resturant down the Esplandade of our suburb.  We had booked a table, knowing it could get very busy.

We've only been there a handful of times and I find it very hard to go past their gnocchi.  Oh my.  It is not one made with potato, rather one made of ricotta and spinach.

The girls played hairdressers later on in the evening.  I was obviously the customer.

Happy Mother's Day.

:: I just found this unpublished post sitting in my drafts folder, figure I should post it - better late than never. ::

Mighty Corpse Flower

Most afternoons after collecting Monet from school she is always asking "can we go somewhere?  Where are we going?" blah, blah, blah.  I actually expected her yesterday to say she wanted to go straight home after school when I said I wanted to visit the Botanical Gardens.  *phew*

I had been following on FB the cycle of 'Spud', the Amorphophallus titanum plant, known also as the Corpse Flower.  It was a major event and I was keen to see it in full bloom, as it rarely blooms and when it does it is massive and stinks!  Yesterday afternoon at 2pm the FB stays read that it was opening up...

                  

The girls and I got to the Garden not long before 3:30 and there was already quite a few people milling around.   I knew exactly where to go….

 

There was a massive pong just outside the Fernery.  A revolting pungent waft… 

But Spud was magnificent.  I'm sure the swarm of flies buzzing around thought so too. 

I am sure the Flecker Botanical Gardens is one of my favourite places in Cairns.  Each time I visit I always see something I hadn't laid eyes on before.

I adore this photo below.  The colours are magnificent...

As we exited the Gardens (after milkshakes for the girls and a *ahem* beer for me), Monet pointed out the Ulysses butterfly fluttering around.  Having my camera in hand I finally (FINALLY) got a photo of one.  After years of living here I have never been quick enough!

Our Favourite Place For a Short Break

Even though we are fortunate enough to call a part of Australia that truly is paradise, we do like to get away to another part of paradise, a couple of hours south of our home. 

Back in late September, my friend Sam contacted me during the school holidays, inviting the girls and I down to join her and her two children to their holiday house at Mission Beach.  With MrL being away at the time (& Sam's was too at the time), I immediately agreed.  Any excuse. 

Sam's house had been brought down from Cairns and they've slowly been renovating the old Queenslander.  It makes a perfect beach shack.  Located a street back from North Mission Beach, we spent most of our time there, at the beach...

To say the girls had a great time is a bit of an understatement.  As the water was warming up (along with the weather), September really is a great time to visit Mission Beach.  As the stingers hadn't arrived yet (they invade North Queensland waters from November onwards) and this beach is sandy, inviting and the water is rather shallow and deepens the more you walk out, it makes an ideal holiday or relaxation destination.

Sam's holiday house helps too.  It is sooo relaxing, with three bedrooms, bathroom, open plan kitchen - dining and sitting area and NO television.  The house from the outside is nothing to talk about but the plans they have for the future sound fab.  (Open bi-fold doors onto a big balcony from the dining/kitchen.)

I'm looking forward to getting away down there again soon….once those stingers have exited so I can get back in the water along with these two….

…and MrL.  It's not really a holiday or a getaway without my best friend.

Hate Playing Catch Up

Cannot believe it has been just about three months since my last post.  Where has the time gone?  Is it just about December already?  Oh my. 

We had two girls celebrate their birthdays.  I'm now the mother of a nine and a four year old.  Great ages.  

My sister visited for two weeks.  I wish her visit had been longer.

We moved into our own home and are still enjoying it, two months later.

 And lots of other doings in between!

I think I have lots of catch up posts to follow….  Hopefully not so long between drinks posts this time!

Cairns Festival Parade

Every year Cairns holds a Festival and every year we have not participated in anything.  Okay, we were absent for a few of those years but I figured this year the girls and I would venture into town for the 'opening' parade.  I'm glad we did.   The girls loved it. 

I met my girlfriend and her family at a particular spot so we all enjoyed it together.  Lily was rather excited and Monet ended up enjoying it after I made her walk from where I had parked the car to the street where the parade was.  (It was a good 15 minute walk.)

It wasn't a massive parade but it did showcase all the clubs and a lot of schools etc., which I enjoyed.

Some of the floats/displays were very clever.  I loved the school display who dressed up like jelly fish.  Very clever....

There is a big Asian culture here in Cairns, but Lily got a bit scared of the chinese dragons...

...She was thankful for her big sister to hide behind...

It was enjoyable and I will go again next year.  I'm positive the girls will make me anyway, but I will try and park the car a little closer to stop Monet from whinging... *heehee*

SOLD

This happened in our lives recently.  

We bought a house.

It was a stressful couple of weeks of not knowing if the loan had been approved or not, but when the call came through saying 'yes', well I'm pretty sure you could have seen the weight being lifted from our shoulders. 

We don't move for another six weeks and the excitement is growing.  It is a beautiful house and ticked all our boxes of what we were looking for.  We didn't think we could achieve what we had on our (invisible) list with a budget set in mind but, well, we did.  

The thing with MrL and I is that we know what we want.  We had only looked in one other house, which was a display home for sale, but it was way out of our budget so it wasn't thought about again.  For some reason or another, this house appeared in our feed from real-estate.com.  We had both been looking for months, perhaps even a year, at what was out there and what area we wanted to live in.  This house was a little out of the area we both thought we would perhaps live, but I am pretty sure it was meant to be.  I went to the Open House with the girls, as MrL was at work.  I knew as soon as I walked in that 'this is it'.  When MrL returned from work the following week, we organised a private viewing which got nods all around.  A day of negotiating, a sleepless night and then it was a phone call from the agent saying, yep and then the true stress arrived.  (Hate dealing with any financial institutes!) 

So now this dream is a reality.  A quiet suburban street, a beautiful five year old house, our own pool, lovely little backyard and four bedrooms.  And a sewing/study nook.  It is not a large house by any means, but very much perfect for us.  As much as I love our apartment, we have most definitely out grown it.  (It was perfect for the three of us, but now as a family of four, not so much).  

(The following photos have been lifted from the Internet)

Roll on October.

The beginning of the Pool season. Already?

All week the girls have been asking if they can go in the pool.  For Lily it has been the past three months of asking most days, but I kept promising that 'this Saturday you can'.  So they did.  

The water was rather cool and they'd be no way I'd be getting in (it has to be hot and humid for me) but with eagerness in their strides, I took them down.  The water was rather coolish and they were both a little hesitant to get in....until Lily decided to push Monet in...

Of course I was sitting up the other end and I actually captured the moment.  Giggling to myself, Monet came out the pool crying and saying she hurt herself and getting cranky at her little sister.  But in the end Monet was thanking Lily as they both had a great time...

When the girls got out a good hour later, Miss Lily caught herself a head cold (seems to have mainly cleared up now) but at least I won't be hassled for a while yet to 'go to the pool'.

It won't be long until these girls gain their own private pool once again and I will probably get in more often than I do in the apartment's complex one.  

One Thousand.

Post 1000.  Sheesh.  After starting this particular blog in October 2006 and joining my Recipe blog back a couple of years ago, I have f i n a l l y reached the 1000th post mark.  

And to mark the occasion, I am blogging about the eldest, whom was the main motivation behind me for first blogging.  And to think she was only a wee little cherub and now a just-about-9-year-old.  

Monet began a program back in March, Netta, which teaches young girls and boys over the age of seven the skills of netball.  It went for a total of eight weeks, which kinda dragged out to about 12 due to rain interruptions.  

Last week the season started up again, but in great confusion, only four of the original eight in her team had re-signed, which left Monet and the other three girls, team-less.  It had been decided on the week leading up to re-starting that a new junior team would start as there were 14 girls in total without a team.  They are now 'Cairns Saints' players and affiliated with the AFL team up here in Cairns.  They have four (yes, FOUR) coaches and I can already see a marked improvement in Monet learning the game, much better than last season where there was basically zero training in the skills department.  

I already have Lily telling me that when she grows up, she wants to be a netball player.  What a great inspiration this new team is having on both my girls.