Look what we found!

Darren was cleaning out the pool filter basket, and this was what was inside...YES a SNAKE!! and still very much alive!

And despite our little "find" the kids still went swimming....as you do when it's 87F, humid and your a kid. As for me, l'm waiting for the water temperature to warm up some more.

Totally Coco-licious

Now say it with me..Awwww, just makes you want to snuggle her up and soak in all that puppy goodness.

Easter Photos for 2008

I know it's a little late in posting, but hey better late than never. So Easter this year came a little too early, l was totally unprepared for it. However despite this, we had a really great day. Church followed by lunch at Chili's and then home for the Easter Egg hunt.

I will start by saying that even after nearly 5 years of living in the States, I'm no fan of the plastic Easter eggs. Back in Australia the only egg hunting we did was for good old Cadbury chocolate eggs. For some reason they do not hunt for chocolate eggs here (in fact it's hard to find hollow chocolate Easter eggs) instead they have colourful plastic Easter eggs in which one fills them up with candy (just in case you didn't get your share of candy at Halloween, and Valentine's day) or you could put some tiny toy or money in them. Then you hide them and let the kids run wild for about 5 to 10 minutes finding the eggs.

This year however we and our good friends Matt and Laura decided that we had enough of this and wanted to present the kids with a challenge. So we came up with the Easter Egg Treasure Hunt. The kids would be given a rhyming clue as to the possible location of their first find. There they would find 5 eggs (since we had 5 kids) inside the eggs they would find a prize (either money, candy or gum) and the next clue for the next location. We had 20 clues and locations for them which ranged from our backyard, the Fenton's backyard and the whole of Jamie Court. We had them running all over the place, and it took them about 45 minutes. All the time they worked together in solving the riddles and managed to accumulate some candy and money along with a big individual prize at the end. The overall outcome was a big thumbs up, they totally enjoyed themselves, ran like crazy, worked well together and were already asking if they could do it all again next year.

Of course the parents were exhausted, it was hard keeping up with them trying to take photos, but so worth it all. After the Egg hunt we made the most of the nice weather and sat on our patio coming up with ideas for next year, while the kids played with their prizes.

Running off to the first clue

sharing the eggs they found

Maddy reading one of the clues

Liam and Shane reading a clue

On to the next clue

having found the Prizes

With their prizes, the boys got Leggo Star Wars, and the girls got a Webkin each.

We did it, we went Camping!

I grew up going camping, my family would go up to Bright for two weeks over the summer and I remember loving it, l have such fond memories of those summer camping trips. We would all help pitch the tent and set up the beds. The days would consist of cooking on the grill, swimming, walking into town, sightseeing ,campfires, going to the amusement park and just hanging around camp. When l look back, l just remember loving it, and my sisters and I were sad every year when those 2 weeks came to an end. Of course l fail to remember all the packing, cleaning and washing that was involved since my parents took care of it all. Now that l am a parent, l see it all to clearly, and so it was with some hesitation that l agreed to take a camping trip with our friends Matt and Laura and their family to Lake Whitney during Spring break. We decided that we could well manage 2 days. We kept telling ourselves it was for the kids.

I will admit l had fun and the kids absolutely loved it. We all helped set up the tent and beds. We had great sunny days, although the nights and mornings were still a little too cold. We ate around the campfire, and made smores while playing memory games and charades. We went fishing, played Frisbee, sat around and talked and were even visited by a band of Raccoons one night.

Of course the packing up of the tent and all the stuff we managed to take on a short 2 day trip was no fun at all, not to mention all the laundry that awaited me when l got home.I will say that packing up camp was hard but once home, everyone helped unpack the car.

Would l do it again?, Yes for sure, the kids had fun and I'm all for making childhood memories for them.

So while I'm thinking about it, I want to thank you mum and dad for taking us camping all those years. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to experience the outdoors, and giving us some great memories of our childhood. Also a big thanks for all the hard work that it took to plan, carry out and clean up afterwards.

Look who's turning 5

My nephew Nathan, the baby of the family (he's the youngest of 6 grandchildren) is celebrating his 5th birthday today(28th of March). I remember flying down to Australia about a week after Nathan was born to see him. We were living in Hong Kong at the time and unfortunately the SARS epidemic was in full scale.Having just flown in, we decided to keep ourselves in self imposed quarantine. That meant no direct contact with Nathan or his family. I remember standing outside my sisters bedroom window and getting our first sight of Nathan. It was so hard not being able to hold him and snuggle him. After a week of quarantine we got to fill up on snuggles and kisses. Of course this memory feels like it was only yesterday to me.

Nathan we wish you a very happy birthday, we would love nothing more than to be there with you as you celebrate this big day,but for the time being we will have to wait till we can be together again. May you continue to grow (just not so fast please) and enjoy every day. Have lots of fun and of course eat lots of cake!!

Love always.
Hugs and kisses

Daniela, Darren, Maddy and Liam.

Happy Birthday Monique

This is my adorable niece Monique and today she turns (gulp) 13!! Yes that's right she is now a teenager, quick Jorge lock the doors and get your gun ready. This is one very smart, beautiful, intelligent, sensitive girl and l am proud to be her Aunt.

Monique we wish you a very happy birthday. 13 can be a great and hard time in your life, just always remember to be true to yourself, never lose sight of your dreams and know you are always loved. I love what this song says and want to dedicate it to you.

As Maddy used to say "Happy Birthday Mic!"

We love you and miss you heaps!!

Hugs and Kisses

Daniela, Darren, Maddy and Liam.

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The fabulous Miss Coco has arrived!

Sorry l haven't blogged more, but we have just been busy with the usual everyday stuff. So our big news is that last Saturday we finally got our little puppy. Allow me to introduce her:

This is the fabulous Miss Coco, she is an 8 week old miniature Schnauzer and we think she is stinking cute! We are in the process of potty training her, and so far she has been very good, managing to do her business on the newspaper and has only had two accidents, but l guess I'm to blame since l forgot to lay down newspaper for her.

Stay tuned for the many Coco stories to come. Also in case you're wondering, it's Coco short for "coconut", since she is white and soft like shredded coconut. I also like to think of her as Coco for Coco Chanel, since she is one stylish puppy.

Look what we got!

So, it's no secret that l love Snow and ever since we have lived in Texas (with the exception of one year) we have had a Snow day, sometimes two. However this year l was beginning to think that it just wasn't going to come. We just had a very warm weekend, and it was March after all. The weather forecast mentioned something about a slight chance of snow, as it had done on other occasions this winter and of course l dismissed it. Well last night I was proven wrong, and I'm so happy to have been. After a wet and cold day, it started to snow at around 6pm, slowly a blanket of the pretty white stuff was all over the grass, roofs and plants. By this morning it had started to melt, but not before l was able to snap some photos. I so love a snow day.