Frosty's Frolics

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Star Wars Movie

A week ago we went to see the new Star Wars Movie. Daniel from church had organised booking the whole theatre. Simon, Bindi, Mia and Charlie came and Charlie and Simon were dressed up. We had a fun night, afterwards we went to MacDonald's for an ice cream- Goodberry's was shut!

Lachlan walking in with Simon AKA Jabba the Hut

Me and my little brother, Simon

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Charlie dressed as Hans Solo- this photo really doesn't do his costume justice but the only one I had!

Amy's Birthday Trip to Melbourne

For Amy's birthday this year she and I had a trip to Melbourne. We stayed one night in the city at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and then had one night out at Berwick with my mum. Amy had missed out on coming to Melbourne for Pam's 80th so wanted to catch up with her Grandma.After flying in we picked our hire car and had lunch with Bill's sister Hilary, her husband Stuey and son Tom. We had a lovely time catching up with them, We headed to our hotel and after settling in we headed out to make sure the chocolate shops we love were still all up and trading-fortunately they were.

The lovely Royal Arcade all decorated up for Christmas- it has a Koko Black so Amy had an ice chocolate and I had a yummy hot chocolate. You sit up stairs in and can see all the shoppers wandering along the Royal Arcade.

Good to see Haighs was still doing well- we helped them along with a few purchases!

Bourke Street Mall was full of people, we stopped and watched this busker for a while- he was so good!

We had dinner that night at a Spanish Tapas restaurant and also had foot massage at a Thai massage place- it was lovely. In the morning while Amy slept I went for a wander along Southbank, down to the Pollywoodside, back into Melbourne for a quick look at the Myer Christmas windows while the city was still waking up. Enjoyed looking at all the Christmas decorations including the Lego Christmas Tree in Federation Square.

After our buffet breakfast at the hotel in the morning and a quick bit of shopping we headed out to Berwick and spent the rest of the day with my mum. We helped out with jobs around the place, took her shopping and then went out for dinner to an Afghan restaurant in Dandenong for dinner. We had a lovely meal and plenty of food!

All that remains of 22 Lyall Road Berwick where I spent my teenage years and mum lived for about 40 years!

The next morning we drove up to Narre Warren North and visited Tracey O'Keefe who used to live in Canberra and now is in mum's ward. I experienced chook house envy when I saw her chook house Amy had great fun with all her animals- a massive rooster and below an even bigger turkey. Tracey had lots of chooks and turkeys and babies hatching it was chook heaven for Amy!

All to soon it was time to head to the airport and back to Canberra- it was a lovely trip away and a nice way to celebrate Amy's birthday.

Alexander James

I put up a post about Alex earlier in November but needed to take it down for a while, Alex collapsed and died suddenly in early November, he was 23 years old. Alex is the son of Bill's cousin Jocelyn and her husband Steve he live in Sydney. They have another son Christopher who is 25. Our families lived near each other when we were in Sydney, and we spent much time together, we can never remember what type of cousins our kids were to each other- 2nd cousins once removed or something, but our kids were as close as any real cousins. After we moved to Canberra we went on many family holidays together over the years, Dubbo Zoo, Kangaroo Valley, Mollymook, Batemans Bay, a road trip to Melbourne just to name a few. Often in the school holidays the kids and I would go up for a visit, Lachlan would often cry when we left! Sometimes we would meet in Bundanoon and do a kid swap, we have many wonderful memories of Alex and so it has been a sad and difficult time for us all. Whenever I think about how sad I feel I think about Jocelyn and Steve and Chris and can only glimpse at the sadness they must feel.

We knew Alex from the day he was born, we knew him as a little boy, and we saw him blossom as a young adult and work out where he was going despite the struggles he had as a young boy and teenager growing up with ADHD, he and Amy were always close and shared a love of animals and were similar in so many ways. He was always comfortable with us and he knew he could be himself with us. We feel privileged to have known him and grateful he was part of our lives even for just a short 23 years. We miss you Alex along with so many others who miss you as well.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Bill's 60th Birthday Weekend Get Away

Bill turns 60 this week so we had a weekend away at Burradoo in the Southern Highlands. We stayed at Southdown Stable a lovely 2 bedroom/2 bathroom cottage on Southdown Estate just near Bowral. Jos and Steve came down from Sydney to join us and we had a lovely relaxing 2 night stay. Didn't do a whole lot- but that was the point of the exercise, came home feeling very relaxed.

The cottage was set on a block of about 6 acres with lovely gardens which we could wander around, so many little areas and nooks and crannies- it was just lovely.

Bill as the entrance to Southdown

Our cottage for the weekend- Southdown Stable- just lovely

On Saturday we headed out to Mt Gibraltar- this was one of the many views

Bill and I

The soon to be birthday boy contemplating life

The lovely Corbett Gardens in Bowral where we visited the CWA Garage Sale and sampled some of their cooking and ended up going home with a packet of 6 scones for free as they were closing for the day!

It was so nice to get away after a very difficult November and recharge the batteries.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Bird Aviary

A couple of months ago Amy and Bill brought and outside aviary to put the birds in to give them some outside time. It sat outside the front side fence for a couple of months as it was heavy and we had to undo the fence and recruit some muscle to move it into position. Well a few weeks back we finally moved it. It has taken a couple of weeks to then start setting it up, clean it up and put in some of the infrastructure so that was last weekends job. Here Lyra is having an inspection but Bill and the dogs ended up in there as well. So looks like I have a dog house I could send Bill to!

Jack had to be included as well. Wonder how many weeks or months before the birds actaully get out there- always slow progress at our place!

This is not the photo of Luna I was trying to get, she was actually lying here on her back with her feet up in the air- it did not look at all comfortable but she had been like that for quite a while, but as soon as I snuck out with the camera to take a shot she rolled over.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Catch Up Photos- Ziggy the Macawa and Luna at Floriade

Have been a bit slack with my blog lately here are some photos I meant to put up but never got around to.

Who would have believed a year ago that Luna would allow this to happen without eating the birds!

We discovered Ziggy loves mandarin- he is a bit messy though!

Ziggy and his messy mandarins

Strawberries are another favourite

Amy and I went to dog day at Floriade with Luna- it was awfully hot so we didn't stay long but the flowers were lovely.

Amy and Luna

Mum's 80th Birthday

We traveled down to Melbourne for mum's 80th birthday. Amy ended up staying at home as her Eclectus Parrots had been sick and at the vet for about a week so she needed to stay home and care for them. Bill, Lachlan and I drove down Friday morning and with 3 drivers it wasn't too bad a trip!

We helped set up Friday night, we had the party at the retirement village where mum lives, they have a lovely communal area which had everything we needed, pool table, table tennis table, sound system and big screen for all those family photos and a baby grand piano which meant we could be serenaded by Joshua- it was a great venue. Mum had organised a spit roast company to cater so most of the work was done for us.