Cooking with E !!!

E has been watching over my shoulder while I cook for a while now and helps out with little bits and pieces.

She loves putting the carrots into the steamer once they are peeled and chopped, so when I decided to crumb some meat E asked if she could help.

Carrots going in !!!

And off we go, fingers crossed

Into the egg

The finished product !!!

E did such a great job on the first that I let her do the rest !!!

Love those dirty fingers !

All finished !! Great job E !!

Thanks E for all your help and heres hoping that it continues. Who knows maybe there is a Master Chef in the making !!!

Coffs Harbour - Day 6 The Wedding

Day 6, the last day of our holiday and the original reason for our trip. Uncle John's wedding !!

As the wedding was not until 5.30pm our morning was spent with me packing up our unit and getting ready for our early start the next day.

So at 4.00pm we got into the car and made the 40 minute trip to Nambucca Heads to meet up with the family. Unfortunately the weather didn't clear so the wedding was moved inside. Everyone was a little disappointed but in the end everything worked out well.

There are not many pics to this post as I filmed the actual wedding so hopefully I will be able to add some more once the professional pictures come back.

The man of the moment !!

The wedding party, don't the boys look so cute in their suits !!!

This is Margaret's brother Peter, we kept mistaking him for Uncle John !!!

  A few weeks before the wedding I was at Aunty June's house with my mum and we were discussing what the kids would be wearing to the wedding. Aunty June said that she would like J to wear her "cherry dress". The funny thing is that my girls have the very same dress and that was also their wedding outfit, so all three ended up wearing the same dress and were dubbed the "flower girls".

Janet who lives on the central coast and myself on the south coast had gone and purchased the same dresses about 2 years ago and never knew that each had the same. We also don't see each other that often so it goes to show how strong family ties can be.

The "Flowergirls" with J's big sister.

No a great pic but it's all I had !!

 After the ceremony we headed to the Nambucca RSL club for dinner.

The Bride with her Flowergirls !!

There were some family pictures taken and hopefully I can add them to this post at a later date. A good night was had by all although we did head home a little early as we had a really early start the next day.

So that was our trip to Coffs Harbour and Uncle John and now Aunty Margarets wedding. We welcome you Margaret into our family with open arms and wish you both a long and wonderful life together.

We have also had a great trip to Coffs Harbour packing alot of things into a short time. Our only regret was we didn't get our ride on the camels along the beach. Oh well maybe next time !!!

Coffs Harbour - Day 5

Here we are at Day 5 and the most exciting day for E. The Butterfly House. As I said at the end of the last post, E was most looking forward to this day so that she could catch up with "Rosie's" family.

As soon as we entered the shop, E found 2 large boards that had the different species of butterfly on it. So she then proceeded to tell Sandy who they all were. One was Rosie's mum, the other Rosie's dad, there were the brothers, sisters, cousins and so on.

She was so excited about the board so I was hoping for a good response inside the actual house and a great response was what we got, thank goodness. So here goes with the pics !

Those beautiful butterflies loved me straight away.
It pays to have bright clothing on.

For some reason they liked my handbag too !!

They even loved the brochure.
The kids loved that the butterflies kept landing on everything.

E loved watching the butterflies fly around
but was a little hesitant when they started landing on her !!!

The kids in their element !!! They were loving it !!
Secretly so was I !!!

These two butterflies loved Sandy's shirt,
they were there for ages and decided that it was also a great place
to make baby butterflies !!!!

Just beautiful.

Loving it now !!!!

Also at the Butterflty House they have a wooden maze to explore. So we broke into teams - Sandy and E so then C and me - and raced to see who could get to the middle first. Sandy and E won that race taking only 3 minutes to reach the centre. In the middle of the maze there is another colour maze to test your skill.

C in the middle

After the maze we decided to take a break and enjoy some lunch at their tea rooms. Out in the dinning area, there are heaps of things to do to keep the kids entertained, they have puzzles on each table, a large chalk board, colouring in with plenty of sharp pencils !!, also a large noughts and crosses game and a butterfly figure outside.

C trying out the puzzles

E tried to !!!

The kids couldn't do the puzzles,
so Sandy had a go and also struggled to finish them !!!

Colouring in, a great way for the kids to kill time while we waited for our lunch,
 and they even got to put them up on the wall when they were finished !!!

We all loved the house so much that we went back in !!! The girl inside the house was fantastic. She was great with the kids and had a wealth of information although we wondered if she was growing butterflies in her dreadlocked hair !!! She showed the girls where the butterflies grow and gave us real butterfly wings for the kids to take to school. !!!

Back in for another look !!

So that was our trip to the butterfly house, well worth the entry fee. In the end we were there for 3 1/2 hours !! Not one fight or one bad word from the kids. Definately a great day had by all !!!

Tomorrow is the last day of our holiday and also the reason for this trip. Tomorrow we will be welcoming Margaret into our family when she marries Uncle John. We have our fingers crossed for nice weather. ! 

Coffs Harbour - Day 4

Here we are at day four and today sees us travelling up the mountain and heading to Dorrigo National Park.

What a view from up there !! Again lots of pics so be warned !!

It was a fantastic view but quite breezy
so poor E was really, really cold !!

The next picture was taken from a pedestal that is set up for people to screw their own camera to with instructions about how to take a picture of yourself. I thought this was a great idea for those that travel on their own. There is no need to find or ask someone to take a picture. There should be more of these at popular tourist places.

Off for a bushwalk after visiting the main lookout. 
About 10 minutes into the walk a couple came by and told us
to look out for the leeches !! Yippee, watch out kids !!

The kids found this plant and decided that they
were pixie steps for the fairies !!
How Cute !!

The view from the other end of the walk.
The walk is about 20 minutes long along a paved pathway.

At the other end there is a great BBQ area with a large grassed area and this beautiful lookout. We decided to take a rest and take a good look at our shoes and legs as we had picked up a few leeches along the way. E had one on her shoe and then C took off her shoe. Pictures follow .......

E's leech, not bad !!

This is what we found when C took off her shoe !!!
EEEEWWWWW!!!!
Lucky it did not get through the sock.

After our adventure through the rainforest we decided that our best bet was to take the road back to the info centre. Less chance of leeches !!!!

Our next stop was Dangar Falls. A beautiful little stop along the road. I think this had to be one of my absolute favourite parts of the trip. It had a great little park with only 3 things !!!

Dangar Falls

The next lot of pics are from our adventure at the park with only 3 items. It had a swing, a small slide with monkeybars and a good old merry go round. This piece of equipment is a dying breed in todays society which is a shame but it was such a huge hit with the kids and us alike. All up I eneded up taking 36 pictures but I wont bore you with them all !!!

All my KIDS on the merry go round.

This swing was awesome, again something that I have not seen before.

Yeah loving this !!!!

Yeah maybe not !!!! Stop the world spinning PLEASE !!!!

Ha Ha Ha mum, I'm gonna spin you faster !!!

Sandy doing his superman impression.
Yahooooooo !!!

My little monkey just hanging around !!

Love this pic. C loved just gliding back and forth.

Thanks Dangar Falls for such a fantastic park.
We really had to drag ourselves away from this great place.

After nearly an hour of play and laughter we headed back down the mountain and found the Honey House. There was not to much to see here but the kids did like looking at the bees working away in the hive and they also go to taste fresh honey. Not something that they will be hurrying back for !!!

My busy buzzy bees !!!

The real busy buzzy bees.

 After the Honey House we took a drive through Sawtell, saw Coffs Harbour airport then headed home for a game of Tennis !!! The property also had a tennis court and the kids had been at me since day one to try it out. I was hesitant as I am no great tennis player and I am lucky if I can see the ball !!! Plus there were windows and cars around and I just had visions of the kids hitting the ball way off course !!! I didn't have to worry cause they couldn't hit the ball either, but there was alot of laughter just trying !!

E certaintly has the right look.

Finally after tennis we all sat down and had a good rest and then started gearing up for the next day where we are off to the Butterfly House. E is really looking forward to this one as she has a pet butterfly called Rosie. Rosie is any white butterfly that happens to fly past !!! So E was excited about going to meet Rosie's family that all live at the Butterfly House !!! Again there will be heaps of pics.!