The Pool Room

Family Bonding Day

Today was a huge family bonding day, although we didn’t all spend it together.

Megan and Grace went up to Sydney with the Peterborough school for the Rotary Club of Turramurra and Pathfinders Jumbo Flight. Qantas donated the use of a jumbo jet, pilots and cabin crew donated their time, and Rotarian volunteers provided ground support in the terminal to allow a plane full of disabled kids and their carers to enjoy a 90-minute flight/party over Sydney.

Meanwhile, Darren took Sarah and Hannah to the Ss Peter and Paul Catholic Primary School fete.

As if that wasn’t enough, Darren and the girls then went up to Glengarry Cottage at Kembla Grange for their gala day.

Sarah still wasn’t done when we got home (Hannah had fallen asleep by this stage), so we then had to make a scarecrow.

On a personal note, there’s something strangely satisfying about making a scarecrow from your mother-in-law’s clothes!

November 8th, 2008

Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge

We have signed up for the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge, and Monday night was the official launch of the programme.

The idea is for 120 households across the Illawarra to spend the next 12 months moving towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Sustainable Illawarra provides participants with information, workshops, guidance and resources (as well as some nice discounts and freebies from local businesses!) to help them achieve the goals they’ve set for themselves. In return, Sustainable Illawarra will learn what the issues are for local families, and they’ll also get some stories and case studies they can use in getting the message out to the wider community.

To keep track of what our family is doing and how far we’ve come, we’ve set up a new blog: Green-Change.com. Feel free to have a read, leave some comments, and send us suggestions!

November 6th, 2008

Magic In The Garden

What I love most about this photo is that Sarah actually disappeared into her bedroom to get dressed for gardening, and this is what she came out in. Click to embiggen.

1 comment September 7th, 2008

Sarah’s Birthday Party 2008

For Sarah’s fifth birthday, she had a “princesses and pirates” theme.

July 5th, 2008

The Chinese Silky Chicks Arrive!

After a lot of searching, emailing and ringing local breeders looking for silky pullets, I finally found a lady up in Marulan with some chicks for sale. I originally didn’t want to get chicks because of the mucking around with heat lamps etc, but since it was the only way to get some silkies for the girls we decided to go for it.

We bought nine chicks, 4 for us and 5 for my mate Danny. Ours have been named Seraphina, Ro, Luciana and Molly (yes, Barbie movies are big in our house!). Turns out they’re not really that much hassle to look after.

First thing Hannah and Sarah wanted to do was draw pictures of the chicks, so they could show their grandparents and friends what they look like.

Rather than give them out to people, Sarah decided to turn her pictures into a book about chickens:

8 comments July 3rd, 2008

Wisdom Lost

Well, my four wisdom teeth came out this morning. Ouch. I wasn’t able to talk for the rest of the day because of swollen and numb bottom lip, jaw and tongue. That makes it really hard to be around inquisitive/talkative one- and three-year-olds! Grace seems to be the only one who understands my grunts :-).

All is going well. I have to pop all sorts of pills for the next couple weeks. I won’t be eating much for the next few days, but everything should be back in good working order for Christmas feasts!

November 21st, 2006

August 2006 Photos

Just a quick update to show off some recent photos…

1 comment August 28th, 2006

Sarah’s Tea Party Video

A while ago, I video taped Sarah hosting a tea party for Grace and several of her dolls and teddy bears. Later, while browsing through some old audio files, I found the perfect backing track by the Animaniacs. Enjoy!

Sarah’s Tea Party (4.6 MB). You may need to download the free Quicktime 7 player to watch it.

1 comment January 7th, 2006

Grace Makes The News

Late last year we all went to see Hi 5 in concert at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre. Grace absolutely loved it, and danced down in the mosh pit for most of the concert. Sarah was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing, and spent most of the concert asleep with her head in Megan’s lap!

Grace’s enthusiastic dancing even won her a place on WIN TV News that night – watch the video (3.6 MB). Watch for Grace’s dance moves after Charli talks. You may need to download Quicktime 7 (it’s free) to watch the video.

January 5th, 2006

Welcome Hannah Lisa-Marie!

Hannah Lisa-Marie Collins was born today at 5:40pm, in Figtree Private Hospital. She weighed 3.590 kg (7 lb 14.5 oz) and measured 50.5 cm (19.9 in) – our biggest yet, despite being two weeks early!

Megan and Hannah are both doing very well.

1 comment April 7th, 2005