A humble Mini Golf course set in the hub of beautiful Sorrento. With only 9 holes, and in cramped surroundings, this golf course is short and sweet, however, if you want to have another round, there is a second round available complimentary. Whilst it is not the most well designed nor imaginative course, and it is near impossible to get a hole in one – the course record stands at 19, it is worth a challenge for all those mini golf fanatics!
With the bushfire season upon us, and living in a bushfire prone area, this mother of 6 is beginning to feel quite a responsiblity with her young brood. So it was, I insisted that we decide on a definate fire plan and practice it with the children, and this INCLUDES me learning how to use the fire pump associated with our dam! Our plan is of course to leave as early as we can, however, as we have been made aware by Black Saturday this is not always possible if the fire is imminent and we can see flames closeby. So we now have a plan and now I KNOW how to turn the fire pump on! It was quite a sight tonight when I got saturated after being successful in my first attempt! Gave the children quite a laugh in an otherwise serious excursion to the dam! Do you live in a fire prone area? Do you have a plan?
Happy New Year!
Like millions of families around the world, last night we celebrated the new year, 2010! Is it Two Thousand and Ten or Twenty-Ten? We had a fantastic time with two families very close to us! Although, our efforts at having a ‘dive-in outdoor movie night’ was hampered by the extreme conditions of thunder & lightning, these 6 adults and 12 children partied on, enjoying each others company and finally seeing the New Year in! The only casualties of the evening was our landline telephone and our modem which were damaged by the storms. Unfortunately the folk in Strathewen encountered a poor start to the New Year with torrential rain causing mudslides.
And like millions of people around the world, we have also made a few New Years Resolutions!
Here are some of mine……..
For one of the first times EVER ‘losing weight’ is not one of my resolutions. This year I’m hoping I will ‘tone up’ without the pressure of the resolution!!!! We’ll see!
Have you got a New Years Resolution you would like to share? OR Are you having trouble finding one? Look here for some ideas!
Also, I managed to teach a few children the art of counting the time as to how far away the storm is! I am now responsible for extremely frightening some children, however, they are now more educated! :-) Here is a link to some info on Thunder & Lightning!
Must admit Hubby Ian made an excellent dessert tonight - Golden Syrup Dumplings! Disappointed I forgot to take a picture……. I’ll just have to get him to make them again! 
Hubby’s Golden Syrup Dumplings - SERVES 8
SAUCE:
DUMPLINGS:
Place sauce ingredients in a pan and heat. Rub butter into flour, stir in egg and enough milk to make firm dough. Roll into little balls and drop into the boiling syrup for between 5 - 10 minutes.
Today we ventured to the Merimbula Aquarium and had a wonderful time learning about many species of fish & sealife found in local waters. We even witnessed a shark lay an egg which will not hatch for 12 months! Read more about it here and please feel free to comment on your experiences at the Merimbula Aquarium.
We spent the afternoon at Wombat Holes Mini Golf - a well designed mini golf course set amongst our Aussie Bush Setting. We even sighted a Kookaburra during our gameplay that had caught a baby snake! YUM! Have you played at Wombat Holes Mini Golf? If so, tell us your experiences! Our Family Value experience is documented here.
Jocks , socks, mini cookbook, t-shirt, mug, gardening gloves, stress ball, “I LOVE MY DAD” homemade book, a homemade tie, a card from the ‘girls’ & a card from the ‘boys’, pancakes with blueberries IN BED, coffee (”white with one”), and most importantly LOTS of KISSES & CUDDLES.
What more could a father want?
Discounts at Docklands in Melbourne as Costco Opens
How Costco Will Change Australian Retail
US retail giant Costco opens Docklands store
I wouldn’t even have KNOWN about Costco if it wasn’t for the media hype! However, I believe the media did their job well because when there is something new & exciting happening, I don’t want to miss out! So it was, within 1 week of Costco opening I signed up with this Giant Warehouse for $60 online and lured my husband and 6 children into Docklands at 4.30pm on Saturday afternoon. The parking was easy! Straight into a car park, but then we walk up the stairs in the direction of the Costco entrance and we become overwhelmed with giant trolleys, lots of people, a large lift and an extensive queue for people to gain entrance. Ian & I just look at each other, take a deep breath and continue on our journey. We spot a Costco worker and ask him what we should do. He suggests we go and find a trolley then we can gain entry via a ‘one day only’ coupon, as although I have signed up membership online I haven’t received any form of membership card. We feel very important as we gain entrance in the shorter queue. There are hundreds of people lined up in the ‘long’ queue waiting to sign up for membership!
On entry into the store we feel extremely overwhelmed. The baby is strapped in the baby bjorn and B4 & K5 fit nicely into the ‘trolley seats’. B1, L2 & C3 walk alongside the trolley but I think they are also overwhelmed and a little ‘freaked out’ that they walk very close to the trolley and have several ‘run ins’ with us, each other and the trolley!
So our Costco adventure begins. We pass mixmasters, cooking appliances & accessories, jewellery, storage boxes, and car accessories - seemingly everything but the car!, The first item I throw into the trolley is a bulk box of freezer storage ’snap lock’ bags! I LOVE my snap lock bags - I almost feel I’m in snap lock heaven!!! Batteries, basketball rings, clothing - K6 strikes it lucky with a very cute (and extremely affordable) Osh Kosh B’Gosh tracksuit and bodysuits! Crocs are $24.99, Diesel Jeans are $129.99, Huggies Box of 185 is $67.99 (Bargain!). The children get very excited when they spot large gumball machines, bulk jars of bubblegum, a tin of 1000 Chupa Chups, boxes of twisties, twin packs of Nutella & Honey. And the up and coming ‘mini-chef’ of our family, B1, is very excited when we find a 1.5kg block of Western Star butter. I was extremely excited when I found a large bag of Baking Soda - I LOVE Baking Soda for cooking and CLEANING! It’s the BEST! We load up the trolley with canned tomatoes (12 tins), tomato paste (12 tubs), peanut butter (very large jar), burritos (twin packs), pizza bases (twin pack), dishwashing detergent and a massive bulk lot of 60 rolls of Kleenex toilet paper! The list goes on….and…….on………..and………..on………and……..on. The children ‘want’ a lot of things. DVDs, Nintendo DS games, books, lollies, cubby houses, Diego cars and so much more. I ‘want’ a lot of things including bulk camembert & brie. I managed to sneak a bucket of basil pesto into the trolley and abstained from putting a jar of Kez’s cookies in my trolley - wouldn’t last long in our household. My mind begins to ‘wander’ as I dream of hosting dinner parties and I even spot the outdoor BBQ & stainless steel ‘outdoor kitchen’ for just over $3000! This place has everything!
We had to give much of the ‘freezer section’ a miss as we didn’t come prepared with eskys to keep our purchases frozen for the trip home. We also abstained from stocking up on Flour, Rice & Sugar as we would also need to invest in some ‘big buckets’ to store the bulk amounts in.
Eventually we make it through to ‘checkout’ with the final ‘bill’ totalling to just over $500. Not bad for a family of 8 and we’ve stocked up on lots of things!!!!
We then look forward to having Costco HotDogs and unlimited refills for ‘dinner’. A cheap meal that should total less than $20 for our whole family! We were disappointed to find out that the ‘eatery’ closes at 6pm, the same time as the store. Pity, because there are still hundreds of shoppers to leave the store. Would have been great if they were open a little longer than the store.
Overall, a great place to shop for a large family. In years to come I can envision Costco becoming a valuable asset to us as our family ‘grows up’ and so do their appetites! Costco stocks many of brand name items we have learned to trust.
Family Value Advice
Overall, a favourable, happy experience! Our pantry is now full! I do think that perhaps our local supermarkets are going to ’suffer’ because of Costco, however, with a family of 8 we need to shop where we are getting value for money.
From where we live, the travel is 40 minutes. Is it worth the trip? Absolutely!
Been to Costco? Don’t like Costco? Tossing up whether to sign up for Costco membership? I would love to hear your opinions & questions.
Our ‘little boy’ has just turned 9! That’s right! L2 celebrated his 9th birthday today in a very busy and stylish fashion!
The day started with the traditional unveiling and giving of birthday presents in Mum & Dad’s room. L2 was extremely impressed with his ipod touch! WOW! The things 9 year olds get nowadays….. L2 does love his technology! - not quite sure whom he might take after. ;-).
So it is, the usual Saturday morning sports - basketball, netball - then off to the movies with a very dear friend of Lachlan’s to see Coraline with 3 big buckets of popcorn! I have reviewed Coraline at Family Value here.
Then, off to the Pancake Parlour where Blue Heavens and Alice’s Pancake Surprise are served all round. After having a giggle at the ‘distorted mirrors’ and watching the ‘ball sideshow’ at Northland for many, many minutes, it’s time to go!
But, not before all jumping on the merry go round - 8 people riding for $2 bucks. BARGAIN! I’m not sure whether it was legal but we took great care of the horses and felt it was a great ‘off the cuff’ kind of thing to do. This is what memories are made of! You can view the footage on YouTube here.
So, another birthday over, our son is another year older. Oh how life is passing us by but we are loving watching our children grow up. We’re very proud of them and enjoying each and every stage.
Anyone else got a new 9 year old in the house?
So I did the hard yards and lined up for the new iphone on Friday. It’s only been 6 days and already the iphone ‘freezes’!!!Grrrrrrrrrrr………. sometimes technology can be your best friend at other times extremely frustrating! So, there is good and bad….. lucky I have the laptop on holidays - a simple search for ‘latest iphone troubleshooting’ and ‘voila’, I discover the information I am required thanks to Sam Costello’s article on How to Reset or Reboot iphone . Just the info I wanted and it worked! “Reset the iPhone by holding the sleep/wake button at the top right of the device and the home button at the bottom center of the face at the same time. Hold them both until you see the screen go black and the white Apple logo appear. When this happens, you can let go - the iPhone is rebooting. Resetting the iPhone should not remove or delete any data or settings.”
Hoping this info will be helpful to someone else one day!
