Kasey's swimming carnival - age champion!

Kasey had her very first school swimming carnival on Friday.  She had a wonderful day and came first in all of her races, which were freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.  At lunch time all the kids were allowed to play in the mushroom fountain pool, and all the parents could sit around the pool in lounges watching them, which was lovely and relaxing.  Later in the afternoon, the awards were given out, and Kasey won age champion for the 6 year girls group for the day!  Who knew?? I am so glad I went along for the day, and stayed for the whole day and took lots of photos.  At the scrapbooking retreat on the weekend I scrapped a couple of pages on her achievement, and I will frame them for her to hang on her wall.  I included her ribbons on the pages, so they will not get lost and will stay with her photos of the day. I will now have to look at enrolling her in the swimming squad as she seems to have a talent in the pool.

Craft, sports carnival and a little upcoming trip...

I have had a busy couple of days as usual. Yesterday was spent at sewing class for the block of the month class on my back on the farm quilt. I spent the whole day tracing out the designs to be appliqued on to the individual blocks.  Now have to cut all the little pieces out, attach them to the different fabrics and cut those out, and then glue and sew to the blocks, still a bit of work, but definitely getting there. Last night I finished off a pair of crocheted fingerless gloves that I started the night before. They are really quick to crochet up, and this is my first wearable crocheted item I have made, and I am quite proud of it. They are really warm as well.

Kasey had her very first school sports day today. It was really nice sitting down to watch all of the littlies trying their hardest.  Kasey ran a 50 metre race. She had fun..

I have been to a sewing class again tonight for the evening bag. Tonight we embroidered the front flap of the bag. I left my machine there to have a service while I am away, as I seem to be having some tension troubles, and I don't think it was serviced before I purchased it from the lady who sold it to me, so it isn't going to hurt it. I also need the needle threader replaced, as it has been broken since I bought the machine. The embroidery is coming up really nicely. I have a wedding to do tomorrow, and it is also Toni's year 12 formal, and I am picking Damian up from the airport as well, so a very busy day ahead.  I have started on the few things I could do for the wedding, so it shouldn't take me too long to finish it off tomorrow.Damian is flying in for Toni's formal, and we are going to fly back up to Mackay on Sunday with Kasey and spend a few days driving back down with our new caravan which he has left in accomodation at Mackay. I haven't stayed in our new caravan yet, so I am looking forward to setting that all up, as Damian is likely to have set it up with a man's touch, so I will probably relocate a few things....  :)  I am going to head in to the city tomorrow night and pick the girls up after their formal and drive them back home, so it is about an hour's drive in to the city, so it will be a late night by the time I get home....I am going to need a few days off I think....I am going to make Toni and her friend up a lovely wrist corsage each for them to wear, they have asked me for them and I am happy to make them for the girls, it is lovely that they wish to have some fresh flowers to set off their dresses. I will post some photos of their special day after the event.

Watching the chickens and vege garden spreadsheet

I took Kasey to gymnastics this morning, they had a 2 hour session, and she really enjoyed it. She started to learn about tumbling and doing handstands etc, and they did a little bit on the low balance beam etc. The afternoon class was cancelled as they didn't have enough people, which really surprises me being school holidays, so instead of a refund I said she could go to the 3 x 1 hour blocks Wed, Thu and Friday instead. It means no sleep ins for me this week, but oh well, I do prefer to be up a bit earlier...though it doesn't feel that way when I'm still snuggled under the doona! Toni is feeling a bit better today, she has been trying not to dwell on things, and she had a huge sleep in and seems to be over the initial shock of everything... I spent a little time just pottering around the vege garden in the afternoon, not doing much, just enjoying being up there, and sat for a little while watching the chooks while they were scratching about...Sam is doing the rooster thing with the girls....he is a bit unco though, because he's a fat little ball of fluff, he falls off half the time..hehehehe....and he took one look at big Bertha and she just went "No way"...and took off a million miles an hour..it was very funny. Big Bertha is the matriach of the chook pen...she is absolutely huge and no-one pushes her around...  it seems like I have had her for years and years...she would have to be at least 10, and she shows no signs of not being around for another 10....
I started on my vege garden spreadsheet today. I have 1 page for the planting side of things..how much I planted on what dates, harvest times, replanting schedules for continued supply etc, 1 page for the harvest records, and 1 page keeping track of the costs..it's a work in progress but getting there.

3 eggs today, 6 passionfruit and 1 x 2.5kg pumpkin.

Vege garden, Sunday and a near tragedy....

I took Kasey to a Gymnastics open day today, she seemed to really enjoy it. I have booked her in to a school holiday program for a couple of hours tomorrow, and will see what she thinks. If she really likes it, I may book her in to the actual program during school terms. Today I sowed some carrot seeds in the vege garden, cleaned out the chook pen, and placed new straw, pulled out the last of the carrots from the last crop, along with some sweet potato and corn. This is today's harvest:

Kasey enjoying a freshly picked carrot from the vege garden..

I am going to keep the small cob of corn for seeds, as the corn has been delicious, very sweet and juicy, so I would definitely like to grow some more of this variety, as I think it is the nicest corn we have ever had. I think there will be about 150 seeds on the small cob, so I have it in the pantry in a mesh bag to dry for a few weeks. I will probably buy some more in the meantime and plant another crop very shortly. While getting the straw out of the storage shed this afternoon, I discovered a batch of rats in there, Max has turned out to have very good ratting abilities, and made short work of 1, but the rest scattered and took off, but I will let him in there each afternoon to try and get rid of the rest. While I don't like the idea of killing anything, a plague of rats is definitely not needed, and I think Max taking care of 1 in a couple of seconds is much more preferable to baiting them, which to me is inhumane. I also spread some more straw around the vege garden where needed. Last night, I made my first attempt at a crocheted dishcloth. It has turned out ok, a few missed stiches here and there, but practice should improve things. I think I may knit them in future though, as crocheting seems to use way more wool, even though it's quicker.

Toni had a bad night last night, and equally bad day today. As she was leaving a party last night, a very drunk girl jumped in front of her and laid on her bonnet, and fell off and hit her head on the bitumen, and is in hospital with a hairline fracture to her skull, bruising on her brain etc. Luckily, Toni was in first gear and only going about 5 klms an hour, but an ambulance was called and the police turned up, and breath tested Toni who returned a 0.00 result, and the police have told her she was not at fault and have cleared her of any charges or traffic infringements, but Toni feels awful as this girl is a friend of hers.  She has been crying all day, and is worried that her friends are going to blame her, and she has been feeling sick all day about it. It just really irks me that people do such irresponsible things, which causes distress to others. The girl is going to be ok apparently, but will be in hospital for a few days, and she can't remember what happened. It is a very hard lesson for her to learn though. I can only imagine how bad it could have been it Toni had been going faster, or had had a drink at the party....