Busy days...

Sorry for my silence, but I've been kinda busy. Have to say I have a pretty cool family and that our experiment with Christmas in July actually worked. We managed to squeeze 14 into our little place over a long weekend (show holiday in T'ville). Nan and Pappy (that's E and me) slept on a mattress in front of the fire -- rather nice, really.

Two long tables on the veranda worked well for main meals and everyone pitched in with all the jobs. Everyone in the family loves food and cooking so we ate well and partied well, and there was always someone to take an interest in the littlies. At night there were glow sticks and sparklers and during the day, lots of storytelling and imaginative games (some inspired by the book Pookie Puts the World Right which was one of my childhood favourites that I bought on ebay -- my first ebay purchase -- yay!!), so we survived having to stay inside.

Here is accommodating Tom minding his little cousins' dolls while continuing to play on his computer. And below are the twins reading a bedtime story to a sick doll. (A Julia Quinn book, I believe -:)

I say we managed well because it rained non-stop for 8 days except for about four hours of sunshine on Sunday afternoon. And boy, did we make the most of that sun. Sons made a makeshift go-cart out of things they found in the shed and lots of folk had fun riding it down the hill. Then we also constructed a slip and slide with black plastic and detergent and again it was a great hit. This was followed by baths and then a trip to Yungaburra to see a platypus. The tinies were amazing down by the creek, picking up from all the adults that they had to be super quiet -- and we had really good viewings of three platypuses -- so very satisfactory.

You can view more pics of our July gathering here https://picasaweb.google.com/BarbHannay/ChristmasInJuly2011#slideshow/5626367809755268482