Author: Renae

Living life as a wife, a stay at home mama of 3 kids under 5, a marriage celebrant, a craft and sewing amateur, a cooked breakfast lover, coffee enthusiast, extroverted socialite, and most recently, someone who is trying to keep a tidy house. It's tough I tell you!

The other other cake

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Hubs wanted a “jelly pool” cake. So, you know, I made one. It was pretty yummy and lots of fun! (I really should take more care with the backgrounds for my photos, but… well… you know… whatever….)

Snow bunnies

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While Michael and Lea and family were visiting, we took a trip up to Falls Creek for a day in the snow. We had bought up big at ALDI’s snow sale, so we were prepared for anything… or so we thought. Dad even gave Chanbe his silk balaclava to wear!

Unbeknownst to us bottom-of-the-mountain folk, it was snowing up the top! We arrived, snow chains at the ready, around lunch time and got straight into the white stuff.

Or perhaps to put it more accurately, it got straight in to us. It was snowing pretty hard up the top and it was pretty darn cold and windy! Not that Chance cared much!

It got a bit much for me after a while so Chance and I headed indoors to thaw out and have a bite to eat while the rest of the gang played in the snow. After this, we headed around to “Windy Corner” for some tabogganing. The name didn’t lie.

Thankfully, Hubs took Chance for a while on the ergo, as I was having a hard time juggling a 10kg baby (not literally – but what a sight that would be!) and all those darn layers!

I had a couple of runs on the taboggan, but I kinda sucked at it, so Hubs took Chance for a go. Fun!

We decided to hunker down at the hut for a rest and another thaw-out so I carried Chance there in the windy snow. It was haaaaaaard work. That 50m seemed like an eternity! But we made it and were followed not long after by the rest of our group.

So again, Chance and I were happy to hang out there while everyone else went for round 2 on the taboggan slope. We then headed back down to the car and after another bite to eat, hit the road. We had to use snow chains on the way down as it was very icy indeed. We all got home safe and sound and that hot shower I had was one of the best ever. Hubs has been up the mountain twice since then for a bit of snowboarding action, and is up there again today. He’s got to make good use of his season pass that he got for his birthday!! As to when I’ll be back up there? Well, the jury’s still out on that one…

An unexpected visit

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Hubs goes to Shepparton on Sunday for orientation for 2 weeks, and Mum was going to come down here for that time to keep Chanbe and I company. Unfortunately, my Nanny had a stroke a week ago and is currently in hospital. She’s doing okay under the circumstances but we thought it would be nice to go and spend some time with her, so Chance and I are jumping on a plane (again) on Sunday evening and heading on up. We’ll be there just under 2 weeks so I hope to be seeing some of you Brisbane folk while we’re up there.

A houseful

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I LOVE a house full of people. Whether it be for a meal, a party or an extended stay, (or all 3!) I just love knowing there are people around and that good times are to be had. We have lived in our new place for 17 days, and for 14 of those, we have had either 5, or 9 or 10 people in the house. It’s been awesome.

As I mentioned, Mum and Dad helped us move and then stayed with us in our new place for 10 days before heading back to Brizzie. Also in that time, we were lucky enough to have Chance’s Godmum and her family (her Hubs and my Hubs study med together – that’s how we all met initially) stay with us. Their 2 kids were an absolute delight to have around and loved playing with Chance. And of course he was just memorised by them.

We all sat down and ate breakfasts and dinners together and the wine and beers and conversation flowed freely. We hope you guys come back to visit again some time!!

Where to start

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This is the problem with not blogging “live” for a while – too much to catch up on!! For those of you who were in on the secret, the surprise weekend birthday party for Hubs was just brilliant. Maybe I’ll start with that, and work my way backwards. A few months ago, Hubs’ sister and I started planning for her and 6 of Hubs’ friends to fly down to Melbourne, drive to Mt Beauty, and turn up on our doorstep as a surprise to Hubs, and spend the weekend here. I cannot tell you how many times I accidentally nearly blew the surprise. Sleep deprivation does not help with keeping surprises a secret, but I managed to keep my mouth shut and even convinced Hubs to go snowboarding on Friday (didn’t take much) so I could prepare for the arrivals.

The first carload of people rocked up at 5pm and Hubs came home a bit after 6 and got a great surprise! The beers and rum began to flow freely, and by 11:30pm I was beat, so left Hubs and 3 of his mates (2 others had retired earlier) to catch up. I knew Hubs’ sister and other friend were due to arrive after 3am and I could hear Hubs and Uncle Ben – the last men standing – chatting and drinking into the wee hours. I thought they would come to bed, and have Lsl wake Hubs up to surprise him, but Ben had other plans. They were still up when Lsl and Hubs’ mate arrived at 3:30am and he got another great surprise!! I popped out to say hi and set up extra beds, and retired again around 4:30am. Hubs didn’t crawl into bed until 6, and guess who woke up, ready to play with Mama at 6:15am!!! WOO HOO!!!! Thankfully after a little brekky and play, Chanbe and I rejoined Hubs for another hour of sleep around 8.

So Saturday was spent with a walk into town, a visit to the local Tavern, and a push home in the stroller. (I had driven Chance home earlier.) Oh, and Hubs’ last birthday cake for this year.

I had had the Tetris cake idea in my head (and in my iPhone reminders) for months, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

We spent Sunday at a few wineries and the Bright Brewery, and had dinner at home. At this point, I might share some photos instead of more words.

Hubs at the first winery

The whole gang at the third winery
Too cute at the brewery
It really was such a great weekend, and quite sad to bid everyone farewell on Monday morning. I would like to take this opportunity to say THANKS FOR COMING – you really made Hubs’ 30th birthday something special x x x