Easter 15, and a couple of cute Pics

This last weekend was a little bittersweet for us. Due to a scheduling change, a family gathering was planned at Mark & Tiff's in Queensland. Unfortunately for us, our travel for this month was already confirmed to Adelaide (for a wedding) and we need to spend what time we do have on the build to get the house to lock up. It would have been brilliant to meet another three or four new nieces/nephews/cousins, but that will all have to wait. It seems as though they all had a great time, even though the party dynamics are significantly changed now that the number of under fives almost outnumbers adults!

In any case, I ended up with a chronic case of Man Flu (obviously near death), and wouldn't have enjoyed flights or been great company.

We had another small party for MacK on Thursday (his actual birthday) with friends from Wodonga, and then left for the farm on Good Friday.

MacK is Ninja Turtle mad, so a freehand drawing of Leonardo was the order of the day for a second cake. Under the frosting we had our go to mud cake.

Our plans were to get the external beading into the window frames (tick), oil the frames (tick), get the glass to the house from storage (tick - saving $110 per month), and install the fixed glass panels (not yet done). All in all we had a successful weekend. Again we couldn't have done it without the help of friends and family. This time it was Clare who helped with the oiling of the frames, Jasmine who played really terrible music (apparently current and trendy - just sounded like the crap we used to dance [?] to when drunk in the 90's), and Leigh. We were responsible for moving the glass, which was emotional. Very emotional.

I put in the beading, while Jane was responsible for sanding and oiling the frames

On social matters, Static Nomadic had a gig planned for Easter Saturday, so rehearsed on Friday evening. And Night, and for a bit of the morning as well. The music was good, but the shed walls are thin. Can't wait to see the acoustic dampening properties of straw bale and double glazing! It was cool enough in the evening to sit around a fire, which is one of the absolute pleasures of country/outdoor living.

Needless to say, as the resident rainmakers for the farm it started to rain as soon as we tried to do anything outside - like shifting glass.

 Can you tell the glass is a little heavy? We are both SO happy to be lifting the glass off the truck. There were 52 panes to be shifted - fortunately not all this big. The largest of the panels weighed 111 kg. We might have gone a little crazy.

On our way home we stopped for fish and chips in Cowra. I realise some will say you can't get good fish away from the coast, but I have to disagree. The fish and chippery in  Cowra is magnificent. They only sell fish - go somewhere else for your burgers - and it is really good. They drive to the Sydney fish markets themselves to get product, and are doing something right if the queues on Good Friday are anything to go by.

 We did get one of the panels in place. It was really nice to know that the window frames actually fit the glass... so far!

 MacK kept himself amused. Totem tennis provided a heap of fun for him and Floyd - if not a lot of coordination! I love the Michael Jackson pose below!

 A hot chocolate break was always welcome - thanks Aunty Clare

 

 And when there was no-one to play totem tennis with, MacK indulged his musical side

Looking through a couple of older photo downloads, I discovered a couple of photos that I particularly love. They are shown below. The one of all of us was taken as I arrived into Albury after an extended return journey home from the Middle East in November. MacK had been asleep, and woke up in my arms. He also hadn't had a haircut since I had been away, saying that a haircut was what he did with me. Very cute! The other is MacK (being impossibly cute) showing us how big his muscles are!