Day 365 - New Year's Eve and the Art of Self Taking a Family Portrait

We learned today that even with a remote for the camera it is hard to take a picture of yourselves sometimes! A few times the camera wanted to focus on the background rather than us, and a few times Henry just wasn't in the mood! We also learnt that sparklers only cause smoke in the daytime, which tends to make you look like you are on fire. But this is the final picture for my project, us on the final day of 2011!

So on this final day of 2011 I have had a flick back through the year of my blog and noticed the following...

Number of posts - 365
Pageviews up until now - 10,193
Most Read Post (according to stats) was the Day of Chaos (Day 251) with 42 page views, closely followed by The Story of Dale and the Policeman (Day 196) with 35 page views
Most Commented on Post via Face Book would have to be Day 98 (Dale's Hidden Treasure) closely followed by Day 196 (Story of Dale and the Policeman) Funny that both posts are about Dale!
Big Events of the Year included, Henry crawling and later walking and David and Dani's wedding, Henry turned one and Kinzie was born.
Number of photos of Henry - 113
Posts mentioning shoes - 14
Posts mentioning chocolate - 21

So that's it... Happy New Year's Eve!

Day 364 - Little Ted is Back!

Henry has never really been big on soft toys, preferring things that need sorting or that move, so today when he went and got Little Ted out of the toy tub it had certainly been a long while! He gave him cuddles and rubbed his face on him, showing that he is a bit of a softy after all!

Day 363 - Nappy Time?

Now unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy this morning when Henry walked up to my bedside and popped a disposable pull up nappy onto his head as a hat. He did give it another go later, enjoying hamming it up a bit to make me laugh!

Day 362 - I Want One Too!

After spending a weekend with my family and finding that my Dad and he were the only ones not using an iPad, Dale realised that he really did want one too... so we went shopping today! So that we can tell them apart we bought some fancy covers for them as well.

Day 361 - A Spot of Lunch in the Park

Wow, five days to go! We stopped on our way home to grab some lunch in Goulburn. Not much was open so I was pretty glad I had brought Henry a sandwich. Henry skilfully used a straw in a bottle of water, we watched the dogs get all tangled together (they really should practise walking more!) and we enjoyed the great park in Goulburn, briefly, before heading off for the last leg of our drive.

Day 360 - Just Like the Real Thing!

You can't quite tell in this pic, but Henry just sniffed his book... Fascinated by the smell of the mint leaves in the backyard, Henry spotted a picture of a green leaf in this book and obviously thought he should check if they smell like the ones in the garden!

Day 359 - Christmas is Here!

Merry Christmas! Check out the little look of concentration as Henry opens his Christmas present from Santa! We had a great Christmas Day today and I realised how far Henry has come in the last year. Today he played Santa's Helper, delivering Christmas presents from himself to the rest of the family and watched intently as people ripped open the paper! He 'helped' Dale in the kitchen preparing fruit for the pancakes (well, eating it), packed and unpacked a box of mangos, enjoyed his Christmas lunch and played with his presents! I think the red table and chairs made by Opa and the cars from Dani and David were quite a hit!

Day 358 - Christmas Eve

Now in this photo of Henry playing with the dogs' water (not sure if you can see the kibble he has stirred into it), his t-shirt says "Dear Santa... Is it too late to be good?" Too cute, and he really does look like he has been up to no good! I used snap seed to do this photo which is a great iPad app, which I am having fun experimenting with!

Day 357 - Christmas in Sydney

We arrived in Sydney this afternoon to have Christmas with my family. It is actually the first ever since I moved to Canberra five years ago! Mum put the Christmas tree up high this year, which was probably a good idea that I should have used myself. Tomorrow is a day of food prep and maybe some last minute Christmas shopping

Day 356 - Loving Spag!

I normally only cook Henry short pasta, but it really was pretty amusing watching him eat spaghetti tonight. After a while when we realised it was going to take a while, Dale began the very intricate task of piling spaghetti onto a spoon, which Henry found much easier!

Day 355 - Happiness Returns to Bath Time!

Well the photo says it all! For the last few weeks, bath time has become painful with lots of tears and little explanation. Tonight was thankfully a different story and my little boy who loves playing with water has returned! I was really beginning to think that buying Henry a pool for Christmas was a mistake!

Day 354 - Resolution?

Now as it is in the above photo, anyone might think that they had walked into Peta's classroom instead of mine! I have never had a classroom looking so clean and having all the cupboard space really did help. So did vacuuming and cleaning years of dirt off various items! Dare I make it one of my resolutions to have a tidy classroom in 2012?

Day 353 - A Day at the Gallery

So finally the last day of term is here! Our staff development day was held at the National Art Gallery where we we taken on a tour and given opportunities to draw and talk about different artworks. It would be a great experience for students to be given. We had lunch at the Portrait Gallery before returning to school to finish up everything. I stayed until late continuing to move everything out of my classroom and am looking forward to getting it all unpacked! My photo is taken outside the Portrait Gallery - the storm coming in looked a lot more dramatic in real life!

Day 352 - Now All Smile!

I took so many photos of these four today and it was very difficult to get a photo when each child was looking happy at the same time! Anyway, Jenna has Henry and their little baby cousin Kinzie on her lap and in front is Holly who we don't get to see very often, so it was great to get a pic of all four together! We spent the day with Dale's family having an early Christmas lunch. My favourite thing was hearing Henry say, "Ooooh!"each time he was given a present to open!

Day 351 - Putting Up the Christmas Tree Proves Hazardous!

Henry was quite fascinated by the putting up of the Christmas tree today, however it has already fallen down twice, once on top of him, due to his attraction to all things shiny, such as baubles! We went low key this year, only putting up our smaller tree and not going ahead with lights or tinsel. At least I don't really have an excuse for not wanting to take it down, with our 2010 tree being packed away sometime in mid to late January 2011!

Day 350 - Work in Progress

So now all of my stuff has moved from the front of my classroom to the hallway outside my new classroom. My 'new' classroom is the one I moved out of at the end of 2010! On a positive note, at that point I had been on maternity leave and while I was gone it was refurbished. After being in a classroom at the older end of the school for the first time, I have to say it will be pretty good to move into one with nice clean cupboards and carpet. My belongings will sit out here on the floor over the weekend, so here's to hoping for no rain or flooded carpets!

Day 349 - On the Move

So reports have gone home, some children have stopped coming (most haven't!) and I am in the midst of trying to hand out all of this year's books, artwork and so on, whilst packing boxes to move classrooms and also keeping the 20 or so children occupied somehow! Most of my things are packed and sitting out the front now, waiting for the word to move.

Day 348 - An Exciting Gift!

How exciting, but frustrating to get home and find that Dale bought me an iPad! Frustrating because I had to race out to the year six farewell and couldn't even look at it until I got home later on. After an interesting dinner followed by some confusing line dancing (for me anyway) I stopped for a glass of wine afterwards with the other teachers and got home to set up my new toy! Thanks Dale!

Day 347 - A Busy Last Week

This week is shaping up to be an extremely busy one, sending home kids' workbooks and cleaning and packing, knowing that I will have to move classrooms. Additionally today was the day that reports go home and I have to say that it was nice to wipe my hands of that little pile of envelopes!

Day 346 - Christmas Carols Night

I realised by the end of the day, why I don't wear these shoes often! Wanting to feel a bit festive I thought I would wear a bit of red and green today, because we had our carols night at school in the evening. It was a very long day between 8am and almost 8pm in these shoes! Definitely to be worn only with stockings next time. It was a long day with a big crowd for the carols, which was great. I rushed home afterwards only to find that Henry was already in bed, but at least dinner was waiting in the oven!

Day 345 - Smells Like Christmas

Finally today I got my dried fruit into some rum to macerate for a bit before making my Christmas cake. More than a week would have been good, but I know it will still taste pretty Christmassy if I make it next weekend. Unfortunately I bought a 1.5kg bag of fruit which included mixed peel! I don't know why anyone likes mixed peel, but if anyone can think of something good to do with it, now that I have separated it, please send me a suggestion!

20 Days of The Project to go!

Day 344 - Christmas Toy Run

The Toy Run is an event organised by the Motor Cycle Riders Association which, according to Google has been running for 31 years. Here is Dale this morning with his reindeer antlers attached and toys in his back pack to donate to those in need this Christmas.

Day 343 - Poinsettias

I haven't gotten around to putting our Christmas tree yet, but the poinsettias that Dale brought home last night, are adding a touch of Christmas to our place at the moment. Speaking of Christmas, I had a lovely moment this afternoon when a little boy in my class gave me a present. "It's for you to use when you go shopping!" he said earnestly. Beneath the layer of alfoil was an Angus and Coote catalogue. "You can pick out whatever you like!"  :-)

Day 342 - The Big Sleep Catch Up

I know that it is two days in a row of pictures of Henry sleeping, but I couldn't resist this one. Another sick day at home and after 2 hours of him sleeping on my lap with just my laptop and Foxtel for company, I finally managed to wriggle free for Henry's 3rd hour of sleep while I tried to catch up on a few things.

Day 341 - Under the Weather

Henry came home with a bit of a temperature yesterday afternoon, but overnight it proved to be a difficult night, with him burning up, hogging our bed and even sleeping in. After a doctor's visit first thing, tonsillitis was diagnosed and we spent the day together in recovery mode, lots of sleep, TLC and trying different ways to bring down his temperature. It is so hard not being able to do much to get him better.

Day 340 - Our Delicious Crop of Raspberries

I made a chocolate pavlova last night to take to school for morning tea today and I bought blueberries and raspberries to top it with. After I did this, I remembered that we have raspberries growing in the garden! I checked them out this morning and they are looking fantastic this year (much bigger than last year and gorgeously sweet). Henry wasn't impressed however... I think he was expecting strawberry when he sampled one and promptly spat it out!

Day 339 - Babies!

1M were very excited to find that our eggs hatched over the weekend and that these microscopic (that's our new word) babies popped out! We observed them with magnifying glasses and also a microscope (most of the kids had never seen one) and discovered that they are quite hairy for critters so small.

Day 338 - Our Stylish Children

They certainly are a very stylish pair aren't they? I just had to use this funny snap of Jenna and Henry wearing these glasses from the lolly bags from Kaleb's party. With the sunglass lenses taken out so that they could see, they do look like they should be down at the library or fixing a computer!

Day 337 - Mmmm... Cake!

We enjoyed an afternoon in the park today for Kaleb's 5th birthday. Henry loved running around, chasing birds, playing with balloons and (almost) playing football with his Dad, but most of all he seemed to enjoy birthday cake! I love the crumbs on his little belly!

Day 336 - Why Do We Get Up So Early?

8.25am

Well it's certainly not my choice, but Henry likes to wake between 6am and 6.30am. I really don't need him out of bed until 7! However it must have been too early a start for him this morning, even though he seemed to sleep very well overnight. we noticed he'd gone very quiet as we crossed the state border this morning; the tell tale sign of being all tuckered out! I really don't know how his hat ended up like this though!

Day 335 - The Joys of Car Sharing

Waiting for Daddy to pick me up!

Dale and I have been sharing a car on and off for the last few weeks, which I at first thought was quite nice, but as time goes on, I am pretty ready for him to get his car back for good! We waited outside daycare this evening for a good half hour (thanks to Peta for dropping me there), while Dale sat in traffic due to a road closure coming back from Belconnen on the way into Queanbeyan. Although we work fairly close by to each other, late finishes off site, or mornings where we have 4 drop offs in total (Jenna on Wednesdays) have made me realise that I like having my own set of wheels!

Day 334 - Drenched Doggies

This is the earliest I have taken my photo of the day for a while... Rex and Milly were drenched this morning after the storm... lucky the inside of their kennel was bone dry huh?!

There were pretty fierce storms over Canberra last night, so much so that the thunder and heavy rain woke me overnight. These two must have gone a bit bezerk out there!

Day 333 - My Little Elf

Just because, he has a cute santa hat that he likes wearing around! Oh, check out the gorgeous lashes! Oh and the little daycare injury from some other tough baby!?

Day 332 - The Light at the end of the Tunnel

With only Maths comments to go for my reports, I sat down with a huge pile of year one text books today to confirm all my gradings and to finish marking the last maths assessment that I did. Only one lot of comments to go and at last I can see the end! As always, doing reports makes you think about better ways to assess the following year and I already have a bit of a list in my head! Overall though, I was pretty happy with how many of my students progressed :)

Day 331 - An Afternoon by the Pool

As the weather had dried out a bit by this afternoon and it was also pretty warm, I decided to get out Jenna's old clamshell pool for Henry to try out. He seemed to enjoy splashing about in the water, putting pebbles into the water, climbing in and out over and over and having a little stomp in the water! I can't wait to take him back to the local pool this year to see how he takes it all in - he was pretty stunned by it all last summer! In this photo, you can see his brand new hat, that Mum made last week for him. Pretty cute and glad that he is so happy to wear hats!

Day 330 - Quilts in Braidwood

Mum, Dad, Henry and I went to Braidwood and Bungendore today for an outing. It was supposed to be the annual hanging of the quilts in Braidwood, but it seemed that because of all the rain, there actually weren't that many quilts out. I imagine that they usually look very impressive hanging from all the railings! Although it is not really my thing, I can really appreciate the work that goes into one and I do agree that one is nice to own. I have sometimes thought that I would like to try making one, but I don't really see it in the near future; not with my long wish list and to do list, anyway!

Day 328 - And On It Goes!

I am so sick of dragging this folder everywhere I go! Well it feels like that anyway... Only about a week left until reports are due and I am getting there. I often find that my work bag comes home full of intention, but due to a big lack of time, things rarely get pulled out... not lately though!

Day 327 - A Sad Goodbye

I know it's just a tv show, but I was really sad to see the last episode of Spicks and Specks tonight. I'm pretty sure that I would have seen almost every episode over the last 8 years from Adam Hills and Hamish Blake's Christmas kiss to Adam Hills dressed as the Transvestite from Rocky Horror, to Barry Morgan and his Wonderful World of Organs and to Frank Woodley's infamous slipping out of his swimming costume! What will I watch on Wednesday nights now?

Day 326 - Princess in Town

Henry and I braved the rain this afternoon with maybe a few hundred others to wait to see Princess Mary and Prince Frederik of Denmark who were at the War Memorial this afternoon to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. After a 20 minute wait in the drizzle, we spotted the police escort coming down Anzac Parade and Mary and Fred finally arrived. She was so elegant and of course looked absolutely gorgeous. After stopping for a brief wave they went inside. Now if Henry had been playing nice I may have been able to wait for the royal couple to come back out, but that was not the case! Peta (friend and fellow blogger) did wait and got a much better photo. She even got to meet the princess. Her girls Ava and Olivia were most excited to give the flowers they had brought, as well. For a better close up, you could look at Peta's blog!

Day 325 - Moths at Last!

We were very excited this morning, to find that our moths had emerged from the yellow cocoons in our silkworm community! The moths are a beautiful creamy white colour and nice and fat looking. There were plenty of eggs (did you know you can keep some in the fridge so you have a batch of caterpillars next year?) and about 6 moths as well. Some of the children were a bit confused by the two siamese twin moths! Yes they were a bit stuck together all day - looks like there will be more eggs tomorrow!

Day 324 - Indoor Picnic

Our mothers' group, which is now a playgroup, had a Christmas picnic planned for today but with the sudden rain overnight, it had to be relocated indoors. Although Henry doesn't get to see this bunch of little friends so often now, he seemed to have a ball, running around with all the others today. He attempted a tiny slippery dip, threw plastic balls around and had a go on this little bike as well, which he really seemed to enjoy. He even managed to get off the bike at the end all by himself. It was great to see everyone again, even though we didn't quite have our planned picnic!

Day 323 - Putting in an Order with Santa!

I can't believe it is already a year since the first time Henry met Santa! This year he needed Jenna to be in the photo with him, and I am pretty happy with the result! Although I didn't take this photo, I think it is as good as one of my own, considering I had to brighten the image up, fix the red eyes and straighten it (don't have vertical stripes if you can't keep the camera straight huh?) The 'photographer' really only pressed the button! Thanks to Dale for getting the big smiles from Henry!

Day 321 - Dangers of Gardening

MYRMECIA FASCIATA

I was off work today due to a toothache and dentist appointment. Luckily I found something to take my mind off the toothache before I went to the dentist! I decided to pull a couple of weeds out around the letterbox after dropping Henry off at day care and made this little "friend". Apparently bulldog ants are not uncommon in Canberra. I didn't have time to grab my macro lens, but I think you get the idea. A tip - aloe vera works a treat on the bites from these little devils. I just hope they are only out the front of the house or I would really worry about Henry being bitten!

Day 320 - Mail Order Excitement

My favourite kind of delivery came today and this one was so fast. I ordered these nail polishes off a US website for a couple of reasons; inexpensive, brands you can't readily buy in Australia and get a load of the colour selections! I have a bit of a thing for glitters at the moment, so there is quite a few in this bunch.  Might take me a while to try them all out!

Day 319 - Tropical Rocky Road

I made this one last night, for our Parent Helper Morning Tea today. Basic ingredients were:

2 blocks of white chocolate
1 pack of macadamias
1 pack of dried mango
Apricot marshmallows
Toasted coconut (just a handful)

Day 318 - Shopping and Coffee!

Spotlight had a 30% off Sale yesterday and today and so I took myself along to pick up a few things. Amongst them, a set of red bedsheets, two more patterns, a couple of pieces of fabric and a set of Christmas coffee cups... Henry felt that he deserved one of these for his patience, once we arrived home :)

Day 317 - Finally Some Progress!

Not much progress, but I did manage to find some time to cut out my dress pattern this afternoon! Now it will probably sit for a bit until my reports are done, but all good things take time!

Day 316 - Jenna's Little Soiree

Jenna was allowed to have two friends over for dinner tonight for her birthday. I have to say that it was a big improvement from the time where Dale and I offered to host her 7th birthday with 11 children invited (the less said about that one, the better!) Jenna's friends were polite, adored Henry, watched Twilight, helped cook dinner and were no problem! This is a pic of them with Henry about to sing Happy Birthday to Jenna. I made her chocolate cupcakes with a white chocolate ganache. Fun to decorate, but I do recommend waiting til the ganache is set (I got a bit over excited about decorating and they turned a bit drippy). I again, loved Henry's "birthday cake face"... Mummy the cake is on fire!!!

Great cupcake recipe here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22173/chocolate+cupcakes

Day 315 - Builder at Work

I took a few photos of the silkworms today and thought this one was pretty interesting because you could see the cocoon in progress, being spun around it. The kids are fascinated by the worms and are really looking forward to the moths appearing soon.

Day 314 - Long Lost Hat Returned!

Henry was very excited to receive an envelope in the post today containing his long lost hat, left at Nanna and Opa's on the weekend. In fact he had a huge grin on his face when he peered into the envelope; he threw his old hat off and put on his very missed hat straightaway :-)