John's cousin from Holland

John's cousin Dave Dijkman is over from Holland at the moment and spent last Friday night at our place.
He has been travelling around Australia for the past 4 months and arrived in Perth a couple of weeks ago to see the family here before heading back home.

Hayley loved having Dave over, she had so much fun with him!














Dave, Hayley and John posing after Hayley had covered them in coloured tape.














Doing a perimeter walk around the property. They almost needed a packed lunch to do this walk apparently hehe














About lunchtime we headed off on a road trip. Our first stop was Western Range winery where John bought the finest wine available! Obviously the sales lady of the year works there!! Here Dave and Hayley are sharing a joke outside the winery.














Then we went to Kings Park and showed Dave beautiful Perth. It was the perfect day for it, nice and sunny!














And then it was onwards to Armadale where we all met for dinner at the manse. Beck is hiding there somewhere too :)














And then a night cap at Tony and Becks where I tried in vain to get a nice group shot of the boys. What was I thinking?!? After about 20 shots (I'm not kidding either!) this was the best I could come up with!
It was a great day and night and was nice to meet another one of John's cousins. Hopefully one day we can go to Holland and meet them all :)

Busy Baking

Well I am starting to get a hang of this whole cooking thing but normally I tend to stick to my choc-banana muffin recipe from the kids cookbook. The one with only one chef hat of difficulty which basically means that a 2yo child could make it in their sleep so maybe I could actually make it!!
Anyway I was coaxed out of my comfort zone the other day when Hayley spotted these funny face muffins in a magazine and of course very sweetly asked if I could pleeease make them!

Here are a few pics of the fun she had while I was making them!

Carefully measuring the flour to add to her cake mix

Busy mixing it















Taste testing...not quite sure how good it tasted after adding all that flour to it!!
















All cleaned up again and ready to enjoy a yummy muffin (and yep...they actually were!!)

A Trip to Busselton

On Thursday Mum and me went to Busselton for a couple of days with Hayley and Riley to do some cardmaking. We stayed at Susan and John's on Thursday night and the Riverbank in Busselton on Friday night.

Charlene giving Riley cuddles. Riley decided he had a totally different itinery than what I had planned for him in Busselton. His included being in his bed as little as possible and making sure he got cuddles from people all day long which he suceeded in doing!

Master O'Riley (@10 weeks) and no, I didn't name his after the racehorse ;-)

Celeste helping Hayley have a go at this 'thingy-ma-jiggy'

In the end she decided the scooter was a bit easier for her and had fun zooming around on it

The awesome clock Bruce designed himself and made! Very talented I reckon!! Orders can be taken at BJ Designs :-)

Charlene, Susan, Celeste and Mum all hard at work making cards

Hayley watching a dvd with Twister the kitten, she absolutely loved this kitten and carried it around all the time as you can see from the photos and when she wasn't carrying it she was looking for it. Twister is Oscar's half brother (same Mum)

Busy making dinner in the nice newly renovated kitchen with Hayley, Twister and Harry watching on.

A Trip to Busselton cont...

Friday morning...Hayley, Harry and Susan















Nat and Clive joined us Friday morning and we all went into town and enjoyed a yummy brunch at the Dome.














Clive enjoying his peppermint tea

Hayley and Clive enjoying a muffin while Riley is getting lots of attention from the girls

John, Dad and Gary joined us Friday after work and we all went out to the Goose for dinner.

Riley was happy to have his favourite sleeping spot back and fell instantly asleep of course!!

On Saturday morning we went to a park in Busselton so that Hayley could play for a while. When we were there Mr Whippy came round and the whole playground emptied in a few seconds except for Hayley who had no idea what that tune meant!! So we decided to introduce her to her first Mr Whippy icecream :-)

Meet Tiny Ted

On our way back from Busselton we stopped by Capel and went to a dairy farm to meet Tiny Ted our soon to be newest addition to our funny farm!
We were hoping to get a meat cow but as Tiny Ted doesn't look or sound edible we are going to get an Angus x as well. So in 6-8weeks when they are both on grain we will be making another trip down to pick up Tiny Ted and his mate.
John is finally going to get his cows!! He has been wanting to get some for a while now but I kept our property too full of horses!! :-)

Tiny Ted on the right, he was a twin which is why he is so small. The other twin was born normal size and Tiny Ted was born half the size.














Hayley and Tiny Ted














Tiny Ted having a hoon around














John dreaming about the day he runs his own head of 100 cattle and drives around in a tractor all day with a beer in his hand hahaha















Hayley and Riley going for a walk with Oma Dobbe


































The cows all waiting to come in.






























This is where the cows got on and off the rotating milker. The black cow was backing out and there was one behind it ready to take it's spot. It was a huge dairy farm with over 700 milking cows which take 4.5hours to milk!!

Oscar the Agoraphobic cat

Oscar our cat has a major fear of being outside and sits by the door all day pleading to come back in. We thought he might have gotten over it after a few days but it seems to be a deep seated phobia!!!

Trying to claw his way back inside...




















Begging Hayley to pleeeeeease let him in!!

Hayley felt sorry for him and wanted to let him in cause he was 'crying' so she kept him company and tried sharing some of her biscuit :-)