March 12. 12 on 12 day.

As usual, I've taken my 12on12 photos...but who knows how long before a layout gets done? Today was a busy day, like any other Thursday. With work, Netball and Cricket it gets a bit long. When I got home from work on this particular Thursday, B had been cooking...Jam Drops or Billy Buttons. She loves to cook. Cakes. Biscuits. Chocolates. I used to love to cook too. I love having home made wares in the cupboard, but I no longer enjoy cleaning up after the baking process. I'm happy for B to do it :)
Jam Drops
INGREDIENTS:
120g Butter or Margarine
1/2 Cup Castor Sugar
1 Egg
1 3/4 Cup Self Raising Flour
Pinch Salt
Vanilla Essence (1-2 drops)
Jam for "drops"

DIRECTIONS:
1. Butter and sugar to cream
2. Add egg and vanilla
3. Gradually add sifted flour and salt
4. Mix with spoon until mixture forms a dough like consistency
5. Spoon small amounts and roll to form a ball
6. Use small finger knuckle to imprint into ball
7. Spoon small amounts of desired jam into ball centres

Oven Temp: 180*C
Ready when biscuits are brown
Approx 20-30 minuntes

March 11

This is a terrible photo. But it's a photo...taken on March 11th. LOL. I was trying very hard to get a photo of the awesome moon. I'd walked around to Kat's house and seen the moon and asked her to take a photo of it. She tried, but couldn't figure out which setting, and with no tripod it was blurry. I tried from home, but unfortunately the street light kept interfering with my shot.....
March 11th is my mum and S/dad's wedding anniversary. We don't do anything special for them, it's their celebration, but it was interesting to note that when I emailed her to say "Happy Anniversary", she'd forgotten until she arrived at work! This has happened to me on occasion too. Once I went to work and only realised it was our wedding anniversary when I wrote the date on a cheque! True romantics aren't we...?

March 10

This was dinner. Nothing is more frustrating, than getting home from work on a day when your DH has been home on a rostered day (or two) off, and having him ask "What did you want to do for tea?" It happened so often in recent times that on this occasion I simply said, "I don't want to think about it. Let's go to the club" So that's what we did.
Apparently A didn't know what to cook because I often don't want fattening things - like sausages. Well, I don't like sausages anyway, but pretty much anything else would be good. As you can see, this meal from the club is hardly fat free! LOL, Men.

March 9

Pack. Unpack. Take out half. Put it back. There you are ready to go....
That's what they say anyway. I'm not really sure how many times I packed and repacked, but I was pretty sure it was not all going to fit and I was pretty sure I wouldn't have room for my shopping!! We did so much planning for our NZ trip, it seemed it would never come. I got A's backpack out of the shed, months before I needed it, to see if my items would fit or if I'd need to buy a bigger pack. In the end I decided to go with A's pack as it was clean and easy to carry, most of my gear fit and there was no point wasting $200 on a pack I'd rarely use...
This photo is of all my gear that wouldn't fit into the backpack! I bought a day pack to use as my hand luggage and for our day trips, but with all the bits not fitting into the big backpack I borrowed B's school bag to use as my carry on luggage. Her bag was bigger and had more pockets... I packed my day pack into the big bag as well, to use as my day pack in NZ so I wouldn't have to carry everything with me every day during our vacation. It also doubled up as an extra bag for my shopping if needed.
Initially I had my clothing sorted into stuff it bags (see the red bag) but decided it was probably not making the best use of the space inside the backpack, so I removed the bags and packed my gear straight into the backpack instead. Kat convinced me on one such repacking venture, that I really didn't need 8 pairs of socks and liners, freeing up quite a lot of space, which when we finally got to NZ I was grateful for :)

March 8

This was photo was taken after the School Sport Tennis Exchange selection trials. For the first time, both our girls were selected to the team. M has been a part of the team for the last three years and plays heaps of tennis, but B only decided to try out because we were there. I have been a coach/manager of the local representative team on and off since 2005. This year I am convening the State event so won't be taking on a team. As I was at the trials to assist the new team management, and M was trying out, B came too. She filled in during the Bump Doubles to help even up the numbers. The following week she got her forms filled in and entered to try out at the final selection trial - and was selected to represent our Cluster! She was very excited and it was great to see both her siblings excited for her. She's since joined the local club and is having some successes.

March 7, Day 66

B is the most accident prone of all our children - and has lots of scars to show for it! On this particular occasion we were attending the Middle School's Movie Night (Bedtime Stories)...a fairly safe venture, right? Unfortunately B and her friend Ebony had already seen the movie so were a little restless. They wondered off to the toilet (and side tracked to the playground) and didn't return for some time. Eventually Ebony came to get A and let him know that B was stuck, and there was lots of Blood! A went to see what the fuss was about, bringing B back into the hall, just as the movie night was winding up. She sat at the back, resting until the lights came on. When they did come on there was a lot of fussing as everyone realised just how badly B had cut her toe, and how much blood there was. She had slipped on the play equipment, slicing the skin off the back of her big toe - kind of like it would look if a big blister had popped. The principal, seen above, raced off immediately for the first aid kit, tendered to her and with a worried look sent her home. I must say, everyone else was more worried than we were...I wonder if it was because of all the scrapes B has managed to get herself into over the years? FTR - the toe healed quickly and B was able to play tennis the very next day :)