Last Wedding of the Month

Saturday night saw Muddy Hubby and I frock up for the last social event of the month - a Wedding! Now I love, love, love a good wedding. I love checking out the groomsmen, watching the bride enter the church on her proud Dad's arm, reviewing the bridesmaid's dresses and the mother of the bride and groom outfits. The bridal cars are always a talking point, and in this case it was Work Vehicles, Landcrusiers, that had the mud washed off and were polished up for the occasion.

I didn't have my camera at the church, only at the reception, so was able to take some shots of the lovely country decorations, crops in vases! It's been a common theme at Muddy family weddings to have crops feature as part of the table decorations, Saturday night's were Wheat, Millet and Sorghum. In the past we've had wheat, triticale, barley and we had sheep (toy ones of course) for our wedding. We scored some yummy lollies as the bomboniere, all packaged up nicely and a nice roast meal.

The best bit though, especially at a family wedding is catching up with family. Muddy Great Grandma had 18 of her 19 grandchildren at the wedding and proceeded to issue orders to the photographer about the photos she wanted taken with her grandchildren, then her 5 sons, as she rarely gets them all in the same spot at the same time. It also meant a lovely brunch on Sunday to check out the bride and groom's new home and catch up some more with family, before bringing the Muddy tribe home for a rest after a big morning, and some really nice quiet family time in the afternoon before we collapsed into bed. We're not coping very well with the end of daylight savings!!!

How did you spend your weekend?

What's your favourite part of a wedding?

How has your household coped with the end of Daylight Savings?

Linking up with the awesome Sonia at Life, Love and Hiccups for Wonderful Weekends.

Blame It On The Cards

Yesterday I had my second last Bootcamp session. It was a killer. Every part of my body hurts, my knees are feeling especially sorry for themselves. You know what though, I feel good. I feel really good.

9 weeks ago I wouldn't have been able to do as much as I did yesterday, I would have been walking between sets after only a couple of sets, whereas today I ran between most of them, it was only the last few where exhaustion was starting to win out.

Over the last 9 weeks Princess Pain has mixed up our sessions, no two have been the same, there's been cardio, strength, boxing, lots of sweat, some very red faces and at times a bit of swearing. Yesterday's session was all about the pack of cards.

Princess Pain had a pack of cards, she shuffled it at the start and that set our plan for the session. Each card had an exercise on it, including Burpees, planks, push ups, step ups, mountain climbers, dips, and the number on the card determined how long you would do that activity or how many reps. The first one she pulled out was step ups on a 6, this meant we had to start with 60 seconds of step ups. Not a great start to the session! As we groaned our way through Princess Pain simply replied 'it's not me, it's the cards!'.

And on and on it went, through 14 jump squats, 15 dips, 60secs of plank etc, etc for a full hour. It was a major workout. Each time she turned over a card and read out the set I groaned, but sucked it up and did it. At the end of the session I even asked what the session times were for next term, I'm that keen to keep going.

You see I've always had a thing about exercise, it's not my favourite thing but I know I need to do it and once I'm in the groove I secretly love it, I love the endorphin hit is gives me, I love the small changes I start to see in my body and in myself, I start to have more energy, more happy moments and if I keep it up I get to go shopping for new clothes!

One added benefit over the last few sessions is the positive message that my Muddy Organiser is picking up, she's come to the last few sessions and seen me exercising, she's been asking questions about why I'm exercising and what it does and what each activity does. I feel great being able to set a nice positive example about exercise for my Muddy Kids, one I hope to be able to continue. I'm not sure how we'll go through winter with the late evenings and the cold air, but I'll give it a shot to make sure I keep going, because the benefits far outweigh my grumbles and groans!

What's your favourite bit about exercise?

Do you exercise with your kids?

Wordless Wednesday - My Babies are Growing Up

I feel like I've blinked and missed by girls growing up! I looked at these photos after taking them and I feel like it was only yesterday they were babies!

Do you feel like you missed a few years?

Linking up for Wordless Wednesday with My Little Drummer Boys

Some Lunch and Weighing Lambs for a Wonderful Weekend

I'd rather ignore Saturday with 6 loads of washing and a broken lawn mower but Sunday made for a Wonderful Weekend. Muddy Hubby fixed the mower for me, so I could finish mowing the orchard, keeping the mozzies down and giving me a clear view of the snakes coming. Then the Muddy Family headed to the local pub for lunch. We set up camp on the back lawn of the pub, the kids settled down on the rug for some colouring-in and lunch, while the adults settled in for a good catch up and tasty feed.

Our local pub has been gradually restored and renovated over the last few years. It's now a meeting place for friends and family, a place to relax, unwind and have a good time. During the year they host functions, and have family BBQ's, Sunday was one of those days.

After lunch the kids had fun watching the train go by, playing make believe as trains, planes and horses, while Muddy Hubby and I played with Muddy Bubby and chatted the afternoon away.

We went straight back to work in the late afternoon, weighing lambs for today's sheep sale. Making sure we had the heaviest to send to market. The girls are getting good at learning how to shift the sheep, keep them moving into the scales and drafting them off into the heavy and light pens. My favourite bit is them getting to spend time with Muddy Hubby and learn all the workings of the farm. I also love to see a bit of fashion in the sheep yards, Muddy Organiser with her silver shoes and pretty dress and Muddy Puzzler with her bright red dress, always a way to brighten up the dusty yards.

How did you spend your weekend? Do you have a local pub that's good for families like ours is?

Linking up with the Amazing Sonia at Life, Love and Hiccups for Wonderful Weekends

Expecting too much?

This week in town they are celebrating Seniors Week. There's been lots of activities for the older members of the community and each school, preschool, day care has had an event on for them to attend also. Muddy Hubby's Grandma is well and truly ensconced in the social activities in town, she's a member of several community groups, and attends church every Sunday and is always one of the first to sign up for trips away to different parts of Australia. In other words, for 84 she's a real goer!

Muddy Great Grandma has 26 great grandchildren, lots of whom live away, but for her my Muddy Organiser is the first one to go to school in the town where she lives, the first one where she can actually go to events that are held at school, with minimal effort, just a 2 min drive down the street.

So I rang last week and left a message with the details for Grandparents day, she was away on a trip, so I called the night before to make sure she got the message. I was informed that she wouldn't be coming because 'I want to stay home and clean my house'. This is the first grandparents day she has ever been invited to and her response to me was a little blunt and a little disheartening.

I know I probably got my hopes up expecting her to say yes to her first grandparents day as a great grandma, but I know if I was in her position I'd jump at the chance. Am I expecting too much, should I have not invited her, because it's not fair if she comes to my Muddy Organiser's events but doesn't make it to the other great grandkids? Maybe it's that she's over the grandkid thing, she was grandma to 19 grandkids and now for the great grandkids she's more interested in doing some things for herself?

Muddy Hubby tells me to 'get over it' and my Muddy Mother-in-law's response was 'she didn't have to be so blunt about it'. Given I don't have any grandparents left I have kids of adopted her as my Grandma, so I thought she'd be as keen as my grandparents would have been. I think maybe next time I have to lower my expectations, at least then Muddy Hubby won't have to listen to me whinge if my expectations aren't met!

Anyway, now that I've had my whinge, I did take a couple of photos, but my Muddy Organiser was concentrating so hard on her teacher's instructions to 'stand up straight and keep you hands behind your back' that she did not smile once during their concert, only after they had finished.

I was a very proud Mum as My Muddy Organiser led the whole school out in single file

Do you have grandparents day where you live?

Was I expecting too much of Muddy Great Grandma?

Wordless Wednesday - Sunday Afternoon Sheep Work

On a warm Sunday afternoon we headed to the Sheepyards for some Sheep Work together. All the while Muddy Bubby hanging in the Baby Bjorn.

Linking up with My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday.

Back Online and On The Move

Hooray, I have a computer back! Not only that but I have my camera back. Now all that's left is house repairs and I'll feel like I'm back in business.

I figured what better way to celebrate being back on line than with some pics of Muddy Bubby on the move. All my other Muddy Kids didn't crawl til about 9 months and they were conventional hands and knee crawlers. Muddy Bubby, so desperate not to miss out on any of the action, has begun commando crawling, and over the last month has mastered the art, he can get into anything and everything and he couldn't be happier! He spies something he wants and gets a look of determination and off he goes.

I'm hoping he gets the art of conventional crawling soon, because he's showing me just how dirty my floors are as he drags himself around!

Were your babies conventional crawlers or commando crawlers?

How old were they when they got on the move?