King of the Castle

Is what Jayden thought he was over his 7th birthday weekend just gone. He chose a castle cake for his birthday family bar-b-que (decided he didn't want a party? go figure). So do you think I could find blue jelly when I needed it? He had to settle for slimy swamp water in his moat, which kind of suited the crocodile! Taryn put together an entire scene from lego to go on and around the castle, which really made it I think.
Jayden also had a (in his words) fake cake, which was a rugby field, which he took to rugby Friday night (his actual birthday) and had it in the clubrooms after the night game under lights. His team even bought him a present and the manager, bless her soul, put on treat foods for them all. He had a great time.
He was spoilt rotten, getting a new bike (finally - his old one has been broken for several months now, but we were hanging out till the birthday), and electronic guitar (thanks to my lovely sister-in-law that works at Hasbro-Australia), loads of new clothes, a skateboard, books, puzzles and a car that has hydraulic movement (and a whole lot of noise!!! Thanks Steve!!).
Kind of hard to believe my youngest baby is now 7 years old. Where does the time go?

Cast # 7

Not sure if Taryn is going for some kind of record, but this is cast number 7 in 18 months! Of course that sounds worse than it actually is, as the first 6 were only for 2 different injuries.
Well this cast (if it's even big enough to call it that), was to immobilize her thumb. Yes it's the same thumb she broke last year - apparently now a weak spot seeing as the injury was over the growth plate. So this time, no tree root was involved, just an aggressive opponent on the netball court.
I always imagined it would be Jayden that ended up with all the real injuries, but somehow he seems to get away with the all the dangerous things he tries and Taryn gets hurt doing normal stuff!
Well let's hope we can make it through the balance of the year without another cast, or I might have people start questioning her injuries!!!!!

Farewell Brian

Sadly on May 9th, Brian, a valued member of the Camp committee passed away. Brian had worked tirelessly as the committee secretary and had worked on numerous camp matters and was famous for his letter writing abilities (especially to the ARC), among many other things.
It came as such a shock, especially given that in recent months he seemed to be in the best health I had ever seen him in (in my 3 years on the committee). I had just started to discover his wit and sometimes hidden sense of humour. I enjoyed working with someone so dedicated to what he was involved in. I will miss him. Farewell Brian - Rest in Peace.

Camp - A fun workout..

..for my stomach muscles. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much and for so long. Several of us at ScrapCamp had tears in our eyes, were holding our tummies (from the pain of laughing so much) and begging the story tellers to stop. Sylvia put us right over the edge with the story of the 'Down' family and their sons: Bob, Neil, Stan (& I'm sure there was one more but I can't remember), and then their daughter Eider!
Photos to come.
And a wee confession - I fell off the wagon and bought more ribbons. 4 initially, but then in my last overseas order, I brought some boxed sets in for a customer. 3 different themes with 1 yard each of 6 different co-ordinated ribbons per box. Minimum quantity of each design was 3. She bought 2 of each and left the 3rd. They are sitting on my table looking all glorious and inviting. I'm not sure if they'll make it to the shelves!! That was at the end of April and my goal is to try an make it through May without another ribbon purchase.