The Baynhams

Last night was our friend Paul's 40th birthday Party. The theme was "Tunisian Goat herder" the first time he told us about it? After a bit of clarification the theme was widened to all things Arabian!

We ordered outfits on-line from America and they arrived in plenty of time. The weather is freezing at night here and although Byron knew he would be warm in his outfit mine was a bit drafty looking!

The party was great fun but I made an awful entrance to it. I had helped to make some food at a friends house earlier that day and had been asked to lay it all out nicely on a platter with mint leaves for decoration and bring it with me. Not too hard you might think. Byron carried one tray in and I had the other. As we walked into the house there was a stairs up to the next level where everyone was gathered. Every step I climbed I kept standing on my skirt and half tripping. Both hands were holding the tray so I couldn't lift my skirt. On the top step I tripped, threw the whole platter in the air watched it fly backwards over my head and bounce all the way down the stairs throwing blobs of chutney all over the walls and even the ceiling of the room below. I was so embarrassed. The next 15 minutes were spent cleaning everywhere before making a second entrance with a red face.

All our friends had made a huge effort to dress up and looked amazing! Anne Marie had bought loads of material and staple gunned it to the walls and ceilings and the house was transformed into something out of a film set.

The back yard was covered in sand and had a fire lit which we were all huddling around for warmth!

Byron got into character after a couple of beers and was stomping around the party swirling his robes behind him and loudly inviting any skimpily clad female belly dancers to join his hareem.

Just before midnight we were offered a lift so I decided it was time to get my sultan and let our babysitter go home!

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World Youth day is getting closer and it is only days until pilgrims arrive to our area from Mexico, Norway, Canada, USA, Carribean, Monaco and Venezuala.

The kids school will be used as a huge camp site named locally as "Tent City" The school grounds are having floodlights and security gates fitted that are being paid for by the organisers of World Youth Day but will stay afterwards which is excellent for the school.

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Sian and Rhiannon are on their first day of their school holidays today.

They have been begging us to let them have coloured hair extensions. They are small strands of coloured hair that are attached onto their own hair with a glue that lasts a couple of months and then falls out without any damage to the real hair. We went to the hairdresser to find out a little bit more about it. She explained that if you are clever with where you position these coloured strands then you can hide then under the normal hair at school or brush them at the top for the weekend or holidays.

As a way of making the girls appreciate them we agreed to go 50:50 on the cost. They had to give up pocket money and we payed the balance. They were booked in for this morning. They were so excited!

Poor Gar wanted to know why he couldn't have them done, after all blue is a boyish colour...? We detoured through a sweet shop on our way to the hairdressers so he didn't feel too left out. A few brief minutes each in the hairdressers chair and voila! Two coloured strands each! The girls are very happy with their fun hairstyles!

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I am helping to organise a big fundraiser for the kids school later this year. It is going to be a fancy Masquerade Ball. Over the last few weeks we have been making posters and drumming up some excitement amongst the other parents. Tickets are about to go on sale but none had been made yet. Somehow it was agreed that it would be great if these tickets were a bit special.

Special ended up involving glue, black food dye, glitter and feathers..... I started to make them one day this week and by the time the kids got home from school I had 20 completed. I was feeling very proud of myself until Sian came in to admire them.

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Gareth has a good friend called Tommy. Tommy is a lovely laid back boy with a great sense of humour. Both he and Gar play really well and don't often clash or disagree about anything.

Gar went to play with Tommy after school one day this week and had a great time. He told us all about it at the dinner table. Apparently they played Snakes and Ladders.


Nothing too special about that except they had no dice... They decided to use an imaginary dice. The game went well until they were both close to the end. Tommy was one space away from winning, Gar needed to move 11 spaces. It was Gars turn and guess what...? He threw an 11 !!! The best thing was that Tommy didn't mind!

What a great kid. We could all do with a friend like Tom!

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I tricked my Mum and my sisters with my Bionicles!

Mum was in mass and Daddy and me hanged the Bionicles down by the stairs with some boat string.

When they came home we scared Mum and my sisters with a BIG FRIGHT !!!

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Rhiannon was very excited when she recently found my old student nurse uniform hidden away in a box. She tried it on and it reached to the floor, heavy thick cotton with a high collar (to protect our modesty!) and with the Hospital emblem embroidered below my maiden name. The buttons were removable and I spent many a night breaking my nails taking them all off and putting them on the next days clean dress. Or being too tired and then having to do it in a mad panic the next morning as we ran from the nurses home across to the main hospital.

Rhiannon was particularly fascinated by the red stripe on the shoulder. Blue was 1st year, yellow 2nd year and red the "very grown up and nearly qualified" 3rd year! She was begging to be allowed to bring it in to school some day.

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My friend Josie bought me a Bird of Paradise plant when she was visiting in August 2006. We were still renting so the plant stayed in its pot waiting for us to move into our new house.

It has been planted into the ground for about a year now and is doing really well. It has slowly slowly opened up its first flower of this year and I promised Josie a photo of it to prove I haven't killed it!


Here you are Josie.... Doesn't it look great!

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Rhiannon started learning to play the Clarinet back in February this year. She has really taken to it and seems to pick up new tunes quite effortlessly. Byron and herself disappear into the TV room and he plays Saxophone while she follows on with her Clarinet.

Today was the first time she was allowed to play with the school band. She was very excited and begged me to be come watch.

As usual the trusty camera was with me so I took a few photos of her in action.

P.S If you are struggling to work out which one she is just look for the one kid with hair all over the place instead of being tied back neatly...

That's our Rhiannon! They broke the mold when they made her!!!

After the concert the rest of the school filed back to their classrooms behind their teachers. Gareth and Tommy saw me and yelled out "Take a photo of us" It is unusual for Gar to pose so I grabbed my chance.

When I took the photo the rest of the kindy kids started yelling out too for their photos to be taken. I ran away to the car before the teacher told me off for distracting them!

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I had a brilliant time at the show this weekend. Most of the fun was spending time with Jane, Maree, Claire and Di.

Maree's car pulled up outside just after 8am and as I got in I was handed a take-away Cappuccino and a banana friand! Now that's what I call service!

We arrived in Sydney just after 10am, parked, ran to the loo (Coffee, long journeys and bladder control, not a good combination!) then went in to the show. It was a huge exhibition hall packed with stall after stall of wine tasting booths and food samples.

Lots of the foods were spicy and many companies were offering their products at well below retail to get you to try them. I bought a bag full of Thai curry bases and an Indian bag with poppadoms, naan breads and spicy marinades. I tasted the nicest cappuccino drink with Irish Cream flavouring, yum! I cant even begin to describe the Turkish Delight stall..... Lets just say after tasting some very unusual flavours I brought the kids back a box of traditional rose flavour with roast almonds chopped in too! Heaven!

By the end of the day my feet were throbbing and my rucksack was stuffed. Just as it would have been sensible to head for the car Jane suggested hitting the local shops... Mad woman! We spent an hour wandering in and out of various clothes shops before collapsing in a cafe for a sandwich and a coffee before the two hour drive home.

If I thought the service on the journey down was exceptional wait till you here what we were handed on the way home... individual little bottles of chilled champagne and bags of nuts! Maree Newton you are one classy lady! Can we go in your car again next year!

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Oh Happy days!

Last year to celebrate our friend Di's Birthday a group of 5 of us went to a local cookery demonstration and loved it. When Di heard the dates for this food show she knew that we wouldn't be able to resist another day of fun, gossip and laughter, together with food, tasty samples, food, cookery demonstrations and, yes, FOOD!

Maree booked and paid for the 5 tickets which meant that none of us could pull out without good reason. I mentioned something about it to Byron one evening when he was engrossed in watching a gripping Rugby match on the TV, knowing he was paying no attention to what I was saying. When his team scored a try and he jumped to his feet cheering "YES" I took that to be permission!

.. and so it is 6.30am and the house is quiet. I have snuck downstairs to start getting ready and to make a big saucepan of porridge as breakfast for Byron and the kids later (God knows why they think that porridge oats are a real weekend breakfast treat in this day of sugary cereals but they do??!!!)

Maree is collecting Di, Claire, Jane and me at about 8am for the 2 hour journey to Sydney. We have been told to wear comfy shoes (lots of walking) wear layers (it starts out cold but gets hot in there) and bring a BIG bag (for all the freebies that are handed out!)

I dont know if I am more excited about the actual show or the two hours of uninterupted chatting and laughing in the car on the way there and back!

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Today is our 12th wedding anniversary. Wow, just the number makes me feel old!

It doesn't seem that long ago to me so maybe it's true, time flies when you're having fun.

I think that just about sums up Mr B and myself.

He doesn't often burst through the door with a rose between his teeth and a string quartet, serenading with a heartfelt love song.

I don't often put the kids to bed early in a spotlessly clean house, run a bath with sensual oils, scatter a path of rose petals through the house and lie waiting for him in a room bathed in candlelight.....

Instead I creep down the stairs before 7 most mornings and bring him up a cup of tea in bed and in return he gets the kids breakfast and empties the dishwasher while I get dressed and make the beds.

On top of this domestic normality we make each other laugh. Usually over small silly things that wouldn't make sense to anyone else. Nothing makes me happier than seeing Mr B laugh so hard that he has tears running down his face and can't catch his breath!

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Sian came home from school today looking very chuffed. She had been presented with a "Courtesy" award at todays school assembly.

Well done sweetheart!

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World Youth Day (WYD) is the largest youth event in the world and will be held in Sydney from Tuesday 15 to Sunday 20 July 2008. Thousands of pilgrims will arrive in Australia from all over the world and will be staying in the homes of normal people who are willing to open up their homes and can offer a spare bedroom for the week. We put our name down on the homestay list and had a phonecall yesterday asking if someone could come to our house to get us to sign the mandatory forms and so that they could see that we are (relatively) normal, the house has running water, electricity and a smoke alarm!

I sent the kids racing around before bed last night tidying up and making their bedrooms spick and span. I told them if our house wasn't nice and clean enough we might not be allowed to have any pilgrims. Am I the worlds meanest Mum telling little white lies like that? I think I will have to light an extra candle at Mass this week to make up for it!

Before the kids went to school this morning Rhiannon said she needed to tell me some things that I was to tell Bev, our Homestay lady. Firstly could she send us girls, and please not girls who smoke, not even in the garden and also could she send girls that like playing, especially "my littlest pet shop" !!! I tried telling Rhiannon that we might get anyone up to the age of 35. She just gave me that look and said "Mum, even grown up girls still like to play sometimes"

4 hours later and Bev has been and gone. She ticked all the boxes on her list, got us to sign a few forms and told me to tell Rhiannon she promises we will get two lovely non-smoking girls who hopefully will love playing "my littlest pet shop"

Watch this space!

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