The Latest Exploits of the Chissell Family

G'day folks, we hope you had a fabulous Easter and are now enjoying those crisp sunny spring mornings. All is well with the Chissells and as usual we have been quite busy. The Easter break kicked of with Phil kayaking along Brisbane River with some work chums. Olivia made an Easter Bonnet and wore it for a special Easter Parade at the school. Ryan was given a bunny hat by Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit the day before (when out shopping with his mummy) and so he didn't miss out on the fun either.

On Easter Sunday the children enjoyed an impromptu Easter Egg hunt around the garden before the heavens opened up and a deluge of rain descended on us for the rest of the day. All was not lost though as we all had fun playing Darts which was Phil's birthday present from the Chisslets. They really enjoyed playing with their own special 'set of darts' in order to win extra mini eggs lol. We rescheduled our planned bbq by the beach with friends to the following Saturday, which was glorious.

Luckily Phil had some leave over Easter and so we also visited the Dinosaur exhibition at the Queensland Museum on the South Bank in the city. We began the day with a picnic at New Farm and then took the City Cat up the river into the city.

I love this picture of Ryan chatting to my mum on the phone over Easter, he was so excited. Olivia took her first riding trip with daddy without her stabilisers on her bike around Capalaba Park. She did it first time and came home without a bump or graze bless her. In fact she has now progressed to Conor’s bike, he has a new one and Ryan is now riding Olivia’s bike. Phil has purchased some paint to re-spray Ryan’s bike to make it less girly hee hee. The following weekend we had friends over for an informal lunch on the patio. Conor also marched with scouts for Anzac Day that morning and the lunch went on from 2 p.m. until late evening. Lots of good food, pink champagne, chatter, cricket, table tennis and darts to round off the evening.

The Chisslets also had cross county running last week, which was really good fun. Nothing like the horrendous times that I experienced running around the school grounds feeling cold wet and miserable hee hee.

I celebrated my ?? birthday across the recent long weekend. The Chisslets gave me a supa dupa new digital camera (as my old one had died from over use) and so we played around taking some family snaps in the garden. Thank you so much for the lovely birthday gifts, cards, phone calls, emails and Tweets. Many happy returns of the day to two the other special people who also share my birth date, my dear friend Amanda and my beautiful niece Orla, I hope your days were as special and fun as mine. A special mention should aslo be given to my cute little nephew Joseph (Mr 2.5 yrs) for singing "Hppy brtday" (sic) to me down the phone and reduced me to happy tears, Mmwah to you all.

My beautiful flowers from Sue xxx.

On Sunday we had a fabulous time at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art which had a truly interesting display on Chinese culture. There were hands-on bits & pieces for the children too and so everyone had lots of fun.

We all got very creative and made bats, geckos, spiders etc. Apparently I was born in the year of the monkey and according to Chinese belief I am ‘Quick, Playful, Funny, Clever'. Phil and Ryan were born in the year of the Dog, Olivia the Goat and Conor the Snake, as shown above. We all went home happy & tired and so Phil treated us all to a Chinese Takeaway which was a fitting way to end such fab day. On the Monday we had a lovely relaxed morning in the garden worshiping the sun, followed by another bike ride and play in Capalaba Park. Phil cooked me a lovely meal after the Chisslets went to bed and we both woke up with mild champagne hangovers!

Well that is all our news folks, so what has been happening with you, do not forget to keep in touch and stay away from the 'Mad Pigs' lurgy. We will leave you with a final couple of images of Ryan being caught in the middle of his latest escapade.

He is slathered (plastered) in my very expensive body cream which he also chose to share with my bedding, carpet and ensuite - at least they all smelled nice.


Take care you bogan hoons,

Amanda & Phil xxx