Why do we do it to ourselves?????

First of all if you are a person of faith then many blessings to you on this wonderful day, wonderful because Jesus gave his life for us this day in history and I'm happy to say I call myself one of God's children!

In what can only be called a brave move Cass and I took ALL EIGHT of our children and my VERY understanding and patient Dougie with us to the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens for a photo shoot. We haven't had a "proper" photo shoot in ages and today seemed like a good time, or more accurately we had a rash idea and decided to plough ahead with it before we'd had a chance to see the flaws in it! lol So with everyone in brand new jeans and white t-shirts (because I'm sure childrens' white tees are only designed to ever be worn once - maybe that's a reflection of my poor ability in the laundry department????) we all headed off on what can be described as a frickin' safari through the botanical gardens in search of a view with inspiration. What we got was a helluvalotta greenery and lots of slightly annoyed couples that we unwittingly disturbed with our travelling circus! Overall though we still did okay. Caeligh had to be escorted from the tranquil Japanese gardens by Dougie because she was throwing a screaming fit and trying to get into the no longer tranquil pond for a splash around and Blayd and Scotto explored their tough side in a couple of fake leather jackets although they displayed 100% genuine love of being photographed! lol What a pair - look out for our layouts titled "Rebel Without A Clue" coming very soon! Cass's little girl decided long ago (even though she's only just turned 3) that she and my son Jamie (at the ripe old age of 5) should get married and today she decided that it needed to happen immediatley. She heard us talk about "wedding lawns" that are dotted around the gardens and she seized upon it like a starving kid on a Happy Meal and there was no convincing her of anything else. She had a white cotton dress on anyway for photos and she grabbed poor bewildered looking James and gave him some line about looking at the waterfall and we followed along while she hauled him away to a wooden bridge where we watched as she kissed him and declared the two of the married. Poor James did have the look of so many newly married men - "what the hell have I done here???" but took it in his stride, kissed her upon request and then buggered off to play with lightsabres in the park! Lily on the other hand spent the rest of the morning happily married and went home to tell her daddy "I got married on a bridge today!!!". Daddy in question is apparently less than impressed lol!!! Like any good photography buff I had to share the shot Cass got of the two lovebirds.

Now how cute are these two???? Anyway this was probably the highlight of the whole photography safari as after that, as the Japanese gardens incident will attest to, things went a bit pear shaped, children got cranky/hungry/tired/annoyed and parents got more than a bit snappy/grumpy/frazzled. We hung about until about 1 o'clock, stopped to have a drink and a snacky on the lawns near the fruit trees and the boys (including my Dougie) ran about on the lawn attacking each other with plastic lightsabres.

Now I've got a house full of kids (four of mine, two of Cass's and Dougie, who definitely is able to qualify for the title of kid) perched on my couches playing PS3 that Dougie hired from the video shop for the weekend. I'm off to make the masses dinner soon and then will retreat to my bedroom to (hopefully) scrap while the boys cover the loungeroom floor with mattresses and sleeping bags and pillows. I've basically accepted that I don't have a loungeroom for the next day or so and that's cool as long as it keeps them entertained and happy and there's no bloodshed.

So that's my Friday so far chickies and I hope you're all chillin and having fun if that's what your aim was. Before I go I'll share a photo Caeligh asked me to take yesterday. I don't actually have many pictures of the two of us so even though it's not perfect (I'm in all my no-makeup hair not done glory!) I'm glad we've got it all the same.

Talk to you later babes!