I made this cake for a birthday celebration at work:

It was a chocolate stout cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting, a whisky-espresso glaze, and maple peanut brittle. It was a hit!

I also made a delicious, but decidedly less photogenic, raspberry nut pie. There were no leftovers!

Sunday was a wonderful day. Summer is definitely coming. We were out shopping and stopped in for ice cream on the way home.

Colin attended his first Karate tournament this past weekend. It was a new and slightly scary experience. He did really well and even brought home a bronze medal!

He did a big group warm up, then competed in 3 events, individual kata, shadow fighting, and team kata.

We are so proud of him.

When we went camping a few weekends ago, we went into the local town and toured the historic gaol. Beechworth gaol”s most famous prisoner was Ned Kelly, who lives in infamy in Australia.

Laura received an academic achievement award this evening we are so proud of her!

Last Friday there were localized hail showers through the city. Colin and I came out of an appointment and found lots of hail!

How did this happen?!? Laura turned 13 today and we had a great celebration this evening with family.

She has so many people that love her and gave her lovely gifts. She was so excited to get such thoughtful presents.

Sarah our did herself again and made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting between the layers, chocolate nuttela frosting over top, and fancy sprinkles. She had to make room for so many candles!

Laura just returned from a 3day/2night hiking trip with school. The temperature didn’t go above 15C the whole trip and was below 10C at night with a strong wind and lots of rain.

Despite the conditions, all the girls on the hike, Laura included, had a good time and overcame the adverse weather. Every photo that was taken of Laura had her with a smile on her face.

Colin is headed out on a night time adventure at Scienceworks with his class. He was really excited to go and looking forward to the adventure.

Laura and Colin both wanted a photo of them “drinking” the waterfall