Daddy's off for 3 weeks of military service

Monday was a very big day. Damien has left us for three weeks to perform with the Navy band in Turkey for Anzac day. We said our goodbyes at about 5:30 at the Hobart airport. He will be in Sydney for most of the week rehearsing and recording a CD. Then he will be “briefed” in Canberra, before traveling back to Sydney to catch a plane to Istanbul via Dubai.
Here you can see our little girls looking out the window as Damien’s plane prepares for takeoff. They enjoyed having a fruit box and (expensive) hot breakfast items from the airport cafe. 

It was a long day: we were all up before 5am.  Beth and Leila danced for 1 ½ hours after school, and then the three girls didn’t get to bed until about 10pm (mind you, Leila rather cleverly fell asleep on the couch before then). Why so late? well, we had Granny and Grandpa and Liz and Matthew visit for Dinner and family home evening, followed by some talking and telly and it all went on a bit longer than planned.
I was quite proud of myself for figuring out how to get the oven to turn itself on and off so I could transport the girls to the dance school: I put a corned beef roast in the slow cooker at about 1pm and did the veggies in my clever oven. We even had white sauce (bought) and a table cloth. My kids totally aren’t used to table cloths and the closest any of them have gotten to white sauce has only been on very occasional lasagnas.
I had also made chocolate cup cakes the night before (a chocolate-apple cake recipe, but I used cooked quince instead of apple).
I’ve been reading Sally Wise’s books about preserving food, and her descriptions of quince really stirred my imagination. Unfortunately, despite Sally’s enchanting tales of family traditions and decadent deserts based on this fruit, for me it turned out to be, well, just quince. Differently nice, but not a favourite, and my kids didn’t really like it. The leftover stewed fruit hid really well in the cup cakes though, and gave them a mysterious fruity tang.
Can you believe that my kids don't like cookies'n cream ice cream?  We discovered this when Matthew left a carton in our freezer.  Fortunately they did all like the cupcakes.
Hey, reading this it sounds like we had a party suspiciously timed with Damien’s departure! I'm innocent!
We did not hold a “he’s gone, hurrah!” but we do love our visitors, and it felt good to provide. I felt like I was paying Matt and Liz back a little for all the outdoor pizza sessions we've enjoyed at their home.
I am very very happy that Damien actually made it onto this international trip. He worked so consistently hard against serious difficulties to manage it, and I feel very proud. I only realised on Monday that his 2 weeks in turkey actually adds up to 3 weeks away (I forgot to count the time in Sydney). It sounds like a very long time. Fortunately Damien has promised to share the experience - he's been SMS'ing me text and photos, so I’ll be bloging more about it soon.