The New Year

Just after Christmas we went to the Australian Museum for the Canning Stock Route Exhibition of Aboriginal art - it was great - plus thanks to fb I have been able to keep in touch with my QLD cousins - so we met Ch and her partner there too - they were holidaying in Sydney from Cairns. The next day we went up to Pearl Beach where friends of ours had a holiday house - we went up for lunch and a swim. We don't often go tot he beach - except for January - when we normally rent a place for a week somewhere near water. This year after our European Extravaganza it was decided to forgo our usual summer holiday, so visiting our friends was a great way to still feel that we were on holidays even if we weren't going away at all. The kids as usual had a blast with the sand and the sea.

One of Hannah's friends from kindy who is being homeschooled now invited us over for a swim and a play. Hannah was very excited and was keen to scooter over...we had a lovely day there.

One of the best things I did was book the twins in for a holiday intensive swimming program - a week where they had a half hour lesson each every day - and we then usually stayed at the pool for a picnic afterwards. On three of the days one of their friends from school joined us for a play and some lunch. It felt like we were truly on holidays.

Both the kids had awesome swimming instructors.

Then we had a family lunch to celebrate the January birthdays - after which my SIL's 4 children came to our house for a couple of nights. The twins were in heaven - Hannah was especially excited about the idea of a 'girls' room' and Kit just wanted to play with his cousins...They are good kids and we had fun. It rained for a bit which was frustrating but once the sun came out and my MIL came by to help me transport them to the local park - we had a great time. They also did some baking of chocolate cupcakes and made pizzas for dinner one night. On their last day with us their Mum came and got them - but took them (bar her youngest) and Kit to the Harry Potter exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.

Then last night we drove out to Orchard Hills to see an outdoor production of Jack and the Beanstalk. It was great value at $10 a ticket and we had a picnic dinner and a play at the park that was there too.

I have also done a little sewing - a beach coat for me and then a short set with the left over fabric for Hannah

Not Just Pink Anymore

Just wanted to give you a heads up - Hannah has a blog of her own. Well I will be it's 'caretaker' until she wants to do it for herself. I have added the link to it on my sidebar. It is called Not Just Pink Anymore. I hope you come and have a peek - and that you enjoy it!

Christmas

Started with a Christmas tree and two santa sacks:

Lucky while O/S a little forward planning kicked in - this bauble is courtesy of the Ufizzi Gallery

and Buckingham Palace:

and Domayne at Alexandria - but hey - it's as close to Paris as I could get for now :)

And so the scene was set. We had made our gingerbread house, baked our Christmas cake and steamed our Christmas puddings. On Christmas Eve the kids participated in the children's pageant:

Kit was a shepherd and Hannah an angel:

After mass we went to our friends' annual Christmas Eve do...always a pleasure. Then home - the kids to bed and Phil and I to do the last of the wrapping etc and share a glass of wine together...before the madness of Christmas morning. This year Dad was not with us. It was the first time I can recall of waking up with just the 4 of us together - the twin's first christmas doesn't count cos we were all in hospital and Kit and I were in a quarantined room a couple of doors down from Phil and Hannah. It was also the first of the three years we have had Christmas Day lunch at our place that in the midst of cooking and getting ready for the extended family to come over that i haven't madly hustled everyone out the door to go to morning mass...overall I have to say - that extra time at home made a significant difference to my stress levels.

I couldn't resist buying Kit this copy of Gallileo's temperature gauge

And we got Hannah yet another outfit

After lunch and presents, the kids all did some drawing then it was a lovely hot day so they ran about under the sprinkler before dessert.

Santa was pretty good to me too - I got The Diamond Queen - an autobiography of Queen Elizabeth as well as another great holiday read: Death at Pemberley which I am reading at the moment. Another fave gift I got was from my sister:

Under The Pepperina Tree is a memoir of 2 friends growing up in country QLD during the 1950s. These women - Brenda and Rosalie were friends with my Mum and Brenda includes some lovely anecdotes about Mum, my grandmother (Esmay) and my Aunty Leslie (Sissy). It is a treasure that I look forward to sharing with the twins when they are older.

Boxing day is one of my favourite days all year. I even like the tv being on with the cricket - it is all part of the ambience. This year we had to take Kit to the park - his first bike without training wheels was a huge success. When discussing which one he should get for Christmas (from Santa) Phil and I were worried that as he hadn't ridden his little one for months that perhaps getting one with gears would be too much...but on the other hand - would last him longer... and the bike Phil liked best wasn't the cheapest...anyways... within half an hour - he was riding it. No training wheels, he even used the gears a little bit. It is a fantastic bike. Specially designed with kids centre of gravity in mind... ByK - kids bikes (http://www.bykbikes.com/). I am keen to see how Hannah goes on one - maybe next Christmas. At the moment she can pedal her bike with training wheels around the table out on our back deck. She loves riding it but does tire a bit. She also quite likes her scooter so I think we'll really push her on those with the view to trying her on one of these types of ByKs in the future. She's got the riding outfit ready to go: