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:

Dancing Hearts

Hannah had her dance concert tonight - the one for children and adults with disabilities. It was heaps of fun! The dancers all looked great and had a blast. The Dance teacher had put in so much work. It was a good afternoon. Hannah was quite shy on stage but she clearly had a good time. She was also thrilled to see her 'support club' there and to receive a trophy and to win a prize in the raffle. Here are some pics

We also did some Christmas craft in the afternoon

Advent

Preparing for Christmas is always lots of fun. Money is tighter this year than usual thanks to our O/S sojourn but with the sun shining and everyone in good health there is the same fun as usual to be had. Dad has come to visit for a couple of weeks and has brought my nephew with him - he is 8 years old born 1 day shy of the twins' birthday the year before they appeared. Kit is in heaven and Hannah is quite pleased too. The advent calendars are out - I bought Hannah a tacky Barbie one from Target, Kit has last year's Lego one set up again and there is of course the quilted wallhanging one that is for all of us that Mum and I made together so many years ago when she lived in Gympie. One of the things I love about Christmas is I always feel Mum is right there by my side. I turn around to straighten up a bit of tinsel - and I can almost see her smile, I watch the kids' excitement and I can see the warmth in her brown eyes. Of course it also makes me feel a little sad too - I miss her all the time and would love to be able to put my arms around her, to share some Christmas cake... instead I must be content with a mental nod in her direction each time I think of her this season and a toast whenever I am enjoying her Christmas cake recipe. This year I started the season making Glad Shute's Fruit cake - the cooking time was indeed a bit deceptive but because I made 2 cakes at once - the 3 hours cooking time worked out fine and the one we have iced and started eating is lovely and moist and a little bit crumbly. I still have to make Mum's one and will try and do that soon because I want to send one home with Dad for him and my sisters to enjoy this year. The first cake was officially cut when the Christmas tree went up. Hannah was very excited to go with her father to pick on - just like in the Curious George movie she loves. The inlaws came over to help us celebrate the start of the Christmas season. This past week Christmas cards have begun to trickle in from the kids at school and the round of Christmas parties has started to happen. That began with Kit's music party and continues still. Hannah had a party at Rainbow Club (her swimming class) yesterday. Tonight is her concert with Dancing Hearts - a dance class for children (in one group) and adults (in a later time slot) with a disability. She gets to wear a princess dress and a ballet bun and so is very excited. We have a bit of a cheer squad coming for her so I hope she does ok. I was watching her at dance rehearsal this week and can see that this class is good in developing her confidence - in the other class she goes to with everyone else being 'regular' she really needs to have a partner that she 'copies' in order to stay on track but int his class there is more pressure on her to actually know her steps and do them by herself - so that is a good balance I think. FOr next year we are going to start off keeping both the mainstream and the special needs classes going. On Friday night this week we went to the parish carols. It was lots of fun. We went to support the church (our kids go to a local parish school) and because my MIL is one of the amazing organising women on the parish social committee. I didn't know what it would be like. It might have been boring or full of oldies or ... I managed to wrangle another family from the school who also has twins to come along too. Well I think it is fair to say that everyone had a great night. There were other families there from the school and so the kids pretty much took off as soon as we got there and ran around the hall having a blast. The food was delicious - and the service from those women - inspiring! The Italian womens choir sang a few carols in Italian which were beautiful then we had our chef lead us in a few English faves before a guest appearance from Santa. There were a heap of raffle prizes - Dad scored a fibre optic Christmas Tree which he has put int he kids room - it is very pretty. So yes I think it is fair to say that the grown ups had almost as much fun as the kids. It was lovely to see my nephew just join in with Kit and Hannah's friends. I think it shows how much he has grown up int he past year and how lovely the kids at our school are. Hannah was beside herself with joy because her best friend (who is now homeschooled) was there. The two girls had a blast playing together. Totally unrelated to the season Dad and I also took him tot he Powerhouse Museum and the Harry Potter exhibition that is on there - it was great. Really lots of fun. I loved listening to the other people as they walked through talking about the Hogwarts world and its artefacts and characters as if they were real. There was also a little boy who was divine - "Oh look Mummy! That is Harry's wand. That's AWESOME Mum!' and so on... a delight. Here are some random pics