On boxing day we were expecting our amazing friends Maddie and Damien for dinner plus Maddie’s family who were here from NY! How festive! And they brought a turkey – all dressed and ready to bake! Yum! How I’ve missed turkey! It truly felt like Christmas with these good people at our table.
Then there was the banana slide. ..Tomas’ belly hurt the next day and I wondered why ..
Because we moved on Christmas eve, things were a bit hectic (understandably). We managed to move everything by 4pm Christmas Eve with the help of two movers and our dear friend who watched the kids all day.
We invited our dear friends who had watched the kids all day to join us for a BBQ and drinks christmas eve which they did and we also went upstairs to our new neighbours for a street party. It was finally feeling like Christmas!!
Mike and I planned ahead so that all the pressies from Santa were wrapped and put in a specially marked box. All we had to do was deteriorate the tree -not bad!
Xmas day and the kids took no time in tearing open their pressies – to the point that mike and I told them to wait and take turns- something my Nana always had us do and I wondered why!!
Christmas day we had two lovely families over for dinner – who knew we’d do so much entertaining in our very new apartment! Dinner was excellent – pork belly and lamb cutlets chez Mike, gorgeous spicy couscous salad chez Eleanor and decadent brownies chez Sally for dessert.
Meant to visit Santa but found this instead!! Too fun!
Santa visits. Ethan is happy to get a gift but runs quickly away from Santa.
A bit teary-eyed today….
This weekend we went to the Blue Mountains and spent a night at the luxurious Fairmont Resort. I picked that spot because I knew it would be a big hit with the kids as it had an indoor and outdoor pool, ball pit and climbing room, games room and a giant fish tank! So if the weather didn’t cooperate we were set!! Oddly enough the weather was poor as it was rainy. But the kids especially Tomas were super keen to hike anyway! We went on a couple treks our first day, just near the three sisters and katoomba falls, which was nice. But the rain came down harder so we packed it in for the resort. The kids played in the play room and we all enjoyed a nice swim. Then the weather cleared so braved dinner out at a fab restaurant called Leura Garage. Mike found this place online and what a find it was! Amazing decore with old bits from a mechanic shop used in interesting ways. The food and wine were delicious and the kids actually sat in their seats for the most part. It was our first civilized dinner out as a family!!
The next day was more of the same except this time we treked along the Leura Cascades – going down the valley and back up. The scenery was gorgeous changing from a dry rocky climate to a lush dense rainforest at the foot of the falls. Tomas would have hiked more I think but Ethan was wrecked so we stopped there.
All in all, a nice break at the end of school!
Yes the tree went up 2 weeks ago – that’s November 8th folks! Must be a new record for us!
What to do on a rainy weekend? Museum it!!
1. Powerhouse Museum
Loved The Wiggles interactive section!!
The kids actually sat through a 30 minute science experiment show! It was great! Dr. Science did a few demos of Bernoulli’s principle, made elephant toothpaste, and an electric spark. So cool!
2. Australian Natural Museum
Loved the mineral section today.
My goodness, how quickly they grow! I can’t believe Ethan is 3 already!!
Baked a dimple cake for school. Ethan dressed as Supergirl that day. Apparently he lives how the skirt twirls!!
Saturday we had a lovely party at the spider web park in Coogee where it was all about batman, playing games, and eating lollies!!
This year we tried the same short route but there was virtually no one giving out lollies. Luckily we ran into someone who directed us up a few blocks where several houses were really into Halloween so the kids got some lollies….phew!! No pumpkin this year tho – there was none to be found!!