Sydney

People who know us well would probably agree that we've all been in desperate need of a break lately. The combined effects of moving house, catching viruses, and two parents working full time over the last couple of months has all taken its toll and quite frankly we were buggered!

So we've just spent a few days in Sydney and it was just what we needed...

The 4 days were spent pretty much just relaxing and sleeping and enjoying not *having* to do anything. We had the added bonus that our very lovely friends who we met back in the Falkland Islands joined us there - they now live a few hours drive away from Sydney (BRILLIANT to see you again Johnson family!!).

Sydney is an awesome city, and is one of my favourite places. I've spent a lot of time there over the years and have a lot of good memories - I lived and worked there back in 95/96 as a backpacker, I visited for work in '98, I went on a luxury weekend in 2004.....but I'd never been back since we had kids.

And I can now confirm that it's not quite the same experience!

But it was absolutely brilliant in different ways. Manly Beach became our base - it's the perfect location for a family as you have the beach on your doorstep and public transport to see the sights is mostly possible by ferry. In fact, the ferry rides were one of our highlights and we spent a great deal of time on them, day and night, just cruising around the harbour getting to places...
 

The kids' highlight was going on the cable car to Taronga Zoo...

We played a lot on Manly Beach. Our kids were fascinated by the golden sand as we don't get yellow sand back home....and we also put the volleyball nets to good use! 

On the second day we had fish n chips at Watsons Bay and watched a beautiful sunset over the harbour...and I reminisced about doing exactly the same thing as a twenty-something during my backpacking era!

What a great trip! See you again next time Sydney!

Mummy-Daughter Time

Aside from our weekly keyboard class, we don't often get the chance for Mummy-Daughter time, so it was awesome to spend a couple of hours yesterday after school playing in a local reserve together.

Molly loves being outside, and loves climbing trees...

She loves hanging from things...

...and she loves collecting bits and pieces of nature, making "things" out of flax.

Up another tree...! 

She might love her clothes and jewellery, but she's a real outdoorsy kid at heart. 

A Summer House

For some reason, in our new villa it always feels like summer. Even when there's a hurricane lashing about outside. Compared to our old place, this home has a really summery feeling about it.

After school the kids are loving their new sunny playroom, which so far has been a place to read, draw, play keyboard, make car tracks and play animal hospitals....Alfie x-rayed a stuffed dog the other day and diagnosed it as having a piece of cauliflower stuck in its brain. Molly then nursed it back to health and taught it to play the piano.

She's really into her music lessons at the moment, both recorder and keyboard...

Molly also can't seem to stop reading at the moment and gets through a big pile of books every week. She reads in the playroom, in the kitchen, on the toilet, in the car, while she's walking.....and we often find her reading by torchlight under her duvet a long time after lights out. 

Meanwhile, I have a lovely sunny workspace, which is keeping me motivated and productive during a VERY very busy period...

Both kids have been doing a lot of science at school this term, and have been practising their favourite experiments at home. Molly made a lava lamp the other day out of oil, water, food colouring and headache tablets. And Alfie still loves to bake (apparently this is classed as science).

And on wild weekend evenings the kids are enjoying watching Australia's Got Talent in our cozy lounge room.

Meanwhile, Jake's been very slowly recovering from a mystery virus that won't seem to go away. 

Although he's been feeling very run down for weeks now, his biggest frustration at the moment is that it's been stopping him from running/biking more than 12 kms a day and doing more than 400 lengths in the pool every week. 

In the meantime he has been very successful in using the aches and pains as an excuse for the kids to stay up late and give him back massages before bed...