Life is a Journey not a Destination

On Monday we watched Kevin jump out of a plane.

Tuesday we spent at Jamberoo Recreation Park.

Wednesday we prepared for and hosted a NYE dinner.

On Thursday the Powell’s joined us for lunch and lots of fun in the pool.

Friday saw the girls and I clean, tidy and reorganise their bedrooms. Amy chose how she wanted her furniture arrangement and she did such a good job. It looks so much better and the room looks bigger. In the evening Kevin & I went out for dinner (Indian) and the basketball with Kay and Sean.

On Saturday we had lunch at Sean’s Kitchen in Star City Casino to celebrate the engagement of my cousin Greg and the lovely Laury (they live in London so we don’t see them very often).

Sunday was the last day of Kevin’s holiday so we let him pick what do to. He chose seeing “Bedtime Stories” which we all enjoyed and a bit of shopping.

We had a great New Years Eve. Like last year we were joined by our friends Kay & Sean (and their kids) and Mum & Dad. It was a warm day so we sat outside, enjoyed some nibblies, had a swim/spa and then cooked a BBQ for dinner. Later we had desert and did sparklers. It was a nice relaxed evening. Our guests left about 11pm and by the time we tidied (ready for more friends today) I sat in bed (so I wouldn’t fall asleep) and read until 12am. Then I watched the fireworks in the distance for a few minutes before settling down in bed to go to sleep.

Yesterday we had a great day out at the local waterpark. One of Amy’s friends had a sleepover the night before and came with us. And yep, you guessed it. Another video…

Well, since Christmas I’ve been VERY lazy . We’ve spent the days in the pool, reading, watching TV, playing games and eating. I did get to the gym yesterday and started with the decorations, which I finished off today. My house is all back to normal now, well downstairs anyway - still need to do the girls rooms. besides going to the basketball last night - which we won - and the gym - I haven’t left the house since Monday.

Yesterday was my Mum’s birthday but since I was on canteen at school and she was out to lunch we decided on an early dinner to celebrate. We gave her our presents - which included some photo christmas ornaments, a gardeners hand scrub and this Creative Memories magnet board. We then had a light dinner of pumpkin lasange and veggies, and of course birthday cake for desert. The girls made the cake all by themselves (all I did was put on the icing).

Yesterday we had lunch at my Aunt & Uncle’s (to celebrate my Uncle’s 60th birthday). The girls had a ball in the pool (despite the cool day) and then later playing in this gorgeous tree.

I had so much fun putting together gift bags for Annie’s 3 kids. I just had to buy the melamine Christmas Koala plates - too cute.

And for Annie…

I packed them into some reusable shopping bags.

In return the girls and I were VERY spoilt by Annie.

I still don’t know how she managed to fit ALL THAT in the bag!!! I love it all, esp the gorgeous scarecrow. We already found a home for him.

Here’s a photo of the girls opening the little bags Annie made up for them - full of lots of fun Halloween stuff. So fun that they got to open them on Halloween morning.

Last night we had our 3rd Halloween Party (which means we have now lived in our home for three years). It was a great night, though the weather wasn’t the best. It was cool, but didn’t rain and most of the kids still went in the pool (which was probably still warm from the disgustingly hot day we had on Friday). We had nearly around 35 guests and everyone seemed to have a great time, with most getting into the spirit of dressing up.

Here’s the home all decorated.

Some of the very yummy food. Thanks to all my guests for bringing along a plate.

A photo of us.

And Dad (Santa), Mum (Santa’s Helper) and Christy (Mrs Claus!!!)

Even the dogs had to get dressed up.

Here are the girls all ready to go trick or treating. They go every year with the Ryan family and I stay home and hand out lollies to any trick or treaters. We had a record number this year of around 30 kids.

I have known Annie online for over a year (after meeting through an online scrapbooking class). She lives in California so when I found out her family was going to be visiting, for her dh Mannie to play some baseball games, I immediately told her we’d have to meet up. Things were very up in the air as she wasn’t given much information about the game. Originally the game was supposed to be at Olympic Park so the girls and I thought we’d spend the day in Sydney and then meet them at the game (or possibly in town beforehand). As it turned out the game was moved out to Blacktown and Annie had misplaced my phone number (and only found it 15mins before the bus was picking them up). Without even being 100% sure we were going to the right place we drove out (in LOTS OF TRAFFIC) to Blacktown and somehow managed to find the right place. It was so wonderful to meet Annie and her family in real life. She was friendly and welcoming - just like on her blog. Her kids were great and all everyone hit it off immediately. The kids had loads of fun exploring, collecting and getting very dirty. I only managed to get a few photos as they were so very busy.

I got to meet Mannie briefly and watch him play a bit of baseball, which was fun.

It was a late night and driving home wasn’t a lot of fun but I made it and tumbled into bed just before midnight. It was a wonderful four hours and I’m so glad we managed to meet up with them all. It was only the second day of their trip so I hope they have a great time during the rest of their stay. We also exchanged presents, but I’ll do another post about that.

Oh, and Mickey, Annie said their cell phone isn’t working (which was part of the reason we had communicating).