Category: Life

Saturday, when we arrived back from Nelson’s Bay was a stinker of a day – over 40deg (well over 100 for my US friends). We spent the afternoon unpacking and playing with the dogs and hiding out in the house. Later in the evening we headed to the basketball (dropping Kevin off at birthday dinner). It was a good game, even if we lost by 2 pts 🙁 ). Amy had a friend sleeping over after the game.

On Sunday Kevin was desperate to go out in his new toy – so we headed over to Windang. I was quite pleased it was a bit overcast (I’ve had too much sun lately) but the sun came out later on and I added some more sunburn to my stripey collection. The girls loved the kayak and I went for a paddle too. Should provide many hours of fun. After enjoying some lunch we headed home. Had a swim, friends visited and the day was over.

I confess I’m not a big Australia Day person and we never even celebrated it till probably the last 5 years. These days we have a lunch with Nan & Pop so it’s a pretty low key affair. After I exercised and cleaned the house in the morning I was quite pleased to have lazy afternoon enjoying some national foods and sitting and relaxing. Christy had a swim and Amy headed off on a bike ride with a girlfriend, the dogs laid under the table sleeping.

Boxing Kangaroo Lollies, Anzac Cookies….

Pavlova, damper, and lamington roll.

We had a great weekend away. Originally we got tickets to take the girls to see Le Grand Cirque at the Opera House, and decided to make a weekend of it. The show was really good. The girls LOVED it as most of it was new to them.

After the show all they wanted to do was go to the hotel so we did that and checked into our room, then headed over to Darling Harbour where we had lunch at the food court. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling the best for a while. We decided to go to the IMAX and saw Santa versus the Snowman. Cute show and luckily I was feeling better when we came out.

We decided to go to the Chinese Gardens, which I’ve been wanting to do for ages. They are lovely and Christy especially enjoyed it after studying China last year at school. The gardens are so beautiful and we saw lots of carp and cute baby ducklings.

Next the girls wanted to swim in the pool so after stopping for an ice cream we headed back to the hotel and they had a swim. It was a little cool so they were only in around 20mins or so.

Then back to the room where they had a bath and we had dinner. Kevin & Amy had bought some pizza earlier and I got some soup from room service. My first “vegetarian” soup came with fish (????) so had to be sent back. I was reading some mags and the girls watched Mary Poppins on TV before going to sleep.

On Sunday morning we lazed for a bit before checking out of the hotel around 8am and going to Gloria Jeans for some breakfast. We then did a lap on the monorail.

Then got off at the right stop for the Powerhouse Museum where were going to see the Star Wars Exhibit (we had gotten Kevin tickets for Christmas)..

The girls haven’t seen the movies but still enjoyed the exhibit – there was quite  a bit of hands on stuff to do. We then had an early lunch (and the girls played)

Christy had fun playing a greats kids area inside and Kevin & Amy went to the space area. We then caught the monorail into town and did a bit of shopping – Dymocks bookstore, Haigh’s chocolate and the Apple Store – before catching the monorail back to Darling Harbour and our car for the drive home. We all had a great time and although we normally just do day trips to Sydney it was very nice having the whole weekend together. And not suprisingly we’ve started watching the Star Wars movies with Amy (Christy got a bit bored half way through the first one).

Yesterday we had the pleasure of going to visit my friend, Sam, and her partner Charlie’s farm. We had the most wonderful afternoon/evening. We visited the cow, chickens, veggie garden and saw the sheep and Alpaca in the distance. Now Kevin and I are dreaming big of getting our own farm.

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.