Spring is here...

Here is Elise helping out at National Tree Day. She was a great help collecting the water crystals for all our planting.

Meggy & Nate came to visit while Nige ran in the city to surf.
A local club called Dooleys have kids entertainment on weekends when you eat in the restaurant. The kids had a great time! Megs and I almost forgot to order lunch for our children as we almost forgot we had them with us- they were so busy off playing and doing craft!
Nate (above) loved Aunty Cake's chocolate cupcakes...

It's Spring time - that means fetes, fairs and festivals. Yah! I am having a few stalls around the place. The girls love the fun of the fair.

The Eco Footprints Festival at Leichhardt had this incredible Talking Tree.
What a magnificent creation.

GB is super cute and changing into such a child - no longer a bubba. Getting very independant now. All finished with nappies now and rides on her tricycle by herself.

Here is Sean on fathers day. We had a picnic and a bushwalk at Lake Parramatta. Followed by an ice cream at the cafe afterwards. Glorious Spring weather- a fantastic day out!

A rainbow at the end of the street. The girls get super excited when they see a rainbow!
bye for now...

Elise's Preschool Photos 2011

These are photos of our Elise taken at preschool back in June...bit slow to upload them. Can't believe she is off to school next year. She is busting to go. In fact she has already lost her 1st tooth.

Elise is going to Melrose Park Public School in 2012 - just around the corner. It has a huge oval of grass, a kitchen garden and there is only 130 students. A lovely community. Sean and I have our 1st parent evening this week.

Pic of the school!

Gisele's 3rd Birthday

Sean had another trip to the US so we headed to Dubbo during the school holidays to see all the fam. We stayed at Meg, Nige and Nate's huge house they bought recently.
It was also Miss Gisele's 3rd birthday while we were there.

Here is a picture of my sleeping angel-her last night as a 2 year old.
She is mad for unicorns and rainbows at the moment. Her unicorn presents and pinata awaited her when she woke up. They were sitting on the table and she didn't even notice them and didn't open her pressies 'til the afternoon- that will all change as she gets older.

We went to the new Taronga Western Plains Zoo playground for her birthday party.

Her puppy in a bag that barks was a big hit - she didn't let go of it all week!

Here are her unicorn cake pops and number 3 cake.

Hip Hip Hooray with the family. The Thommos and The Sparrows braved the cold too!

Needless to say it was a FREEZING day. I am sure you can see that in our faces.
Mick even had a jumper on- means it is really cold!

Meggy and Zelly.

I forgot to take the pinata to the zoo so we cracked it the next day.
Good job Tobster.

Bubbles Bubbles Bubbles.

Here are some holiday antics. Elise and Toby love "night party" concerts! Choo Choo conga line...

Archie Archie & Ice cream dessert in jamies mmmm.

Our Miss Zelle Belle, GB, Gisele Belle, ZeeBee is a fiery little girl - got her grandma in her. She has attitude and humour in abundance. Ask her to do something and she will do the opposite. She is very knowing and intuitive and a bit shy!
She is very loving and tells me she loves me '1007' and up to the moon, stars and rainbows.
She is super smart as well - knows many of her numbers and letters already.
Her favourite things are doggies-loves to say hello and pat dogs everywhere, movies, Bondi Vet with Big Chris, tea parties and ponies/unicorns.
We love her so dearly and so glad she came into our lives. Happy 3 year old birthday Gisele.

Kate's Birthday and Winter Fever

Had a lovely lunch for my birthday in June at Sorenzos Japanese Fusion restaurant at Meadowbank. http://www.sorenzo.com.au/

Meggy, Aunty Byna and Uncle Bernard were in Sydney. Adie, June and Aunty Gwen came as well.

Food was yummy and they decorated my dessert for the occasion...

The girls were very thrilled with their trio of gelato!

It seems in the winter I get the urge to paint. Maybe it is being inside and staring at the walls more than usual. It could be the bleak monotones of winter outside and me needing to bring colour in. My other theory is I am craving the colour green from living in the city tooo long.

These colours were inspired by out trip to the Daintree Rainforest. Most walls in our house are now of the green variety...
The kitchen now also has a green wall. Next step is our bedroom. Bye Bye cchocolate wall....Hello to the colour???????........

Part 1 Hello Cairns & Palm Cove

We spent a lot of time discussing and deciding where to go on a special holiday this year. We wanted to a place where the girls could experience wildlife and nature because that is what Sean and I enjoy as well. We wanted to go to a place where our tourist dollar would truly benefit the local people and their economy. Most the places we wanted to go to involved vaccinations so we want to wait 'til the girls are older to really get the most of out of it....In the end we couldn't go past beloved queensland especially after all queensland has been through in the last few months. We did our bit for the queensland economy!

Here is Gisele on the train on the way to the airport. Just a bit excited with her crayons and notepad ready for the plane trip (she wanted to take them everywhere with her!)

It was bliss to arrive to glorious warm weather and put our summer clothes on again. Palm Cove was soo gorgeous. The girls splashed in the pool many times a day and sometimes into the night!

One of our 1st trips was to Crystal Cascades then Muddys Playground in Cairns.
L. Elise likes to take some pictures
R. Here is the Esplanade at Cairns - a balmy 28 degrees- and a giant pool for all.

We took a trip to Green Island...


You can see why it is called Green Island.

R. "Look I see fish, I see a turtle!"

Next day we had a day trip to Kuranda in the mountains.
The girls and I caught the scenic railway past waterfalls and rainforest.




Sean drove up and met us there. Here is a picture he took at a look out on the way.

Kuranda had lots of interesting shops. The girls loved the scottish display!

The Butterfly Sanctuary was fantastic. Largest display of butterflies in Australia. We saw them also in the cocoon stages behind the scenes.
If we were quiet and still (bit of a challenge) they came to land on us.


L. The Ulysees Butterfly was stunning and so bright in colour but the poor thing is rarely still because it has to flutter hard to get away from all that wish to eat it!!

Sean caught the cablecar back to the bottom with the girls, where I met them. Not for the faint hearted - down steep hills and over rivers for a 1.15 hr trip. The girls loved it.

We got a great deal on a privately owned courtyard apartment at the Sea Temple Resort. The toddlers splashing pool was just outside our gate. It was gorgeous. The restaurants and bars there looked sooo incredibly luscious and flash but not for the likes of us with 2 little girls. Great for a couple or group of friends!