Out and About October

Elise, Gisele and I had a great trip to Dubbo recently. We enjoyed catching up with everyone, the Smiths, Bannons, Sparrows, Aunty Byna and the Clarke/Bakers!! The girls were great in the car with me on the drive up - either sleeping or singing to CDs. Not so great on the sleep front during the night, but we all survived thanks to Aunty Meg, Aunty Ang and daddy Sean driving us home!

We discovered new places to visit in Dubbo. Aunty Meg is in the know about hot spots in Dubbo for kids. We went to Kids Zoo (indoor play) for the 1st time with the Sparrows. There is the new playground pictured above in Victoria Park. We also went to a garden nursery that had a cafe, cubby houses and swings, so that kept the grown ups and the kids happy!!

Mick & Megs soon worked out the way to charm Gisele was to read her the "In the Night Garden" books. G will happily stay in your lap and insist you read it 20 times (as seen below).

Meggy had plenty of helpers for bathtime with Nate (sorry about the view of you in this shot Nate)

The girls loved to keep Nate entertained and they all kept each other in good spirits - even late afternoon!

Below is a picture of the cutie pie bubby boys. Archie is busy crawling everywhere and Nate has started sliding backwards.

Here is some video of Uncle Mick playing with the kids. Toby came over to Meg's one night for a sleepover. Elise and Toby were very excited spending time together - very cute!


Last week we went to see "The Fairies" appearing at the ABC shop at Westfield. Nana came along too. Elise was very excited but got a bit overwhelmed (star struck) when we got there - see pictures below. The Fairies, Bee and Wizard read stories and did some fairy dancing. Elise loved that part!

Below is the dancing.

The primary school around the corner had their fete on the weekend. I love a good fete!!
This one is especially good. There are ponies and animal farm and no crowds!

Elise holding the hamster very gently. Gisele talking to the baby chicks and ducks.

Elise had a few rides on the pony.

Here is some short video of the girls on the slide together at the fete.

Our friend Elizabeth Atkins turned 6 on the weekend. Here she is with Elise and her cousin Jack at her party on the weekend.

I have been doing a writing course "Women and handing down stories from one generation to another". I really love the opportunity to get the creative juices flowing and the structure of the course is really helpful. Great to be able to pass stories from my family tree down to my girls in time...
I have also started some bellydancing aerobics which is fun but pretty tricky. Not as easy as it might sound- takes a lot of coordination. Please don't ask me to demonstrate!!

Gisele is taking quite a few steps now. Will be running around soon. She has been too comfortable walking around on her knees for a while now - quite a sight! A month ago she had around 50 words but now she is coming out with 2-3 new words a day now. Just incredible being a part of an emerging little person's life.
Here is G knee walking.

Below is video we took of Gisele the day before we left for Dubbo. We were encouraging her to walk and after a wobbly 1st attempt to our surprise she just took off!!!

Still no news about whether San Fransisco is happening or not.......would be good to know either way????

That's all for now. Lots of Love to Everyone!!

September/ October

We recently got to see our friends from Mildura -the Whyte family. They were on holidays on the Central Coast so we travelled up there to stay with them for the weekend. We had a wonderful time. It had been a while between kisses for Elise and Rohan, who are around the same age. Here are some pictures of Elise and her betrothed below. Details of the dowry are yet to be finalised (lol).....


Here I am with my lovely godson Cameron.

Here are some of the Whytes together with us at windy Pretty Beach. Next to it is a photo of all us (including some local friends of the Whytes) at Patonga.

Last weekend was Elaine/Nana Edmiston's 60th birthday party.
It was held at Angelos on the Bay at Cabarita- where we had our wedding Awww!!

It was a yummy lunch and all the grandchildren were there to celebrate.

Here is a picture of us girls dressed up before we go.

Here is Nana with all the grandchildren.

Nana with the beautiful cake.

Sean and Elise at the table. Elise very obviously enjoying the cake!!!

Elise, Gisele and I are off to Dubbo on Sunday. We are leaving Nova behind for company for Sean so he doesn't get too lonely! We are staying in Dubbo for the week and we are looking forward to seeing everyone there. Hoping all the dust storms have finished!