Bondi Beach

Today we went to Bondi Beach for the afternoon/evening. Bondi beach is arguably the most famous beach in Australia. It is famous for the surfing and and the solid 1 K of sand. Although we are in the middle of winter we have had some unusually hot weather (70's-75's F) this week. It was such a beautiful day we threw everything in the car and hit the beach by 3:00 (20-30 minute drive to this side of the coast from our house.

Thomas went crazy in the sand, we now have to keep a pretty good eye on him as he just keeps going and going to catch birds, chase balls and escape into the water (yikes).

My cute baby!

His blond hair is finally coming in, and his other top two teeth are just starting to break through!

Mary takes her sand castle building very seriously!

And Thomas is about to take the ball again!!

Mary is ready to hit the waves...this pose came out of no where!

Stan and the girls testing the water, Olivia is pretty excited. Stan is looking for sea shells.

Playing in the ocean...paradise!

I love seeing my kids so happy. Mary just LOVES the water, she is my beach baby.

The best of friends...really...I am so glad I had two girls close together

Little Olivia heading back to warm up

Mary ready to go out for some more with Stan.

Here is the sunset, as we got ready to go home! All in all it was a fun evening. After the beach we headed home, ate pizza and watched a movie! I really do love it here in Australia--come visit!

End of term lessons

In Australia we go to school year round (no summer break). However we do have "end of term" holidays. There are 4 terms in a year and at the end of each term we get two weeks off. All sports lessons go through the term and then you have to pay more to sign them up for the next term. Tomorrow is the last day of school before our holiday and so I took some pictures of Mary and Olivia doing their extra-C on their last day.

First, here is Olivia doing gymnastics. She takes lessons at MLC, a private school just down the street from us. She is very energetic and likes the trampoline the best but her best performance is on the beam.

A flip on the bars!

A tuck on the trampoline

And the beam!

Second is Mary swimming. She was moved up this term into the next group, which means she can swim without a life jacket for 20 meters. This also means I don't have to worry AS MUCH...now if only Thomas could swim! Here she is doing her end of term treat, jumping off the diving board.

This is called "riding the pony"

Third, Olivia in swimming. She is working on her front crawl. In England we had her learn a survival swim because I was pregnant with #3 and none of my kids could swim, and we were moving to Australia in the summer.This has made it hard for her because she LOVES to swim so she just goes around doing her doggie paddle while the other kids are stuck on the wall. She doesn't understand why she has to learn a new stroke since she gets around just fine. The teacher is desperately trying to un-teach this survival swim and get her to do the front crawl instead.

Fourth, Thomas keeping himself busy on the side lines. We spend a lot of time at this school so he gets creative!

I hope that tastes good...yummy!

Happy Birthday Thomas

Thomas turned 1 this wed (July 8th) and we had a small birthday party with our baby friends. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed just talking with my neighbors and friends from church. We had chocolate cup cakes and lots of baby snacks. Mary was a good sport being the oldest by nearly 3 years, Thomas is the only one that was not an only child at the party!

Our party corner

Our birthday cake

About half our party guests, but these are the babies that can sit up

Party time! It doesn't get better than this.

Unwrapping the presents!

Blowing out the candles...with some help!

and eating the chocolate :-)

Thomas turns 1 year old

Here are some pictures from Thomas's one year photo shoot. We are still trying to get better at taking our own pictures with our camera but so far so good.

Thomas is in the 90% for height and 50% for weight and head circumference.

Thomas LOVES to throw things, balls and bears are his favorite toys.

Thomas can say mama, dada, baba (bottle), Uh-O, and Op (for stop)

Thomas hardly ever cries, this is said in conjunction with the fact that Olivia and Mary are my little "helpers" when it comes to deciding when it is time for him to get out of his crib, car seat and high chair. He is tough and he thinks Olivia and Mary are hilarious...they are the only people who can really get Thomas to laugh really really hard!

4th of July!

This year for the 4th of July we celebrated with a morning at the Sydney Olympic Swimming pool. IT IS HUGE! Below is a picture of the kids play area, there is also a lazy river, hot tubs, big lanes for swimming laps and a section with inflatable animals to slide on and climb on. I wasn't allowed to bring my camera so this picture is off the Internet.

After swimming we came home and got ready for our evening with the American Society in Sydney. Since the 4th was on a Saturday it was extra easy to do the traditional BBQ, games, mingling and fireworks that typically happen on the 4th in the USA (when you get the day off). Food was provided by Outback Steak House (yum), and the party was held at the Hunter Hill sailing club right on the water. When they set off the fireworks you could see the city lights reflecting on the water and the harbor bridge in the background. We meet a few younger couples with kids (new friends) and the girls went crazy with the face painting, dancing, coloring, balloon making and limbo contest. All in all, it was a great 4th of July in Australia.

When we first came in, we were greeted by the President!

Mary and her new hat

Thomas in his Whistler Canada sweatshirt...what was I thinking?

Olivia getting her face painted

Limbo

Getting creative....isn't that illegal?

Mary and her butterfly

Thomas and I watching the fireworks. Thomas was mesmerized, and he was not afraid of the loud BOOM, which made this 4th easy to enjoy.

The picnic area and our fellow ex-pats

The best part about the fireworks, was that they went off at 6:30 pm since it is winter time here and it gets dark early. We made it home just in time for bed.

Happy 4the everyone!