Olivia's 6 year photo shoot

Happy Birthday Olivia you are such a doll! Here are her six year old photo's. If anyone has any helpful pointers when it comes to taking children's photographs I am all ears as I kinda struggled during this photo shoot. Enjoy!

Here Olivia was climbing a tree and I zoomed in while she was looking up

I tried to get her little hand with this flower (she is always picking flowers) but you can hardly see it!

I love her hair in this picture

These are the coolest flowers that blossom in spring. She is looking at a bird and looks unusually stiff!

It is spring here so I am loving all the green during October

A pretty good smile, she is starting to pull the fake smiles now!

It is a fake smile but I liked the red brick against the blue eyes/ dress

I couldn't choose between these two pictures, they are pretty much the same pose but different smiles, and these are the flowers right outside our mailbox!

Birthday Parties

With Mary and Olivia's birthdays only 5 days apart (Mary's induction date was Olivia's birthday, but she came early) it has been a birthday party week. It has also been the end of term 3 so we have the next two weeks off from school. Here are some pictures from the girls parties.

First, Mary's Birthday breaky (what the Aussies call breakfast). Pink pancakes with sprinkles.

Some princess PJ's and figurines from Grandma Swinton

Here is Mary opening some gifts from her birthday party--Thanks everyone!

That excited face is because there is a PINK yo-yo in that purse, given to her from her "boyfriend" William Bennion. Apparently they are going to get married but they won't hug each other when they say good bye...watch out for cooties!

Olivia's birthday breakfast

And some pictures from the party. She had about 20 kids over and we played A LOT of games!

In Australia you don't open the gifts during the party. We finished with 30 minutes to spare so I did the tacky and called everyone over to open the gifts. The kids were SO excited to show Olivia what they had bought her. It was a perfect way to end the party!

Olivia went from zero Barbie dolls to 10 in about 5 minutes. She told everyone all she wanted for her birthday was a Barbie doll.

One kids mom offered to make the cake...and look what she did!

Wow a barbie doll cake--nothing like turning 4 & 6 years old! Happy birthday kids!

Random Tangent: I was once in this sociology class in graduate school and we were going over research about "mean girls" in grade school (elementary and middle school) and bullies and pecking orders etc... anyway I remember the researcher discussing the Hail Mary card for a girl who wants to get in or out of cliques...it was the BIRTHDAY PARTY (I have the statistics to prove it and it is particularly true for girls vs. boys. ). The excitement of getting an invitation in the mail, having everyone talk about your party at school, picking out a gift for your friend, celebrating, and then all the talk afterwards. In addition, the social pressure of if you invite someone to your party they feel pressure to invite you to their party, so you get to do it all over again!!!!! Birthday parties are awesome and I feel sorry for the kid who either doesn't get the party or worse...gets the "get away weekend with their mom/dad" As tempting as it is to get some face time with your kids, life is so much better when they are socially accepted at school. They are pleasant at home, confidant with them self and more likely to talk to you as a parent. O my gosh, I just got on a soap box!--I am getting off now :) Summary: Always throw your kids a birthday party, it is so important for their social development and social/ emotional intelligence!

Happy Birthday Mary!

Happy Birthday Mary! We are so excited to have you in our family! Below is Mary's 4 year old photo shoot, Stan decided it was a waste of money to take the kids in to a professional so I do it now. I tried to edit the pictures (it was such a sunny day and we needed all the pictures a little darker) but my computer screen keeps going on and off...when it is on it is barely visible so I hope these look Ok. Sorry! These are my favorites~enjoy!

The one and only "REAL" smile from the hour we spent...she has a really cheesy "fake" smile that she uses all the time now.

Her curly hair!

She is always picking flowers for me!

Showing me her seashells

Looking at the sea!

and getting ready to walk home

Rock Climbing at Diamond Bay

This weekend Stan took some co-workers rock climbing for their very first time. They found a beautiful ledge right over the ocean in a place called Diamond Bay off Vancluse. This area is known for great climbing with things for all different levels. Although this run was supposed to be for beginners the group had a hard time getting past the first section. As a back up they did some repelling and the views were amazing! Here are some pictures!

The cliffs

Getting ready to start the climb

Calling it good and repelling the rest of the afternoon ;-)

This is a good vertical shot

and more cliffs...see the shark at the bottom? (J/K)

Before we had kids Stan would rock climb a lot, in fact he would ask for rock climbing gear for his Christmas/ birthday/ graduation presents. He didn't climb once in England (although Dover would have been cool, and when he brought his gear out to Australia I thought it was a waste of space. Either way, he went and he was so excited before and after the run that I am glad he was able to go.

Sydney Dust Storm

So this morning I woke up to Thomas crying at 5:30 am. I figured it was just an early morning compared to his 6:00am wake ups. I opened the blinds and saw this thick bright red fog everywhere--I could not see more than 20 feet outside our window. I thought it was fog and the sunset was reflecting off the clouds in a way I had never experienced before....but then when I came out to the main living room (where we had slept with the window open) I realized it was more than fog. It was SAND and it was all over the carpet, couch, walls and even into the kitchen. Apparently we had been hit by a sand storm--think of Wall-e (but the wind wasn't as strong)!

I went through the house and opened the blinds, and the color outside just reflected inside off the walls--so everything was red/ orange. Even with the lights on in the inside, the light in the house did not change much--it was just dark red.

Everyone just stayed inside and went to work/ school late. It was kind of peaceful in an weird way. By 8:00am it had subsided to an orange cloud and by 10:00am to a yellow cloud and the winds had died down. It was blue skies again by the afternoon. Crazy hu?!?

Above is a picture of the Sydney Opera house, and at the top is the Harbour Bridge!

Sydney Fish Market

So this weekend we went to the Sydney Fish Market. It is right on the outskirts of the city in Pyrmont once you cross over the Anzac Bridge. In Sydney there are two big bridges, the Anzac and the Harbor bridge, and they pretty much get you in and out of the business district of Sydney. Anyway, I was expecting fish throwing and a Seattle fishy experience...I have to say I was a little disappointed. It was not meant for tourists, but for people who really want to buy fresh fish. It was more like a indoor market place with a fish stench. There were a ton of fresh HUGE ocean trout and lots of restaurants you could eat at. Since I took one look and thought I wouldn't be coming back we went in and out of all the stores and sampled some of the seafood. (I have no idea why this is underlined!)

Little baby octopus!

This picture doesn't do the fish justice--these are about the length of my arm!

Thomas checking out the lobster tanks...there were about 8

The discarded fish heads and tails....GROOOOSE

and me holding up a shrimp the length of my hand! As far as seafood goes Stan can eat it all (even uncooked) and I can eat Salmon, lobster, crab and usually shrimp...but nothing else and it has to be cooked and seasoned. For some reason I gaged on this shrimp--the little legs just got to me!

Note: I am pretty sure the people who wrote NEMO got their Seagull idea (mine? mine?) from the Sydney Fish Market. They were everywhere and would attack people who were eating by the hoards. Stan went to take the girls to the bathroom and the birds noticed some people leaving and came for our table (where Thomas and I were) and I just grabbed the stroller and ran. It is like nothing I have ever seen before!

Dan & Katie!

So the last 10 days I have had my little brother Daniel and his wife Katie, here visiting Sydney. It was so much fun. I seriously tried to do EVERYTHING with them that I could think of so get ready for a picture show!

This is my sister in law Katie and I hiking the "three Sisters" up in the Blue Mountains. NOT for people with vertigo, and breathtaking!

The Three Sisters

Thomas at the Eco Point outlook!

Here is a pix of Daniel and I surfing at Bondi Beach...nice wet suits hu? Dan and Katie borrowed them from distant family members, and it was really easy to find each other in the water with all the florescent coloring. It was also good because the water was freezing since it is winter here.

Katie babysat by burying Mary in the sand...that way she couldn't go anywhere!!

We took turns watching the kids and surfing...what a deal for me hu?

We also did all the Sydney touristy things. Here we are touring the Sydney Opera house. It is AMAZING. I highly recommend the 1 hour tour. You see all the halls and get the history. Funny thing I remember from the tour--Each seats cushion absorbs the same amount of sound as a human body. So the concert hall sounds the same with a full or empty audience.

Saturday we took them to featherdale wildlife park where they got to pet the kangaroos and koalas.

Here is Daniel and the kids at the Sydney Olympic swimming pool!

Here Dan, Katie and I rented a three man Kayak and paddled around Balmoral beach in Mosman. My bennion friend Amy babysat my kid--thanks!!

After Sydney Dan and Katie went up to Brisbane (the gold coast) for a couple days! I had so much fun seeing my family! Now who is coming next?