Adam and Emily were, as ever spoilt for Christmas with Emily getting the baby high chair (and baby) that she asked Santa for.



Adam got football goals



They both also got enough Lego to stock any toy shop



Emily also got a fabulous Fifi (the flowertot) outfit



I was also very pleased with my Christmas pavlova

Leigh and I discovered tonight that we can walk to the pub without crossing any roads!!!

Adam had his first ever school disco which he seemed to enjoy although I didn't find out if he ever did dance.

In the middle of December, not long before the end of term Adam had his end of term BBQ. Unlike Glasgow, this was at the beach :).

Emily and I were persuaded to go by one of the other parents. So we nipped home and picked up our cossies and some picnic lunch. Adam had already left from the school with all his mates in the bus.

We got the directions and plugged it into the satnav.

View Larger Map

It took us to the above bay. When we got there, the kids were already in the water. Each age group got 45mins in the water and then an hour or so playing games on the grass.

It was a ton of fun. While the kids were in the water the teachers and some parent volunteers formed a ring of people around them so that it was nice and safe. The waves were getting up a bit so the kids were getting thrown around.

The view was great, you can see in one of the photos the Sydney to Hobart ships that were sailing by.

Before our move to Melbourne, we are having a Sydney holiday so we went to Ryde swimming pool (ironic isn't it that we go to an indoor pool in the summer - it was a bit too hot to be outside).

Ryde has a rapid river, wave pool and big flume - that Emily was very excited to go down, we had to go down with her but she made us promise not to hold on and then she was off, flying down the tube!




As you can see, Emily takes after me and has no fear of the water and also doesn't really understand that she can't actually swim.

Just in case you are worried, the times when Emily is waving her hands in the air are not her drowning but that is her swimming with her windmill arms!

(as if we need another reason) They have opened the new South Pacific Ocean enclosure for the penguins, seals, sea lions and a leopard seal.



We have been twice already!



(this is me before I have had coffee in the morning - har de har)

At the beginning of November, we went to Bondi for Sculpture by the Sea which stretches from Bondi all the way round to Tamarama. We decided that walking all the way to Tamarama would be too much for the kids (and as it was the last weekend, it was really busy).
            





 Emily being modern art

We weren't going to go back to Shark Island (for the start of the Sydney to Hobart race) but as Jen and Mick were keen to go, we decided to make the effort.  Jen and Mick are the parents of Hannah from Adam's class and serious Wanderers - Jen's Dad is the club secretary and Mick is the unofficial cook when we have the BBQ every Sunday.



It was all the same as last year although this time we knew what to expect so Colin and Mick made their way to the front of the line when getting off the boat to get a good spot (although they didn't run for the spot as some people did!?!?!)

See if you can spot the difference:


2007                                                                               2008

The kids got a bit bored sitting waiting for the start of the race as, as far as they were concerned, it just looked like lots of boats got together on the harbour.



After watching the start of the race, the kids wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately, where they wanted to go swimming was quite deep and one of us tall people had to go in with them.



This is Maddie (Hannah's big sister) and me coming back to shore but having to go through the seaweed



(I was being very brave as Maddie was freaking out a bit about it - I was secretly freaking out too!!!)

Thankfully Emily didn't jump off the pier (although she wanted to at first with the "big girls") but she did want to go for a swim/doggy paddle



As with the last, however many years, it looks like Wild Oats will win again



Update: I think Emily found today quite tiring, after I just finished drying her hair, she asked if it was bedtime and when I said yes, she answered: yippeee

Merry Christmas



Hope you like Adam and Colin's matching tops!!

The other weekend, we decided to brave the crowds and went to see Santa at Meyer (aka Grace Brothers!) We thought the cue queue (oops- mental slip as Cue is clothes shop here!) wasn't too bad and as they also have a Santaland with a train, computers (so you can email Santa!) and other distractions - unfortunately they didn't have any grown up distractions so Colin and I took it in turns to stand in the queue.



Thankfully it was all worth it as, after a little bit of reluctance, both Adam and Emily were happy to talk to Santa and even sit on his knee (once we find the scanner, we will put a copy on here!)

The view  . . . .




Every three days or so I get to watch the touroids loading on and off the cruise ships.

Emily now has a slightly different view of the world  - she asked if our Christmas decorations of sparkling snowflakes where spider webs?!?!?!?

If the jungle drums haven't reached your corner of the world yet . . .  we are moving to Melbourne - in about 4 weeks time - eek!

After moving to Sydney for Colin's job, we are now moving to Melbourne for mine. We want to move before the end of January so that Adam can start his next year at school with everyone else. We have managed to narrow down the areas we want to live - inner east or Bayside.

I found an excellent website that not only compares Sydney and Melbourne suburbs but also compares them to shoes!!!

On the Friday before we moved, Adam's school had a 70's theme quiz night. Colin and I, along with a few other parents from the rugby team formed a table, aptly called the Under Sixes. Not only was the quiz 70's theme but we had to dress up

Colin also had a fake 'tache - which made him look like Chick Hicks from Cars


This is Mick, dressed up as Paul Hogan in his '70's tv show (Colin has taken to referring to him as Mick Dundee)



We all had much fun, especially as our team won - Colin would have also had won best dressed but the organisers wanted to share the prizes around!