Little Drummer Boy

We took the plunge just over a month ago and bought Liam his first drum kit. He has been taking lessons all year, and practising by slapping his thighs during this time. With the help of his drum teacher, we managed to grab this great kit on ebay for a very good price. Thankfully we have a small room downstairs (partically below ground level) that muffles a lot of the noise Liam can produce on it. I think, however, we must get Liam a set of earplugs as this particular room has quite echo-ey acoustics - rather loud when you're actually in there, I must say!

Christmas 2010

Beth playing with one of her new toys - Barbie's head and hair...
time to teach the girl some hair techniques!

It doesn't take long for the Lego to be built!

This year we ate spiced coconut prawns with our ham and chicken... Yummm, great recipe. Even the kids tried it!

Despite the rain, we did all squeeze on the deck and enjoy Christmas lunch outdoors.

It doesn't take long for what was a carefully laid Christmas table to look like this!

Christmas baking...

After making gingerbread men a couple of years ago, we thought it was time to have another go this year. Long process, but Liam and Beth enjoyed it, especially the decorating part - you just HAVE to lick the drippy icing off your fingers as well as test the little coloured chocolate decorations as you go, don't you?!

The artisans hard at work... great way to spend a school holiday afternoon.

Today Show...

Almost forgot... The Today Show were filming every day last week from Coolangatta during our holiday. Each day they filmed 'live', which included guest appearances from particular entertainers. We missed Guy Sebastian on the first day, but caught Jessica Mauboy on Tuesday and got to see her perform a couple of songs from her new album.

Crazy. We stood in the rain with our umbrellas and got ourselves drenched just to see the performance and try and get glimpses of ourselves in the crowd on the telly later. But it was fun and certainly added some excitement to what might otherwise have been frustrating wet days!

Hooray for Holidays!

Highlights from our annual holiday down at Coolangatta...

A day trip to Byron Bay. The holiday began with rather poor weather, so to get out of the unit we took a trip down to Byron. Good move. It didn't rain a drop whilst we were there, in fact, it was quite humid. We stumbled across some great Sunday markets, enjoying some of the interesting foods that were for sale, and also visited some of the obvious places of interest - the infamous lighthouse and the most easterly point of the Australian mainland.

After a few days of rain, we were delighted with the change in the weather - glorious sunshine and warm days. Perfect for fun at the beach.

As well as swimming, we all helped create interesting castles in the sand. This is my brother Aaron and his girlfriend Joke (Yo-ka), who holidayed with us.

The finished product.

Actually, sand-castle building was very popular on this day.

We took an evening walk after dinner each day this time (helps to tire out the kids and get them ready for sleep!!) so it was sometimes a good opportunity to take the camera and play with some good shots.

They were building this park at Palm Beach last year, so Liam and Beth enjoyed playing on it this time. It's a fantastic playground with a cool pirate theme, including buried treasure you can dig for!

Digging for treasure...

Of course, sometimes it was just nice to relax at the apartment and watch a bit of telly!

Another school year ends...

Today we watched a few hundred littlies perform at the end of year celebration Christmas concert at school. The year 2 boys took the parts of Joseph's buddies (that's Liam and his best mate Hunter), and the prep girls were adorable angels. It was all drenched in much sweetness and cuteness of course. School breakup parties were then held in the classrooms, and the kids have come home full of a junk-food lunch and seem utterly exhausted and ready for a holiday.

Swimmer shots

I can hardly believe it is the end of November - almost summer - and it is still quite chilly in the pool at just 26 degrees. The kids don't care, of course, and don't feel the cold until they get out and shiver like crazy! Would the summer please bring with it some warmer temperatures?...

Merit Bar Season

It's that time of year when lots of kiddies at school find they have accumulated the right amount of 'ROC award' stickers throughout the year and are awarded a merit bar at assembly. Liam was awarded his two weeks ago, and Beth followed suit last Friday when she was awarded her first ever merit bar. Suffice to say, she was RATHER excited about it!

Beth (3rd from right) and some of the other little preppies who received merit bars.

As it turned out, Beth's class presented an item during last week's assembly too. There's nothing quite like a class of little preppies trying to remember the words and actions to a song... so cute.

R.I.P. pink tricycle...

It's sometimes very odd the things my brain decides to think about in the middle of the night. In the early hours this morning after a quick trip to the loo, I found myself thinking that I should take a picture of the little trike we are about to dispose of during the upcoming kerbside collection. Now I'm not sure why, but before I knew what was happening, I found myself composing this little poem in memory of our little trike...

A red shiny trike
When Liam was two -
That's what you were
When you were brand new.

Black handles, black tray,
Red wheels and red seat -
A very first trike,
How cool and how neat!

At first you weren't pedalled
but pushed with stretched toes.
Around and around
In the garage you'd go.

As Liam grew older
(Age two became four)
Those pedals got used
First a little, then more.

Delightfully ridden
With oh so much joy
You played all sorts of games
With my girl and my boy.

But Time, it flies on,
And we soon noticed signs...
(If you'd been a person
They'd be wrinkles and lines).

... Your handles fell off
And red faded pink.
Then tray and seat loosened -
Oh what did you think?

You were dragged across stones,
Left out in the rain,
Tray filled with sand -
We imagined your pain.

Soon no tray at all,
Or seat, on your frame,
Yet you were still ridden
And kept in the game.

Still zooming and racing
E'er faster and faster
(But with Liam too big,
Now with Beth your new master),

Still you were favoured
And saved from destruction -
with new bikes and scooters,
You continued to function.

Until the day came
You were left without care
In the path of the car -
Now one wheel isn't there.

So now it is time
To bid you farewell.
Thanks for the memories
And fun times as well.

A much loved child's trike -
You lived up to the task
And faithfully served
Right up to the last.

R.I.P. "PINK BIKE".

More pieces...

Have we mentioned Beth's 'betrothal' to Caleb? One of her best prep friends is gorgeous Caleb, who seems to be quite smitten with our Beth, too. Beth has brought home many a letter/ drawing/ creation of Caleb's during the year, but over the holidays she received this cute letter in the MAIL! Exciting stuff for a five-year-old to receive real letters! (And, yes, I have kept most of the stuff from Caleb - put away for when they are both older to have a giggle over!)

Our chickens began laying eggs in September, which we are all thrilled about. Occasionally we have discovered some weird and wonderful looking eggs - such as this wrinkly, extra-large one! We've also had long skinny ones, pointy ones, and a few soft-shelled ones.

And at last, it's official: swimming season has begun! (Well, at least for Liam, Beth and Andrew it has - still far too cold for me. I'll be waiting until the water reaches 28/29 before taking my first swim!)

Lego Lego Lego

During the September school holidays we took advantage of one of the children's holiday events on at the Hypermarket down the road - the Great Lego-Building Challenge. Both Liam and Beth entered a set of heats twice, in the hopes that they would win a prize and get to go in the finals.

Liam's creation - a racing car crossing the finishing line - won him second place in his heat, so he won a small prize and also got to compete in the grand final.

The competition was tough (try beating a model of the Sydney Opera House!), and he didn't win a prize at the finals, but he had fun and we were proud of him anyway.

At last... the kitchen is complete...

Here we have it: finally the glass splashback has been installed! Yay.

The kitchen is now offically COMPLETE!

The slashing has commenced...

Having almost finished the inside of the house the process of cleaning up the outside has begun. A few hours work with Andy's chainsaw (electric but still dangerous) resulted in a massively different front garden and a very large pile of cut palm trees. Oh dear, we have several more garden beds to go.