Paris

Today we set off about 8am took the RER into Paris. On the way Steve checked out our hotel on tripadvisor.com only to inform us of the latest post that read 'don't stay there'. Great! As it turned out the Hotel Duminy Vendome was beautiful. Located just behind the Rue de Rivoli and the Tuileries, we first walked to the Louvre. Unfortunately the queue was at 2hrs so we decided to give it a miss, walked through the Tulleries and visited Musee de  l'orangerie to see the amazing wall to wall Monets instead.

Then we stopped at the Place de concorde and more amazing (to Steve) was the humungous hotdog he ate there. We had a chocolate banana crepe and a gluhwein and headed back along the Champs Élysées to window shop with the masses. Well it wasn't all window shopping, we made a purchase of an eiffel tower charm for my bracelet.
Stopped for a photo of the arc de triomphe and watched a while as hundreds of cars diced with death as they negitiated the most infamous roundabout in the world. After that it was another hike towards the trocadero as we admired the architecture of the buildings and finally arrived at the Eiffel Tower.
Mark bought the keyring he had been after all week and we found the entrance to the Jules Verne restaurant. We felt somewhat like movie stars as we walked to the front of the snaking queues of people waiting to go up to the observation towers, and walked straight into the lobby of the specially assigned lift.

The restaurant lived up to its name - the food was beautiful, we had the foie gras, sauteed monkfish tail and then coconut pineapple passionfruit tartlet for dessert. Plus the wines and champagne and the bread and the tasters we were stuffed to the nines and Steve was regretting the hot dog he had earlier.
The whole experience was topped off with my anniversary present (6yrs) a beautiful black and white diamond ring from Canturi.

Then Alyssa had to head back home to Dubai and the three Hubers headed off for after dinner drinks in St Germaine. We met up with some friends from Sydney, Danny and Mads at a bar and shared xmas stories. They were heading to Chamonix for a week in the snow. So the rest of the final night of the year was spent enjoying the Parisienne culture. The next morning we had breakfast in our funky basement restaurant and then a final coffee at the Tabac with Steve and we headed back to Disneyland via the metro which was still free!

Pantomime

The kids (and Mark) enjoyed their first ever panto this year. The very British tradition was enjoyed by all, with both Jack and the Beanstalk and Snow white and the seven dwarves. The first one was in Southport with our friends the Hastings. Afterwards, we blitzed Pizza Express - having to pre-order because there were 14 of us! Tom was mesmerised throughout and moved from lap to lap after being 'swallowed' by the flip seat.

The second trip was to the floral pavillion in New Brighton with Nanna and Grandad. This time they were treated to all the gadgets like butterfly wands and swords.

fun-packed christmas day

Well it wasn't too early a start, both kids were awake at 6.30am but we managed to delay the getting up till 7. Ela commented that Santa must have been because winnie was missing from her bed. We had struck a bargain that she would trade him in to Santa for a present she really wanted, a barking toy dog.

So we came down the stairs to see the massive Santa sacks that were left. they took about an hour to get through those and then there was another hour worth of opening presents from friends and relatives.

Mum and dad got sunnies for xmas - a strange present for here in the snow but perfect when we get back to the hieght of summer. Tom was Thomas the tank engined out and Ela was inundated with princesses. Favourites were the remote controlled buggy and the barking doggy....well actually Ela was enthralled with all her presents. I think there were 4 black bin bags full of wrappers and paper sent out to the bin.

Then we got dressed and headed to the halfway-house pub in Woolton for xmas lunch - turkey with all the trimmings. Then headed back home to further demolish nana and grandads house with all the toys.

Certainly a christmas to remember.

White Christmas

Well as all our friends predicted (unknowingly) we did indeed have a white start to our christmas. It's fairly unusual to have snow in Liverpool at all so having it drop on xmas eve was something special.

The kids couldn't wait to get outside and start throwing snowballs at Daddy. There was a brief arguement over who was putting the carrot in but we compromised and Tom stuck his carrot in the back as a tail.

Rolling the body was very hard work according to Ela so as soon as the snowman was finished they were happy to come back inside.

Meanwhile Daddy had been hard at work slaving over the hot stove preparing our traditional christmas eve fayre. A turkey roast dinner with a lovely Zinfadel red and rose. There were a few challenges to overcome - lack of space being the major hurdle but he did an awesome job and we especially enjoyed the mince pie ice-cream he made for pudding.

Penguins

Well after the sucess of the Superlambananas during Liverpool08 Capital of Culture, Liverpool has been graced with 100 5ft high penguins, each painted and located on a winters trail around the city.

Ela and I met up with one of my best school friends Jackie and her daughter Evie and we went in search of some penguins around the city centre. here are some of the best ones we found...

 

 

England here we come

Excitement is running high in our house with just a few days to go before we set off to England. We have had a round of christmas parties, lunches, playdates and farewell dinners. Photos here of some pre-xmas pressie opening.

Ela has 'graduated' from both Cabarita-Mortlake pre-school and Gumnut, here she with her favourite friends, Belle, Bo and Gabby. She has been sure to tell everyone - including Santa that she will not be 'at home' for xmas so presents need to be delivered to both places. small ones to England and larger ones to Australia!

And of course Tom has ho idea of what is to come - 24hrs of flights plus a 5 hr drive to Liverpool, but he's non the less just as excited.

Advent Calendar

Ela has been so excited about getting out the advent calendar this year. She remembers its got something to do with treats but for some reason, she believes there are elves who visit the house each night and put the lolly or sweets or whatever into the pocket ready for the morning, so she has left him all sorts of goodies on the kitchen counter near the advent calendar.

I'm going to write a note from the elf to tell her that he will only be visiting the first night and that now he knows where the advent calendar is he'll magic the treats into the pockets!

A big boy now

Well Tom has been an absolute star with his toilet training. We started about 2 weeks ago and we had about 1-2 accidents a day for the first week. By the weekend, he was in pullups and they were completely dry all day and for the following week he has been in undies (or nickies as he calls them) without a single accident!. I'm so impressed but more than that I'm very grateful. I'd forgotten how much hard work the whole thing can be - washing midweek and running up and down to the bathroom.

Tom's manners are also really developing. He's not so good with the 'peas' but he says 'sank-you mum' everytime i give him something, without any prompting from me which is great.

On the down side, terrible twos are well underway and he has started stomping, hitting and throwing when he doesn't get what he wants. He's a determined little soul - as are most 2 year olds - but I'm hoping our trip to the UK which is coming up in 2 short weeks will be enough of a distractor to at least slow down the moody periods.

This lovely photo is of Tom with his friend Evie on the bouncy castle at Ela's party.

Orientation

Ela has had two visits to big school this past two weeks for orientation. Along with her dolphin room friends, Bo, Belle and Carmello, she had a play in her new classroom and met the kids she will be at school with next year along with the teachers.

We parents meanwhile were given a run down in the hall of all the extra curricular activities including music, choir, P&C, canteen etc.

We bought some of the uniform as Ela was able to wear it at Gumnut this week. They are practicing getting their stuff ready for big school.

Ela is so excited about going there (and has been all year!) most especially because the four kids who live next door go there and so she will be able to see them every day.

Ela turns 5

This must have been the most anticipated party ever. All year Ela has been asking when it was her turn for a birthday. She waited (not so) patiently throughout her cousins and her brother's celebrations until it was her own big day. The day itself was a Monday and Nannie made cupcakes which we took for all the kids at Gumnut.We opened her presents (at the crack of dawn) from family and she enjoyed riding her new bike up and down the hallway!

Then on Friday I had promised to make a cake for her to take to her pre-school, and thanks to my mum for the mould, i had a go at this fairy princess castle. It looks much more grand than it really was and of course it didn't travel well so byt he time we got it to the school there was a bit of scraping up to be done :)

The invitations had gone out long before - barbie mermaid ones (!) and luckily not all had come back as yes's as there were 28 invited. The final numbers were 25 kids in total on the day which was actually not nearly as bad as it sounds. I put that down to good planning and roping in some trusty friends.

We had plenty of games, a very large fairy castle jumping castle, a home-made pinata, a tattoo hunt, cakes,  and lots of fun. It was a very tired but happy girl who went to bed aged 5 today. But there was still enough energy to ask about her 6th birthday party....

smell the roses

All the hard work we put inot the front garden back in Auguest is finally paying off. We purched bare-root roses from Treloar earlier in the year and when they finally arrived, there was some confusion. I had a call from the courier to say he was at the front door and what should he do with the package. I had ordered 15 standards 'trees' which were about a metre in height, so I was wondering where I could get him to leave all these. He suggested he leave them at the front door - how can he possibly do that I thought....he tried to explain that he only had a small carton...so I started thinking ahh maybe Mark has bought me roses and this is a bouquet.....anyway when I got home later that day I was very surprised to see how small these roses came.

We planted them with lots of help and advice from Marg and Pete and have been watching them slowly turn from bare sticks to green leafy 'trees' and now to flowering standards. We also have some ground cover roses and a climbing rose for the ugly silver electricity pole in the corner.





update: Dec09
The roses were fed a little fertilser a few weeks back and we have seen nothing but blooms. The ones in front of the wall are growing b=much better than those under the right window for some reason. But all in all looking fab.

More parties

Today we are a little 'partied out'. Last weekend we went to two 1st birthday parties and today a 3rd birthday party. The first was cousin Sophies in Centennial park and the second was little Oscar's in Breakfast Point. We had glorious weather, wonderful food and plenty of kids for the kids and friends to chat to for us.

And we have 3 more parties coming up in the next few weeks and of course the long awaited 5th birthday party for Ela. So far the guest list has reached 28! I'm hoping there will be a few who can't make it.

Swimming

Today we took Charlie for a swim at the newly opened D2Spa (doggie daycare facility around the corner from us). Not sure he really enjoyed it but we sure did. Especially the kids - luckily they were behind a perspex screen otherwise they would have been soaked as he continually swam to the edge and tried to climb out.

Check out the big plasma screen - who knew dogs like tv too :)

We enjoyed a lovely coffee while we watched and I got to read a Japanese magazine (as this is owned by Japanese, and groomers are Tokyo trained!) Oh and did I mention it was free? Because I filled in a pre-opening survey I got invited for a free swim...or rather Charlie did. It's a wonderful place and we'll be going back soon.

Weights

Dad is on a new health kick and went out to buy some weights this weekend.

Tom thinks it is great fun to go down to the garage and 'help' dad.

Skinny Charlie

I have to let the pictures speak for themselves. Today Charlie went to be groomed and although I left instructions that consisted of 'not too short' and 'just a medium length', we got back a a whole new dog this afternoon. He is so skinny and light - although we did put him on the scales and in fact he weighs 31kgs!

A busy Weekend

This weekend began on Saturday morning at 8.40am when we all piled into the car for the drive down to Dolls Point park on the water at Sans Souci. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd birthday party of their friends Elliot and Isaac. They played on the swings, on the ride-on toys and scooters, pass the parcel and Tom especially enjoyed practicing his newly acquired song 'happy birthday'. However he seemed somewhat perplexed when they didn't include his name in the song and even more so when he didn't get invited to blow out the candles. The train cake was made by mum Karen and very professional it looked too.

It was getting very hot by the time we left at noon and so we headed to the beach in Cronulla. In fact it was the spring carnival in Cronulla St and we met up with our good friend Cassie and her gorgeous daughter Ruby. Ela and Rubes were off in a flash discovering how many rides they could go on before they felt sick. Tom was always close on their heels and on the airplane ride he looked very close to revisiting his lunch.

We finally enticed them away with ice cream and then dropped the kids down at Nanny and Grandad's house. Grandad was still out on his long walk through the national park at Bundeena but he was given strict instructions to come home via the fish and chip shop.

We then trekked home and changed and headed up to Kenthurst for a birthday party at our friend Danny's place and arrived wearily home at midnight - like Cinderella. Charlie was quite bemused by it all and came dutifully in from the back garden and headed straight down to his bed in the garage.

The next morning we made it up to him and took him for an extra long walk after visiting Shepherds for our coffee. Meanwhile the kids were enjoying shell collecting and paddling at South Cronulla beach. Grandad dropped them back to us at noon, and then off we went to our friends place in Strathfield. Their kids Hannah and Ethan were pleased to see us all and again the girls went off to play with Tom trailing close behind (again). After a lovely Indian lunch, we said our farewells and I had to drag Tom out from behind the dressing up table and away from a cupboard full of pretty dresses which he was pointing to and shouting "me too". He has a serious dress fettish at the moment - particularly tutus :)

Then to Rhodes shopping centre to pick up the weeks groceries - a quick play in Smaland for Ela and finally back home to water the roses and tidy the house and garden. What a fun filled, hot and sticky weekend!

Fathers Day

I have to admit that I forgot to take a picture on Father's Day. Dad did get his lie-in that he was promised but it was short lived as he was up by 8am - thanks to Tom - and we were out in the garden tending to the grass and the roses. In fact he didn't even get breakfast in bed - but he did gets lots of nice presents (books, shoes and various hand-made items from the kids - including a keyring with a photo of Ela - although she wants to know if she can have it when she gets her key!)

Tom's Party

Today we had 9 small children running amok through the house. There were minimal tears though and plenty of fun was had by all. Tom was quite bemused by it all, taking part in pass the parcel, musical chairs and of course the obligatory candle blowing and singing. He took it all in his stride and has been playing with all the toys ever since. Not only those he got from people (thanks everyone) but also all his old ones that I got out the night before for the party. We have verious 'stations', including a playdough section, a drawing table, a trucks and trains area and of course the construction site. {I have since realised that having a playroom at this age is pretty useless as he rarely goes there but is quite happy to play with all the toys if they are brought out in the living area.}

We had a lovely 'TOM' cake made by nanny and grandad was official photographer. And we rounded it all off with dressups and dancing. Exhausting but great fun, Tom agreed.

The Snowy Mountains

What better way to start a new blog about our family than with a family holiday.

Today we got back from a weekend at the snow. It was Tom's first time and Ela's 3rd (not counting last years visit to Norway as that was not specifically to ski although Ela did have a go on a tobogan and Tom did ride in a backpack on a very snowy and cold cross country excursion!)

We visited Mount Selwyn again which is just perfect for families and beginners. Ela had been talking up the skiing for months and I was a bit worried that she wouldn't actually enjoy it as much as she expected she would. But I couldn't have been more wrong. She was a bit shakey at first but with the expert guidance of Dad's steady snow plough off they went down the mountain and back up on the chairlift. They were soon tackling a blue run and Tom was doing his nut as they waved to us from the chairlift.

I took Tom on his first tobogan run and although he seemed amused and asked for more, he kept looking up at the chairlift for his dad and sister and shouting 'me' and 'chair' and 'daddy'.

The first day was a lovely sunny winter's day so when the kids went to the Milo club after lunch, Mark and I enjoyed an afternoons ski on the back of the mountain (pigs gulley). We watched as Ela took her first real lesson and led the way back to the kids club for hot drinks (Milo of course) with a perfunctory wave in our direction.

That night though the wind and rain set in and we really enjoyed our log fire - which Tom named 'candle'. We also enjoyed the sauna, well that is until i slipped on the way out and nearly took out my right foot. Then we were subjected to a very smokey evening as Mark tried to master the pizza oven, the chimney and the flue. After about an hour of waiting patiently and having to open all the windows and doors to prevent the fire alarm from going off, we resorted to the electric oven and finished the pizzas off int here. (They were delicious though).

So day two on the slopes was a completely different experience. It was cloudy, windy, cold and foggy with the occasional sleet shower. Tom and I managed just 2 tobogan rides, dodging the patchy snow and grass and then went in for coffee and a play. Ela was still quite keen to go with Dad who taught her how to tuck away her face from the cold as they rode the chairlift higher up. Tom was still pretty annoyed that he couldn't get 'boots' and so we decided to give him a quick taster. We put him in Ela's boots and skiis and Mark whizzed him down the green run and up the chairlift. HE was overjoyed and we couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Then they both enjoyed another afternoon in Milo club and we headed back to a very empty Pigs Gulley for another ski.

No pizzas tonight but a lovely fish marinated in ginger and lime, a sauna and a DVD. And we had a light dump of snow so that when the kids awoke they were thrilled to see a blanket of white welcome them as they ran outside to build snowman and then a fairy kingdom (Ela of course).

The drive home was long and painful as Tom decided to wail for the majority of it except when he was sleeping and when we stopped at the swing park in Goulburn - home of the big Merino - which the kids thought looked more like the big teddy bear!

All in all a great weekend and plans are now afoot for a longer trip next year - maybe 5 days skiing.