Valentines Day 2012

The girls awoke to a new decoration in their bedroom. It's rather long and will have to be moved to a corner, but I thought they'd get a kick out of seeing the love hearts in the middle of their room when they stumbled out of their beds;

Nick and I have bought each other a combined Valentines present this year (which is arriving this Saturday!) so we had agreed to not getting each other anything else for the day.

Of course, Nick broke the rules and came home with a surprise box of Bon Bons for me;

I have fond memories of (when I used to work in the city) making special trips to the QVB in my lunch hour, to taste the latest flavours;

As I dived straight in, Nick was quick (too quick!) to ask me if I was going to share some with the girls. So I did. Very Reluctantly. (This was the only downside to my Valentines Day).

I had a special gift for the girls.... I made them a little drawstring bag using some cute fabric I found at Spotlight the other day;

Nick and I may or may not, at certain times, refer to our children as 'wild animals'. Thus;

I bought these bags of animals from ALDI for just 49 cents each and found the very cute printable from here. They were a hit!


There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of how lucky I am, to have my beautiful little family. Two perfect girls and my gorgeous husband = a very happy Me;

I must admit, I am always extra happy when Nick comes home and amidst the chaos, declares we have take-away for dinner. Like last night. As he went to pick up the pizza, the girls and I rushed around like crazy (C-rAzY!) to make our dinner a bit more special;

We pulled some chairs outside, grabbed a few tablecloths, vases and tea-lights and got to work.

The girls have got setting-the-table down to a fine art (they are well trained in this area. Putting their clothes away? Not so much). They took care of plates and cutlery, I tied jumbo ric-rac around the napkins;

Floral mugs would suffice for glasses and we used the spotty vase for a water pitcher;

Candle-holders the girls made last Valentines and a bejewelled wire rack (I still haven't figured out it's precise purpose) to hold the bowl for Garlic Bread;

Of course, the animals were all marched out;

Plenty to go around;

They came to graze at every corner of the table;

These pictures make me laugh. Like the giraffe trying to peer over the top of the bowl and Livvie asking, 'Do you think giraffes like garlic bread?';

Then Nick came home with our favourites (nachos pizza for us!);

The wine was good, the cheesy pizza even better (just ask Elly);

This was how we all felt afterwards;

We waited awhile, before Elly and I unveiled our surprise dessert;

After our trip to the mountains on the weekend, it could only be Apple Pie;

I had never made one before, so I was flying blind... but I did add love-hearts to the top of the pastry and that seemed to make up for the rest of it's appearance! I also added 4 x the amount of cinnamon required, especially for you, Nick.

And that was our little Valentines Day celebration. I hope you had a LOVEly day too!

Apple Picking

On Sunday, we took advantage of the sunny weather and headed up to the mountains, to Bilpin, for some apple picking;

It is the start of the apple picking season and we were among the first to sample the first Gala Apples, fresh off the trees;

There are many apple farms in the area, but we chose Shield's Orchard;

Because of all the rain recently, only a small section of the orchard was open to us, but it was perfect for these little legs;

It wasn't just the fruit picking that kept the littlies entertained;

I had visions of the girls with quaint little baskets, skipping up and down the rows of apple trees. The skipping definitely happened, but the basket we were given was slightly more utilitarian than the ones in my dreams;

We stopped halfway, to lay out a picnic rug and sample some of the goodies;

Me in my apple top;

The girls couldn't be stopped and ate two apples each!

We finally filled our basket and we each took a guess as to how many kilo's we had picked.

I won with my guess of 5 kilo's! At only $2.50 a kilo, it was a very inexpensive day out! We could have stayed there all day picking apples, it was so lovely in the sunshine, but we finished up at Shields...

And then drove to a pretty picnic spot for some lunch.

Unfortunately the only thing to mar the day was Livinia getting a leech stuck on her ankle. She started screaming, I yelled for Nick (who was far away, under a tree, relieving himself!) before I realised, with great horror, that I would have to be the one to get it off her (Why do I always get stuck with the horrible jobs?!?!!).

Don't ask me how, but I managed to rip it off her and threw it away and then spent the rest of our picnic too scared to sit down! I really dislike slugs and bugs and creepy crawlies of any description. I had been coming around to the idea of trying a camping trip soon, but I think this has set me back a few years!

It was the perfect little day trip, as the girls spent the drive down the mountain sleeping soundly and catching up on some much needed rest after their first full week at school. In the afternoon, they got busy washing all the apples....

Can you guess what is on the menu for our Valentine's Day dessert?

Gallery Elyssia

Judging by the amount of artwork she brought home (armfuls of it, which all had to be displayed above her bed, in a temporary gallery to show family and friends), it's no wonder Elly was exhausted after Preschool last week! My favourite is the 'Talking Teapot (top left)

Evidence That Summer *Did* Happen

It's hard to remember the weather being hot enough to swim, because it has rained non-stop for the past two weeks (maybe more? It's all a blur now!). But we did have some beautiful weather and we did mostly enjoy our summer holidays (when we weren't stuck inside, going stir crazy!);

I love it how, despite forgetting the buckets and spades on one of our many trips to the beach, the girls made the most of it anyway and buried themselves in the sand;

They loved discovering the new water playground at Darling Harbour in town;

(Even if they were fully clothed!)

We took them to Pelican Feeding at The Entrance

Which was followed by a splash in the children's water feature;

The girls were, once again, enchanted by the Maze at Paddington;

And Nick stumbled upon a geocache!

If you haven't heard of it before, Geocaching is a free, high-tech treasure hunt. You can use your GPS to locate hidden treasure boxes (they are hidden all around the world, hundreds in Australia!), with little trinkets inside. You can take a trinket and leave a trinket. You also write your name on a list and then hide the treasure box for someone else to find. It was very exciting to have uncovered it by chance!

We enjoyed a day at The Gunners Barracks at Mosman;

We had lunch at Burnt Orange and a beautiful walk around Headland Park, and the defence forts that were hidden for 100 years;

Nick's company sponsored a family day at the Sydney Aquarium;

After Livvie's assessment at school last Monday, we piled into the car for an early evening swim at the rock pool at Terrigal, followed by Fish 'n Chips for dinner;

There was lots of 'Playing Hairdressers' this Summer - this time in the pool, with cousins;

My girls will play hairdressers anywhere, anytime they get the chance.

Common weeds will suffice for hair accessories;

We enjoyed a waterfront picnic with our Mothers Group;

It was such a beautiful day!

I braved the freeway for a trip north (across the scary Mooney Mooney Bridge in high winds! The car always feels like it is going to slide sideways and I hold onto the steering wheel as tight as I can!) to take the girls to the Reptile Park;

We have passed the big yellow Dinosaur on the hill near the freeway many times before and the girls couldn't wait to see a 'real, live, Dinosaur!' (Of course, that didn't happen!). So sad that it was the displays of fiberglass animals that were the highlight!

And lots of fun, swimming in our pool;

Livvie finally got the confidence to swim without a floatie;

The girls loved finding lots of lady bugs (our pool is a magnet for them!), except when one took flight and landed on Elly's cheek!

Is this the same child who will hold crickets in her hand and chase lizards whenever she can?

The girls saw their first Cicada up close;

Livvie stayed at a safe distance inside the trampoline in her saggy-baggy swimmers. She went through 3 pairs of swimmers this summer... they don't last long, being in the chlorinated pool so much, sitting on the rocky edge of our pool and fading in the sun when they are hung out to dry!

I have fond memories of my brothers catching cicadas and we always found (and still do find) lots of cicada shells on tree trunks around the garden. They are a noisy little creature and have funny names; Green Grocer, Brown Baker, Yellow Monday and the elusive and much prized Black Prince. My cousin tried to convince us he was selling their wings to the local chemist to be made into medicine. Of course, we believed him and all tried to help him in this Get-Rich-Quick scheme!

We thought of a fun way to decorate our backyard for when friends came over for a BBQ;

Punching Balls (remember Romper Room?) We found these at our local IGA.

This is one of my favourite pictures from Summer;

Looks so festive and relaxing. In reality, there was much commotion on the trampoline as one of the littlies had a nose-bleed. Note: the men are oblivious!

I think I will remember the summer of 2011/12 as the season of my little mermaids;

Lots of fun in the sun, whenever the rain cleared up for a quick dip!