We spent the lead up to Christmas sailing the High Seas (South Pacific). I am currently working on the blog posts but if you follow me on social media, you can see a sneak preview of select photos.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Happy New Year!
As 2015 comes to a close, we took a look back of the last 12 months to reflect on the lows and celebrate the highs. I started doing this last year and am thrilled to continue it as part of our Season's Greetings!
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!
It's that time of year again… we hope you have yourself a Merry Little Christmas! We're saving the trees so here is our e-greeting and our annual Santa photo.
Me... I'm going on a bit of an official blog break. I'll be back in the New Year with our Christmas adventures and year in review too.
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| Having a bit of fun with Santa |
Monday, December 14, 2015
The Silly Season is Upon Us!
Oh dear, so
the days have gotten away from me again.
We have been busy getting into the spirit of the holidays. We also had a surprise visitor!
And a special mention goes to MrH who completed Tough Mudder!!!
School Photos
We finally
got school photos back! Here is MissE:
Unfortunately,
I don’t have this keepsake for MrE this year.
His day-care did not take photos on the day he was supposed to so my $45
worth of photos is of him with bed-hair and he of course dressed himself that
day. Never mind that it took me 20
minutes then eventually a bribe to get him into wearing clothes he didn’t want
to wear and to allow me to put product in his hair for these really great
photos. I am not impressed (I gave up
waiting for my apology). Instead here is
the swim lesson photo:
Kids Go Free
After the
excitement of Halloween, we had our last ‘free’ weekend until … umm, yes. That’s right.
It was also Kids Go Free at Darling Harbour. Being the budget-savvy person that I am, we
had a Kids Eat Free lunch, played at the free water play area, capped it off
with a Kids Free Lindt Sundae (adult sized!) before the rain came and yes,
discounted parking too!
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| Minions were here! |
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| They didn't share with us. |
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| Eden wasn't too sure about ferris wheel Oh hey, he's wearing what he was supposed to wear for school photos! |
Hey, Cuz!
I was
checking Facebook one morning and I see that my cousin is in Sydney for
work! The last time we saw each other
was 12 years ago at his wedding! We were
able to meet for dinner at Mr Wong’s.
Hopefully he comes back Down Under with his family next time!
The Silly Season Begins!
Thanksgiving
We
celebrated Thanksgiving at TGI Fridays.
Don’t laugh! They do a very large
plate of roast turkey, green beans, mash potatoes and roasted carrots. The only thing missing is corn bread! For dessert we have a Tasting Platter of
apple, pecan and pumpkin pie. My pumpkin
pie is better.
End of Year Parties
I had my
work Christmas party at The Australian Maritime Museum. It was a fun night despite it being 43c
(that’s 110F)!
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| The girls of the Team Spine |
I also had
my team Christmas festivities. This
year, we decided to contribute to the community before having a team
lunch. (One of my favourite tenants of
my company, the year-round focus on philanthropy) Fittingly, it was on Thanksgiving Day
too! We spent the morning with
OzHarvest.
OzHarvest is
the first perishable food rescue organisation in Australia collecting quality
excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it, direct and free of
charge, to close to 500 charities providing much needed assistance to
vulnerable men, women and children across Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold
Coast, Melbourne and Newcastle.
OzHarvest is
the only food rescue organisation in Australia collecting surplus food from all
types of food providers including fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets,
hotels, wholesalers, farmers, stadiums, corporate events, catering companies,
shopping centres, delis, cafes, restaurants, film and TV shoots and boardrooms.
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| Here's what we made! |
We also
attended MrH’s Christmas party; the hottest ticket in Sydney and I look forward
to going every year. This year it was at
the Argyle Precinct which is a number of restaurants. It was also co-sponsored by Virgin Australia
so the theme was Sky High and we had passports to get stamped at each “country”
to gain access to the VIP Lounge. They
had entertainers in each section (Jazz singer for NYC, J-Pop DJ and Hello Kitty
candy bar in Tokyo, pretzel towers in Munich, a steel drum band in Rio), a
surprise appearance by Ricki Lee (Australian Idol runner-up), DJ Hot Dub Time
Machine, and were giving away Virgin flights – we didn’t win. Boo!
We enjoyed the night out despite it taking us over an hour to get home!
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| Pop star Ricki Lee |
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| The real Optus wives (It's rare we get a photo together) |
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| At the Hello Kitty candy bar in "Tokyo" |
Taekwondo
This one
gets a special mention because it was also an Awards Day and MissE was
recognised! She received the Outstanding
Student 2015 Junior Technique trophy.
What an exciting achievement for her!
Christmas in the City
I had a day
off with MrE and gave MissE the day off from school too. We took the train (this was very exciting for
MrE) into the City and spent the day checking out the Christmas decorations and
of course, saw the big man in red too. I
will hold onto those photos for a little bit longer but they are coming soon!
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| This photo won me burgers x 2 for our next visit! |
We had lunch
at my favourite burger place in Sydney (my favourite in Australia is in
Melbourne) then checked out David Jones’ Christmas Cave. Unfortunately their display windows and the
cave weren’t much to write home about. The
kids exchanged the Magic Tree.
Next it was
onto Santaland at Myer. Their toy
department was pretty awesome with life-sized Stormtroopers! The kids rode the Santa train 3 times. This may be MissE’s last year!
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| I'd buy it... |
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| And this one too. |
Finally it
was time to meet Santa! We went over to
QVB. This year, as a Mastercard holder
you could pre-book your Santa time.
Awesome-sauce as the queue for Santa here is nearly 6 hours!
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| The always amazing QVB Swarovski Crystal Tree |
After it was
time to get the train back home. We were
all exhausted but it was a fun day for us!
I loved the lack of crowds!
MissE
Well, my
little superstar at the moment! We were
invited to attend the End of Year Medal Assembly. MissE received the Term 4 class medal for her
enthusiasm at school. Well done! (It’s not chocolate – ha,ha!)
Her class
also spent a few weeks’ talking about water and how important it is to a
community. They learnt about communities
that don’t have clean running water and wanted to change that so they have
partnered with OxFam to hold a cake stall.
Their goal was to raise $98 AUD to put a tap in a school in South
Africa. Anything extra will go to
putting a tap in homes ($9) or buy a family a goat ($39). They raised $445.15! They are going to put clean water taps into 4
schools and buy a goat! What a wonderful
initiative at this time of year.
MrE Says the Darnedest Things
These days
it’s MrE that keeps up laughing. From
scaring us silly by donning his Hulk mask and staying surprisingly quiet in his
hiding spot, he also delivers these:
18 and Over
MrH and I
were in the office one morning when MrE was watching TV.
MrE: Mama?
Me: Yes?
MrE: Are you
over 18?
Me: Bless his little heart
MrH: What
did you see on TV?
MrE: I need
a parent or guardian. Are you a
guardian?
MrH: Yes.
MrE: Oh
good.
It’s Hot!
Me: You both
can have an ice block (Zooper Dooper) since it’s so hot today.
MrE: I want
the pink one. Can I have a whole one and
can you give it a blanket?
Geography
MissE: Are
we going to Fiji?
Me: Vanuatu
MrE: I used
to say that when I was a baby!
Me: What?
MrE: Wa-tu
Me: Laughing, which he did not like. Yes,
you used to say “Don’t want to” and that sounds very similar.
Just Going for a Walk
MrE is all
class. At taekwondo lessons, he casually
walked away from us. We thought he was
going for a better look at the kicking. Nope.
MrE: Walking back to us. I just had to fart.
Until next time!
Spooktober 2015
We had a fun
Spooktober (October)! As I usually do, I
participate in the Photo a Day challenge.
This year I carried the Spooktober theme through all most of my
photos. I didn’t pressure myself with a
photo every day, just when inspiration hit.
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| A is for apple B is for Boo! C is for (undead) cookies D is for drink (and a Halloween movie) |
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| E is for Eloise as Holly Golightly (Halloween 2012) F is for facing my fear of clowns (Halloween 2013) |
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| G is for Ghostbuster (Halloween 2012) H is for hand (err… detached arm) O is for Ouija (still in the wrapper) |
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| P is for pinks and purple (my Halloween costume) R is for rats S is for skulls … glitter ones T is for Transylvania (UE 2002) |
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| U is for under-estimated… how long it would take to turn myself pink! V is for Victorian dollhouse (built with no instructions) W is for World Teacher Day Halloween treats Extra: W is for "We're all mad here" (I wanted to wear my tights) |
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| Z is for Zombie… as in Plants vs Zombie |
MrE had a Halloween party at day-care on the
Thursday before Halloween. He asked
early in the month to be the zombie from one of his favourite phone games
“Plants vs Zombies”. Of course, with a
few days to go, he changed his mind but too late! He enjoyed it on the day with a bit of help
encouraging the excitement from MissE.
The Main Event: Halloween Day
Yay! It’s here.
After swim lessons and lunch, we started the long process of getting
ready. It took a longer than I expected
to turn myself pink. In the end with the
body paint failing, it was eye shadow that did the trick! Next was Eloise and then finally we were all
ready!
If you don’t
know Adventure Time, here’s what they really look like.
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| Finn, Ice King, Jake, Princess Bubblegum, Marceline |
And here's us!
MissE and MrE
decided what the family would be dressing as months ago so I had plenty of time
shop for props via eBAY and make not 1 but 2 Princess Bubblegum dresses and Ice
King robes. I had to make 2 because (1)
dance fabric is terrible to work with (b) a double bed- sheet was too
small. The costumes were partially
handmade.
Princess Bubblegum – I bought a cheap pink tank that
perfectly matched my fabric swatch. I
made the skirt (bit more flattering than her dress on me) and my crown. I bought cheap wigs from eBAY although I need
to work out how to make these look a bit better for the next time we wear them.
Ice King – I bought the hat/ beard from the local
pop culture shop. I made the robe using
a King-sized bed sheet from Kmart (cheaper than buying the fabric at a craft
store). MrH styled his nose using
leftover felt from another project.
Marceline – Most of this MissE already had in her
closet. I made her red boot covers.
Finn – Again, MrE had most of this. I was going to make the hat and backpack but
I found an Australian stockist for both!
Lithgow Halloween
After a few
photos, we partially undressed again for the drive to Lithgow, NSW (150k from
Sydney). I saw an advertisement for
Lithgow Halloween as part of their revitalisation project. Lithgow was once a mining town and this
festival is in their 3rd year now (it started in 2013 with just a
trick-o-treat trail). We are always
looking for something new to do so why not?
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| Lithgow Halloween 2015 |
The drive wasn’t
too bad, an hour and 45 minutes. MrE
decided to have a nap for most of it too!
Unfortunately as we made our way through the valley, it started to rain,
not sprinkle but rain. I had been
pre-warned that it can get quite cold here even in the summer so I was
prepared.
After re-dressing
and holding what props we could in addition to umbrellas, we hit Main
Street. As it was still raining, space
was tight under the awnings. Each store
on Main Street decorated their display windows for Halloween. One of MrE, err, Finn’s favourites was
the hair-dressers. They were dressed as
very stylish zombies and “trapped” inside the store. Marceline liked the lucky dip. They taunted the children from inside and a
few times would surprise them by opening the door! Most
of the stores were also part of the trick-or-treat trail.
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| I think this butcher has been overrun? |
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| Yes, I'm going to have to pass. |
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| Slimy lucky dip |
We seem to be
very popular! We had fellow attendees
wanting photos and screaming out at us.
Smile and wave, boys! Smile and
wave. I was excited to see so many
people dressed up and dressed up well!
As Halloween isn’t that big here, we see a ton of vampires, witches and superheroes. The mayor looked incredible as Marie Antoinette.
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| We found BMO! |
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| To the gallows with you! |
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| Light projections on historic buildings |
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| Can someone please unlock the door? |
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| Finn to the rescue! |
We had a fantastic Halloween night… we can't wait for next year! We are already planning our costumes… but in the mean time, see you at Oz Comicon as Adventure Time!
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