The Last 6 Months...

Well, it’s now the end of June and I have finally finished the backtrack posts.  Oh dear.  I also had some technical issues and my hard-drive crashed.  It’s okay – I didn’t lose too many photos.  Not sure how else to do this, so here are the highlights from January to now.

Back to School (January)

I made it home just in time from the sunny Gold Coast to see MissE start Year 1.

Gold Coast, Qld

First Day of School

And now, Term 2 is already done and dusted.  We are proud of her for earning her Bronze Merit Badge (1 of 3 Year 1's), Merit Certificates (x 2) for her writing, and a few ribbons too.  This is also my first year as a Class Parent which I am learning by stumbling through!

In January, MissE also lost a whole lot of teeth – 3 within a week!

Wet ‘n’ Wild Sydney (March)

We went back; this time as a family.  Our friends told us of a good deal as it’s the end of the season so why not?  Eden really enjoyed himself, going up and down the Jr Wet ‘n’ Slides at least 30 times.  We lost count.

Wet n Wild Sydney

MissE and Daddy under the giant tipping bucket

Advanced Screenings (March)

We checked out ‘Home’ at the movies.

"I'm waving my hands in the air like I just don't care!"

MrH and I had a date night to see ‘Insurgent’ (Book #2 from the Divergent series).

Iron Tiger (March)

MissE surprised us by being invited to grading for her blue/white belt.  She is really enjoying taekwondo and kickin’ butt (literally)!

Easter (April)
Yay for Easter.  It was a much needed break for us.  (Me with a whole lot of domestic travel done for a while).  We stayed home this year as we were working on the house (see below "Home Sweet Home") but we were busy!  We started the long weekend with Eloise's Easter Hat Parade then had a long overdue catch up with friends and also went to a footy game.

We had a lovely Easter Egg hunt with friends

The Easter Bunny came!

It's Easter - let's hunt!

On Easter Monday, we went to an NRL game: Eels v West Tigers
(The Eels lost.  Boo!)

Term 1 School Holidays (April)

With Easter drawing to a close, Eloise was officially on Term 1 holidays.  Again, she had a mix of activities.  Here are a few of the fun things we did:

We went bowling

Rode scooters at the park

Eloise's favourite was our girl's day in Sydney CBD.  It was a gorgeous Sydney day so we impromptu jumped on a ferry to Luna Park.

The Tea Salon

Eloise's afternoon tea
(yes, it was all for her!)

A view form the top
(of the Ferris wheel)

Luna Park fun

ANZAC Parade (April)

The cousins had the honor of walking in the ANZAC Parade with their great grandfathers' medals.

May Celebrations

For Mr H’s birthday and Mother’s Day, we had a mini-break at The Sebel Resort & Spa Hawkesbury Valley. We spent the afternoon swimming, evening eating pizza and I indulged in a spa treatment for Mother's Day.

Donut cake (man-cake)

Villa Thalgo spa treatments

K-2 Disco (May)

We finally made it to a disco.  Both E’s really enjoyed their selves dancing the early evening away to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.  Both were spied on stage at different points of the evening.

Day Trip: Hunter Valley (June)

Over the June long weekend (Thank you, Queen!) we spent a day in the Hunter Valley.  One of the stops was the zoo.

Maned Wolf

Serval

VIVID Sydney (June)

For the VIVID Festival this year, we decided to turn it into a mini-break and booked into the Shangri-La Sydney.  While waiting for the sun to set, we watched the ferries from our Harbour-view hotel room and splashed around the pool.  Here are some of the highlights from our mini-break (finally made a Flipagram)

Home Sweet Home

From previous months, we moved onto painting… every.single.room (more or less).  What we thought would be 2 weekends painting has turned weeks (months even).  And painting leads to cleaning/ reorganising (so therapeutic) and re-homing furniture plus numerous trips to Kmart (Kmart Australia new home range is too cute and so affordable!) and Ikea.  I’ve been having a bit of fun decorating (still a work in progress)

Our Easter break was spent on this scaffold

Painting is done, a new chandelier installed
and wooden bench refinished and re-homed from outside

I made the 2 outer pillows using CS6 (Indesign) and iron-on transfers.
The 2 middle pillows were purchased from Society6

Freshly painted walls and some necessary art
(Print ordered from Society6)

Our Laundry was completed with "dirty" photos of the kids and dog too
(I let the kids loose in the backyard with holi powder!)

I can't explain the muddy pup.  We came home from work one day and she was like that.
(That photo is several years old)

Everybody Poops.

The kids got some new "artwork" in their toilet

And these photos (located over the towel rack) remind them whose towel is whose!

Me
I celebrated another year older.

9-5
Yay!  I had great news at the end of February, moving from a maternity leave cover contract to permanent.  I am thrilled to be staying!
June is Project6 Month, we have the opportunity to give back to many organisations around the world.  I joined in on a day at RSPCA.

I cleaned these 2 gorgeous bunnies hutch

And then this happened just recently!  What?!  What?! What?!

Crafternoon
I also have a new hobby.  I now do cross-stitch/ embroidery but in my style, rap lyrics.  There aren’t enough hours in the day for this, it’s so addictive.  I find myself constantly scribbling phrases for cross-stitch in my notebook whenever inspiration hits!  Why aren’t there more hours in the day?

Gangsta Nation - Westside Connection

Turn Down for What - DJ Snake & Lil Jon

I’ve also turned a new leaf, literally.  I was feeling a bit sluggish and did a Clean Eating Challenge for 2 weeks.  I slipped once or twice with coffee, as that was the hardest part for me.  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it and have been keeping it up to a not-so-restrictive extent.  My favourite have been the chia breakfast “puddings” and my new found love for green smoothies (much to the disgust of the kids).

Overnight chia pudding

Until next time… Hopefully sooner than another 6 months! (Technically it's only been 4…)

Back track: November and December

Here is the first of a few back-track blog posts.  I slacked BIG TIME at the end of the year and soon you will see why: November and December were non-stop until we had a 13 hour flight to “relax” (as much as you do with a 5 year old and 3 year old in a confined space).  

We tried. (November)

Pre-storm

Our last play date was a wash out as was this one.  It was a storm like no other and unfortunately traumatised Eden.  One minute we were laughing and running through the water, and the next we were hurrying under cover.  Within 30 seconds of getting under an umbrella, the skies opened and the winds blew.  There was no time to get dressed so we wrapped the kids in towels and held on tight.  There was a short break in the rain and we ran for it… but only made it half-way to the next undercover section when the winds were blowing too hard to move and lightning struck.  The only thing we could do was take cover next to the cement toilet block and watch the mini-tornado.  It sure was scary!

 

Taking shelter

Hello Sunshine!

We had amazing weather in November … and some of December, minus the crazy tropical thunderstorms.

Water fight!

Thanksgiving

This year, my work organised a Thanksgiving feast for lunch.  Our café roasted us a turkey with all the sides and a few of us brought in pies to complete the meal.  It was wonderful to make some new American friends, especially finding so many from the Bay Area/ Peninsula.

That evening, we had a family dinner at TGI Fridays.  Don’t laugh but it was pretty darn good – and best of all I did not have to do any cooking or cleaning!

 

This is the "after" photo of Eloise's dinner.
The only thing left were her green beans.
She likes mine better.

MissE (November and December)

MissE hit some big milestones for 5 – receiving her green belt in taekwondo, performing at her first dance concert (with a mini solo too), moving to Level 4 at swimming (laps!) and a BIG one, finishing Kindergarten.

At grading

Yay!  A green belt

Before the dance concert, Eloise with a few of the KH boys

Level 4

CONGRATS!  She (we) made it through Kindy!

Me

Not only did we have a play date, we also had a girls night dinner.  This time we went to Kasbah.  It was a beautiful night to sit outside.  The food and the conversation was good as always!

Melbourne

Melbourne at Night

I spent the last week of November in Melbourne.  My trip was a little topsy-turvy.  Remember way back in 2013, I attended a movie night with The Langham Hospitality Group (yes, the hotels).  I won a night stay at The Langham Melbourne with Club Lounge access.  I finally had the opportunity to redeem my prize but it was before all the hard work!  I invited my lovely co-worker, Ms M, to join me and I didn’t have to twist her arm.

The Langham pink car

Room with a view

My Langham stay was as wonderful as The Langham smells!  Having Club access was the best.  I didn’t have mingle with the riff-raff at all!  Ha,ha.

Afternoon Tea at the Club Lounge overlooking the Yarra River

For our night on the town, we visited “The Croft Institute” this quirky asylum-themed bar located down a graffiti covered alley-way.  We were also able to take in Mockingjay Part 1 at the 12:01am showing.

Inside the Hygiene Department
(women's toilet)

Then it was time to go to work… after a pretty awesome lunch at The Grand Trailer Park Taverna.  I stumbled upon this gem the day before and took my co-workers back with me for burgers and alcoholic-milkshakes (Maker's Mark, salted caramel and bacon).  We were part of its grand opening and the owners modelled it off the American burger culture so we talked burgers.  He treated us waffle ice cream sandwiches too.  Good move on his part as we sent a few groups there over the next few days.  To date (Feb 2015), it's still one of the best burgers I've had in Australia (I can blog about my search for a good burger - these hipster places I have been trying in Sydney are just NOT cutting it). 

Trailer or Non-trailer?

It was a successful symposium and I couldn't be happier that it was done and dusted… until 2015 anyway.

Home Sweet Home

We have been working on a few final touches around our house since we finished Eden's Star Wars bedroom and the laundry room.  Our weekend project for November was adding some tiling inside.

Before

During

After (and my kitchen is neat!)

Next up, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!