School Holidays Round Up

RIP my favourite sunglasses.  

Someone who shall not be named stood on them... 'tis, very lucky the culprit is cute... 

.... and loves to shop!  

Caught up with the gardening.  My assistant landscapers were occasionally helpful!

We also explored some of the local parks and beach paths.  

And, the story behind these two walking together ahead of me: after months of sibling fighting and me desperately trying to referee, R instructed me to leave them to it and that they would sort it out themselves.  Best suggestion ever, as they are finally learning to resolve issues without my intervention.  As we walked up this path they both wanted to be the leader... after a bit of discussion they agreed to walk together and hold hands.  Proud Mama moment!

The Captain is currently obsessed with climbing trees.  Every tree we encounter is examined for tree climbing potential.  At home he spends hours drawing up plans for tree houses.    He has now read all the fabulous Magic Tree House books and I suspect that they might have ignited his passion! I am now steering him towards the Emily Rodda books... both Deltora Quest and the Rowan series.  Any other suggestions?  

Seal Rocks

We have just had a fabulous week away up on the mid North Coast of NSW at Seal Rocks.  A gorgeous little spot that reminded me so much of Depot Beach.  Perfect beaches that are totally unspoilt by development, surrounded by national parks.  No cafes, just a tiny little general store and best of all no mobile service.  Woohoo, it was bliss.  The one significant difference from Depot though was that Seal  Rocks has a lighthouse.  The boys having had the fabulous Lighthouse Keeper stories by Ronda & David Armitage read to them from a young age were just besotted with it!

These two are their favourites!

                  I think I could have quite happily lived in the lighthouse keepers cottage on the cliff!

                               I think that they had my husband in mind when they whipped this particular sign up.

          

 This is the house we stayed in for the week.  Yes, we lit the fire every night, despite the fact that we didn't really need to.  There is just something ever so cosy about having stories in front of the fire in the evening after a lovely day at the beach.

                                   


    The locals call this little corner of the beach kiddies corner.  It was divine.   Crystal clear water at a gorgeous temperature, the kids adored it and so did we.  I can't wait for our next visit!

                             

Happy Easter!

                                                                  Happy Easter to all.  xx

Hurrah... I have a computer again!

I started to write a long and lengthy post trying to explain about the rather difficult past 3 months we have just had but in the interests of keeping things in perspective, ie.  there are others that that have to cope with so much more on a daily basis that I decided to abandon it and instead update you all as what we have been doing.

I will say though that as we haven't had a computer for the past 6 weeks (details were in the explanation now abandoned!) and have moved out of the house twice and been on holidays, also twice, that blogging and all that it entails were temporarily put on hold.   Apologies to those that I alarmed with my lengthy absence and Jane a card will be in the post on Monday to you my lovely!

The house is now painted. The colours that we ended up choosing are Dulux Oyster Linen and Taubmans Aspen Snow for the trims.  A lot of people have emailed me about the colour of the house.  The number is actually mind boggling.... anyway, if I haven't replied to your email yet I apologise and am getting around to everyone slowly.  Hopefully I will answer all the questions here now:  Oyster Linen is not on the standard colour chart but if you go into Dulux or Bunnings they will be able to mix a sample pot for you.  It is full strength.  The front door is Dulux Domino in a gloss finish.

The little blue strip above the door is yet to be painted!

The inside is very slowly getting there...

My clever clogs husband built the bench seat! Well, he/we did most of the work inside the house!

It is a lovely spot for a cup of tea in the morning, actually just lovely all the time! The floors are blackbutt with a matt finish.

The laundry is in, I absolutely love the long bench top but do not recommend the product.  Ceaserstone Snow and it stains if you just look at it with a cup of coffee, some red wine or even a slice of fruit... don't ask... Unless you are considering using it somewhere, in which case be aware that it STAINS easily. VERY EASILY.  It does look nice though.

Will do some more house updates soon but in the meantime the Pirates are well.  We had a fabulous break at the beach house.

They are both their father's sons and love the surf.  The little one, although quite a proficient swimmer scares me with his confidence.  He is always the smallest person out in the surf.

He started pre-school last week.  First time away from me and I was prepared for tears and drama.  Nothing.  Indeed, the little traitor practically rolled his eyes at me when I was saying goodbye.

I will be along to visit all of you soon!  xx

Queensland has the best playgrounds...

We have been away on a long holiday...  a much needed break from the rigours of renovating!  We visited Cairns (our favourite!), Brisbane and the Gold Coast.  One observation that I made on this holiday was that Queensland has excellent infrastructure, far superior to New South Wales... despite the higher taxes, grrr!  Although, it has to be said that on the whole Queenslanders do not know how to make coffee.  (Two exceptions here... Bang Espresso in Cairns is outstanding, better than many many Sydney/Melbourne coffee houses and Campos in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.  Side note... we did our pre-natal classes with a young couple who had opened a little hole in the wall cafe in Newtown, Campos and now look at them!!!  They are often on top ten entrepreneur type lists etc etc and deservedly so, Campos coffee is consistently excellent!) 

Anyway, back to the holiday. We had a fabulous break, the highlight for me was a week in Brisbane where I got to meet my dear friend Veronica's divine new daughter for the first time:

Here she is looking adorable and fabulously glamourous in her Cath Kidston for Maclaren stroller! 

The highlight for the boys though was the playgrounds.  Queensland has the best playgrounds I have ever seen.  In Brisbane, the playground at New Farm is superb.  A brief walk through the gardens from the ferry wharf and you discover a children's paradise, complete with magical Banyan trees. The Captain spent hours exploring every nook and cranny of the trees reminding me so much of my own childhood.  I have very fond memories of playing in a Banyan tree in the grounds of my school in India. 

In Cairns there is Muddy's Playground on the Esplanade, with both a fabulous waterplay area and a maze of climbing nets and tree houses to explore!

On the Gold Coast we skipped the theme park thing, (hoping to avoid it for as long as possible!) but discovered this brilliant contraption across the road from our hotel at Broadbeach:

They seriously spent hours playing on it!  Another brilliant discovery on the Gold Coast was this little gem:

It is called Gov's Espresso and is on the Gold Coast Highway at Mermaid Beach.  We were able to scooter there from our hotel at Broadbeach and it was worth the trek!

In the backyard there is a huge sandpit play area, with a boat in it just like ours! (the third photo down).   It makes me wonder how many other like-minded derelict dinghy in sand pit people there are out there!  Gov's is well worth a visit if you are planning a trip to the Gold Coast.  There is a cafe serving drinks and a small selection of basic food (no hot food) and you can sit out the back by the play area and relax while you drink your coffee, as the kids are very occupied with the sand pit and the assorted trucks and sand pit toys provided.  Then go and explore all the rooms full of vintage treasures!

 

Now to adjust back to the school routine and to get back into the swing of renovating... and at some point I will make an effort to finish the photo challenge! Hope all are well and I am looking forward to catching up with everyone! xx