A colourful winter...

In Sydney we don't really get to enjoy the change of the seasons, it is something that I really miss about living in Canberra and the UK. However, we do have a lovely mild winter and are able to enjoy the garden all year round!



Sidewalk chalk can be used all year round:






Summer flowers...still popping up:

Even the Begonias!

Rainbow Lorikeets, little bursts of summer colour, come and visit every day :

Summer in Sydney is truly lovely, but winter is spectacular!

Vintage Fisher Price Little People

When I was about the same age as the Captain, my family lived in Indonesia, where my father was working in the Embassy. While we were living there, my parents picked up, (from an American family returning home), a whole bunch of Fisher Price Little People toys. I have the fondest memories of playing with these toys, I especially adored the campervan and was fascinated by the tiny toilet, the beds above the cab and even the little boat. The toys came back to Australia with us and then travelled on to India where we had our next posting. They are still there now presumably. My parents gave them to the children of our servants, I often imagine that their children are playing with them now!



As you can see I have endeavoured to recreate my own childhood for the boys! I have collected, over the last few years, various different vintage play sets. Finding them in all sorts of places, op shops, Church fetes, garage sales and of course, Ebay.


The details in the toys are fantastic. No batteries, yet with handles and levers you can move the baggage carousel or turn the helicopter's propellers.


A fireman going on a camping trip with some mates (and other children of the 1970s... do you remember Lucky the dog? There he is peering out the back of the campervan.)

The baby is filling up the plane with some avgas!

It is extraordinary how many people have catastrophic accidents and serious illnesses in Little People world. Luckily, there is an ambulance, an operating theatre, an X-Ray machine and a lift to move the invalids upstairs to recovery whilst strapped securely in a stretcher.

The baby operating the off shore cargo base.

Hours of play!

The baby no longer...

Despite a few days that looked like this...

My sweet baby boy, who looked like this a few hours after his birth...

and like this on his first birthday...

Looked like this yesterday...
BUT... he is completely toilet trained and all 5 weeks before he turns two! Proud Mama!

A week in Melbourne

Husband had to work in Melbourne for a week so we thought that, as he might miss us, we should join him there! His plans for sleeping in and glamorous evenings out in Melbourne were foiled... instead he had the pleasure of waking up to the boys screaming "hot air balloons" at 6am every morning for a week...

We had a wonderful time in Melbourne though, husband of course had to work during the day so we spent our days exploring and visiting friends and family. Our first morning, after the excitement of the hot air balloons, the Captain asked over and over again, "If I promise to be really, really good will you please take me on a tram?" Thankfully, there was a stop for the free City Circle tram right outside our hotel. We did numerous rounds of the city and the boys never tired of it!

We visited the Melbourne Museum. We had been intending to visit the Titanic Artefact Exhibition as the Captain had seen posters promoting it across Melbourne and was mesmerised as I told him the tragic story of the ship featured in the ads. Then as we were walking towards the Museum he casually asked "So how did they get the ship into the Museum?" Once I explained that the ship was still on the ocean floor (where she had sunk!) and that there were only artefacts from the ship on display, his enthusiasm had waned somewhat. Luckily, the Museum had a marvellous kids section and even better... dinosaurs! They loved it!

Time at Federation Square was spent chasing pigeons...

Mummy wanted to visit the cake supplies shop, so cup cakes had to purchased as the word cake had been said aloud...

The bribery was worth it, the cake shop that I found via Allyson from The Lark was well worth the visit. I stocked up on some gorgeous cup cake cases, icing colours and cup cake toppers, I can't wait till the next birthday party!

The Captain even managed to entertain himself while I enjoyed my coffee...

A wonderful week away!

Blankie wash day...

Yesterday I washed the muslin wraps... aka "blankies" so the little one spent the morning standing under the washing line looking longingly at them all and ensuring that they came to no harm...

He even managed to pull a few off (note to self: blankies need additional pegs to prevent blankie clothes line theft in the future).

I left him standing guard at the line and went inside to do a few things. Whilst pottering about inside the house I could hear his little voice outside saying "fank yuuuu (thank you)" intermittently. Eventually I popped my head out, after wondering idly to myself who he could be thanking and for what, and there he was clutching a little handful of leaves...

My little nature lover was catching leaves as they fell to the ground in the windy weather and then looking up at the trees to say thank you! He even abandoned a blankie (albeit temporarily) for this game!

So far this morning....

I have a horrid head cold at the moment so keeping up with my two whirlwinds of destruction and mayhem has been challenging. Thus OPERATION EXHAUSTION began: Baby was set to work picking up all the fallen camelia flowers (flafla's as he calls them):



Captain was sent on a superhero mission (instructed to jump as high as the sky):

A quick wardrobe change allowed for some home maintenance (cleaning up toys):

Followed by repairs to the volcano (our current Make and Do project, will blog about it shortly):

A quick swim before lunch:

OPERATION EXHAUSION a success: baby asleep, Captain watching a documentary about volcanos, Project Manager about to have a lie down. Hurrah! Please let this afternoon be as straight forward!

Baby upgraded to Team Pirate for future Tours

The little one is no longer happy to ride around on this...

It was left abandoned by the side of the bike track and replaced with a newer, swifter model. (Undoubtedly, the best toy that we have ever bought). Nevermind that he had to tippy-toe his way around the track as his legs barely touched the ground and that he frequently over balanced in his attempts to keep up with his brother. Lucky daddy got to follow him around attempting to prevent a peloton pile up...


I guess I should hardly be suprised. The Captain went from the wood bike to a pedal bike with hardly a hiccup (well, training wheels for about 2 weeks, just after he turned 3) and now is a force to contend with on this bike! Looks like Ross can start grooming them both for the Tour now!

Anzac Day Weekend

We have just had a lovely long weekend away in Canberra visiting my parents. We visited the amazing Questacon, where the boys just had the most marvellous time. The very first exhibit that we saw were huge robotic dinosaurs. A mama Maiasaur with her nest of little ones, a Stegasaurus and of course no dinosaur exhibit would be complete without a terrifying Tyrannosaurus. They were half-size (but enormous to little people) animatronic dinosaurs that were moving, roaring and even blinking. The dinosaur loving Captain was totally enthralled, but the little one was quite frightened by them. He stood motionless, pointing at the T-Rex model absolutely frozen with fear. Naturally I took a photo of this before I rescued him, mean Mummy! The Captain was very impressed with it all though, especially after our previous dinosaur exhibition disaster... aged 3 we took him to see this, after looking at various fossils he asked to see the "real dinosaurs" what do you mean we asked... "you know, the alive ones" he explained, looking at the pair of us as if we were stupid! Poor old Captain, he was devastated when we explained the meaning of extinction to him. Well, Questacon now has a lot to answer for as he has now been announcing to anyone that will listen that "Canberra has real dinosaurs!"

I think that the Baby was much more impressed with "Mini Q" than the dinosaurs. Hours of fun to be had!

Loving the time spent with Grandma.

I have not seen a rainbow for what feels like forever and then suddenly saw two this weekend. Beautiful!

We rode our bikes, all of us (Grandma, Grandpa, Daddy, Me (plus little one on my bike) and the Captain, from my parents house to Manuka, for coffee and babycino's. Then down to the lake and we did the bridge to bridge loop. I was so proud of the Captain riding all that way. We did have lots of stops, including a lengthy playground visit and time spent watching model yachts meander lazily around some black swans, but it really is a long ride for a little boy (probably around 9k) and he loved every minute of it . Perhaps Ross' plans for him to be the next Lance Armstrong are not in vain!