Happy Mother's Day to me :-)

I had a LOVELY Mother's Day :-) 

The day kicked off with Hannah handing me my Mother's Day card, her little hand clutching the envelope, holding it out to me and looking at me with big beautiful innocent eyes, and then when I took it and said "Thank you bubba!" she put her arms out and gave me a big hug. OH MELT!!!!!!

We headed out straight after breakfast to Darling Harbour. It was a bit chilly and windy, but beautiful and sunny. A coffee was first up! I love going into Starbucks!!

We sat outside in the sunshine enjoying the gorgeous view and our coffee. I'd also bought a plain bagel to share, which was SO dry and stale that Mark took it back in disgust. I'm glad I wasn't with him in the shop when he went back to complain, I'd have been so embarrased!! :-/ OH DEAR!! He came back with a croissant... which wasn't fantastic, but was a 10000% improvement on the stale bagel!

Anyhoo, LOL, here we are enjoying our coffee and croissant!!

 My gorgeous girl (with a bit of the stale bagel!!)

Awwwww :-)

I got lots of lovely cuddles!

Rubbing noses!!

After our coffee, we went into the Harbourside shops to buy my present... new Ugg boots! I was very excited about this... my old ones have lasted FOUR YEARS!! Well, I wouldn't say lasted, they probably past the point of acceptable at least 12 months ago!! Definitely time for a new pair... and we got them at a great marked down price too. HAPPY DAYS!

These photos are when we got home, but while I'm talking about my present - here they are :-)

Perfect, and being put to good use already :-)

After out shopping expedition, we headed to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. This place is amazing! It seats over 500 people. HUGE. We got a lovely table inside out of the cold wind but right by the window overlooking the harbour. Perfect :-)

View from our table - in front of me

The view over my right shoulder!

Hannah had some fun with the colouring in picture and crayons... mainly trying to eat the crayons, as is her want. But was quite fascinated in Daddy doing some colouring!!

Don't go outside the lines Daddy!

LOVE!

Mummies received a glass of complimentary champagne, and our meals were delicious. 

Cheers!

My yummy beef Fajitas! (No calorie counting on Mother's Day!!)

Mark's Legendary 10 oz. Burger

After lunch we went for another walk around the harbour, along Cockle Bay Wharf and around past the Aquarium and Wildlife park, and Hannah got to stroke a blue tongue lizard. Well, actually she tried to grab him :-O YIKES!!

We headed for home after that and it wasn't long until my little poppet zonked.

We finishsed the day off with afternoon tea in our favourite cafe, Sassafras, in the local village near home.

All in all, one very happy Mummy :-) Thank you Mark and Hannah for making it such a wonderful day xxx

A wrap on our week

Monday... catch-up day after a weekend out and about. 55 million loads of washing later, we've all got clean clothes, sheets and towels, etc etc!

Tuesday... swimming first up this morning. It's one of the highlights of our week, Hannah LOVES it :-) We were a bit late this morning, thanks to a rear-ender in North Richmond, which had all been moved off the road but of course everyone was slowing down for a look. We got into the water just as they'd sang the first Humpty Dumpty Sat on a wall and had a great fall and started swimming across the pool. LOL!

We spent an hour outside this afternoon, before it started getting chilly. Hannah loves sitting and playing with the stones (not in your mouth, Hannah! Repeat x 1000) and walking up and down the deck with the walker we borrowed from Biscuit. She's getting really nifty at swinging that thing around now to change direction and not crash into things - impressive!! She even walked on carpet pushing the doll stroller the other day... not much support for her there, so she's getting stronger and balance is getting better. I was kinda hoping she'd be walking by 18 months, but that's only a couple of weeks away, so we might be pushing it a bit!!

Better go chuck some pasta on the boil to go with the bolognaise sauce that Mark has just made. Yuuuuum.

Wednesday... we kicked the day off with a walk after breakfast this morning with Al & Biscuit. 40 minutes and raised a sweat - go us! We have decided it's time to stop being so "over-indulgent" (to put it politely) and get a grip on the healthy eating again. So we're doing it together. I have stayed within my calories today, so I'm off to a good start! 

I did a bit of work at lunchtime while Hannah slept and then we went back out in the gorgeous warm sunny afternoon to the park to meet Al & Biscuit again. Nice! Biscuit is so cute and is always asking for "Nannah"!!! Love it!

Mark is off to Melbourne early tomorrow morning for a sales conference, so we will be flying solo until late Friday night :-(

Thursday... Hannah and I went op-shopping for a pair of jeans for me... because my other ones are too tight! THE SHAME! So I paid $8 for a pair of "fat jeans" which I don't intend to be wearing for very long!

We went down to the park for an hour in the afternoon. The weather is just stunning at the moment, it's way too nice to stay inside!

FRIDAY! YAY! We were supposed to be going to Featherdale Wildlife Park today with some of our Mum's group friends, but one of the bub's is really sick, so we postponed it til next week, and a few of us met at a park this morning instead. 

Daddy/Mark is home tonight from Melbourne. I think Hannah has missed him... tonight, she said goodnight and blew a kiss to his photo on the wall - BLESS!

Some photos from this afternoon.... :-D

The bed hair queen!! And I love how she tucks her arms inside her sleeping bag!!

Helping to fill up the toilet roll holder

In it goes!

I thought it was quiet. Sitting on the dog's mat with ALL of the tissues pulled out of the box!

Oh!! Before I forget! While I was running Hannah's bath tonight, she was standing up at the bath and kept letting go to stand for a few seconds by herself!!!! HOW EXCITING!!!!

I am very much looking forward to this weekend... Sunday in particular. Mother's Day :-)

Gorgeous Weekend

It would be criminal to not take advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend, so we kicked it off by spending Saturday morning at the TomahROMA Food & Wine Festival at The Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens. 

I have to say - STUNNING place, and feeling really dumb that we've lived here for nearly 2 years and hadn't visited this place before!! It's only 20 minutes up the road!!

We wandered around the stalls and had a coffee and a cupcake, then bumped into Lauren and Junie, our friends from Mothers Group. Had a bit of a chat before going off wandering again, then found each other out the back in the gardens. We decided to sit down on the grass so the girls could eat their picnic lunch. It was really lovely :-) 

Some photos we snapped around the Botanic Gardens and during our picnic...

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Saturday afternoon... boring food shopping - but these things have to be done!! I tried to see if I could upgrade my phone as I'm within 60 days of contract being renewed, but because I'm paying off the phone on top of the plan, I have to wait (or pay out the remainder of this contract - $83! I don't think so!). My iPhone is getting to 50% battery, then crashing to 1%, dying completely, then 5 minutes after it's plugged back in to charge, comes back on at about 70-odd percent charge. Frustrating!!
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Today we headed out for Balmoral Beach at Mosman, and Manly. It was beautiful! We had a walk along the foreshore, and sat on the picnic blanket with a coffee while Hannah had her lunch. 

Balmoral Beach, Mosman

From there, we headed to Manly, and bought fish & chips for our lunch. If it wasn't for Norman shrieking at the seagulls, and Mark and I having a minor domestic regarding whether or not he really had put salt on the chips (and the old couple next to us sharing some of their salt packets!), it would have been quite a relaxing lunch!!! But seriously - it was lovely :-) We had a walk along the foreshore and back before our parking ticket ran out, and then headed for home.

The beach at Manly

Hannah was asleep within 5 ish minutes and slept almost all of the 1.5 hour trip home.

Love the legs crossed at the ankles!! Bless!

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We finished this perfect weekend with afternoon drinks followed by dinner at Al & Steve's place, then came home, put Hannah to bed and sat down with a cuppa and some chocolates, and now here I am, updating the blog!

All in all - a pretty fantastic weekend!

Friday morning Mum's Group

Absolutely GLORIOUS weather here at the moment! It's chilly first thing on a morning and at night, but brilliant blue sky days. Really gorgeous.

We met at Navau Reserve today on the Hakesbury River. The idea was to let the kids play on the little "beach", but due to the recent flooding, the beach was no more - just a boggy, muddy mess :-(

So we opted for the grassed picnic area instead! The kids played (and ate - as they do!) while us girlies chatted.

I won't post photos of the other kids as I haven't got permission from the girls, but will share one of Hannah, snacking on a Sao cracker!! Little cutie!

Mark came home today with a box full of fresh salad and vegetables, two delish looking pork chops and 2 bottles of my favourite wine. NICE!

Cheers, and Happy Friday :-)

Playdough!

I woke up this morning and decided I was going to make Hannah some playdough. Found an easy recipe, only to discover that we didn't have any salt. SO off to the village we went, for salt. And margarine (not for the playdough), and a fresh loaf of bread (also not for the playdough).

When we got home, I made the playdough while Hannah got busy with her toys. We were running of time to play with it before her lunch and nap by the time I got organised, so left it for this afternoon.

Ta-daaa! Pink playdough.

Once Hannah was up from her nap, it was play time :-)

Daddy came in from work and straight into the action!!

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It's my birthday in a few weeks time. Al asked me yesterday what I'd like to do... knowing full well that I wouldn't have even though about it (I hadn't!). She knows me too well... left up to me, we'd probably get to the week before with no plans made!! 

I've decided that we'll go to this place in the afternoon for a drink and the kids can play, then have an early dinner all together. It should be great! There'll be 6 adults, 3 big kids and Hannah and Biscuit. Really looking foward to it!
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Friday tomorrow already! This week has flown. Not sure what we're doing on the weekend, but it looks like being beautiful weather so we will have to make the most of it while we can. 

Almost time for Hannah's bath, and I'm looking at a plate of lamb chops, potato and mushrooms to go on the BBQ for our dinner once she's in bed. YUMMMMM!!
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I love this - it makes me teary :-)

 



 

Easter 2012 at Ettalong Beach

Now that I've FINALLY published the Perth post, I can move onto our Easter holiday post! Then maybe, just maybe, I can get back to some semi-regular blogging, without the pressure of massive holiday posts hanging over my head!!! (Self-imposed pressure, of course!)

SO, we enjoyed the concept of our 2011 Easter trip complete with dogs so much, that we wanted to do the same thing again, only this time, we wanted to be within easy walking distance of shops, cafes, the beach, etc. Last year, we had to drive everywhere, which was OK but not ideal.

And so, we found Scott's Folly, at Ettalong Beach - Central Coast. A gorgeous, comfortable little old beach house, situated about 5 minutes walk to the beach and cafes. A further 5 minutes along, got us right into the centre of Ettalong for the supermarket, bakery, more cafes, etc. PERFECT!

We had SUCH a fantastic time. It's a real novelty for us to be able to walk out of our front door and be at the beach or shops 5 minutes later. From where we live, we need to drive everywhere, and I mean, EVERYwhere. Needless to say, we headed out on foot every day!!

Apparently, it was far too exciting to expect Hannah to sleep in the car on the way up (at her normal sleep time I might add). So she had a little lay down on the mat with the dogs once we settled in!!

I was too starving to take photos which is a shame, but we had the most delicious wood fired pizza for dinner on Thursday night once Hannah was tucked up in bed. It was sooooo goooood!

The next day, off to the beach we went! We had a glorious day on Good Friday, it was warm, but not too hot. Hannah wasn't too impressed at first, but warmed up to the idea. The dogs loved it, as per usual.

That afternoon, after Hannah's nap, we headed back out for a stroll and some afternoon tea. It was quite warm, so Mark and I ordered milkshakes. Here is Hannah with my chocolate milkshake - LOVING IT!

Once we got back to the house, there was a gorgeous breeze and we sat outside just enjoying the fresh air. Hannah and I read the catalogues together, which came in their dozens (we don't get them delivered here - another novelty!!)

Hey Mum! Check out this special! BARGAIN!

Being Good Friday, we did the right thing and got fish and chips for dinner ;-) Mark went to pick them up while I got Hannah sorted and into bed. Then we enjoyed our feast together with a nice cold shandy. YUMMO! This was not a calorie controlled holiday!!

On Saturday, we caught the ferry from Ettalong to Palm Beach, which takes about 20 minutes. Palm Beach is where they film Home & Away... alas, filming takes place right at the far end of Palm Beach, a good 15-20 minute car ride away from where the ferry deposits everyone. So I didn't get a photo of the Diner or Surfclub :-( But we DID have some really yummy morning tea! (Yes, more eating. Do you see a pattern forming?!)

The ferry at Ettalong wharf (taken another day, while we were on the beach!)

Palm Beach

The doggies, waiting for our morning tea, in case they got lucky

MMmmmm, babychino!

Enjoying it just a little bit ;-)

Bubby and Mummy cups!

There were some VERY yummy fresh berry muffins to go along with our coffees, but again, I was too interested in stuffing my face to remember to take a photo!!

Afterwards, we took in the view and relaxed in the shade while we waited for the ferry back to Ettalong. Soooo blissful!

Happy just sitting in my lap with my iPhone while I played with her hair - LOVE!

Easter Sunday was upon us and we started the day with a stroll down to the bay. It was absolutely stunning. Calm water, nice and warm. Norman swam his little legs off. At one point, we turned around and he was a speck in the distance, swimming towards the jetty where people were fishing. Social little furbaby!! 

Ohhhh noooo, the wave got me :-(

We made a quick pit stop (3 minutes from the bay and 2 minutes away from home) for the most yummy coffee for, wait for it... $2 each take away!! Then back for breakfast.

After some play time at home and all getting ready for the day, we headed out for some morning tea. As you do. Because it would be just WRONG not to! We found a very nice Bavarian cafe which served the most delish pastries. We got talking to the lady who owned the shop the day before when we were strolling through the markets. She has a little girl about Hannah's age and we got to chatting (as you do!). She gave Hannah a pretzel "on the house" which was so kind of her!

Hey man, I'm ready to roll

Put your hands up, in the air, put your hands up in the air!

 

Mmmmmmm, Pretzel!

Home for Hannah's nap, then out again in the afternoon, this time by car. We took a drive to Patonga, about 20 minutes away. The idea was to have a late lunch/early dinner in the pub, however we had the dogs with us and they weren't allowed in the outdoor area, plus the set Easter menu was very pricey. So we improvised with a small snack of chips and calamari to share with a nice cold Corona instead :-)

What is it with kids eating lemon?!

Of course, no Easter is complete without... EASTER EGGS! Suffice to say, I think this was a big hit!!

Our holiday was drawing to a close. Just one day left. We spent a gorgeous afternoon at the bay. Hannah enjoyed some afternoon tea while the dogs swam.

 
I took a couple of panoramic shots while we were walking along the foreshore, and from the bay. Ettalong is a really gorgeous spot and I have no doubt that we'll go back there again.

I'll finish off by saying that in addition to being able to walk everywhere versus driving everywhere last Easter, there was one other MAJOR difference between this Easter holiday and that of a year ago. Last year, I spent all night, every night, for 5 nights, getting up every 1.5 to 2 hours to pop the dummy back in Hannah's mouth!!! THIS year, she slept through the night, every night, for 5 nights... :-D MUCH better!!!