Whale Spotting

Yes, of course we missed the whales by 15 minutes. Tamika had a by for netball so we decided to do something productive and get out of the house for the day. Packed some goodies and took off in the direction of North- Head in Sydney (on the recommendation of The Daily Telegraph's Best Places to spot whales).
Arriving there we found volunteers from Macquarie Universtiy counting the whales... and found that a pod of teenage whales had been seen about 15 minutes ago over towards Vaucluse and they were waiting for them to come over towards North Head to leave Sydney. We waited... and waited... and waited, but they never came.
Tamika  and Logan were disappointed but I didn't tell them that we had left it until the end of the whale watching season to head out.

They didn't go away totally disappointed as they had seen bunkers in the area from WW11, seen a lovely cliff face of Sydney and off course had lunch out at a park, cheese and rice crackers were on the menu.

Disney On Ice 2010

The kids with their cousin at Disney on Ice.

The characters on Disneyland Adventure.

The characters on their boat ride around Disneyland.

AHHHH! until they see the alligator.

The amazement all everyone's face as they watched the show.
Matt thinks it was the best one he has seen, but he has gone to Disneyland so it means more to him.

It truely was a great show. I loved the Disney characters and this was the first time we have seen Alice in Wonderland in a show like this. Logan loved Buzz Lighyear and Tamika loved the whole thing ( Alice a favourite).
Can't wait for next year - a new one for boys. It has Lightning McQueen.

Reptile Park- Gosford

During these holidays we took a trip to the Reptile Park in Gosford. I haven't been there since I was a kid and I was sure that I could find it to be able to drive myself. Mum decided that she wanted to join us on our outing. So we packed our lunch and the kids and took off. It was a cool morning with some clouds and a chance of rain, but we took out chances.

It is a small part that has a lot of hands on exhibits and animals for the kids to touch and feel. The Galapagos Tortoise was extremely big, active and alert. It was only about 30 years old. They actually let these tortoises out for the visitors to touch and watch them feed. Logan loved watching the dingoes play. Tamika enjoyed touching any animal that came her way (though she wasn't too sure on the baby alligator, lucky the staff had its mouth clapped shut). Their alligator lake was full of the sleeping creatures. 

Bowling

Wednesday Tamika and Logan wanted to use their discount tickets that they got from school to go Bowling. It has been years since we have been bowling, Logan was only about 2-3 years old last time.

All the Wii fit practise has paid off for Tamika, but poor Logan didn't expect the ball to be soooooo heavy.

Blacktown Holiday Show

Tamika told me she was far to old to watch this...

but she sat reluctantly on the floor at the front and watched

the Madagascar 2 Africa show at Westpoint Blacotwn with Logan. She didn't really have a choice as Logan wanted to watch it and we had a WHOLE day of shopping ahead of us, including a new pair of black winter boots for her.

My favourite was Alex the Lion.

Illawarra Fly and Tree Top Walk

Last weekend we went for a day visit day the South Coast. We had wanted to visit the Illawarra Fly and Tree Top walk for a quite some time. It was a bit overcast but we took our chances.

On the way down we stopped in at the Nan Nan Temple just past Wollongong. Logan didn't like it but Tamika was quite intrigued by the atmosphere, especially when the monks came out for their walk around the quarters.

The kids had an absolute ball looking at budda's in their gardens.

We continued on our journey inland through the windy roads and National Park until we reached the Fly and Tree Top walk, which by the way is in the middle of nowhere.

http://www.illawarrafly.com.au/

It had become a the bit chilly during our drive. We got out our picnic rug and picnic lunch and ate it in the car park, trying to beat the little spits of rain.

The organisation and interest for the both Tamika and Logan were kept high as they given them each a question sheet to find the answers. All the answers were on their information boards along the way, except the back page which had a find-a-word and collective nouns, even I had trouble with these ones.

Once they got back with all answers they were given a prize - an ice block.

The view was amazing! It would be even better on a beautiful blue sky day, but hey you can't pick the weather. You could see right back to the South Pacific Ocean and down to Shell Harbour. The highest point was the tower at 45m with 106 stairs to climb. Logan didn't like this bit very much... I wasn't to sure on the suspended bridges out over the rainforest floor, nothing hold us up but VERY strong and thick cables.

I wished we had managed to leave earlier as we could have gone to two outdoor attractions in the same area. We have been wanting to visit the Minnamurra Rainforest for the last 5 years. Another day trip in Spring this time.

Winter Holidays- so far.

We have had some lazy days these holidays. We have seen friends, had play dates and a sleep over. Played some board games and caught up with Nanny most days. Logan and Cooper were so exited to go and see the new Toy Story 3 movie out at the cinema. We didn't see it in 3D but I don't really think it mattered. The cinemas we so busy that we had to sit in the first two front rows ( never have I sat that close). Logan has been madly colouring in pages printed off the internet and creating his own Toy Story film strips. We have been on a few walks as well, lucky as some days I was feeling so tired with lack of stimulation. With the cold we have had a few days inside watching movies, mind you I still haven't managed to watch any of my movies.

An Eight Year Wait.

This year we have been in our house for eight years. When we first moved in we ripped out all the smoke ridden carpet, pulled up tiles, then sanded and stained the floor boards in every room in the house. Yes, including the bedrooms.

This year we decided that it was time to allow our feet to have warmth once they were out of the        bed covers first thing in the morning. 

Last weekend we ordered carpet for all three bedrooms, then had the massive task of clearing ALL rooms in two days. The carpet was installed yesterday and it looks great. Both kids took the opportunity to move everything around in the room and I had a massive clean out.



When we woke this morning I felt as if the rooms were warmer and it warmed my heart to find both Tamika and Logan sitting on the floor in their room playing.

Survival swimming

Tamika and Logan's last swimming lessons for the term is always fun week. This term they took it to a new level and  made it survival week. They both had to wear clothes into the pool for the whole half hour lesson.They even had to do laps in their clothes. Lucky they didn't have to wear shoes as well.

I remember doing this when I was young but not until high school when I completed my bronze medallion. Logan was so scared that he was going to drown when swimming with his clothes on. They both did really well, especially when lap swimming as it isn't easy swimming with tracksuit pants on.

Who said it doesn't get cold in Sydney?

Wow! The temperature has dropped over this week. A couple of mornings this week we awoke to a blanket of white covering everything. Unfortunately, it wasn't snow but the frost was quite thick and very cold.

These were taken in the garden as we raced out all rugged up for our day.

First Semester gone!

Both Tamika and Logan have worked extremely hard this semester. Logan adjusted very well to his first half of the year at school and the adjustments he also had to make having being diagnosed as a coeliac.

Their school reports were fantastic and both received Gold Awards at their schools end of term presentation. Tamika was disappointed as she didn't get as many as she usually does (having a new teacher sometimes does that) but Logan was the only Kindergarten child to receive four. We are very proud of both of them!

Felt Inspired!

This weekend I felt inspired by an amazing web site that I came across a couple of months ago in Sam's blog. They have created some surprising edible goodies with cakes. I found one that was made from cheese cake.

Since we had to go out that evening for Catalina's 7th birthday and Logan needed some kind of cake that he could eat, I decided to get creative and make these cheesecake pops.

I cheated and bought a store bought cheese cake from Cake-It-Away and then started to create. A bit fiddly. It was massacred by the time I finished with it. I decided to stop with a little bit of cheesecake left - I thought that 28 balls would be enough. (Was I ever wrong!)

After balling them I sprinkled Corn Flake crumbs over the top as the recipe used the biscuit base but Logan can't eat that. Once I put them in the freezer I thought that this was going to be a challenge as they looked a bit bigger than the pictures

Challenge number 2, they used lollipop sticks, hence the name Cheesecake Pops. But I had no idea where to get them in Australia or the time, so I just used wooden skewers. (The balls were a little heavy for the skewers.) The fun began with the decorating... melted chocolate everywhere and lots of sprinkles, but the kids had fun. They didn't look the same as the websites photos but they sure tasted good and were a hit with everybody.

http://www.bakerella.com/