More cousins...tick!

And you thought we'd run out of family! On the last day of our trip to the Mountains/Sydney Andrew's parents very kindly organised a picnic at Bobbin Head to get all four siblings and their offspring together (except that Mal couldn't come because he was in New Zealand). We got there very early so that we could get great tables near the BBQs and playground. Bethany and I went for a walk, discovering ducks, fish and coffee. Thankfully I had put some money in my pocket just in case....

The girls did their own thing in the sand.

The boys did sporty things.

This cousin didn't do anything, which is very annoying because we wanted to meet him/her.

Someone had the brilliant idea of getting a photo of all the children together. It was very difficult to get them just facing in the same direction.

Everyone smiling was too much to ask for.

Bethany suggested they all turn into animals. I have no idea which animal any of them were trying to be....

The girls were very keen to do some more posing.

The boys, not so much.
The tick reference? We pulled many of them out of Toby and Bethany that evening but not as many as were pulled out of Jordy. I think he had 63!

We drove home last Sunday after a wonderful, fun and food filled holiday. Since then I have been marking an awful lot of assignments and making lots of things with matcha in them.

To the Beach

Sometimes I wish Wagga was a bit closer to Sydney. Not for the far greater variety of shops and restaurants, but so that we could see more of our family. Thankfully Mum, Dad, Tim and Shona had a free day so we could see them at Tim and Shona's place on the Central Coast. It's almost the Pumpkin's birthday so we went in with Mum and Dad and gave her a rocking horse - she instinctively knew what to do!

Given that our beach deprived children love the sea, we went to Terrigal to have fish and chips for lunch. Toby recovered from the ill effects of windy roads to polish off an enormous lunch. All three children then got completely soaked, clothes and all.

These pelicans were very tame.

This is Dad taking a photo of Tim taking a photo of Dad.

Hopefully Tim will put some good photos up on his blog.

We were very lucky to avoid sand in the eyes as Bethany and the Pumpkin enjoyed the sand most enthusiastically.

We walked up the Skillion in the hope of the children drying off. Bethany was frightened of falling off at the top while the Pumpkin just wanted to climb the fences and try her luck. It's a very steep hill and I was carrying a heavy bag and the Pumpkin so I would have worked off all the fish and chips I ate, wouldn't I? So, when we got back, we had tea and macarons. I cut them in half (messily) so that we could try more flavours. I couldn't say which was my favourite. I know Tim liked the salted caramel one but I didn't get to try it. Next time....

Cake adventure

Andrew, Jossie and Toby headed to the Royal Easter Show but I was not tempted by showbags, I wanted cake, so Bethany and I caught the train into the city in search of La Renaissance. We caught the train to Wynyard and walked down to The Rocks, finding the café just before Bethany felt she had walked far enough. Bethany fancied the cheesecake, not the most adventurous choice, but it was creamy and delicious.

I ordered a coffee…

To go with my Gaugin. Berry delicious.

 

I bought one of each macaron to take home!

The Guylian café is right next door so we had to buy some chocolates. The lady was very nice and gave Bethany an Easter egg and chatted to her a bit. I asked if I could take a photo and she wasn’t keen on my taking a photo just of the display so she asked a waitress to take a photo of us together.

Bethany wanted to see the 'pool' – can you tell that we live inland?

It was a long walk back up the hill and we sat in Martin Place listening to some music, contemplating walking up to the Lindt Café for some of their macarons in order to have enough to share. I looked up and saw a friend of ours from Wagga! Actually he is at Moore College in Newtown now but it was still a big co-incidence. He told us about another Lindt Café, a bit closer to Wynyard so he walked us down there and we bought delices…

And shared a dark iced chocolate for lunch - we had done a lot of walking and we had vegetables at dinner.

Long food adventures with much walking are not for five year olds so we hopped on a train back to Warrawee at that point and discovered that I had forgotten to get the keys from Andrew so had to walk back to Andrew’s parents’ house. We made it a nature adventure to keep Bethany enthused but we were ready for a quiet afternoon once we returned!

Good-bye to the Mountains

Easter in the mountains was so very good that we can’t wait to do it again next year. Katoomba Convention, friends, family and food made it a brilliant holiday. On Wednesday we packed up and went to the cousins for a farewell lunch. Somehow the adults managed to stay out of the photos but we have a good record of the next generation.

Huw had us all in hysterics when he found Biony’s pink shoes.

Hamish read Bethany a book.

I love this photo of Briony with Bethany, the two Bs.

One photo too many…..

And so, we drove down to Sydney to stay with Andrew’s parents to visit the Easter Show and go on our cake adventure.

Hanging With the Hamiltons

The convention finished on Monday but we stayed an extra day in the mountains. Having discovered that the Hamiltons were doing the same, we decided to spend some time together. When we lived in Sydney we used to be in the same bible study and Shane and I were pregnant with our first babies at the same time. Jossie and Adam were born two days apart. 10 is not an age when they feel any closeness as a result of this!

Dave and Andrew took all the boys on a bush walk from the Three Sisters to Leura Cascades while Shane and I took the girls shopping in Leura – sounds like a good deal, don’t you think? I bought a few things in the kitchen shop, a few more in the stationery shop and, of course, some chocolates. For a shop with no food in it, that stationery shop is fabulous.

We went back to our place for pies from the Leura bakery and took some photos of the kids. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to get a good one of everyone, would you?

Two with eyes closed.

Just about to lose it.

Jossie reminds me so much of myself in that last photo….unfortunately. I’m sure my Mum is pleased that what goes around, comes around. At least Andrew and I can keep our eyes open at the same time.

Easter Sunday

After the morning session at Katoomba, we drove to the cousins’ for an Esater egg hunt. When you are dealing with such a range of ages, it is best to have the collected eggs dropped in a basket for fair distribution at the end. For a start, poor old Huw was asleep.

I hid 25 eggs and, despite making the hiding spots fairly obvious, we had quite a job finding them all.

And quite a job keeping everyone from scoffing them straight away.

We went up the Leura village and popped in to the book fair. I bought a copy of Samuel Butler’s The Way of all Flesh (having recognised the title from A Room with a View – can anyone else remember Mr Beebe looking at George’s books?) and a Daphne Du Maurier omnibus. Speaking of books, I have read Muriel Barbery’s The Gourmet, Helen Garner’s The Spare Room, Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and potato Peel Pie Society and……. Twilight. Jossie is desperate to see the movie so I thought I had better check it out. You know, I really didn’t mind it, how embarrassing. Briony lent it to me and she lent us the DVD as well. Jossie and I watched it on my laptop last night. It didn't suck either.

Offline

Oh, it has been so long. We have been offline so I have been unable to share the joys of our holiday so far. We have been away since the first of April and have just arrived home, but I will start from the beginning.

On Thursday the first we drove to Leura to stay with our cousins, Teen, Guy, Briony, Hamish and Huw. We haven’t seen them for a long while and enjoy their company so much, we were really looking forward to it. We were in the mountains for Katoomba Easter Convention, the first time we have been in many years. As we drove into the car park on the morning of Good Friday, we told Jossie that we last came up when she was a baby and we spent a lot of time with the Hamiltons. Not five minutes later we saw Dave Hamilton as we lined up to sign the kids into the kids programme!

How do I describe Katoomba conventions? Three thousand people gather in a very large shed to hear well-known preachers teach God’s word. The singing is a wonderful experience, the teaching is challenging, uplifting and thought provoking and you run into all sorts of people you haven’t seen for years. There are kids programmes for children of all ages, and our children had such a good time. Morning tea is provided, though I tended to line up at the real coffee cart instead J

The morning session has two talks, this Easter they were from John Lennox, a maths professor from Oxford and Stephen Um, a minister from Boston. John Lennox was born in Ireland so his accent was a pleasure to listen to. I knew I was going to find Stephen Um’s less appealing but he won me over by apologising for it straight away. We spent the afternoons with the cousins, relaxing, walking to Leura village and even taking the odd nanna nap.

There was a good deal of handball action.

And a bunny, named Kenny, for Bethany.

Huw kept everyone amused with his happy nature and funny faces.

Five extra people puts a lot of pressure on a household, so after two mights with the cousins, we went to housemind around the corner.

We still spent lots of time with the cousins, we just weren’t quite so much in the way!