Noosa photo's

Noosa Heads

Luca at main beach Noosa

As a joint birthday gift to ourselves we took a five day holiday to Noosa on Queensland's Sunshine Coast with kids in tow. The plan was to stay near the beach and not get a car so that there was little organising required, just a ton of time to relax at the beach and the pool with the kids. The holiday was everything we had hoped for, and with all that mum & dad time in the pool, Luca's swimming has come on enormously.

Happy Thanksgiving

This week we took a family holiday to Noosa, QLD.  (More on the trip with photos later.)  A highlight of the week for Luca were the wild turkeys wandering all over Noosa. We had no real Thanksgiving celebration here in Australia, apparently it was beach time, not feast time, for the Turkeys. -kel

There is a (new) New Fish in the sea

Summer is here in a big way with a few 100 degree days lately and more coming this week. The pool is getting lots of use. Luca's swimming and enjoyment in the water is night and day versus last summer and Scout has a perma-grin whenever she goes in the water. Scouty's first swimsuit issue audition below (and as you can see she is still waiting for her two top front teeth... maybe she will get them for Christmas).

Melbourne Cup Pool Party

Yesterday I hosted my mothers groups Melbourne Cup Party. It was 35 (110) and steamy so the party was more of a pool party where we watched the horses for about 2 mins. Not really your traditional Melbourne Cup affair. Luca and Scout had a blast. To quote Luca this morning "my friends came over to watch our horses in the pool". Here are a few pics, Scout sporting her first barrette (my attempt at a fascinator). Oh and Shocking won the race, cool name for a horse huh!-kel

Hot and Cold

10 min after Luca went to bed...

Luca: Daddy, daddy, da...dd...yyyy (yelled very loudly from his room)

Mark: Yes Luca (standing in Luca's room)

Luca: I am hot

Mark: Ok mate we can fix that (removes quilt from Luca's bed)

5 min later...

Luca: Daddy, daddy, da...dd...yyyy (yelled very loudly from his room)

Mark: Yes Luca (standing in Luca's room)

Luca: I am cold

Mark: Ok mate we can fix that (put quilt back on Luca's bed and pretends to turn on Luca's heater)

5 min later...

Luca: Daddy, daddy, da...dd...yyy (yelled very loudly from his room)

Mark: Yes Luca (standing in Luca's room)

Luca: I am hot and cold (said with a very very cheaky smile)

Oh the joys of parenthood! -kel

Melbourne (a couple of weeks ago)

It's always a bad year when we don't make it to Melbourne at least once so it was with great enthusiasm that we accepted an invitation to friends Adam and Amanda's wedding ... in Melbourne.

We travelled without the kids, without Scout for the first time, so we were a little sad to leave but the upside was days of sleeping in, long breakfasts in cafes reading magazines and relatively unplanned cruising around.

We stayed in the heart of the action in South Yarra - although in Melbourne the action is really spread out pretty thick. We hit our favourite Italian cafe, Brunetti, and a couple of Kel's favourite fabric stores on the first morning and we spent the afternoon shopping on Chapel St followed by a few beers and sushi for dinner. The sleep in part was an anti-climax, being so used to 6:00AM wake ups accompanied by being woken at least once during the night to adjust blankets or administer a feed, we found we were up and ready to go by 8:30.

Day two was fun, we always manage to discover something new on our trips to Melbourne and this time it was Albert Park. We went there on a whim to a cafe we had read a recommendation about and to visit a store Kelly had seen in a magazine. The cafe was good, although there were half a dozen others on the same strip that could have easily filled the brief, the shop we went to see was marginal at best however the area had a ton of other interesting stores and we ended up spending half a day there and I didn't even make it to Andrew's Burgers (supposedly the best in Melbourne). 

After Albert Park we ticked off another favourite of ours, eating vanilla slices on Ackland St, St Kilda. Full stomachs and back to the hotel for cruisy wedding prep.

The wedding ceremony was out on a pier in the middle of Port Phillip Bay and it was blowing a gale, the 15 minute walk out along the pier was a tough one for Kel. For the ceremony we were in shelter but there was still the walk back to the reception. We had a really fun night and I even got a quick opportunity to show my dance floor clearing moves which always provide Kel a few laughs.

Sunday we caught up with our friends Dieter and Katie who were also down for the wedding from Sydney. We had a great morning wandering the laneways of Melbourne enjoying a lazy breakfast and some window shopping. In the afternoon we visited our good friends Franc and Di (Scouty's god parents), had pizza and watched the rugby league grand final on TV. A quick diversion for gelato on the way home.

Monday involved some more eating and catching up with the newly married couple and then home to see the kids. Melbourne is awesome and so is getting home to see Luca and Scout.

Sneaky Exit From Work

Nothing better than a day that seems like two and no better end to the week than sneaking away from work a little early to hang out with kids at the beach for a few hours. Granted it was still a little chilly, but a million miles from work and only a minute from home, here's to a few more sneaky exits from work and to many hours of fun at the beach this summer for Kelly, Scouty, Luca and I. 

Luca Sings Johnny Cash

Luca's favorite singer is Johnny Cash (clearly influenced by Mark!).  Tonight he was in performance mode...-kel