2013 - The second half

Not a good year for our blog! So taking it from July ...

The highlight without a doubt was our family vacation to Fiji. The time on the mainland was OK, the kids would argue very OK as they appreciate any stays in hotels that have multiple swimming pools. The majority of the holiday was spent on Castaway Island – absolutely brilliant – stunningly beautiful as close to what you dream a tropical island should look like as you get, lots of family activity, really good independent entertainment for the kids and surprisingly good food. The highlights were kayaking around the whole island (about 2.5 hours) with Kelly and Luca and a climb to the top of the island to see the stunning views. The lowlight – I tipped the kayak that Scout and I were riding in early in the holiday and she wouldn’t get on one again. Highly likely we will go back, also likely IF we get Scout on a kayak again it will be with Kelly.

sunset Castaway Island - Fiji

Luca and Scout have both been busy with school and sport. They have both come a long way with their swimming and especially their confidence in the ocean – Scouty is in there now diving under the big waves and Luca and Kelly have even started surfing. Luca finished his second season of football (soccer), Scout has been doing ballet and recently had her big end of year concert, and they both did a couple of tennis camps.  Hopefully next year I will be writing about how well Luca can play the guitar and that Scouty is riding her bike without training wheels – both of these initiatives are under way.  

Luca and mates at Luna Park for his birthday

Luca celebrated his 7th birthday with a trip to Luna Park (local amusement park under the Sydney Harbour Bridge) with a few of his mates and dinner at his favourite restaurant with the family. We battled a mini-tsunami to celebrate Kelly’s birthday at the sister restaurant to our favourite Sydney restaurant (and anniversary ‘spot’). With my sister Susie and her family (over from Perth) and my parents joining us at home,  Kelly put on a Mexican food extravaganza for my birthday. 

We held our annual Christmas eve party with about 40 guests – I say ‘we’ but really I am there to drink and talk and get a few bags of ice, Kelly busts her chops in the lead up and is definitely the hostess with mostess and leaves everybody marvelling at the food, presentation and chance to catch up or meet a few new people.

We watched Luca’s favourite rugby league team, the Sea Eagles,  make the grand final (like a Superbowl equivalent) and I tried my best to get him fired up while watching the game but to no avail – he is such a laid back kid! Unfortunately the Sea Eagles lost in a thriller. I however got very fired up mid day during work listening to the Red Sox win the world series (again!) while everyone around me had no idea what the commotion was about –  “Ohhh! baseball”.

Scout before her ballet concert

We revisted many of our favourite hikes around Sydney and found a few new ones and generally tried to go exploring the city as much as possible – often with a stop into our favourite Messina Gelato on the way home (even if it really isn’t on the way home).

We added a new raised bed in the garden at home – not ready for winter peas (but we did really well out of those in any case) – but ready for summer and the monster harvest of many mini tomato varieties as well as a few Roma’s, some beans and hopefully still zucchini’s and cucumber’s to come. The lowlight of the garden was that I lost the battle with the stink bugs for the orange tree – and I will only get five oranges off it this year.

So there it is, a quick catch up for 2013 and a promise to do slightly better with blog in 2014 – I guess sort of a new year’s resolution. All the best for 2014.

Ballet

Scout is still loving ballet, she is enrolled again this term in a class and she is really enjoying herself.  The last class of the last term included a parents day where we were allowed to sit inside and observe the class (normally parents are not allowed in).  Scout still shows a super amount of enthusiasm and her skills are really improving.  Scout's new best friend from school, Isla, is also in the class.  The two of them seem to love dance! -kel

June already!

We've well and truly hit winter in Sydney this week. After a very mild fall things have gotten cold and rainy. Luca and I experienced the worst of it last Sunday morning while taking a dip with the Cool Cats. We swim in an open rock pool on North Curl Curl headland which is not the warmest place in winter whenever there is any sort of wind. Last Sunday we were standing waiting for our races to start watching as the two beaches south of us disappeared from view behind torrential sideways rain. Luca took shelter in a cave while I raced and then we had to make the climb back to the beach - I have no doubt it was the worst rain that Luca has been out and about in and it definitely rattled him a little bit. 

Luca - Orca's player of the week with his hype girl Scout

Luca made his debut at the Cool Cats this year (he is the youngest member by 20 years). He loves it and everybody loves having him down there. He is a celebrity. As the weather gets colder he wont swim but there is no way I will be able to stop him coming down to watch the swimming and wait for his chance to draw the raffle tickets each week. 

In addition to Cool Cats, Luca is also back playing football (soccer) with Seaforth - his team this year is called the Orca's - he is definitely having more of a go this year, doing well and having fun. Scout and Luca both do swimming lessons once a week and Scout also takes a ballet lesson.

We have also been making time to get out and explore around Sydney regularly with some fun trips to Avalon, Bondi and Paddington over the past couple of weeks.

So while no blogs for a while  we have been busy! 

Luca at Gelato Messina (our favourite) in Surry Hills

Road trip to Dubbo - Western Plans Zoo

Click on the following link to watch the video of our road trip to the Western Plains Zoo

http://youtu.be/L27bqYW3OlM

Scouty's very first day of school

Click on the following link to watch the video of Scout's first day at school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u1Ko-7Re9U

Rainy Australia Day long weekend

The kids are away with my parents and are having the time of their lives  - beach, pool, reptile park, fishing, fish and chips... all on day one. A great chance for Kelly and I to chill out in Sydney over the long weekend.

We went to a party on Saturday night on the other side of the city, lots of fun, good music, good beer and good pizza. Today, with a tropical cyclone off of the north coast of NSW dumping buckets on Sydney, we had a day of exploring around the southern fringe of the city. Great lunch at Koskela in Rosebery, a few furniture and design stores around Botany and then on the way home stopped in for some gelato at Messina on Crown St, Surry Hills. 

Scout's Birthday

Scouty Scout at 4

Our baby turns 4 tomorrow and starts at school (cottage) three days a week in less than two weeks. She is definitely ready for more adventure!

Scout never walks - always runs or skips everywhere, although by far her favourite mode of transport is on my shoulders. She is very loud at home and is generally not shy, although she definitely can have her moments. She gets a lot of joy out of everyday activities that she attacks with abandon like ... playing 'whats the time mister wolf', jumping waves at the beach, doing 'motorboat' in the pool and generally acting silly with Luca. She is very affectionate to Kelly and I and a big cuddle from Scout can set me on my way to a good day or take away any tiredness at the end of the work day. She likes music and her favourites are anything by Nicki Minaj, Georgia Brown by Kasey Chambers and she went through a big Gangnam Style phase this year often asking to watch the video so she could sing and dance with it. She likes her girly things, her jewellery and getting Kelly to put the tiniest bit of make-up on her will make her day. She is very competitive and not a good loser at anything from running races to snap (fairy snap). If you get her mad she will march off to her room or outside the house and sit and sulk for a few minutes then come back, announce that you are 'mean' and then forget the whole episode and play happily. She loves sneaking into our bed in the morning, although sneaking may be an exaggeration as she loves smacking her hand next to my pillow and yelling 'wake up' if she gets the chance - always fun when you are sound asleep at 5:30am. She has a sweet tooth and believes it is her birthright to have one piece (minimum) of candy a day. She has also taken to referring to herself as 'Scouto' lately.

I know she will always make me happy and I hope I can help her keep getting so much life out of life. We love our beautiful little girl and all of the energy and joy she brings to our lives. Happy 4th birthday Scouto!

Our first day back at work

To ease the pain of re-entry into work for 2013 Kelly and I both started with a half day Friday and then met up for some lunch and exploring.

We had lunch at a classic old Australian pub in Newtown called the Courthouse which has an excellent outdoor beer garden, perfect for an 85 degree summer day. Burgers, beer battered fish and chips and a few drinks down we were off exploring the streets of Sydney's inner west.

North Curly to Dee Why track

A bit of an off-day with the weather so we headed up to Luca's favourite hike - the cliff top walk from North Curl Curl to Dee Why.

When we were passing the cave in the picture above, Scout said - "Dad, did you know, when I was a baby we used to live in this cave". You learn something new every day! 

The wool cap Luca is wearing isn't a reaction to any sudden cold snap in Sydney, rather he was very self conscious of a large mozzy bite he had in the middle of his forehead and he didn't leave the house without the hat for two days.

Skating through the holidays

Our post-Christmas to New Year period has been cruisey to say the least. The weather has been mostly great, so lots of beach and pool time but also lots of downtime hanging around playing games with kids (Kelly has assumed ownership of Luca's Nintendo 3DS during the period), eating and drinking.

New years day was spent by the pool to avoid the craziness of the beach - as many people as I have ever seen at the local beaches and right through to 6pm. In the afternoon we all took turns of riding Luca's new skateboard at the park, well, all of us except Luca who was content on his scooter.

To our friends and family a happy new year and we hope the next 12 months brings you much happiness and of course we hope to see as many of you as often as we can!

Best wishes Mark, Kelly, Luca and Scout.