Superfast footy boots!

The most styling guy on the ground tomorrow, and at least in his mind the fastest - new boots!

Seaforth Zebra's 2012

Luca has enjoyed his first year on a Soccer team, the Seaforth Zebra's.  Highlights have included a few goals, some channeling of "the hulk", pre-game pump ups at home to the Foo Fighters, Scout cheering him on from the sideline when he wasn't playing, jelly snakes after the games and most of all heaps of fun with some of his best friends.  We are only half way through the season, but so far it's been a fantastic season.-kel

Marrickville Pork Roll

Sydney is a very multi-cultural city, deceivingly so and if you visit where we live in Sydney it will not be immediately evident. In the time that Kelly has called Sydney home she has seen way more of this city than most of my friends. We both believe strongly in exploring the city and exposing Luca and Scout to what truly makes this city a great place to live. All this being a self serving lead-in to justify me dragging the family half way across Sydney to Marrickville to satisfy my new food craving, Vietnamese Pork Rolls (Banh Me Thit).

I have heard the appropriately named Marrickville Pork Roll offers some of the best Banh Me Thit in Sydney. With great weather in tow we headed off for Sunday lunch. The rolls were great, MPR is literally a hole in the wall place, only two customers (plus Luca) can stand inside at a time and it is all take-out. We ate at a local Marrickville park, the kids enjoyed the playground, we stopped in at the home ground of the Newtown Bluebags, Henson Park, where my dad used to play rugby league, we visited the local markets and much to the satisfaction of the Luca we stopped at a park he had 'spied' on the way over that had a pretty cool flying fox he an Scout could play on. 

Another awesome Ferguson Family adventure under our belts we ended the weekend with a delicious meal courtesy of Kel who made three dishes using the lemons we picked from the tree this morning.

Tania Park Hike

It is a long weekend here is Australia unfortunately rain is forecasted for Sunday and Monday.  With the weather looking beautiful Saturday, we bundled up (it was only 64F, this still totally cracks me up, we were cold!) and headed out for a long walk/hike along the harbour.  The kids were total troopers, enjoyed jumping in each and every mud puddle at least once if not twice or three times.  The walk included some amazing views of Manly and Sydney Harbour, some great access to small harbour beaches and some "jungle" like terrain for the kids. All and all a major success, the kids are growing up,  so many new fun adventures ahead. -kel

Oranges

Lots of rain and warm weather, great conditions for a bumper harvest from the orange tree this summer. Luca and Scout picked the last oranges of the season yesterday. They may not look as pristine as the store bought ones but they taste much better, delicious!

The Three Weeds

We have had some crazy rain this year and we copped another downpour this weekend. Luca got his soccer game in (just) - it started raining for the last 5 mins and all the kids loved it. After Luca's game we headed over to Rozelle to meet our good friends from Melbourne, Franc & Di Renzi and their kids Sabrina and Daniel. Franc and Di are Scout's God parents and they were very happy to see her. We love catching up with Franc and Di and their daughter, Sabrina, is so great with smaller kids it makes it easy. We met at a favourite haunt of ours, The Three Weeds. The Three Weeds is a perfect winter afternoon pub that is very child friendly, a few beers and burgers with friends in a warm pub on a cold winter afternoon - it doesn't get any better.

A couple of pics. ... the first (above) is of Luca at The Three Weeds the first time I took Kelly there and the other two are of Kelly, Luca and Scout from the weekend.

A day at fortress Brooky

As much I love him I just have to accept that Luca will make some poor decisions in life – already started with a decision that he will primarily support the local rugby league team, the Manly Sea Eagles, rather than the revered Balmain Tigers (the small upside here in that the Sea Eagles share colours with WSU and Luca wears a Cougs hat to show his support for Manly). 

Given his new found interest in the footy (we regularly play games in the back yard) I decided to take Luca to his first Manly game on the weekend.  I had half expected him to be ready to leave after 20 mins but he didn’t want to leave even when the game had finished – mind you he had the best seat in the house on my shoulders. He watched the game most of the time but was at least equally excited by all of the fan flags when Manly scored, the team mascots walking the perimeter of the field and ensuring he got some cotton candy. I loved taking him to the game and we are already planning our next visit to fortress Brooky.

Zebra's

The white Didier Drogba made his debut for the Seaforth FC (Zebras) a couple of weeks back accompanied by the loudest cheer squad on the northern beaches (Kelly & Scout).

Luca is doing well trying very hard and learning that it is all about fun and getting involved. He is not the best player and nowhere near the worst, just somewhere in the middle. While I might get a little frustrated at times that he is not the most aggressive player out there I get lumped with a healthy dose of reality from Kelly whenever I step out of line by being reminded that when I was Luca’s age I spent many matches playing sandcastles in the middle of the field rather than concentrating on what was going on (Kelly excels in extracting these nuggets of embarrassment from my complicit parents).

Lazy Start to Autumn

After a very grouchy morning, Scout crashed on the couch. She is so cute when she is sleeping! -kel

March Madness...well not really

It's been a fantastic month around casa de Ferguson. First up Luca won the Chaplins Trophy at school for being awesome at praying. Slightly unbelievable as he is our son, however we were stoked for him none the less. He was exceptionally excited with the trophy!

Luca also participated in his first swim carnival, coming in lucky last in his heat, with certainly the biggest grin you've ever seen. He was so excited and so happy to be swimming in the big pool. If prizes were awarded, they were not, he certainly would have won for most enthusiastic waving to your mom on the other side of the pool. Literally he was waving at me every few seconds with such vigour I thought he would dislocate his shoulder. I was thrilled and let me tell you got a number of very funny looks as I cheered Luca on with my very very loud cheerleader voice. Apparently that is not how the other moms cheer, too bad I say, I am going to rock my super loud American excitement 100% every year at the swim carnival, Luca loved it!

Scout made the last of the summer and has been to the beach more than anyone else in the family, convincing our nanny to take her whenever possible. She is still loving ballet and is now attending a new ballet school. She's made some adorable little friends of her own this year and is already talking about starting school next year. Of course we continue to wage the battle of the dress, Scout is still refusing to wear anything but dresses. Winter is just around the corner, lucky we don't live in a snowy climate! -kel

Tigers win in golden point

It has been a while since our last game in Tigertown so on Sunday, Kelly, my dad and I headed across the bridge to watch the Tigers play at their old home ground, Leichhardt Oval. It was opening day, beautiful weather, a rare match at Leichhardt and there is great anticipation for the season given the Tig's have a strong team - all this resulting in a sell out crowd.

It was a cracker of a game, scores were level after regulation time and a freaky bounce off of the upright gave the visiting Sharks possession near the Tigers line at the start of extra time ... somehow the Tigers held on and got possession back, they worked it up field and with the rushing defense almost on him Benji Marshall landed a 40 meter field goal to ice the match. The crowd, including us, went berserk.

An awesome day and well worth the ribbing I copped at work today as a result of my sunburned head.

Breakfast

Breakfast of a princess....toast dipped in tomato sauce and a baby cino! - kel

North Narra Pool

Sydney has had it's wettest summer for many years so we have become opportunists with our outdoor adventures as well as regular weather checkers. We got a bit of a break in the weather last weekend which unfortunately coincided with both Luca and Scout having colds so while we couldn't do any swimming we could investigate a new swimming hole (beach rock pool) for future adventure.

The North Narrabeen rock pool is quite fancy as rock pools go around these parts. It is very big and has a wooden walkway around the part that represents a normal Olympic size 50 metre pool. That was only of small interest to Luca and Scout who were way more impressed with what we could see in the tide pools and of course by throwing rocks in the water.

We'll be back and we will get in the water next time.

Lost tooth

Capping off a crazy week, Luca lost his first tooth tonight. It's been loose for weeks and the new adult tooth is almost fully grown in already. Unfortunately, it seems as though he swallowed the tooth while enjoying his pizza dinner. We are certain the tooth fairy will understand and we've written her a note asking her to use her "magic" to retrieve the tooth from Luca's belly! -kel

Kindergarten

Luca started Kindergarten on Friday. He was totally excited to be going back to school. Last year he attended the cottage (pre-school) program at the same school, so wasn't a big deal at all to be starting school. The main excitement surrounded his tie, he was sooooo thrilled to be wearing his very own tie. He looked absolutely adorable in his uniform and so tiny and grown up all at the same time. I did get a bit misty as he stood for a photo with his best friend, Sean, thinking about them both as little babies, friends since they were only a few weeks old now starting such an amazing adventure together. Our little man, really is turning into a man! -kel

The Assassin

Family and friends, meet Jasmine/Kitty/Lucy/Pussy the newest member of our family. For those of you who haven't heard about our year long battle with the rabbits, here is the quick run down. There are hundreds (I am not exaggerating at all) wild/feral rabbits roaming the streets of our neighbourhood. Not ideal in our beachside location. The local council had done little to help. The rabbits are slowly destroying our garden.

After a year long battle, including half eaten plants, dead lawn, destroyed cucumbers and many a funny time chasing rabbits (they are seriously quick little buggers) around the yard with little to no success, we've decided to fight nature with nature. We've employed an assassin. Well really, she is a fully grown kitty that we have adopted from a family moving to the US. She has made a great addition to our family. The kids love having a pet, she is an outside cat and pretty much keeps to herself coming around for a good pet every night after dinner. The best news of all...we've had the assassin for a week and we haven't seen a rabbit in the yard once since she's arrived. Success! -kel

Luca and Scout's Wild Reptile Birthday Party

Sunday we hosted 35 of Luca and Scout's closest friends for a Reptile Birthday Party! We were fortunate once again to host the parties together in a combined event. Still not sure how many more years we can do this, but I am going to run with it while I can!

The kids had an absolute blast. We kicked off the party with a Reptile Show in the front yard, complete with an olive python, turtles, various lizards, fossils, eggs and a baby crocodile. By baby I mean it was still over 4 feet long!

Post show, it was time for cake and happy birthday followed by a crocodile pinata and a cool down in the pool (for the kids, not the reptiles). The whole extravaganza lasted about 3 hours with both Luca and Scout thrilled with the entire event. Amazing to think Luca is now 5 and Scout is now 3, they are growing up fast! -kel

Three

Scout turned three on Monday, she is a "big girl" and don't even consider calling her little or anything she might touch/eat/play with/sit on/be around or even like little. At three she loves pink and all things girly. She is currently refusing to wear anything but dresses and man does she have an opinion when it comes to clothes. She is incredibly affectionate and generally isn't the list bit shy. Looking back on the last three years I can hardly even remember before she was born. Scout has made our little family complete with her very big personality.

Celebrations were at home with Mark's parents, her favourite dinner of butter chicken and cup cakes. The official party isn't until this weekend...stay tuned for more photos and stories. -kel

Christmas 2011

The lead up to Christmas was it's usual madness. Here is a quick run down of all the fun and festivities. Mark was away in Singapore for work (and a little fun) for the 3 days before his birthday, touching down for present opening at the airport on the 23rd. Loved that Luca thought daddy defiantly looked older when we picked him up! Family and the usual Fried Chicken Feast was at our place as the weather was a bit iffy for our traditional birthday picnic.

Christmas Eve was fabulous with a big group including friends and family, turkey and blue cheese burgers. The weather was beautiful, everyone had a swim and amazingly the kids were in bed before 8:30. Mark and I performed our official Santa's Helpers duties (Mark drank Santa's beer (yes, our kids left Santa a beer, Coopers green, only the best for Santa) I put ribbons on all of the already wrapped gifts) and then it was off to bed for us as well.

Christmas morning kids were up at 6, I heard Luca say "It's Christmas" then "Scout, Scout, Scout, Santa's been here, quick it's Christmas" the excitement was adorable. They were both very good kids this year and Santa brought them what they asked for, after lots of present unwrapping and a whole lot of playing with new toys we were off for a seafood feast at Mark's parents. An amazing heap of prawns were consumed, followed by a leisurely naps in the lounge room and swims in the pool.

It was a very hectic few days and I for one was thrilled to get a nap on Christmas afternoon after barely sitting down for a week prior. That being said, there is something magical about Christmas, the kids just love it, give me another 300 days and I'll be ready again. -kel

Twinkle Twinkle Ballet Recital

Once again, Scout dominated the ballet recital, at the end of the entire event refusing to leave the stage because “she wasn’t done yet”. She and her class mates wore the most adorable and quintessentially ballerina white dresses. They performed a short “dance” to twinkle twinkle little star. She's improved heaps and as per usual demonstrated extreme enthusiasm. She was totally adorable and she loves her ballet, next year she will be moving up to a new class at a new school…she can hardly wait. -kel