a christmas trip to the city

erica and elijah

on the santa train, starting to get suspicious that santa may be nearby...

waiting to see Santa

A day without the car recently presented the perfect opportunity to hop the train to the city for a christmas excursion!
My gorgeous friend Erica (or 'Erica-ra' as Arkie calls her!) met us on the train with her kids and they all had a ball.
After years of taking Aski to see Santa against his will, this year he bowled right up, gave Santa a high-five and had a good old chat. Arkie not so keen, clung to me like a frightened possum!
loads of fun on the Santa train at Myer
hot chocolates
lollipops
angel wings
toys
A great morning had by all, slightly frazzled and tired Mums...

festivus...over for another year

Last saturday was one of our favourite nights of the year - festivus!
as per usual, a wonderful night of catching up with dear friends
eating too much ham
scoffing way too many scorched almonds
cutting up mountains of stone fruit for dessert
many laughs
a reminder of how very blessed we are to have such amazing friends.
thanks to the lovely jen for the beautiful photo of my meringue mushroom table decorations, really must remember to get a photo of everyone together next year.

best birthday present ever

Cal gave me the best birthday present EVER last week! Meet my new single-speed city bike that Cal built from scratch for me, and I mean from scratch!
Bought dodgy black and slightly rusty frame from Bicycle Revolution, stripped it back to bare metal and repainted it this gorgeous blue, bought some parts, used others we had lying around...
Note Cal's amazing attention to detail in the white tyres with matching white brake cable - very impressive.
Yet to get cranks on board to house my fabulous red pedals from Sally and Jason for my birthday also (to match red handle bar grips).
Very excited about my new single-speed bike, seriously the best present ever.
(For those wondering - this is what's referred to as a city bike or shop bike for riding to shops and cafes, I won't be using this for my more serious road rides! The very cool bike to have at the moment).

last days of kindy

There were tears, many tears, on Aski's last day of kindy recently - all mine and his teacher's, not his!
We've had two wonderful years at Bardon Community Kindy and I'm very sad to be going.
Aski has been blessed with the most fabulous of teachers, Bek (the younger dark haired one above) and Dianne (blond teacher aide above).
It feels like only yesterday that he set off on his first day (see bottom photo above) so little and excited.
We're definitely ready for Prep next year - thanks largely to the amazing Bek.
I'm sure Aski will stay great mates with his two favourites from kindy - Darcy and Archie above.

festive days are here

Christmas is here, the smell and feel of summer is undeniable, I love it!
The tree is up...arkie insisted on being in charge and was (suprisingly!!) gentle and careful about what went where on the tree. Very cute.
My wonderful friend Sally is into the whole festive thing as much as me (in fact even a little more I would say!) and we recently took on the task of baking our own fruit mince tarts.
After working through three different recipes, we think we've hit on the best...
Sally being a very professional blogger (as opposed to my dodgy efforts here) has posted our winning recipes on her fabulous blog: http://www.studio60.com.au/blog/2010/12/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas/
Merry Christmas to all.
Enjoy!