The girls were here for a sleepover at the weekend. They seemed to enjoy a change of routine and the way the rules are not quite as tight over here. Like …… getting the paints out whenever you feel like it, eating chocolate Easter eggs when it's not even Easter, going to bed way later than usual...…..
Sunday dawned clear and COLD, a real Canberra Autumn morning - probably our first COLD morning for the year (but no not like London COLD!). A great morning for some park play.
The girls love our Hassett Park. Ella can't resist creating beautiful poses - with perfect control!
I love the way her pose echoes the Y shaped frames in the front courtyard of the newly built Koben Apartment building in the background.
Josh and Jody joined us mid morning for coffee at our fave local Intra.
Giving them a chance to sample Intra's kimchi (and provolone cheese) jaffles. They now understand our passion for them!
I took these pics with my brand new camera - the Fujifilm X-T3 with its 18-135 f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. It's gonna take me WEEKS to work out the way to use it in a smart way. It's a lot more hi tech than my 6 year old and fairly battle scarred little Fujifilm X20!
With the young ones heading off on a road trip (to Adelaide) this week we celebrated an early Christmas with them on Sunday morning.
We had strict instructions to arrive by 7.00AM! So I thought I deserved a picture opportunity with the girls in return for our early start!
Abi only gave me a one second pose, before she'd had enough.
But she was happy to have her handmade Christmas decorations captured on camera...…
Then it was present opening time (at last) ………….
There may have been an element of self interest in Joshy's present to Ella!
Abi's now joined other members of the family in owning a G-Shock watch …….
I think Abi was ok with these beach shorts???
But Ella's Manga book and Abi's craft set turned out to be presents that lasted the distance.
Josh and Jody prepared an amazing breakfast for us all: Eggs Benedict for the grown ups and handmade waffles for the girls. A highlight of the dish was the 4hour home smoked ham slices on wilted spinach.
A happy morning ended off with a game of Badminton in the morning sun, then time to relax and catch some rays (it was really cool this morning seeing the sun was so bright and the sky was so blue).
Happy, lucky kids and happy, lucky us to be a part of all this (sigh!)
So many good things came together this weekend: Ros and Pete stayed over a few days on their way down to Geelong (they've said goodbye to Sandy Beach), Maxie started to feel better after a horrible week with a cold, and Angus and Jody both had big birthdays to celebrate. It was super special to enjoy the celebrations together, all 14 of us, on Saturday at Josh and Jody's.
We had to take this shot to record how big these boys are growing!
In between soccer games outside with the boys, Ella gave us a great solo gig on her Tenor Sax..... Is there anything this girl can't do?
And Claire produced a cheesecake birthday cake (yes, made of cheese) - quite stunning and amazing!
Angus turned 12 this week. Beautiful boy!
And this gorgeous girl (Jody) celebrated one of those big birthdays too!!
Two gorgeous girls in a wonderful decade of their lives ……………..
Canberra was pretty mild by August standards for Ros and Pete's stay. In between family lunches, brunches and birthday celebrations we did lots of walking (mainly to the new Sanoma Bakery in Braddon) and coffee drinking. I thought we'd see the sun today - going by the sunrise ……..
but it wasn't to last long …..
.. but that didn't stop us heading for the lake for our morning walk …….
.. and a final coffee (and kimchi jaffle) from our new local, INTRA......
We're looking forward to seeing Ros and Pete set up in Geelong. That's only one day's drive away for us!!
Abi is growing up fast. After years of avoiding having her photo taken whenever she could, she actually "asked" (told) me to take photos this week at swimming class (because I am so good at swimming - she said).
Abi executes a perfect dive!
I think this is the first time Abi has happily "posed" for me.........
Abi took this gorgeous shot of Ella!
Sunday dawned clear and COLD, a real Canberra Autumn morning - probably our first COLD morning for the year (but no not like London COLD!). A great morning for some park play.
The girls love our Hassett Park. Ella can't resist creating beautiful poses - with perfect control!
I love the way her pose echoes the Y shaped frames in the front courtyard of the newly built Koben Apartment building in the background.
Josh and Jody joined us mid morning for coffee at our fave local Intra.
Giving them a chance to sample Intra's kimchi (and provolone cheese) jaffles. They now understand our passion for them!
I took these pics with my brand new camera - the Fujifilm X-T3 with its 18-135 f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. It's gonna take me WEEKS to work out the way to use it in a smart way. It's a lot more hi tech than my 6 year old and fairly battle scarred little Fujifilm X20!
