Ella is 12

Ella girl is 12 now, and one of the ways she celebrated was hosting brunch for the Canberra family last Monday (a public holiday), our first cold bleak day of the season. 

Present giving takes a lot of thought for teens and pre-teens. Angus took a lot of care to choose this one......

 Lego was on Ella's wish list - and this set .......

 ticked all the boxes .............

 These sweet kids put in a few hours building this most amazing ship in a bottle Lego - from scratch!  Just as well it held their interest as it was not much fun playing party games outside on this cold grey morning.

 It was a serious business, involving great teamwork..........

 Abi didn't feel as much part of the Lego team - which was nice for us as she put in a lot of time with Maxie and me instead telling us all about whale sharks (and other creatures).

 Ella makes all the cakes in the family now - although she's a bit over it at the moment after making 72 birthday cupcakes for her school friends. 

 I tried to get a good group shot of these gorgeous kids - but only two of them are friends of the camera... I take what I can get!!

 This might be my best shot!

 Happy birthday dear sweet Ella girl!

In search of balloons

Today marks the end of 17 days of Canberra's Enlighten Festival. Over the last 9 days more than 30 hot air balloons have been ready to launch over the lake each day at sunrise - as part of Enlighten's Balloon Spectacular. We've tried 3 mornings to see the balloons in flight - but without success; apparently the winds were too strong or in the wrong direction on these days!

But I did enjoy this beautiful sunrise ...………..

 Old RG Menzies turns his back on the sunrise each morning …..

 This morning we had one last chance to see the balloons in flight, on our regular early Sunday morning date climbing Mt Ainslie. 

 BUT the balloons didn't launch this morning!! APART from this one...... thank you CBR!!

The most appealing balloon of this year's festival - the Beagle Maximus - was waiting for ages in front of Old Parliament House, ready to fly. But it never launched today! 

As a break from balloon watching we took Ollie to the German Club last Friday night. He got hooked on pork knuckle during his Munich stay at Christmas so we wanted to make sure he knew where to find the same dish here in his hometown. 

A great dish for a growing boy!!  Ollie is great company over any kind of meal; we had a lively conversation about a huge range of topics - he has a better understanding of global politics, history and complex social issues than most adults do - as well as having a better appetite.

Family

We're really going to treasure these pics of a happy morning this morning celebrating Ollie's and Rod's birthdays - at the Hyatt!

 That last candle proved to be a challenge even for Ollie.

 Only Rod was successful in the end .............

The kids agreed to an outdoor photo session - but I knew I didn't have much time. Abi chose the location and I couldn't worry about the lighting or the background could I!!!

 It was a bit uncomfortable to start with .........

 But then Ollie told a very funny fart joke ........

 

 

Isn't this the most beautiful young 14 year old you've seen (since the 1990s anyway)?

 And beautiful Ella .....

Christmas 4

We'd all been looking forward to this Christmas celebration SO much. The London branch flew into Canberra yesterday so we all pretended today was the 25th and celebrated the whole Christmas thing all over again, but this time with ALL of Maxie and Rod's family together - just amazing!

Eddie's been to Australia before of course (in September 2011 when he was just a baby). This time with the benefit of age and experience he's really looking forward to seeing some cockatoos the most. So he was thrilled to find these cockatoo print boardshorts under the Christmas tree, from his cousins Ella and Abi.

Eddie's found two wonderful playmates here - his two big, handsome boy cousins: Ollie and Angus.

This is Ivy's first visit to Australia - and she can't decide who is her favourite big boy cousin just yet.

But she does like the selection of toys Abi left for her, as well as all the new toys under the Christmas tree.

After lunch Eddie shocked us all by voting to join the big boys (in the charge of Jeremy) to head off down the coast for the night. It's such an Australian thing to do that (he'll be ok Mummy and Daddy)!

Ivy was happy to stay behind  and catch up on some quality time with her Nanny (they'll head off to the coast in the morning).............

 .. and wear this beautiful hand made dress (exquisite work by her Nanny).

We'll be catching up with this branch of the family again, and another branch too, over the next two weeks - stay tuned!

Christmas 1

We had our first Christmas celebration here at Saint Germain last Sunday. There were all the traditional elements: the Canberra clan together, a glass of Majella on entry, Christmas carols on rotation (groans from Ella), Secret Santa presents to open (yay says everyone)..........

Abi's present struck the right note: a squeaky toy for her Sniffy dog and a new food bowl for him too (apparently Paddy the dachshund gave it his seal of approval too after quite a fuss!)........

We were so lucky to have Claire and Angus with us - despite Angus's surgery a few days before......

A beautiful late lunch: turkey, ham, prawn salad and creamy potatoes, following on from Josh & Jody's yummy canapes..........

Ella was the star turn at lunch: a 20 minute tour de force of her free form social commentary complete with cockney accent - hilarious!! How does she do it?

A game in the park then icecream dessert and the rare treat of chocs and licorice allsorts: a perfect day, though somewhat tiring by the end! .............................