December 2015 Birthday and Christmas craft

Riley turned 7 at the beginning of December so we had a few friends over for games and lots of crazy noisey fun. He got some great presents, no.1 is his truck :)

(choc and flour cake game)

The end of year school Christmas parade is usually stressful but Lucas thought my painting and effort was all worth it! good!

Easiest costume in the world. thanks Riley!

So now, thankfully it's school holidays. Sleep ins, relaxed mornings and surrounding ourselves with Christmassy mess, craft and cooking.

Never complete without the musky tropical smell of mangoes :)

November end 2015

We took the kids out of school for a week towards the end of term (not like they do much anyway leading up to Christmas) and headed up north to Coffs Harbour.
We stayed a couple of nights in Dorrigo (pic below).

The Bavarian restaurant at the big windmill was FAB!

The butterfly house is always a favourite, though really over priced there is so much potential there! 

Lucas was the most still I've ever seen him in his life! He was determined to have a butterfly land on him :)

On the way down to Port Macquarie we stopped at Ricardo's strawberries. So delish but really, no cheaper than the shops. I suppose it's fresh and being able to pick and nibble that's better :)

The kids were apalled that I was dishonest enough to eat a strawberry before paying. I can live with that.

Timbertown at Wauchope was great fun! Sort of a weak version of Old Sydney Town but with a steam train.

The Koala hospital was a must visit and a good lesson for why dogs need to stay on a lead, why bush fires are dangerous for more than just humans and why tender loving care is sometimes the best medicine.

October 2015

Quick update for October.
We found a baby magpie on the bush track, either flew out, pushed out or blown out of the nest. It had a sad ending which was extraordinarily heart wrenching for Riley. A necessary life lesson. x

We went on our annual mulberry pick to the monster tree.

Made monster pies

Kids had a colour fun run at school.

Halloween - never again. The crash from the lollies just isn't worth it. But we had great costumes!!