Excitement

It's been a very busy and exciting few days. On Thursday since it was a sunny day and since I knew we would have the wedding chaos for the next few days we decided to skip swimming lessons and take the girls into the city to the zoo and sightseeing. It was a gorgeous day - though a little on the cool side - and we had a great time.

The girls love going to Taronga zoo in Sydney because we catch 2 trains, a ferry and a bus to get there and then again home. The ferry ride is one of our favorite parts - the views of Sydney harbour are always spectacular and I always take lots of photos of the Opera House as we go by because it's just so beautiful.

Yesterday was the wedding and it was perfect! My girls were on their best behaviour all day long and it was a LONG day - hair and nails, photos, ceremony, more photos and then hanging around for another hour or so before the food was served. They did so well and I was so proud of them. They looked like princesses.

This is the wedding party plus my mum - that's me on the left. It was almost at the end of the photos and it was SO cold and they kept taking "just one more"..... but it was a wonderful day. Now we are hoping to head to the beach tomorrow and a visit with my aunt and then it's off to Melbourne for 4 days - woohoo!!! After that it's nearly time to go home. It's always nice to be here but I'm looking forward to going home again too and I know the girls are ready too.

Keeping busy

We have been keeping busy the last week or so and thankfully the rainy weather seems to have passed - today it was 70 degrees - good old Australian winter :o) We went out to a local lookout with my mum last week which was pretty but very cold so we didn't stay very long.

And we found an AWESOME indoor public pool that we have been enjoying a lot

It's school holidays these next 2 weeks so I enrolled the girls in swimming lessons this week and it has been really great. My husband arrives tomorrow - YIPPEE!!! We are still working on the wedding stuff - only one more week to go. Trying to catch up with old friends here and there - no matter how long we are in Australia it's never enough time to catch up with everyone and do all the stuff we want to. But then again - there's never enough time period!

Sunny day activities

When we (my parents and sister and I) moved to this house back in 1975 I brought with me a small tree from my grandparents farm where we had been living and I planted it in the front yard that was at the time very bare. This is my kids climbing that same tree

Kind of cool if you think about it. I climbed it when I was younger too. It's become their favorite activity when it's actually not raining here - though my younger DD has had to be rescued a few times - it's much easier to go up than down.

On Saturday we headed up the mountains to Katoomba for the annual Winter Magic Fest. It is so fun - everyone dresses up into costume (lots of magical creatures) and there is a big parade through the main street and then hundreds of shop stalls and foods stalls lining the streets selling anything and everything you can imagine. My girls dressed up to go too - my older DD with a set of wings and my younger DD in a princess dress.

They loved the parade and there were all kinds of cool costumes and performances.

We also got to see the steam train chugging up the mountains on it's way to the festival- it's the coolest thing to see.

Yesterday we went with the extended family to my aunts house to sort through my grandmother's stuff and take some tangible memories home with us. My girls love to go to this aunts house because there is a huge hill to roll down and play on and they found yet another tree to climb.

This big old gum tree has been there as long as I can remember and is such a magnificent tree.

And today - well you guessed it - it's raining...... Thankfully my mum bought a new dishwasher last week so the girls have a new toy to play with - the box it came in :o)

Featherdale Wildlife Park

It was actually sunny this morning when we got up so we quickly jumped in the car and headed off to the Wildlife Park before the weather changed its mind. My older DD has been dying to be able to touch some koalas and kangaroo and I knew you could do that here. Right as we walked in we saw a bunch of wallabies sitting around just waiting for us so the girls were very excited. We bought some food so they could feed them and spent the next 1/2 hr walking around feeding and petting the kangaroos and wallabies.

The only thing you have to watch for is the emu's - they are not shy about taking food from your hand - your backpack - or even your pockets.

We saw a bunch of albino kangaroos which were a little strange to see - their fur is much fluffier than the regular kangaroos.

Then we got to pet the koala and hand some gum leaves to him - they are just so stinking cute!

We also saw lots of wombats, an echidna and a tasmainian devil. We didn't get to see the big crocodile - he was hiding at the bottom of his pond - and the dingos were all asleep too but it was a fun outing and the kids bought toy wombat souvenirs.

Still raining

It's STILL raining here in Australia - it's absolutely unheard of for it to rain this much. It is making it hard to find things to do. My aunt was without power for 5 days and we had no phone or internet on Fri and Sat. I hope it stops soon!
On Friday my sister and I went to the Sydney Food and Wine Show while my other 2 sisters watched the kids. It was very yummy! Lots and lots of good stuff to taste and buy. We sampled lots of chocolate and lots of nice wines and only bought a little bit....

Today since it was still raining my sister and her fiance went with the kids and I to the Sydney Aquarium and had a great time. There are lots of underwater walkways

and places where you are walking both under the water and over the water.

It's always amazing to see the huge sharks and stingrays gliding over the top of you. The seals and sea lions are also fun to watch under the water.

My younger DD picked out this super cute kangaroo back pack

and wore it non stop the rest of the day. I love how it's head is turned like it's looking around too. My older DD hasn't found the perfect souvenir yet - something stylish yet Australian... I am guessing we will be shopping for a while!

My mum arrives back early tomorrow morning. The girls will be glad of the added distraction and maybe she can come up with some more activities for us to do while it's raining - or better yet maybe it will stop!

Wedding preperations

My sister didn't want a traditional bridal shower or anything since they already have everything they need house wise so instead we are throwing her a "stock the bar" cocktail party instead. I brought over my Michaels $1 martini glass stamp and went and played at a LSS here (not a good thing for the budget......) and also local arts and crafts store and picked up some pretty papers to make the invites (along with just a few other things...).

Here is what I came up with



Nothing too fancy since I don't have all my tools and embellishments with me but they look pretty good. You can't see it too well on the scan but the brown is a sparkly metallic cardstock. The bubble paper is by EK success and the ribbon has silver threads along the edges, then I stamped the martini glass twice and added some glitter here and there. It's going be fun, fun, fun!

I have also been busy punching out and stamping the SU tiny takeout boxes that she is using for the wedding favors. I will post a photo when they are done - they are looking good! I found some gorgeous long blue wool coats for my DD's to wear at the wedding from my favorite kids store here called Pumpkin Patch - they have the absolute cutest kids clothes and I always spend way to much $$$ there every time we come. So it's all slowly coming together. My sister and her fiance kept the kids overnight the other night and took them iceskating the next day so I went with my other 2 sisters to see the new Pirates movie (loved it!) and then did a bit of shopping the next day. The rain has held off the last few days so we have been able to play outside but it is coming back again just in time for the weekend. My mum gets home in a few days so it will be good to have her here - it's getting a bit old being a single mom in someone elses house..... I'm glad I have my sisters around but I am looking forward to my husband getting here .

Okay back to stamping. Have a great day!

Rain rain go away.....

Australia has been under drought conditions for as long as I can remember. There is water rationing, water police to fine you for watering your yard, people have water tanks at their houses to collect what rainwater does fall to be able to use it later, the dams are down to about 20% etc etc..... that is of course until we come. It has been raining non stop since Thursday and is supposed to continue raining all next week. There are already 8 people dead from flooding, hundreds of people who are without power, trains that can't run because of landslides over the tracks and so on. Yes I am thankful that they are getting some much needed rain but did it HAVE to be right now???? Our planned trips to the beach for this week are postponed - the beaches are actually all closed at the moment because the surf is so high.

Thankfully we had the tickets to Circus OZ today so we set off - in the rain - to catch the train to the city - it was only 40 min late.......

I was so looking forward to strolling along the quay from the train station to the Opera House, stopping in a cafe for some lunch before the circus, and just enjoying the beautiful harbor...... well we did walk along the Circular Quay - under every cover we could find - and we did stop and have hot chocolate and "fish and chips" in an outdoor cafe along the quay without getting too wet. And then we took a final photo of all of us outside the Opera House

before we made the dash from the covered walkway to the underground walkway. It was still a fun day and the circus was absolutely fabulous - a lot of adult humor in the commentary but enough slapstick comedy and fantastic acts that the kids were equally impressed by it all. Hopefully we will get to make another trip to Sydney on a sunny day and get to enjoy the harbor a little more. Hope is it warm and dry where you are!

Australia from an American kids point of view

Okay I have a confession - I was a bit - okay a LOT - worried that being gone for 2 months without being able to do a whole lot of crafting I would fall off the face of the blogging world and only have my mum as a reader - and actually she's not even reading my blog right now because she's on her cruise! So thank you thank you thank you to all of you who are still checking in on me! In the words of Sally Fields - "you like me, you really like me!"

Okay so we've been here for 6 days now and all my sisters have gone back to work and it's just us sitting around at my mum's house and boredom has begun for the girls. Now I can hear you saying "what?!?!? You're in Australia... how can you be bored????" Well if it was just me I'd be fine - I'd be having lunch with my sisters and friends, enjoying the peace and quiet of not having anything to do....... but let me tell you a bit about things in Australia from an American kids point of view. There are only 5 channels on the TV in Australia - one of which is PBS - no nick jr, no Disney channel, no cartoon network. The kids here are currently in school so any kids TV programs are only on after 4 pm. My mum's computer is fairly old and so many of the games won't work, there are no Polly pockets, barbies, dollhouses, dogs, soccer balls, bikes or scooters at my mum's house or Chuck-e-Cheese nearby. I know my mum has some paints and stuff around for them but I don't know where she has stashed them. There are plenty of places to go but nearly everything charges to get in and some of the things we are waiting for my DH to get here to do with him. AND they have been here before so nothing is new and exciting. BORING - and we have 7 more weeks of this!!!! So now I have to find some cheap kid friendly activities to keep us occupied on those days when we don't have anyone to entertain us. ARGHHH! All I really wanted was a vacation! Oh well - that's life I guess.

I did have an itch to stamp a little and so I raided my mum's stuff. This was a limited supply challenge for me because she doesn't have quite the stash of supplies or stamp sets that I have but I think I did okay.

I saw this idea with this stamp set somewhere - I think a Papercrafts magazine. My real challenge is going to be making a Father's day card for my DH with the sets my mum has.... but you know sometimes it's good to be challenged.

I also got tagged by Flossie who has some really cute cards on her site - go check them out. So here it is - one word answers only

Yourself: Happy
Your Partner: Lonely
Your Hair: Dyed
Your Mother: Cruising
Your Father: Missed
Your Favorite Item: Stamps
Your Dream Last Night: Holidaying
Your Favorite Drink: Coffee
Your Dream Car: VW Bug
Your Dream Home: Beach
The Room You Are In: Family
Your Fear: Loss
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: Content
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Sisters
You’re Not: Sad
One of Your Wish List Items: Travel
The Last Thing You Did: Sleep
You Are Wearing: Pajamas
Your Favorite Weather: Sunny
Your Favorite Book: Any
Last Thing You Ate: Breakfast
Your Life: Busy
Your Mood: Happy
Your Best Friend: Melissa
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: Hubby
Your Car: Sienna
What Are You Doing At The Moment: Typing
Relationship Status: Married
What Is On Your TV: Nothing
What Is The Weather Like: Cold
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: Today

And I am tagging Melissa Stephanie Gina Linda and Heather

Okay I am off to find something to entertain my children with. Have a great day!

Snapshots from Oz

The first thing my husband noticed the first time he came to Australia with me was how loud the birds are - and he's right! All day but especially in the mornings there is the loudest chorus you can imagine. I have travelled quite a few places in the world and have yet to hear anything like it. All the birds are BIG too - the kookaburra's, cockatoos, galahs, lorikeets, rosellas, crows, magpies, miners, etc etc. and they all seem to travel in large groups. Yesterday we were watching a group of rainbow lorikeets feeding on my mum's bird feeder and this one was yelling at us the whole time - I don't think he liked being watched.



On Sunday we went and hung out at my sister Monique's house for a while. She has the most wonderful spot to live and is constantly seeing all kids of wildlife in her back yard - this is my DD in the back yard



As you can see her "back yard" isn't quite the standard version. I could sit on her deck and just gaze at the view forever. My girls love exploring when they go there. The yard is a series of rock levels that go all the way down to the bottom of the valley.

On Saturday we are going to see Circus Oz at the Sydney Opera House. I am so excited! While I have been to the Opera House many many times I have only been to see something IN the Opera House a few times in my life. The girls aren't all that excited about it right now but I know when we get there they will be.
Well that's a little piece of Oz for you - I will post more as we go along. If reading a travel blog doesn't thrill you then check back in August when we are home again :o) Till then have a great day!