The Twelve Apostles..and other fun stuff !

Just got back from a wonderful weekend at Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Rd. We managed to score a cute little cottage across the road from the ocean.......and even seemed to cope with no internet connection for 2 days ( the shaking and sweating has pretty much subsided now......!). We missed not being with Grandad (Tonys dad) for his birthday on Saturday,but wrote his name in the sand at the beach in his honour. The weekend included skate parks, uno, movies and most importantly, the discovery of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream! How did my kids come to have such expensive taste?? The highlight for me was seeing the Twelve Apostles- God is amazing! Anyway, the photos may not do them justice, but here they are.
I MAY have gone overboard with the number of photos here......

A little girl with plaits

Yeh?...watch me.

Great way to end the weekend.....gorging on marshmallows and left over ice-cream

A few photos of the last couple of weeks. First Soph enjoying her new 'onesie' -and me enjoying the fact she is still little enough to wear one. Going to need to start putting a brick on her head to stop her growing! We also found a playground that resembles a hippie commune/ youth drop-in centre/ great place for kids 5 and up to trampoline,play with guines pigs,paint, feed chickens, dress up,play table tennis etc.... everyone loved it -and its free, and provides fruit for all to eat. One of the rules on the door are that parents are not to interefere with kids creative play or imagination or they can be told to leave! Quite refreshing really!

Also Tony and I got to have a night out on the town recently -we went to the Melbourne Comedy Festival and then had dinner at Federation Square. Fun night out and is always good to know that we have plenty to talk about still that doesn't involve the kids/parenting! Anyway, we are about to head off for a weekend of fun at the Great Ocean Rd -got the chocolate, Justin Bieber movie and ugg boots. ALL SET!!

Back in sunny Melbourne!

Well , back in Melbourne again and staright back into it! Starting with a 2 week language learning course. Am hoping my "rainman" tendencies begin to kick in to help me learn. Surely there has to be some better use for them than learning peoples number plates..or mathematical pi to 9 digital places....yes,sad but true! Anyway, good to be back! Mum and Dad came as far as 2 hours from Sydney to have breakfast with us, but it definitely wasn't at McDonalds because Dad would never be seen eating there...so let's call it "McRogers". Anyway we enjoyed sitting in our cosy booth with a hot drink on a cold and overcast morning before facing the next 8 hours in the "torture contraption" that Soph so fondly refers to as our car.

We are also aware that our time down in Melbourne is more than half over, so we wanted to get out and see some sights while we can! First stop was "Artplay" which we had to have booked for, so we thought we'd find a nice park...which the kids were too hot to play in! Ah well, things started looking up when we found some sushi for lunch and "Pancake Parlour" for dinner. Can't win 'em all!!

Here's Dad NOT having breakfast at McDonalds!

The Yarra River-which I can't be near without singing Happy birthday Helen

Some shots at Federation Square

Catching up with the lovely Catteralls!

"Dinner" at the pancake parlour. Nutricious...

My attempy at being arty with the camera!

This is another test ...

Trying again.

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This blog is a test to see if the email subscription I have added to my blog works ....

Easter in Sydney!

Despite what it may look like, we did actually leave Sydney and move to Melbourne for 5 months...we just don't seem to BE there very often. No, slight exaggeration, but we have just spent another 9 days in Sydney over Easter which has been fantastic!! Tony was supposed to be at a conference in Fiji, but given both the airport and his hotel were under water, it was postponed. Thankfully Fiji is recovering and the predicted hurricane never showed up - and the kids wre happy to have daddy around for the fun holiday activities! We head back to Melbourne tomorrow though -excited to see all the wonderful people we have been missing, and excited to finish the course. Here are a few snaps of our holiday in the meantime..

Lunch at Eden Gardens

                                                    My beautiful Mum at Eden Gardens

                                                                   Ethan and Alex bushwalking

                                               Easter Sunday lunch at Manda and Dave's

            Our 'Jesus is Alive' cake after lunch- and then below after Jesus rose and the tomb is empty!

                                                     Dad looking super cool at the park

                                                                  Brothers in hoodies

                                                  At the park waiting for their milkshake order

Yesterday was Palm Sunday (Sunday before Easter Sunday) and in Fiji, this is a big deal. Obviously we are not in Fiji yet, but our Fijian church in Coburg made a fuss - and it was a great morning. Everyone was very dressed up, men wearing their traditional skirts (sulo), kids performing songs and bible readings and Tony got to preach. Him and I were made a fuss of -and had to sit in special velvet chairs down the front of church......note to self, don't wear jeans and thongs next time there is a Palm Sunday service.... Anyway, Tony did well -loved hearing him preach again, the kids did remarkably well, given THEY  were singing in Fijian and we had a beautiful lunch afterwards -fish heads in coconut milk, king prawns, cassava and an enormous sponge cake. The kids were all given a massive chocolate bunny and bag of eggs. Anyway here are a few photos...

All good fun- even though 11am church started at 12pm......I have no problem with that.....
In other news, today was Kids Fun Day at SAH, where the focus is on preparing the kids for mission work in a fun way. The staff went to heaps of trouble getting the kids to make passports, get them stamped, pretend to be on a plane trip, make memories scrapbooks and heaps of other things including a kiddy party lunch with potato gems, party pies etc.. so fun and the kids loved it...which the next few photos may not do justice to. Anyway, here goes...