Another chapter

Over the weekend, we held a family dinner to say goodbye to Jess and Kyle and to celebrate Jayme's 15th birthday.

Kyle left on the boat on Saturday arvo. For details of that go to Collette's blog. Saturday night we had Christmas tea at the Wheelers with all the turkey and ham trimmings (thanks Mum) because Jess and Kyle will be in Geelong for Christmas.

We swapped pressies with Jess and sang happy birthday to Jayme.

(Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jayme, happy birthday to you.)


The kids had a great time with Jessica's present. It was an absolute ingenious idea.

She put two boxes together full of dress-up face ware, face paint, water guns and scarves. The Triffitts had blue scarves and the Wheelers, red.


The two teams went outside with Jessica and had water fights and played games. They thought it was brilliant.

And the best thing is they get to play with the present over and over again, expanding their creative play and using their imagination while having FUN at the same time.

Plus they can do it all summer long, outside while I rest with my feet up and a good book inside! (ha - I wish). Certainly not anyway with this little munchkin around.


Thanks Jess and Kyle. We will miss you guys. Have fun in the Gee.

Thanksgiving at Wynyard

Thanksgiving at Mel's house (held 28th Nov) cannot be any more perfect. It is about celebrating what you are grateful for:

good company..............

a gorgeous new baby (Baydan Corona)

the most delicious food in the whole wide world :)





Mark offered Josh $100 to eat a piece of every pie that Mel had made (10 in total).

He had a good go.................

but didn't quite make it..................... good try Josh, you did great to get as far as you did.

Even Jonty had a good fill.


And it was all thanks to our wonderful cook. (who only had a baby 3 1/2wks earlier - I know!!)


At least she lets me do the drinks. ;)

History repeating itself.

Sometimes the similarities in siblings is scary. I hear a scrabbling noise then all is too quiet.

Oliver................................ (2006)

Jonty.................................. (2009)

Cheeky little thing.

We have an angel in the family.

This is in today's paper from the Westbury PS advent pageant held last Friday. I love the way she has crammed the halo on her head, squashing her pigtails.

Apparently Hallie is an angel.

Noone told me that...................!!!!!

Holiday - Coffs Harbour & Byron Bay

Another long 6hr drive and we made it into Coffs Harbour on Thursday afternoon (5th Nov).

There were a few pit stops along the way.

The timing could not have been better (not)!! It rained and rained and rained, enough rain to cause major flooding and damage, according to the news. Enough rain that it was the 4th worst deluge since 1961.

eating tea in the hotel room

Enough rain that a number of people were flooded in and stuck for a few days. Enough rain that it ruined our much anticipated trip to the Big Banana.

All we did was run from the car to the souvenir shop, run from the souvenir shop to the cafe for a chocolate covered banana, run from the cafe to the homemade candy shop and run from the candy shop back to the car, which promptly broke down on us.

Lucky with our last car service came free 24/7 roadside assist so we waited about an hour for someone to come and get us going again.

Maybe one day we will return to the Big Banana.

From Coffs Harbour we headed a further 2hrs out of the rain and into sunny Byron Bay. We saw an unusual icon along the way. Anyone for prawns for Christmas??

My first thought on entering Byron Bay was that it was a glorified version of Swansea or Bicheno. And as per our pre-conceived notions from watching Today Tonight, we thought every young surfie was an unemployed beach bum living on the dole off of the hardworking taxpayer. :)

Byron Bay is definitely overpriced and we found a cheap and nasty hotel for way over our budget but still cheaper than everywhere else so we bunkered down for the night in order to get up early and go to the major tourist attraction, the lighthouse.

It was worth the walk from the carpark, as the scenery and views were spectacular.



From the lighthouse, you could walk along a track to the most easterly point of Australia. The kids and Simon did it while I waited with Jonty. There were too many steps for the pram to negotiate. Well that was my excuse anyway!

Oliver right on the easterly tip.

The track was quite steep and windy and Oliver did well to traverse it.


But it wasn't without a few sulks. I love how he puts himself in a corner and bows the head. Such a defeated look. ;)


From the bottom of the windy track, Simon took a photo of Jonty and I waiting up the top. You can just see us.

We did plan to browse the shops before heading into Qld but once again our car broke down in the lighthouse carpark and after waiting for the roadside assist for ages, a kind man who had parked next to us had jumper leads and got us started. There was no evidence of the car losing battery power and then it never again played up on us for the rest of the trip so it was weird but I'm glad it didn't happen again.

So we had lost too much time and decided instead to just drive right on into Qld and not risk the car breaking down again, by stopping. Coffs and Byron Bay were pretty but I don't think I need to revisit them. Nice for a driveby but not somewhere where I would spend a good length of time at.