Lots of things happening. Got much to tell, but no time to write it all.

Shall try really hard for an update next week!

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Justin: Jess, can you put the toilet rolls in the bathroom please?

Jessica: Sure Daddy……..

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Friday we headed off to the big smoke for a few days. It was great to have our new car, such luxury with the comfy seats and DVD player. We stayed at Manly Beach in a great hotel right across from the surf. The girls will tell you that the highlight of the trip was the breakfast buffet, but we did other things, like ride a ferry, touch the tiles on the Opera House, touch the big bolts keeping up the Harbour Bridge and see all the animals at the zoo. The Baby elephant was gorgeous (all 100kgs of him) and well worth the trip.

Sunday we attend the Christening of my nephew Thomas, had lunch there and came home. It was exhausting, great and emotional and I am relieved to be home! How good is it to sleep in your own bed and have space where the kids cannot find you!

Here are some photos of the trip.

1192 Girls here on the Ferry from Manly to Circular Quay. Very cold and bumpy! At the Quay we bumped into our neighbours whom we NEVER see at home!

1195 Girls at he Opera House looking at the Bridge.

1198 Me enjoying the View.

1201 Justin!

1204 At the Rocks where a beautiful Rainbow appeared over the Opera House. Is that a Michael Jackson vision in the sky!!! Just jokes!

1207 Base of the Bridge where we inspected to bolts and imagined the huge screwdriver it would take to get them tight.

1210 Baby Elephant at Taronga. Holly wants to name it SATU, which means number 1 in Indonesian.

1213 Jess and Holly on the Sky Gondola at Taronga. We went on it MANY times – had to be kicked off!

1216 Sunday Morning frolic on Manly Beach after an hour in the breakfast buffet. Justin may have turned into bacon if I hadn’t pulled him away.

1219 Lovely girls at Sunrise on Manly Beach.

Have a great week!

First day of the school holidays today – only 13 to go!

Jessica’s birthday last month seemed to go on and on. We must have had 5 cakes for 5 different gatherings of groups of people. She loved it of course. Here she is with the main cake (from Adas and Lin). She had some preschool friends over on the weekend and they enjoyed dressing up, dancing, eating and squealing. Justin was a real trooper running the entire show while I was left to eat lunch and drink coffee with the mums. I’ll be keeping him a bit longer!

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The girls got good school reports and positive feedback at Parent Teacher interviews. Holly is to be extended next term, doing yr 4 work (she is in yr 3 of a 3/4 class) but needs to practice her times tables. We’ve been doing this by rote, worksheets and singing them out loud. She is getting better each week. Meg’s teacher said Meggie’s handwriting was so neat that she often thinks it is her own. Other than that, Meg is going along fine and is a delight in class!

In a moment of weakness Justin agreed that I should get an Eternity ring, so before he could change his mind, I was at the jeweler choosing one. It is gorgeous, gold, with 5 diamonds for the 5 beloved people in my life. Little girl across the road suggested that the 5th one was for her as she practically is one of my children anyway!

Had a lovely visit from Rowena and Oscar a few weeks ago and can’t wait to see them when we go to Sydney for a few days. Meeting them at the Zoo and then going to Thomas’s Christening (James and Sascha’s baby).

Weather is turning really cool and running at 7am is becoming harder. Want to train for 10km run in September, but motivation is low when it is foggy and frosty outside. Tried a home routine with skipping rope and couldn’t walk for a few days after due to sore calf muscles.

Kids are hovering, so better go.