Rain, Rain Go Away

Tonight is Oscar night in Sydney.  It aired at 1PM, but we recorded it so we could watch it this evening.   I can't believe it is almost March.

We have continued to get a lot of rain with some beautiful days in between for us to enjoy.  It has rained so much that we actually have a leak in one of our rooms in the ceiling.  Thank goodness it is a rental!  I keep hearing how strange this weather is, but it keeps raining.  A few days last week I took Paige to school in the morning and the sun was shining but by the time I got to Cade's school, it was pouring.   We keep umbrellas and towels everywhere because you never know when you will need them.  My curls are in full effect.  Every time it rains, I think of KC and all of the snow.  I heard more is on the way this week.  I love all of the Facebook pictures.  It looks like there have been some fun snow days.

We took our first mini trip last week and ventured about 45 min away for a day trip to Palm Beach, Australia.  It is a quaint beach town with a lot of history.  There is a historic lighthouse that is a steep 30 min hike up where you can see the intersection of the Tasman Sea and the Pittwater Sea.  There is a beautiful view from the top. I was so impressed with the kids.  They actually made the entire hike up themselves and enjoyed every minute.  After we made the trip back down we had lunch at a cute little restaurant on the water.  The kids both fell asleep about 2 minutes after pulling out of the parking lot. 

Our neighbors across the street have hens and they stopped by on Friday night to give us fresh eggs for the weekend.  I guess our candy introductions weren't such a bad idea after all:)  Saturday night we had our first sitter and night out.  A women from Paige's school watched the kids for a few hours while we went to a new parent's welcome party at Cade's school.  It was pouring down rain all day and it was hot and humid, but we had a great time.  The Year 6 boys served appetizers at the party.  It was so funny to see these young boys all dressed in the their uniforms and in between serving you would see them grab a few bites off the trays for themselves:)  Afterwards a few of us grabbed a drink at a wine bar up the street.   I was talking to an Aussie Mom and asked her about Uggs.   She laughed and said she actually bought hers many years ago from a US company, but won't even wear them out to the grocery store as they are bit 'skanky' (her words).  Glad I asked - I would be showing up to school drop off in a few months with them on, but I will think twice now.  

Both Paige and Cade started swim lessons this week.  We have some catching up to do.  These Aussie kids can swim!  Here is Paige showing off her proud (and mandatory) swim cap.   

 

Matt has been traveling to Brisbane and Melbourne each week.  Cerner has smaller offices in both of these cities so he has been spending quite a bit of time there.   We are hoping to make a trip with him in the coming months to see some other parts of Australia. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day gift was our sea shipment.  The crate was delivered this morning around 9:30AM and I spent all day with the "guys" unpacking everything.  Matt smartly arranged to be traveling today.  We still have a lot of boxes to open and need to figure out where everything will go, but it is great to be with all of our items from home again.  All of our stuff made me realize again how much space we have in KC.  We definitely have more than we need.  A few items were quarantined by customs - wreaths and a few decorative items (very random selections). We left quite a dent on the environment today. 

I woke up this morning at 5:30AM to take some calls before I took the kids to school and started the unpacking process.  I am turning in early this Valentine's Day with some takeaway food, a beer, my Next Issue magazine app and MY bed.  Happy Valentine's Day to everyone back home. 

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Zoo, Weekend Fun and Flat Alexis

I am a little delayed with my blog update, but we had an Internet outage for 36 hours which set me back.  Oh, Telstra Australia - you know how to test my patience. 


Cade and Paige at Taronga Zoo

We finally made it to the zoo and caught the last day of the dinosaur exhibit.  It rained some and was a little cooler, but it was fun.  The zoo is very impressive and a huge hill down or up depending on where you arrive.  We traveled all the way down to the bottom and took the sky safari back up which has beautiful views of the Sydney Harbour.  Since it is just 10 minutes from our house, we bought an annual pass so we could go back anytime. 

Our friend, Flat Alexis Forgy joined us for a few adventures and she just left for home yesterday in the mail with lots of fun pictures of her time in Sydney.   The kids got a big kick of taking pictures everywhere she went with us.   She visited all of the famous Sydney spots, spent some time at the beach, rode a Vespa and even got to meet a few new Aussie boys. 

Friday evening, we had dinner at our house with a friend of Matt's from Cerner and his wife and the executive who is wrapping up his time here.   We had dinner and drank wine out of my beautiful plastic cups.  At least they understand the sea shipment process and delays.  Last weekend was gorgeous and we spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning at the beach.  We tried to FaceTime with our dinner club back in KC and were able to say hello for just a few minutes before the connection gave up.  The kids got new boogie boards and were trying them out on the mini-waves at Balmoral Beach.  We enjoyed dinner with some new friends from San Francisco and their neighbors (locals) on Saturday night.  Their son is in Kindergarten with Cade and they have two older kids.    It was fun to exchange our experiences and also get some tips from the friendly local Australian.  It was a great time and a late night.  The kids watched movies while we enjoyed dinner and drinks outside.   

We brought some sweet treats and met our neighbors this past weekend.  They all seemed very friendly and they have some older kids so we are hoping for some neighborhood sitters so we can get a date night in soon.  The family next door has a little boy and Paige and him share the same birthday.  They will both be turning three on March 24th!  When Matt told his colleagues in the office that we brought the neighbors candy and walked around to introduce ourselves, he got a lot of laughs- apparently that is not very common here.  

Everything I really need to know I will learn in Kindy

Check out this crew!  Today starts the first full week for school for the kids.   Matt and I are excited for the kids to experience Australian schools and to embrace the differences in the education system.  It is pretty casual/play-based learning at Paige's age. Once kindergarten begins, everything is much more formal (from the uniforms to the education approach).    Grandma Ernie shared this cute poem that I thought you might enjoy.  Great to share with your kids and good reminders for all of us.

Everything I really need to know I will learn in Kindy

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you find them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life – learn some, think some, draw and paint, sing and dance, play and work every day.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic. Hold hands and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.

Although we live just a few kilometers away the loop took me almost 45 minutes.    I am hoping to get more of a rhythm and cut that time down.  Apparently, I also parked in the drop off zone (which by the way is not very clearly marked).  I was kindly informed by the school's headmaster that I caused a bit of chaos.

Missing all of the Super Bowl parties tonight back home.  We are recording it so we can watch it this evening.  Have a great week!