Rewind: Mantra Salt Beach

Playing catch-up with my photos again. These are from our trip to Kingscliff, NSW while my mom was here in February. Excellent family vacation...the resort was great, the beach was beautiful, and the children had a wonderful time! We also took a day trip to Tropical Fruit World. Sounds cheesy, but it was so fun! The exotic fruit tasting was delicious, and they had some great activities for the children. Riding the miniature train at Tropical Fruit World

Happy little man on our balcony

Squealing at the incoming waves

Julia & Matt braved the waves


In her element...loving the many swings at Tropical Fruit World...

Trying out the zipline...
Julia was a rockstar, holding on the whole way without help!

Eager to get to the pool

The civilized first 10 minutes of our breakfasts

Then catching the wild ones who bolted from the table as soon as they'd finished eating

Feeding the animals at Tropical Fruit World

Liam was sound asleep for at least half the tour

One minute he was awake...

...the next, out like a light.

Rewind: February & March

Some photos and events I missed out on blogging about in the past few months (in no particular order)...Julia, proud of her Liam-art

The boys (Pop & Liam) & their pink parasol -- a very manly accessory

Peek-a-boo

Playing down at Wellington Point on the day a tsunami was forecast

"And the big waves will come up like this..."

Pop & Gran

Tsunami? What tsunami?

Liam, Pop, Gran, Nana, Julia & me

Our little swimmer
(the water's actually about 8 inches deep here)

Monkey-girl
(she kept trying to convince Matt to let go)

Chug-a chug-a...

Choo choo!

Teatime with Nana

Storytime with Nana

STICKS!!

Snacktime with Nana
(Are we sensing the theme here? We LOVE Nana!)

Nana's Puppet Theatre

and her excited audience

Breakfast birthday cupcakes
(The day Julia turned one I had to work all day, so we had her cakes that morning while we were all together. The next year I had an exam on her birthday, so we did the same thing. After that, it became a tradition.)

Checking out his birthday loot

On the big girl bike she got for Christmas


The next few pictures are all from the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane. Matt's parents took the children there during their first weekend to keep both children. The children had a great weekend overall but really seemed to love this outing most-- lots to explore!

The buddhas started out white, but the museum has the patrons cover them in assorted stickers.

Family dinner
(a fairly accurate picture -- food surrounding Liam's plate and the floor, a pouty-faced Julia, and me looking pretty worn out -- despite it all, I do like when we can all sit down together)

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who IS the fairest of them all?"

Liam picked out my dress up clothes and his

Date night (a wonderful treat while my mom was here to babysit)

"Fun time with Nana? And no parents? This is great!!"
The children were actually thrilled at our departure.

Liam supervised the baking of his birthday cupcakes

My Little Gentleman

Liam really is such a gentleman. He loves holding doors open for people. He always makes sure I have everything I need when I leave the house to go teach class ("Don't forget your water, Mommy" or "Take your purse"). And he is incredibly affectionate. He even blew kisses to the FedEx delivery woman last week after she'd brought us a package.

Today was the children's last week at Montessori (more on that later), so his teachers gave us a CD of all of the photos of Liam from the year so far. There are so many cute ones that I will post later, but this sequence of photos was particularly precious.... (the little girl is Liam's friend, Violet)

(this one is my favorite!)