Thurs 27th March - Setting Out.........

Well, the day has finally arrived to set off for our lon-awaited holiday in Sydney.

We woke to the alarm at 3.30am, and after all the last minute packing, we locked the garage door and set off at 4.20am. We only got as far as Coomera before Bryce complained of "feeling sick in the tummy", so we stopped at the BP Roadhouse opposite Dreamworld for a sanwich, flavoured milk and the kids shared a sausage roll.

Our next stop was at Grafton for a 'proper' breakfast at McDonalds. This was at 8.30.

We missed having lunch but stopped in Coffs Harbour for a look at the "marina" and a walk along the North Wall to stretch our legs.

We finally arrived in Port Macquarie at 1.30 (2.30 DST) when the kids promptly had a swim in the pool before it rained.

We went for a drive around the beaches, took some photos and had a walk through town.

We had a beautiful dinner at the Port Macquarie City Bowls Club then home to bed.

The weather was mainly overcast all day and nice rain on and off mixed with periods of sunshine.

We topped up the petrol here. Petrol was 147.9 cents per litre.

It's Been A While.............

Well, I know it's been a long time between updates, but boy, do I have some updates now........

Last year, Rick's cousin got married in Florida and she has just brought her new husband (and a few other friends) back to Oz to celebrate with her Aussie family and friends with a Wedding Reception on Sydney Harbour.

We decided to make this our family holiday, so Rick & I both took Annual Leave from work and we drove down with the kids. I haven't been to Sydney for about 28 years and it was well worth it all. We all had a great time.

Here is my holiday journal.......................

Kindy Graduation Day, 2007

Last night was all the excitement of the Christmas Party and today was all the excitement of Graduation Day. This marks a huge milestone in our lives as well as Tyler's life. Our "baby" is graduating from Kindy into "Big School". Just thinking about it like this leaves a big lump in my throat, but then I've always been a big sook when in comes to my kids achieving milestones like this.

There were quite a few surprises in store for us this morning and the kids were fantastic with keeping those secrets.

The morning started with a concert like last nights with the kids really showing that they can "rock". This followed the actual Graduation Ceremony inside when the kids were presented, dressed in "Cap & Gown" with their Graduation Certificates and did a little walk along a catwalk for all parents to applaud them. This brought a few tears, not only to my eyes, but to most parents eyes, to see their kids all dressed up in 'Graduation Gear'. It was so cute! They were then presented as a whole group - the class of 2007.

This was followed by morning tea and Graduation Cake outside and then we were given the option to buy sets of Proffesional Photos of them to comemorate the occasion. Of course, you couldn't knock that opportunity back. The kids then all presented their parents with a tiny xmas pudding they had made in class along with a 2008 calendar and a tree decoration featuring a photo of them. All in all, it was a great morning, and extremely well organized.

For us:

This time in 12 years, it will be ALL OVER!!!! No more school!

Tyler's Kindy Christmas Party

With Christmas just around the corner, Tyler's Kindy hosted their Christmas Party last night. It was heaps of fun! The entertainment started off with the 3 different levels (Junior Kindy, Senior Kindy and Pre-school) all presenting a concert where each level sang and danced to 3 different songs each. They were great to watch and all did their parent's proud. Of course, the littlies were a little bit shy, but by the time we got to the Pre-school kids, they were right into the spirit of things and loved their dancing.

The excitement shows all over her face.

Tyler loves to dance and here she is; not missing a beat.

LASER SKIRMISH

This week Bryce was invited to celebrate his best friend's birthday with 2 other boys to play Laser Skirmish. We didn't know it, but there is a Laser Skirmish ground just up at Mt Cotton only about 10 minutes from home. It is in the bush behind the Mt Cotton Scout Camp.

I was a bit uneasy at the thought of these young boys going out into the bush in full army clothing with laser guns with the object of shooting one another, but they had fun, and that's the main thing.

When we arrived up there, there were about 80 - 100 people (adults as well as kids) registered to play and they were all split into 2 groups - Caps and Hats - and the idea was that they were opposing armys. They played 2 x 15 minute rounds (swapping ends in the middle) to start with then they had a 15 minute break, and then they went back out into the bush to play 2 x 20 minutes rounds (swapping ends in between).

It was stipulated to them all before they started that it was a NON CONTACT game and a safe game to play - just to have heaps of fun - and FUN............THEY HAD. I think Bryce will be sleeping very soundly tonight. Thank goodness, it's a Pupil-Free day tomorrow at school.

While we were up there, on a walk through the bush, we spotted this wallaby grazing under the trees. Good thing I had the camera with me!

Speaking of school, Tyler is having a Prep Transition morning at school tomorrow for an hour and a half. This is just so the kids starting Prep next year, can go along and have a taste of what to expect when they start next year and to meet all the teachers. Unfortunately, I have a really busy day at work, but Rick will be taking her to this, and hopefully, he'll take the camera too, so I'll be making another post tomorrow with pics of that for you all to see.

Sally's Weightloss Tracker

What A Weekend!!

We've just had the best weekend here: -

After 8 years of being a 1-car family and spending a lot of time at home with the children while Rick was working 2 jobs, I finally have my own car again......................and here it is............

and this is what it looks like on the inside:

It's got heaps of room and is really zippy. I've had to get used to driving a manual car again, but after just 1 day back at work today, I feel as if I've never driven anything else but a manual car.

We had to go to the Gold Coast to pick it up, so while we were there we decided to take the kids to the beach to have a swim in the surf. We headed on down to Main Beach just north of Surfers Paradise, and the beach was extremely busy but the water was perfect. So clean and cool. I couldn't resist getting in for a swim myself. As you can see from the photo, the ocean had formed a 'gutter' along the beach with a small sandbar on the other side and this was perfect for the kids to swim in. Safe but still with waves and lots of current to contend with. I helped the kids walk across the gutter to get to the sanbar and the water came up to Tyler's chest at it's deepest. The kids loved jumping off the sandbar into the deep water of the gutter with the waves of the surf. We had so much fun. It was worthwhile the trip down to the coast. May have to think about doing this more regularly this summer.