The Great Outdoors

We had an almost long weekend this week, with a day off on Thursday...  Thursday, we had an afternoon picnic in the front yard... The girls have been loving these beautiful blue sky days.

We all ate our lunch out the front...

And afterwards, the girls took a bit of a walk through the bush out the back.

Just a couple of candid moments.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Auntie Karen's place to celebrate grandma's birthday...  Alas, the only photo we managed of this was of the birthday cake!

On Friday, the girls came into town to have breakfast (and lunch) with daddy... they wondered around Martin Place and then down Pitt Street and through the QVB... The girls loved the bus ride into the city with daddy, and again on the way home at the end of the day.

Continuing the theme of outdoors, we headed over to the local park for a fish and chips picnic...

And then... off to the Lane Cove River Tourist Park for our first real camping trip.  Here are the girls starting to get into the swing of things while we set up the tent.

We were camping with Akira and Emika, Thomas, Matthew and Ellie and their folks.

Here's Claire with her 'boyfriend' Akira...

 

 

Here are the kids helping to get the fire going for dinner.

And a little visitor...

Ellie found some colourful friendly natives..

While the bigger kids terrorised the camping grounds!

Come evening, and the time came to sit around the fire..

The kids took turns making up stories for each other...

Just a couple of shots of the kids in the dark with the fire.

And finally, what the kids had really been waiting for, marshmallows!

This is what camping is really about.

Shortly later another local joined in on the festivities.

In the morning, the kids enjoyed freshly cooked bacon and egg sandwiches.

And then set off plotting the rest of the day.

Rain...

We've had a busy couple of weeks gone by since the long weekend...  It's really quite surprising just how quick time goes by when you are having fun.

First up is a couple of photos from before the long weekend... Keira's preschool held an easter hat parade... Keira loved dressing up as a little bunny, and joining in the dancing!

Although she's one of the smallest in the group, Keira happened to be one of the most active performers... not that its really a surprise!

Since we came back from Singapore (which is now about a year gone), the girls have been asking to go to Taronga Zoo... So finally we took a trip to the zoo (together with an annual pass) which hopefully means many more trips to come.

The girls loved it (even though it was pouring down all day... And are now all set for more frequent visits!

After getting home from the zoo.. We headed over to the Bui-Pham house for a catch up with all our friends... Here are the girls with Sarah and Lochie (Chloe and Amy were eating on the other side of the room)...  Something tells me that this bunch will cause all sorts of trouble in a few years.

Here are the girls enjoy the sunshine... We haven't seen a lot of it of late...

And on such a nice afternoon grandma and grandad came around...and we visited the local trash-and-treasure market.  We gave the girls $5 each to choose something they wanted to buy.  Both girls looked around, then asked to go to the shops where they thought they would find something better...

During the week, the girls woke up very early one morning, and a grumpy dad told them to go back to bed and let us sleep... So when daddy went to check on them 10 minutes later, this is what we found...

Claire's school celebrated Harmony Day, where all the kids came in costume to signify their backgrounds.  Claire was proud to go in her SQ girl colours...

Claire joining in the parade with all the other kids.  Keira was a little bit sad that she wasn't allowed to join in, but she was very happy wearing batik, and informing anyone who was interested that she was an Indonesian girl.

And in what seems to be a growing trend...the day ended with ice creams with Emika and Akira...

Last weekend, whilst mummy went to the city with Mimi, daddy and the girls visited Grandma & Grandad... Little Lewis was there, and Keira's getting a bit less worried about him...

On Sunday, while Claire was at a birthday party, Keira and daddy found a yummy fish and chips shop nearby, and had a nice picnic at the park.

This weekend, we headed over to the Royal Botanic Garden for a very special day.  The girls wore their most regal looking clothing (and braved what was a torrential downpour)..

The reason for the little bit of glamour was to celebrate Sheila and Josh's wedding.

The girls (especially Claire) were super excited about Damian coming along...He's a bit of a super start to the girls...since he's the only person who's a tv-star that they meet regularly. (His TV stardom is actually a speech on our wedding DVD that the girls love)...

In the gaps between the rain, the girls ran and played in the rose gardens...

And just as we were leaving, Claire requested a photo with the fountain...and this was her pose...