A week at the Farm

We have just spent a fantastic week at Craig and Lisa's farm which is near Mudgee (4 hours NW of Sydney).  We headed up to the farm on Saturday morning and were joined by Julia and Michael in the afternoon.  Jules got off to a good start by driving the tri-bike into one of the dams a minute after having taken Tess and Tom off the bike.  The following day the tri got a puncture whilst the boys were out touring the property and the day after Jules managed to jack-knife the trailer carrying the tri to the tyre repair man - bad luck clearly happens in 3s!  

The kids had a fantastic week and we spotted cows with around 11 calves, Bot-Bot the sheep, foxes, long-necked turtles, kangaroos, Gary the goanna who lives in the roof of the house, rabbits and a wombat.  

Before the holiday I suggested that given we were at the farm for a whole week the boys should build a cubby house for the kids.  The idea was enthusiastically received and the boys did an amazing job building a massive deck (3m by 3m) on the side of a hill.  It is perfect for cocktail hour and lazy lunches shaded by the trees - oh and the kids quite like it too :)  Whilst the boys were building us girls looked after the kids taking them on 4 wheel drive tours around the farm, fixing swings to trees and teaching them totem tennis (after they persuaded me to relinquish the bat!).  

We spent a day in Mudgee wine tasting with a lovely picnic by the river and we held a birthday party for Tom in the local pub.  This was definitely one of the highlights for the kids with the piece de resistance - an ice cream cake!  

We came back to Sydney late Friday night so that we could spend the weekend preparing for Rae's arrival next Saturday (hooray!) and we had a surprise drinks party on Saturday night for our good friend John Rumbold who has just got his helicopter pilot license - how cool is that!!  

I'm still not mentioning the kitchen but I'm glad to report that I cooked my first meal in it this evening and hopefully we will soon be able to post some before and after pictures - there are just a few glitches to iron out first....