Happy Easter!

Tess looking indulgently at her little brother

For the first time in a long while we spent the Easter weekend in Sydney.  We had planned to go up to Lightening Ridge for the Great Annual Goat Race but decided Tess' car sickness and Tom's "it's taking a long time" 5 minutes away from home wasn't compatible with a 9 hour drive to northern NSW.  Due to Anzac Day we've had 5 days of holiday and we were concerned that we'd feel we'd wasted the time by staying at home but in fact we've had a brilliant time.  We've been remarkably reclusive for us, only catching up with the Reids on Thursday afternoon, and the rest of the time we've hung out as a family so it's really felt like we've been on holiday whilst maintaining the comforts of being at home - the last time I felt this relaxed was when we were in Fiji last year!  

Tess & Olivia at Manly Beach at sunset

One thing I've noticed this holiday is how much more grown up the kids are.  On Friday there was a free Hoopla festival at Darling Harbour which consisted of lots of acrobats and street performances.  We went along with the kids which historically would have included complaints and bribery to get them there and back but this time we all enjoyed ourselves.  The kids were particularly intrigued with the trapeze artists and loved the slapstick humour of the show - they're still talking about it!  


The Royal Easter Show is a famous Sydney event which we have never been to partly due to the age of the kids but also because I really don't like huge crowds.  Saturday was a rainy day and Jules convinced me to brave the show on the basis that most people would be sheltering at home.  The show takes place at the Sydney Olympic Site and has a Farmyard walk with huge sheds of cows, goats, sheep, chickens, horses, lots of different farm type shows including sheep shearing, sheepdog trials and wood-chopping.  We were lucky enough to watch the World Championship Wood Chopping event for 2011 - the woodchoppers are huge and it's a wonder they don't chop off their legs as they stand on top of a massive tree trunk and chop it in half.  There are also lots of rides and the kids had a brilliant time on the roller coasters, water logs, wurlitzers and other "stomach-in-your-mouth" type rides.  

World championship wood-chopping

You can see the rain!

That's my stomach trying to come out of my mouth!!

Just prior to a drenching on the log ride

Tom on the Quad Bike ride

The weather has been changeable this weekend - one minute raining and the next beautiful sunshine.  The water is still incredibly warm (22 degrees) and so during the sunny moments we've taken the kids down to Manly beach to do some boogie boarding which they have suddenly both developed a passion for (annoyingly at the end of summer!), proving themselves to be completely fearless in the waves, and not bothered by being dumped.  Each morning Tom has begged us to take him surfing (having watched the movie Surf's Up he reckons he's graduated from his boogie board) regardless of the horizontal rain - his argument is you get wet being in the water so it makes no difference if it's raining!  The kids have also spent time practising on their scooters and skateboards and they're both getting really quite good.  Tom has been learning to balance on his skateboard and push himself along whilst Tess can now do jumps on her scooter.  

Tom learning to skate along

Tess on a wave, Tom heading out to get one

Time at home but on holiday has meant Tess and I have been able to indulge in a bit of cooking using her new Italian Cookbook "The Silver Spoon for Children".  We've made pizza dough a couple of times recently and Tess' confidence in working with dough has really come along so we decided to make a focaccia for lunch which was absolutely delicious and combined with the other deli delights I'd bought, including a nice sparkling Semillon, made us feel like we were on holiday in Italy (almost!).  Whilst the dough was rising we made a raspberry bavarois for dessert that evening (Tess' new favourite dessert) and for dinner we made our own tagliatelle - yum!  Whilst making the bavarois Tess asked me what gelatine was - when I explained that it was jelly she said "some people don't like jelly because it's made from animal hoofs but I don't care, I really like it".  

An Italian-inspired lunch

The focaccia maker!

Other pleasures have included endless games of Boggle with Tess, making Star Wars Lego with Tom, Fragger on the iphone (for Tom and Jules only!), doing a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle of the world (the kids gave up after the first 90 pieces but Jules and I spent an hour finishing it off with a few glasses of wine!), watching the children playing their "let's pretend" games and having lots of quality time together as a family.