Picnics in the tree house

 Tess' friends escaping the heat in the treehouse

 Creating a huge whirlpool

Tom's friends in the treehouse

It's been party central at our house this week and the treehouse has been getting a good workout as it is the coolest place for a picnic lunch.  One afternoon a couple of other mums and I sat up there drinking tea and reading magazines whilst "supervising" the kids in the pool.  The kids favourite trick is still to try and create a huge whirlpool - with 7 of them they did a pretty good job.  

As life is beginning to return to some sort of normal I have found time to start baking again and have been using this beautiful tin which Kristie carefully brought all the way from England.  The cakes definitely taste better.  

We've had some new visitors to our deck this week.  This cockatoo and his mate have been spending time in the banana trees and occasionally come up to the deck and peer at us through the windows as if they're visiting animals at the zoo.  

On Friday Sydney had it's hottest day since records began 154 years ago reaching an amazing 46 degrees.  I spent most of the day floating around in the pool staying as submerged as possible.  It was the first time I have found a shortcoming with owning a Kindle so had to settle for the Economist (I like to pretend....).  Poor Squish couldn't get comfortable - I told him he'd be better off in the bamboo but he just glared at me.