Marble Madness

Not sure who has more fun with this... Ethan or me :-)

Emily's Last Day at Turner St

Emily's 4 year old kindergarten has been such a great experience for her. She made some great friends there and so have we. Ruth is an extraordinary teacher, and Emily has missed her a lot since school finished.

The school did a great job putting together a special last day of school. They held a Christmas Concert to finish the year, and then Santa Claus brought them a cup with all the kids names on it. Afterward, Emily gave us a gift as well: a book of all the work she did throughout the year. It was a really nice ending to a great year. We will miss you Turner St!

Here's a few selected pictures from the full set:

Christmas Concert



Our Gift from Emily



Inside the gift



Saying goodbye to her teachers



Related posts:
Birthday at Kindergarden
Class Pictures

Christmas at Parliament - 2009

Over the Christmas holidays, we were lucky enough to be invited by a friend to the Parliament Christmas Family Fun Day. The event was held in the private Parliament Gardens, which was special and absolutely beautiful. They had so many things for the kids: jumping castles, fire engines & police cars they could sit in, face painting, a visit from Santa Claus and his sleigh, and they even crashed the neighboring lawn bowls party.

Here's a few selected pictures from the full set:

With Santa Claus (who gave them presents too!)



Inside the fire engine (and got to meet the local firefighters)



Emily's favorite was the jumping castle. We had to drag her away to go home :-)

Kids Christmas Picture 2009

Several others on flickr too

Little Artists

Emily and Ethan both love doing any sort of art. Here's some action shots :-)

Their face paintings were done by Sue!

Decorating the Tree - Christmas 2009

Some (late) pictures from the family decorating the Christmas tree last year:

Sarah's friend Alex is helping us, too.



The kids



Sarah



Ethan



Emily

Emily the Belly Dancer

A few months ago, Emily got a belly dancing outfit as a gift from Sue's mom. It was great timing because Emily is loving to dress up now!

The Pose



The Dance

Flopsy Returns!

In the birthday package, Mom and Dad also sent my childhood buddy, Flopsy! Its so much fun for me to see my kids enjoying my ol' buddy as much as I did!

Flopsy Arrives



New Friends

Emily's Wall Calendar

Sue has involved Emily to help her plan her own 5th birthdya party. Being involved has made it that much more fun for Emily (and Ethan!). The hard part, though, is that Emily is so excited and just can't understand how long she has to wait! So, Sue had a great idea to post a calendar for Emily to do her countdown.

Each morning when Emily wakes up, she puts a sticker on her calendar and ticks off the day. On the calendar, Sue marked Emily's actual birthday and the date of the her birthday party:



Emily liked the calendar so much, she made her own to put it up on her door. She even stuck some tack to put a pen up next to it:

Presents from Mimi and Pop-Pop

Somehow, in the midst of moving, unpacking, travelling, and everything else they've done the last few months, Mimi and Pop-Pop sent some presents for Emily again this year. I don't know how they do it, but Emily was sure excited to see them!

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Surpise!



The Unpacking



Beloved Lion Costume!

Halloween 2009

Thanks to Leah, one of our incredibly great neighbors, the kids on the street were able to celebrate Halloween again this year. They even "postponed" Halloween a day for us, since Sue and Sarah arrived back from Tasmania on the 1st of November.

So, although we missed the pre-event bbq this year, the kids still went trick or treating down the street. It's amazing how much candy they can bring back from just a few houses!

The full set of pictures is here.

The Group



Before... (not sure why Ethan has the fake-frown, just being his silly self I think)



Scared?

Emily's Presents from Sarah

Sarah is such a good big sister for Emily and Ethan. She saved some of her hard earned Toys'R'Us money to buy presents for Emily's birthday. She bought her the latest Ariel movie and a musical card. Emily has already watched the movie 3 or 4 times and carried her musical card everywhere. I think Ethan's barber especially enjoyed hearing the music 10 or 20 times :-)

We love you Sarah! Thanks for being such a great big sister!

Tasmania

Sue and Sarah just came back from a trip to Tasmania. Poor Sarah was forced to spend some time bonding with her mother, since the area had no mobile phone coverage, no texting, no internet... I'm sure it felt like the dinosaur ages to her. Maybe that was like how families used to be? Joking aside, I know they had a good time together in a beautiful part of the world.

Rather than flying, they took the Spirit of Tasmania. They had a nice dinner, watched a movie, and had a nice cabin to sleep on their way (and back). They left Wednesday night and arrived to port in Tasmania on Thursday. They let you bring your car, so you're able to drive straight on and off the boat and don't need to mess with getting a rental car.

They spent all of their time (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) near Cradle Mountain. Cradle Mountain is a a great place to do some hiking, visit the caves, and relax in a nearby hotel and spa. Here's some pictures from their trip:

My Favorite



Wallaby!



Beautiful Ladies

Birthday at Kindergarten

One of the traditions at Emily's Kindergarten is to celebrate all of the kids' birthdays. They use a fake birthday cake and light 5 real candles for the kids to blow out on their birthday. Afterward, the kid's family brings some sort of treat for the class (we brought donuts for Emily's)

Class Pictures

Emily has made such good friends at her kindergarten, it will be sad to see it come to an end soon. Here's a few of her school pictures:

Class picture (she's 3rd from right, on bottom row):

Duck Sitting

Sarah brought home her friend's ducklings for a few days:

Unicorn Party

A few pictures from Emily's friend's birthday party:.



With her friends, Gracie and Daria:



Again, with Gracie:

Visiting Shepparton - Sept 2009

After our ski trip, we stopped over in Shepparton for a quick visit with Sue's parents.

Snow Trip 2009

The kids had a great time going to the snow this year. Unfortunately, Sarah didn't come with us, but she probably had more fun resting without us.Emily tried skiing a little bit, but enjoyed the sledding much more. Ethan also had fun sledding and make snowmen with Emily. We also had a great time sharing the trip with Mark, Sandra, Tom, Max, and Lucie. Thanks for the invitation guys!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Mt Hotham (the full set is here):

Ethan's 3rd Birthday

Here's a few pictures from Ethan's 3rd birthday:




Presents from Mimi and PopPop: