Summer daze

It's hot. Damn hot. So hot that my hands are melting to the keyboard as I type this.

Sydney got to a whopping 47 Degrees this week and they still decided to play the Sydney International (tennis). At what point do they decide to cancel I wonder!? At least they don't have the humidity like us.

Mooloolaba

We have been at the beach or pool every day. School holidays will be over before we know it and L & H are pumped to be going into Grades 2 and 4 respectively. I only just ordered my school booklist - Gawd I really hope it arrives in time.

I got some divine little things like this from G. He had a little help from my little H who told him what I wanted. Well played and trained kiddo...

Then there is also this spy series... Can't. Stop. Reading. Them. The kids might be literally tearing the house apart but I'm ok, I've got Gabriel Allon to dream read about. I've read all the Ian Flemming 007 Bond books and needed another series. Love a good spy novel! Has anyone else read them or got a suggestion for my next book series? 

I've been eating my body weight in juicy mangos, watching the Crown, reading books and trying to stay sane and cool with 2 kids on school holidays. Were aren't doing too bad so far! Except that miss L decided she also likes mangoes... Le sigh, now I have to share.

We've been to a different beach, waterhole or pool each day.
Mission Beach, Murray Falls, Alligators Nest, Pumicestone Passage, Bribie Island beach, Mooloolaba, Surfers Paradise, our local pool and it's giant waterslide and visiting everyone that we know who has pool, even the slightly warm ones. Thanks guys!

 Surfers Paradise

 Bribie Island beach

 South Mission Beach overlooking Dunk and Bedarra Islands

Murray Falls, Tully 

Ok you get the picture? Our new togs are going to disintegrate from being wet the whole Summer or ruined by sand - take your pick. What are your favourite water spots?

Just a snarky aside...I'm secretly still smarting over missing out on seeing the Queen at Ascot races when we were in England. Hampton Court was wonderful that day...but...

In a similar tone, has anyone finished the Crown, Season 2? I'm sad Claire Foy won't be doing Season 3. I just loved it. I just LOVE Matt Smith as Philip... Just so well done. 5 stars of course! It makes me wonder about Charles and Camilla. Poor Charles, the only way he gets to be king is if his mother dies. It must be hard for every heir.

How do you rate Meghan Markle's sartorial debut as a princess in waiting? I've decided, she's 'safe'. But that doesn't explain what happened with Kate on Christmas Day. Dear DoC, what the flipping heck is going on here? #myeyesmyeyes

My tiara club will need to reconvene as soon as possible to discuss the crime that this coat poses to Her Majesty's subjects. I am just too confused right now. I need time and space.

I missed the second season of Victoria on BBC First. So peevish. Was it as good as the first?

Back to issues of equal importance, my sister and I made this enormous Pavlova. Isn't it luscious and a very Australian thing to do for Christmas. Sugar, egg and cream OVERLOAD!

I think I am inspired to grow roses after visiting a garden recently and I saw THIS thing of beauty.

I haven't put any filter at all on that. My fellow tiara club member & dear friend Faux Fuschia has been explaining how to grow them properly, and I just might! Inspired! Now all I need is Gypsum... is that how it's spelled FF?

I also ate A LOT of red meat and more BBQ sausages with garden salad than I care to remember. G ate more prawns on Christmas day at the buffet than I thought was humanly possible.

Seriously, if I keep this up I won't be fitting into any of my clothes except my maternity nighties or those sequinned Camilla thingies. The gym will have to wait until school goes back.

But then again, I will aways fit my handbags and shoes and maybe a tiara - ha!  

xo

#travelwithkids

Recently as you may know, I sold my business. Working in Hospitality I learned a few things...like how rare it is to spend quality time with your family.

I finally have got the family back into something of a normal routine. My littlest one is in Grade 1 which is possibly the cutest grade. I have enjoyed doing tuckshop, maths rotations, going to assembly, reading, sewing and generally being much more present and "in the now".

 "Red" themed disco and how she gave out KitKats - NB very popular move

We booked a very last minute trip around the world for 6 weeks for most of term 4! And just like that...off we went with very little planning except for flights and accommodation. We didn't even plan the middle week or so. We'd just see what happened. Time to wing it!

I did a double major in history at university, so I guess I was too busy reading up on the new places we would visit. Plus we'd been to some of the places before, 12 years ago without kids and quite a few less wrinkles/grey hair.

Colosseum, Rome

Traveling around the world for that long with small children seems daunting. But to my surprise, not only did we manage, we thrived!

We saw everything at the usual Nordic glacial pace of small children of course.  Poor little H needed to be carried in London and New York... they are Just. So. Big! We calculated G's pedometer to be about 18K steps...which is more like 36K for her little legs. Poor thing.

Kensington Palace Gardens, London

One main activity each day, lots of rest and time spent in the cities' iconic parks. Who knew squirrels were the key to keeping a child happy during a holiday in the Northern Hemisphere? And chasing falling autumn leaves. We spent A LOT of time in parks blowing off steam.

We booked a last minute holiday, mid holiday. A farm-stay just outside Newmarket! Just what we all needed to break up the travels in big cities.  I highly recommend Rosalie Farm on AirBnB! We were reinvigorated for the 2nd part of our trip. Pop and Richard were great hosts!

Rosalie Farm, Newmarket    

But the best thing to come out of our holiday, apart from the obvious amazing places and experiences we had as a family, was the improved confidence of the children, our appreciation for our family. Seeing them openly discussing their appreciation for the things we DO have and relishing in our happy life. Shaking things up for them was exciting and seeing a slow increase in confidence as a result, was so rewarding. It was little things at first like general self awareness in a large city, to ordering their own meals or getting their own food at a buffet (supervised from the table of course so there were no stray fingers!). Then it became much bigger things like more affection and laughs within whole family. Not to mention the girls making new friends who didn't speak English!


I am guilty of over parenting. I wanted to try to give them some "off leash" time and to learn to just let them be. Grow independently with me in the background as scaffolding if they need it. Amazingly they only fought a handful of times, if that. But they were so engaged and happy to be with their little family doing new things, I don't think it crossed their minds much.

Our trip highlights were...

Santorini
It was just like the postcards, but better. Our view from our lunch table just so happened to be over the famous 3 blue domes. We all agreed it was the best view we've ever seen.

G seeing the Queen! And she eyed him and smiled.
Don't. Even. Ask.
Yes I cried that it wasn't me...bittersweet really. At least he got photos

Yes, yes, I can see you! A rare smile reserved for when she's around horses (and my G obviously!) xo

She's such a gorgeous lady. My hero. 

Westminster Abbey - the girls and I were invited by a priest to sit in the choir seats reserved for the Australian High Commissioner. Not even our Prime Minister has sat there! We have such good travel luck.

Seeing Woody Allen making his new film in Central Park in New York.

The Tower of London, the jewels and my personal tour by a Beefeater - a fellow Ricardian, like me.
Everyone had left the Tower that afternoon because of the sand storm stirred up by a hurricane traveling from the Sahara desert headed towards Ireland. Who would have thought??? Note the colour of the sky and Henry VIII's hilarious armour. No jewel photos of course (rules), but I did see the Koh-i-noor diamond and some of the Cullinans - stunning.

And last but definitely not least. THIS! So much love - just the 4 of us.

We grew as a family. We laughed and played. It makes us more appreciative of our little life together and that it makes us stronger as individuals.

Now we are home, let's hope that we can continue to enjoy this by keeping it simple.

xo