Happy Birthday Champ!

Ally returned from the Pan Pacific Masters on Sunday with a silver medal - his team had narrowly missed out on the gold, playing through the final 0-0 until extra time where the other team managed a goal. They were disappointed not to have won, but pleased to have made the final and to have returned with medals, and it sounded as though they had all enjoyed a great 10 days away.

While he was away, the kids and I enjoyed a lovely couple of days with Morag and her family up in Newcastle. The weather was really hot and sunny, so we ventured to their local outdoor pool, where the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and whizzing down the slippery dip slide while we floated around leisurely.

That evening, after dinner when darkness fell, we took a moonlit (and barefoot in some cases) walk into the shopping area near Morag's home to see the Christmas lights. Beautiful!

The next morning Danny kindly looked after the children while Morag and I dashed to the markets - full of wonderful fresh fruit and veg, homemade gifts, yummy treats.... I came home a few dollars lighter ready to scoop the kids up and travel back down to Sydney. Thanks Morag and Danny!

Ally's birthday was on Wednesday and he was treated to Katy's cooking - she has recently purchased a cookbook and is working her way through the recipes - the favourite so far is barbecue spare ribs, so that's what we enjoyed for Ally's birthday meal, followed by a football-pitch birthday cake. Delicious! That day Tom also enjoyed his induction morning at the Bush School - I left him there from 9.45 to 12 and he seemed to have really enjoyed it - he is already very familiar with the school as he is used to taking William there every day, and knows so many kids from both Katy and William's year groups that I am sure he will settle in just fine when the time comes in February.

Katy also was busy this week at school - her school have been running businesses in small groups, and they had their market day on Thursday where they sold off some of their wares to raise money for missions projects. Here she is behind from her stall selling tie-dyed products - theirs apparently made over $80!

Meanwhile our renovations continue, the ensuite is finished and there was great excitement yesterday when the professionals came and felled two large trees in our garden - it's really opened up the space and now we can see exactly where a swimming pool would fit... very tempting indeed now the weather is really warm!

Well, I've just this minute won a bid on eBay for some french doors to aid the conversion of our downstairs garage into a rumpus room, so I must go now and work out how on earth we are going to pick them up within the next few days... they certainly won't fit into our car. I'll leave you with this picture of the wonderful purple-blossomed Jacaranda in our garden (no, we haven't felled this one - far too beautiful!) - they are the most gorgeous trees at this time of year, the brightness of the purple is almost unbelievable (and not actually captured too well in this shot, taken just this minute)...