Xmas Photos

Kate arranged for these photos to be taken at the Childcare in Chatswood.

Hannah looking angelic (although not the way she has been behaving over the last few days):

Thomas looking slightly mischevious, like he has just put your wallet down the toilet:

And Zach looking cute:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Clontaf Beach

Into 2012, at it appears that summer has finally arrived. We are off to the beach nice and early, whilst you can still park nearby. Clontaf is south of Manley, looking back across to Spit Bridge, and had has a quiet harbour beach and reserve. Even without the surf, Zach still puts his hands in ears though.

Thomas and Hannah's swimming is coming on well, both of them comfortable in the water and ready to dip their heads under the small waves, or pick up shells from the underwater.

Meanwhile, Zach sits in the beach in the shade, and counts shells into his bucket. Apparently, he saw a fish....

Bundanoon

With holidays coming to a close, we are off southwards to see David & Fiona Ruckett plus Miles & Hugh, at their new investment home in Bundanoon. Set on the perimeter of the Southern Highlands, two hours south of Sydney, Bundanoon is a village getaway from Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra.
With lots of land to play around in with Miles & Hugh, Thomas Hannah and Zach get a good workout including building a pirate ship from scratch (see below).

And with the children pre-occupied, we were persuaded to stay the night (not that it took much pressure). Good wine, perfect barbecue and an incredibly quiet evening - thanks Rucketts!

New Years Celebrations - Sydney 2012

Balmoral Beach

27 December, and Kate has some time off in return for giving me the whole of Boxing Day to watch cricket and drink beer. We are off to Balmoral Beach in Mosman....

Water Play at Darling Quarter

As we are in town for the Australia Museum, and the weather is beautiful today, we stop off at Darling Quarter to visit the Playground, an open air public playground incorporating large water play features. Not really prepared - all the other children are in swimmers and sunshirts, but we will make do. At least there is a towel in the car.

The water play area included several mini-canals including sluices and gates, plus water jets, water screws, scoops and funnels. Incredibly busy, which doesnt bother the tripinos - but makes it interesting trying to watch out where they are going. Cat herding in a cattery.

Incidentally, Arup are environmental consultants for the new 6 star GreenStar accredited Commonwealth Bank office buildings which form the public precinct for developers Lend Lease.

Australia Museum

Kate has been banished - sent to stay with friend Janet in Mosman for a couple of days post-christmas relaxation. There were a few indicators that Kate might be of some well-needed rest when she tried to polish the kitchen table with spray adhesive.

So with Kate away, we need to keep the children engaged. Off to Australia Museum on College Street. The Museum exhibits Australian natural sciences and cultural history from Aboriginal culture, local flora and fauna (and there is quite a bit of that) and so on.

The Kidzone has a series of pods exhibiting insects, sea-life, volcanos etc, and Hannah, Zach and Thomas move from one to another to look at stick insects and spiders under the microscope.

Hannah models her new butterfly wings...

One section of the museum contains a definitive exhibition of Australian birds, insects and spiders. All three really enjoyed this and took time to look at most of the exhibits - at least the ones at their eye level. I'll spare the spider pictures.

Third turkey in three days - one in our garden, one in the park, and another in the museum (it's Brush Turkey (not Bush Turkey, as I have been calling it).

The final section is Search & Discover - an information and resource centre. One of the staff members kindly explained how an echidna eats only ants, and sent them on a 20 minute exploration to find an Echidna feces display. Lovely.

We also discovered that a Zach Turtle can't carry a Thomas.

Captions welcome for Thomas below.

My go.... "Schieß' auf die Fenster!" (You would have to know: (A) Die Hard (B) Some basic German (C) That Tatti, our Aupair, is German).