Bula, Bula

Hi everyone, we're back from beautiful Fiji.  It was so much fun and hot and sunny (well there was that one day of torrential rain and cyclonic winds).  Lots of magical moments with our family and the two families we went with.  I highly recommend holidaying with family friends, especially if they have children of the same or similar ages, it just works really well for both adults and the kids.

While the trip wasn't without its challenges given our little one's aversion to being away from his home comforts, all of us had a wonderful time doing wonderful things like ...

Family snaps with both Mum and Dad.

A bit of Kava drinking for Dad.

The boys "got jiggy with it" Polynesian style.

Looking at "fishies" in a glass bottomed boat (don't recommend this if you suffer from claustrophobia)

Dad and the other dads caught us dinner one very early morning, it was delicious.

Of course there was plenty of pool work.

Followed by some Sudoku with Dad.

Lots of sitting here where we read and enjoyed the following view:

Wherever you love, I hope you are having a lovely day. See you soon.

The Best of Intentions

***

Ah, life it can get so complicated sometimes can't it. 

Especially if you have a child with special needs.  We decided to intensify our little man's therapies both at sessions and at home, and exhausting as it has been for me with his "homework" and taking him to and from his therapists, the fatigue has been worth it as we have seen a remarkable leap in his development.  He is a real little star and we love him to bits.

We are about to start phase two by bringing a therapist into our home for 10 hours every week.  The idea is that by the time he starts school in 18 months that he will no longer need the "shadow" he currently has at preschool and that he will have caught up with his peers.

As it turned out despite all the best intentions of keeping up my daily posts, if only to provide a bit of "me" time with pretty pictures, it became impossible to keep abreast of other blogs let alone keep mine up to date.

But I do miss you all both my readers and also the blogs I like to read and I am determined to  return to the blogosphere. So, I'm back but it won't be daily and it may not even be weekly or monthly but rather intermittently, I hope you don't mind.

In the meantime, here are few pretty things that I'm loving a lot:

To carry my bits and bobs

By day

And by night

It was really wet a few weeks ago

Wishing it was summer

We're off to Fiji in a fortnight, this would be lovely for evenings

Sexy Scandi style

The most stylish height chart ever

And just to end the post with some family stuff:

The boys on their first day of school earlier this year

Comparing their Easter egg finds

On a day trip to the Zig-Zag Railway in the Blue Mountains

Have a happy day and see you soon.

Holidays Are Here

We're off and running on our end of year fun. 

The boys have finished school for the year, L starts kindergarten next year which means 5 days a week for him, wow big school and J continues 2 days next year at preschool.  This means that for the first time in almost 6 years I will have child free days.  I can't tell you how excited I am that I get to spend 2 days next year doing anything I want without a child asking me for my attention. Yeah!

In the meantime we started our Christmas celebrations last week with school concerts and school carols night.  Our Xmas street party was on Saturday in our corner park and then F and I went to friends' Xmas drinks on Saturday night.

It is so warm and sunny at the moment, so both days were spent swimming and eating lost of salads and fruit.

Ah Christmas in Australia, I don't think there is a better way to celebrate it than enjoying parties on balmy nights and days by the water.

I hope your end of year celebrations are being enjoyed as much as we are.

Have a happy day.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Question: What does a 5.5 year old do when his Mama is scolding him.

Answer: Look her straight in the eye and ask her: "Do you think I'm cute?"

Portugal

Oh dear, I've been AWOL, haven't I? So sorry, been terribly busy around here with the little ones, overseas guests, lead up to Xmas and end of our school year.  The beach has been our go to place lately, so who wants to sit indoors at a computer.

Will be slow here over the next few months and I'm thinking of refocusing my blog for next year, how?  Not sure.  I appreciate your loyalty, patience and friendship so I hope you will stay with me.

I finally downloaded and sorted through my photos from our Portuguese leg of our holiday back in August!  Most are of  extended family shots and due to the extreme heat (35C-40C) every day that we were there, not much site seeing was done, we spent a lot of our Portuguese holiday by the beach and pool.  The boys were not interested in site seeing either so we accepted that fact and just enjoyed the trip as a summer holiday rather than a cultural holiday.

So a few shots of some things we got up to in my ancestral lands.

Roman ruins of Conimbriga

The university city of Coimbra

The boys and I with mum and her brother overlooking the Coimbra from his penthouse garden

A Bronze Age hut just outside my mum's childhood town

Praia Grande, near Lisbon which had a 100 metre pool

Lisbon

A night at a bullfight in Lisbon which is done on horseback, the dressage horses are beautiful and amazing(while the bulls are not killed in the ring, the animals are still hurt, so I felt squeamish and guilty) and yes that is a man throwing himself at a bull, they are known as forcados

Picnic with all my aunts, uncles and cousins

I'll be back soon.

Have a happy day and Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers.