Weekend Fun

With the soccer season over the boys decided to try out tennis at the local tennis club. Needless to say they were both awesome on the court!

Saint Michaels held their annual Twilight Fair and Stu's chocolate Tart was sold within minutes of the cake stall opening. 

While William spends most of his spare time carrying chickens around, Jack is planning his next move in chess. Check, mate. They couldn't be more different!

Soaking up the October Sun

Even the strawberry plant looked happy to see the sun this weekend. Jack and Sam spent all Saturday at Minecraft bootcamp. The team challenge was the highlight and they all worked together to build and create.

William carried his chicken around all day. When Jack came home we made the most of the sunshine and planted tomatoes and zucchini.

William's chicken barely left his side except when Tori was around. Will has had chats with Tori about how his chicken is for eggs and not for dinner but he realises that Tori isn't responsible enough to trust around chickens.

We stopped by the Living Green Festival and the newly opened Boundless playground was a huge hit with the boys.

On our way home on Friday we decided to track down some geocaches in our area. We came across some particularly friendly horses, kangaroos and TWO caches! 

Broulee Fishing Trip

The best thing about Stu's new job is definitely the weekend time together. The boys have been looking forward to this fishing trip for months and they weren't disappointed. They recounted along the way all the details of their last fishing day-trip and I reminded them that even Grandpa (a fisherman from way-back) has trips where he just doesn't catch anything.

Then of course within 2 minutes of throwing his line out William hooked this massive puffer fish.

William was a lot more interested in fishing this time around. He actually held his own rod for 2 hours both days and could have stayed much longer. He learnt to bait his own hook and caught his own toad fish by dropping his line under the jetty all by himself.

Jack's patience was just starting to wear out when he caught this bream. He was the envy of all the other children (at least half a dozen) on the jetty.

 When we weren't fishing the boys were in and out of the pool. We were so lucky to have 3 beautiful, sunny days 25C+ and we soaked up the warmth.

I asked Jack if he enjoyed his fishing and he said, "It was EPIC and definitely worth the wait!"

9 year Wedding anniversary

Stu and I were feeling a bit sneaky running away to Sydney after work on Wednesday. Jules offered to take the boys for an extended sleep over and we made the most of our 24 hours of freedom. Jules is the best Godmother and BFF!

The view from the room at the Novotel was romantic but we didn't enjoy it for long. I put on my good shoes and we hit the town! 

We ordered some cocktails and dined at Hark Rock. Later in the evening, the bar tenders at The Novotel put on a show as they mixed their signature cocktails for us, complete with European accents.

We awoke to this stunning view and enjoyed every minute of being uninterrupted. The buffet breakfast at the Novotel was amazing. There was a chef to cook your eggs and you name it, they had it and cooked just to your liking. The fruit was cut into perfect little cubes and placed in cute little jars. Even the juice was in little glass bottles. Attention to detail! 

We walked off our breakfast and jumped on the Matilda cruise across to The Rocks. 

Arriving at Aria, we were greeted by 5 waiters. All cheerful and pleasant, "Let me show you your seat, can I get you something to drink?" Within seconds I had a glass of water, an appetiser and some fresh sourdough with 2 kinds of butter. It seemed like we had the best table in the house. Look at the view!

For Entree I ordered the Smoked white sweet potato with from age blanc and Sterling caviar and Stu had the Raw Hiramasa kingfish with beetroot, lime and horseradish. Both dishes were absolutely devine! I had to stop myself from, 'Oh wow!' every time something came out.

For main Stu ordered (above) the Cervena venison fillet and crepinette with japanese pumpkin, red witlof, black pepper and riberry sauce. I had the Murray cod with sour blueberries, guanciale and rosemary. Stu said the venison was his favourite dish.

Dessert was Passionfruit crumble soufflé with macadamia nut gelato. Stu ordered the Valrhona chocolate ganache with raspberries and warm chocolate donuts (below).  Every mouthful of every dish was just amazing but the chocolate donuts were my favourite... lucky for me, Stu is good at sharing!

The service didn't end with the last course. Petit fours were so beautiful we didn't want to eat them and they all tasted just as good as they looked.

9 years of a lifetime commitment, done!

Chickens!

William loves animals and he was very excited at the prospect of getting some chickens. He helped for a couple of hours to put the coop together and strategically picked out the best layers from trash and treasure based on size and colour. Both boys decided that girl chickens would be best as they both love eggs for breakfast every weekend.

It was love at first cluck and Will's chicken, Spring spent more time being carried around and patted then it did in it's cage for the first few days.

It was quickly decided that the chickens needed more space to be chickens so the boys tore up Bunnings and got to work on their construction.

Stu had SO MUCH help but he was still drilling into the night. It was a massive surprise when the boys woke up to view the completed cage.