Sculptures by The Sea

We had the best time exploring Sydney this weekend. William was particularly excited about having high tea at the Guylian Café at Darling Harbour. The boys were impressed with the afternoon tea and the proximity to the water playground.

We walked and walked around the aquarium and enjoyed dinner at The Hard Rock Café which was decked out in everything Halloween.

The aquarium has changed quite a bit since the last time we visited. There were so many interactive displays.

On Sunday we headed off to the Sculptures at Bondi. It was a perfect day for a walk along the beach which meant there were thousands of people so it was smart planning that we caught a taxi to avoid car park and foot traffic issues.

The boys enjoyed the walk but they were eager to get to the beach. The water was icy cold but it didn't slow them down, after an hour of swimming we had to call it a day.

Florey Life

Our time in Florey is almost at an end and we will really miss it. Grandpa has taught us so much about life from his perspective. He enjoys feeding the birds but doesn't like the cockatoos too much. Jack and William love it when he lets of the fireworks in the front yard to scare them away.

There has been some competition for the Kitchen Aid at times. Grandpa loves my red kitchen aid so he gave me this antique mix master to use when I was baking for the school fair. 

It was the first year that Grandpa was able to come along to the school fair and he was very impressed with the community spirit. He enjoyed having a chat to the plant sale man and watching the kids gamble their money away on the chocolate trailer. Grandpa helped William to win the Tombola and Jack hung out with his friends.

Every few weeks Grandpa and Wendy make Chinese dumplings and they are just delicious. Grandpa rolls out the dough while Wendy carefully folds them. The automatic dough roller on the kitchen aid has really sped up the whole process. Grandpa is a professional dumpling dough cutter.

Selling and buying a house has been exhausting and stressful and it would have been much more difficult without Grandpa letting us stay with him for a while. We are very lucky to have such a great family!

Theodore Anderson Motbey-Joyce

 

Theodore Anderson Motbey-Joyce was born on Saturday 28th October. Weighing 8pounds 14 ounces. Little Theo is very sweet.

SOLD!

It was a cloudy day when we went along to our second auction. We were the second highest bidders at the last auction we went to so after all the research I had done I knew we were good contenders for this one. We arrived early to find another bidder had already registered and it wasn't long before there were another 4 registered bidders. Everyone had children and there was a bit of a playful, bbq atmosphere amongst the children playing in the yard while the adults all sized each other up. 

The boys were completely mesmerised by the auctioneer and Stu opened up the bidding. For every bid someone dared to put in he quickly rebutted with another 5000-10000 like a crazy person. The bidding went right up to our limit and stopped just like it was meant to be. We were overcome with excitement. Jack and William were left speechless.

The house is absolutely perfect in every way. The floor plan flows beautifully and there's plenty of light and space. The boys will have their own large bedrooms with a large rumpus room seen above. The bathrooms are perfectly planned with separate toilet and showers. The kitchen is oversized which will allow us to all be cooking together at once and the breakfast bar is perfect.

When we left our house in Holt we all agreed we wanted something just like what we had but bigger and this is definitely the one. We don't need to do anything at all before we move in which makes everything so much easier.

The yard is a good size and everything opens up and flows beautifully. 

I predict many family gatherings right here under the pergola. It's just so lovely right down to the kookaburras on the front door.

Happy Holidays

Happy 11th Anniversary

We celebrated our Wedding anniversary in style this year. William really wasn't happy about the thought of going up in a helicopter and Jack said "I don't want to go" but once they had the safety talk they were both good to go.  

It was amazing how quickly we were up over Canberra and seeing all the sights.