Christmas in Anglesea

Happy Christmas to all our family and friends.

We hope you've had as much fun as we have. We've just returned from 6 days in Anglesea in our caravan. We spent lots of time on the beach, rock pooling, making sand sculptures (that's the posh name for building sand castles) and surfing.
Alex and Charlie have been enjoying their surfing, C even went along one morning with Rog on 'dawn patrol.'

Charlie surfing

We took a trip down the Great Ocean, stopped in Lorne and also at Kennet River to do some koala spotting.
Santa managed to find us in the caravan. The kids were concerned the caravan didn't have a chimney but it was OK as there was an ample sized chimney on the gingerbread house we made.

We went for Christmas morning surf then back to the caravan for Rog to cook us our seafood banquet. Prawns, scallops in garlic and mussels in a red wine and chorizo sauce. All with foam and some dehydrated rice of course.

Our caravan and awning, (the big kids sleep in the awning.)

Koala at Kennet River (in the wild, not in a sanctuary)

Charlie and Sam feed the birds

Charlie goes for an early surf with Roger and his surf buddies

Constructing the masterpiece.

In the pool at the camp site

Christmas Eve 

Please note Sam doing 'bunny ears' (Alex didn't realise)

Christmas morning surf 

Charlie with her new bike!

Christmas lunch

Chef extraordinaire

Hambleton Street Community Garden

Hambleton Street Community Garden

Following a visit to NGV Melbourne NOW exhibition earlier this year and seeing the wonderful Urban Commons vegetable garden we came up with the idea of a community garden for Hambleton Street.
We live in such a great street with a strong community and the neighbours were all very keen on the idea.
We applied to the council for a 'Small Poppies' grant and were successful.

Dean (one of the neighbours) of Integrators Australia (http://www.iaust.com.au) offered to design and build the plantar boxes which look fantastic.

We had a working bee to shovel dirt and do some planting.
Now all we have to do is wait for it all to grow so we can eat fresh veggies!

Step 1: Soil arrives 

Step 2: Construction Starts

Step 3: Vito Does some work!

Step 4: Plant

Sam Takes Charge!

Sue, Mary, Sarah & Charlie

Sarah, Charlie & Yuki (from City of Port Phillip)

Job Well Done!

Dean second from left, architect of the fantastic garden boxes.

Christmas at the Zoo!

St Vincent's Family Christmas party at the zoo! Carousel, Bong Su the elephant painting, Santa, dancing, picnic. Lots of fun.

Basketball Success!

It's the end of an era! Patrick, Alex's wonderful basketball coach is standing down. Thank you for your commitment over the last 3 years. Alex was delighted to win the encouragement award.

Charlie's team the Jumping Jacks won the Premiership! So smiles all round (apart from me who was working on a lovely sunny Friday evening).

The Bayblades andPatrick

The Jumping Jacks
Back: Chloe, Zara, Matilda, Emily
Front: Emily, Poppy, Charlie

Weekend in Rye

Last weekend we had a great time in Rye (the other side to where we normally go) with 2 families from school. We did the walk from Cape Schanck to Bushrangers bay with all the kids and saw an echidna and a snake... The kids then all played on the beach and in the river and Rog climbed to the top of Elephant Rock.

Elephant Rock and Bushrangers Bay

Back: Me, Steve, Tuan, Rog, Charlie, Fiona, Andrew
Front: Daniel, Harry, Mr Floppy, Alice, Gracie, Sam

Alice and Charlie make bread

Alice is buried by Kirstie, Charlie and Gracie

2014 City2Sea

Sarah helped organise a team from St. Vincent's Emergency Department in this years City2Sea 15km run.

The team

Proud Kids

Sarah's time

Yarrawonga

What a fabulous weekend!
We went up to visit our very good friends Tan and Brett with their 3 kids: Kyah, Lochie and Benji. What's there not to like? pool, trampoline, lake to jump into and lovely warm weather as well as great company and a spicy drink or two!
My kids just wanted to know 'when can we go back?' on the way home.

Alex, me and Lochie
Charlie, Sam, Kyah, Nan, Tania and Benji

Helen's 40th Birthday Party in the King Valley

We had a lovely weekend in the King Valley in Northern Victoria with our good friends Lisa, Dave, Helen and Rodrigo and lots of kids.
We stayed on a fabulous property on a vineyard with stunning views of the surrounding countryside with the High Country in the background. The garden was great with a trampoline, tree house, swings, fire pit for marshmallow toasting etc etc.

The nibbles platter hit a sticky end as it slid off the table shattering into a million pieces, covering the cheese and dip in bits of glass. Not to worry, we just had to drink champagne without nibbles. Lisa was in charge of the slow roasted pork belly which was a triumph and I made a birthday pavlova.

We had walks through the vineyards and went down to a swimming hole in the King River which was good fun. The older kids enjoyed riding down the rapids on their bottoms.