This week has been all about mobility. The mobility of my new iPhone, that is. Not only have I been emailing, texting, web surfing, twittering and keeping the children entertained with games, I have been trying out various apps that turn my newest toy into one of my oldest toys: a Lomo camera.
Ah, random acts of photography can not help but make me happy.
Last year our wedding anniversary was a big deal. This year it was a much more low-key affair. We started with cocktails at the Gin Garden, followed by the banquet at Neil Perry's Spice Temple. It was fitting that we should eat Neil Perry food for our anniversary, because his kitchens catered our wedding. The food was sublime both times.
Zac is not the world's most graceful child. He is skinny and kind of bony. And yet when he dances in the school play each year, choreographed by the school treasure Ms B, Zac is all angular shapes, bodylines and intensity. Last night he shone, with the concentration and engagement written all over his face.
Beautiful kid.
My New Year's project of getting the children to share a room, which involved redecorating Zac's room, buying and painting beds, re-hanging pictures and doing an internal overhaul of the built in wardrobes so that everything fit, was finally finished this week. And it's only November. I have cursed myself several thousand times for setting myself the stupid task of decorating a kid's room, when in reality, as long as they have beds with sheets on them (actually, sheets probably optional) they would have been happy.
Still, we had the house measured for insulation the other day, and one of the consultants walked past the room and said 'if I was a kid, I'd want a room just like that'. It made me happy. And I think it makes the kids happy too.
When I put my hand up to help with the recipe book project for the kids' school, I had no idea how much work I was getting myself in for. Now that it's here, in printed glory, including photos, recipes, words and lots and lots of love from yours truly, it all seems worth it.
It is a beautiful thing, the product of a big team effort. The best part (and the original reason I volunteered) was to meet other parents from the school, which I did. And now we are bonded by a desire never to look at a recipe book ever again mutual respect and friendship, so that's a result.
And does that little girl look familiar?
All my writerliness has been headed in the direction of my University essay these past weeks. I wonder if you can pick the topic.
We had Stella and Leo over for a Hallowe'en dinner (eating Soy's fabulous pizzas) and then went trick or treating amongst our neighbours. The kids were overwhelmed with sugar, facepaint and excitement.
We're relishing our last day of the school holidays with cupcakes and videos.
After spending the morning forming a rock band (mostly just percussion and vocals), the kids and I spent the afternoon making cupcakes, decorated with tiny M&Ms and sprinkles. Now they are watching Peter Pan.
The sugar crash is still to come...
We finally found bulbs to fit the 60s soda water siphon I bought off eBay, so yesterday the kids and I used the last of Grandad's lemons to make fizzy lemonade. Zac was the juicer, Nell the sugar-syrup stirrer. Consensus was that homemade lemonade is 'better than Solo'. No higher praise.
We spent yesterday morning at the Sydney Children's Festival at Carriageworks. Go. It's fantastic and free, filled with craft projects for kids using materials from Reverse Garbage and performances for littlies. Who wants to stay home and read a book with Mum when a 20-something with crazy hair will read it while you sit on a beanbag?
