The Tooth Fairy is Working Hard...

Jack has decided that the time has come for the tooth fairy to put her money where his mouth is.

In the last three weeks he lost one tooth:

Then another...

 Then another two!

Another one is wobbly on the bottom too.  At this rate it will have to be pureed food!!

Marcia's New Bub

Marcia decided that instead of partying, she would have a new baby on new years eve!

Needless to say, as soon as we arrived home from Canberra, I was off to meet Juliette.  So gorgeous!

New Years Eve

NYE was a quiet one for me this year.  Justin's mate had his 40th that night so he headed off after dinner, and I put the kids to bed then watched 3D movies with John all evening.  We did make it to midnight.... just!

Canberra 40th

While in Canberra, Justin had a 40th with his Canberra mates.  It was a very relaxed day at Black Mountain Peninsula which had a nice BBQ area and playground.  We cooked a mountain of sausages, the kids played and adults caught up.  It was a lovely day:

And an enterprising icecream truck came and sold all our kids lovely gooey icecream!

Canberra with John

We did a few touristy things while in Canberra this time.  We went to the top of Mount Ainslie which overlooks parliament house and provides great views of Canberra.  Maggie and Kiri had walked up with John, but we met them at the top and drove everyone home.

We did see a strange sight of a swarm of ladybirds.  I'd never seen so many of them together at once:

And if you stood facing the shadow, they would cover you!

We also visited the National Museum of Australia, which had quite interesting outdoor areas:

And then went to the 'Dinosaur Museum' which the kids thought was GREAT!

In the end, it was all too exhausting for Cooper and John...

But Lachlan needed to work off some extra energy in the gym:

Canberra for Christmas

We had a great time in Canberra.  The kids received loads of pressies:

Including the usual mix of superheros:

Sharks:

 And weapons!

 Miranda hosted Christmas this year so we had dinner at her house on Christmas Eve with the rest of the Garnett siblings and families, and then her partner's father hosted Christmas day for us all out on his farm overlooking the Murrumbidgee River.  It was absolutely beautiful, and great to catch up with everyone again.

On the road again

This Christmas was with Justin's family, which meant a drive up the familiar road to Canberra.

Thankfully we were staying at Johns house this time.  So we could avoid towing the caravan!

My Birthday

December is a busy one for birthdays.  Mine started with the kids and Justin giving me pressies.  This year they included gumboots for camping, an ice cream scoop which doesn't fall apart when it goes in the dishwasher, and a very funky kitchen set which has a bowl, colander, sieve, measuring bowl, and 4 measuring cups which all sit inside each other.  Very cool!

My favourite flower is the oriental lily, and we have a single bulb which grows in our garden.  It had shot out a week or so earlier, but didn't open until my birthday!  What a lovely surprise!

Mum and Dad then looked after the kids for the evening while Justin and I went out for dinner and then went for drinks at a friends house.  All in all a great birthday.

Barefoot Bowls

Justin's birthday was a Barefoot Lawn Bowls party.  It was a great day.  We had about 35 adults, and about 20 kids there for the big day and it was fantastic.

  Eric, John and James had all flown in from interstate to attend:

We had great food, souvlaki meat and salads with pita bread, YUM! And after a few quick speeches by Adam and I:

...it was off to play lawn bowls, including a rink they set up and organised for the kids.  Amazing!

Dad was, of course, grateful for the wealth and depth of advice offered by his son-in-law...

And Justin and I had a great day.

Justin's Birthday

My Justin is now a big 40 year old!  My, how grown up he is!

On the morning of his birthday he was woken by excited children with their gifts for him, including a massive box of Nutri Grain (can you guess why the kids were excited??):

As Eric had flown down from Townsville for the big occassion, he was there to share in the festive breakfast!

But before I get phone calls, the Nutri Grain wasn't the main birthday present.  The main attraction was his new Sony SLR camera (from me):

 ...and the camera bag to match from Mum and Dad:

Kinder gets Christmasy

 On Dec 9th, Cooper's kinder had its Christmas party.  It is a family day with sausage sizzle, a kids singer, face painting and balloons for the kids.  Ours patiently lined up for quite a while to get their prized swords.

A few days later, Cooper had his Christmas concert at kinder. So gorgeous seeing all the kids singing.  Cooper thorougly enjoyed himself with a beaming smile for the whole production.

The Christmas Season Begins

Our boys were very excited about December finally arriving and the ability to be able to wear santa hats wherever we went.  Cooper particularly, never took his off.  Hilarious!

Exciting trip on the Train

We had a very exciting outing with the boys the other day when we took them on a train ride (three stops from home!). 
 

Jack's Guitar Concert

A month or so ago, Jack had his 'Junior Rockers' concert at school, and performed in front of all the other music students and their parents.  It was great to se him get up there and show his stuff.  He played 'Chasing Cars' and 'Viva La Vida'.