Playdate dressed as Mulan? Of course!

Who says you shouldn't spend half an hour getting all fancy just to go to a friends house to run around like a lunatic? I'm not sure what the leaf-holding was all about, but somehow she thought that's what was appropriate given the outfit.

School Picture Day!

All dressed up in "winter" uniform for Year 1 class photos today. Thanks to Kelsey for braiding Hannah's hair by request last night so she could wear it "crimped" today for photos.

Another Beautiful Day of Golf by the Ocean

Sydney celebrity sighting

Sitting at the bar next to Richard Branson. Took this shameless photo on the sly with no flash.

First Australian Sleep-over

It's not really our first sleep-over here in Australia since Leila stayed the night when she and Jo visited in Feb, but it's our first one with kids we've met since moving here :) The girls are in heaven. Two other little girls exactly the same ages who also love pizza, cupcakes, popcorn and a movie on Saturday night. But who doesn't, really? Just like old times (but not a replacement for the Somerville/Cambridge/Arlington gang of course)

New Zealand 1

We got away for a family vacation in New Zealand which is every bit as beautiful and unusual as people say it is.  Its impossible to describe the beauty of the scenery, so hopefully the pictures will do it justice.

We flew first to Queenstown which is on the edge of a beautiful mountain lake.  One of the highlights of the trip was riding the luge down the mountain in town.  Hannah was a little reluctant at first but warmed up eventually.  Abbey on the other hand kept screaming at me to GO FASTER from the first minute.

Pre-dinner jog around the lake.  Beautiful, forgot I was exercising.

We spent our second day in Queenstown panning for gold and jet boating.  I don't think there is any way this would be allowed in the States, it definitely feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Started off dry but quickly got pretty wet.

This is a different boat than the one we went on, but is a pretty accurate representation of our ride.

Girls' Weekends

Picking up on a tradition my sister Sandie always had with my nieces, I got away for a girls weekend with Hannah and Abbey, each on a separate weekend.  In both cases, we drove up to the Central Coast for a weekend of fun in the sun on some of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.  It was really fun to spend some alone time with both of them, and blissfully peaceful and quiet with no sisterly bickering to listen to :)

Hannah and I headed off first and found a super cute little hotel with a tropical pool that Hannah basically spent the entire weekend in.

"This is how Daddy sits in the hot tub."

After many hours at the pool and an entire cheese pizza to herself, Hannah braved the Tree Top Adventure Park again (sorry, no photos this time, but see previous post with photos and videos from our trip to the Sydney park).

The next day, we had a pancake breakfast on the beach and then wandered on the sand before heading back home.

After a fun Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber-filled roadtrip, Abbey and Baby Mae and I went paddle boating around a seaside lake before dinner overlooking the beach.

After dinner, Abbey was missing Daddy and sent him a video message.  Its a little hard to hear as the beach birds that keep us awake here in Balmoral are apparently terrorizing the Central Coast as well.

Abbey took advantage of the "anything you want" nature of the special weekend to eat nothing but bacon sandwiches the whole time (thankfully this is one of the most common Australian meals, available everywhere!).  After a salt and fat filled breakfast, we headed off for horseback riding.

Abbey was pretty tuckered out after all of our weekend activities, and assumed her usual position in the car on the way home.