The last week of January in pictures. Love Instagram!

I'm a bit late with this post, I'm afraid.  I was due to write it yesterday but forgot that we had to spend the day in the city having full medical checks for our permanent residency application for Australia!!  What a process that was!!  But I am happy to report that we are all fit and healthy with no hidden tropical diseases.  We're almost there now - SO exciting.

This week has welcomed back ROUTINE!!!  YEE HA!!  As much as I have really loved having the kids home for the holidays, I was starting to really crave routine again.  The summer school holiday really is a long one.

The last few days of our holidays were a bit of a wash out after what seemed like a years worth of rain decided to fall in a couple of days.  (My heart really does go out to all those poor families in Queensland that have been so badly affected by the rain, with some horrendous flooding).  We were lucky in Sydney to just have a few flash floods.  However living on the coast, the Ocean has given us some spectacular displays with some of the biggest waves I've EVER seen.  It was mesmerising just watching them.  Even the local surfers weren't brave enough to venture out.

A stunning display at Narrabeen Beach

Some rainy day play.  Miss H managed to stay in her PJ's the WHOLE day!  (Ahh remember those days.......)

On Wednesday morning Master J started Year 1!  They mixed up all the classes from last year so not only did he have a new teacher but a whole new class too.  He came out after his first day looking a little shell shocked, but apparently he'd had a very good day.  I had about 50 questions I wanted to ask about his day and had to be very restrained, keeping it to about 5!  Or maybe 10?  "Who was your new teacher?  Was she nice?  Who is in your class?  Who did you sit next to?  Did you recognise anyone from last year??........."  "MUM!!!  Will you just stop with all the questions - why do you HAVE to ask so many???????"  Typical boy - leaving me almost begging for information!!

First day of year 1.  He handled it like a pro

A quick swim after school.  I'm going to miss these days when the winter starts to creep in on us.

Sleeping beauty

Since Master J and Miss H have gone back to school and Kindy I've really enjoyed having my little bubs all to myself.  I'm really going to make a conscious effort to make the most it as I know it'll be gone in a blink!

Caught in a down pour after school!  Why does it always rain at EXACTLY 10 past 3?????

Poor Miss L was less than impressed at being caught in the rain.  By the time we got to the car she was actually sitting in a huge puddle of water!

Fed up of being indoors, Master J decided to brave the angry clouds take a chance of being drenched again to practice his skateboarding.

Miss H's first sleepover over.  Such good little cuties they were.

She is just so kissable!

Routine means my early morning fitness classes have resumed.  Those beautiful sunrises make all the blood, sweat and tears worthwhile!

Ouchie!!

Somebody decided to start crawling this week!  With her very first expedition just when I wasn't looking!!  Typical!!!  I popped her down on a grassy patch next to car while I opened the boot to get her pushchair out, when suddenly I heard the most awful scream!  You know the kind that starts with silence.........  I whizzed round to see that she had tried to crawl off the edge of the kerb and landed head first!  Poor bunny - I think we both had tears.  Fortunately it looked far worse than it actually was!

Did you notice that I have finally got around to getting my photos watermarked??  What do you think??    I have been using an app on my iphone called "PhotoMarkr", which lets me insert my own image as well as txt onto a watermark.  It's really good, although it would be a lot less time consuming if there was an application I could use directly in iphoto on my computer.  Any suggestions would be most welcome.

A hot and sticky week! Love Instagram!

Anyone living in Sydney would know that last week was a HOT one!  Summer really has started with a bang that's for sure.  This is only our second summer in Aus and according to the locals, last summer was appalling.  Being British, I of course, thought it was fabulous!  It might have had something to do with the fact that I was pregnant throughout last summer that I found it so hot - or maybe just because anything above 25 degrees for more than three days in a row is amazing!!  Anyhow it did not leave me prepared for the kind of heat that we had last week!!

Look at Saturdays temps!!!  And all that rain, only fell at night when we couldn't get to appreciate it (except for the grass)

The extreme humidity and high temperatures had us all feeling a bit irritable - especially me and the kids.    I had to explain to Mr D (through gritted teeth) that sitting on a hot (yet air conditioned) bus to and from the city is NOT worse than we have it!!  I had to gently remind him that while he was sitting in a lovely cool air conditioned office, I'm at home wishing I could get away with walking around naked like the kids do!!  

Every time I get in and out of the car (which is about 10 times a day) I can feel the sweat tricking down my back.  Aaaarh, it's so gross!!  No matter where you go you can't seem to find any cool air.  By the time the air con in the car has actually kicked in I'm getting out again!!

On the plus side - the sun has got his hat on and the beaches around here are spectacular!  And so are the night time thunder storms!  There is nothing better than listening to the thunder and hearing the pouring rain crashing down on the patio roof after a really hot and sticky day.  The breeze is orgasmic - really!!

How lucky I am that this is a typical Wednesday afternoon (after school) visit to the beach??

A little bit of cheeky skinny dipping to cool off

Reading the newspaper while mummy has a girly gossip with a good friend (in the shade of course).

Paddling pools are the BEST!

Despite the extreme heat, our first week of summer has been all smiles!!  Little Miss L decided to sit up all by herself!!  A big moment for her, and Miss H and Master J were so excited that she can now sit and play with them.  It's so cute seeing them all starting to interact together.  I, on the other hand, felt a teeny tiny bit emotional that my baby is moving on to the next stage already.  They really do just grow up so fast!!

Feeling very pleased with herself!

On Saturday we also put up our Christmas Tree!  I have been dying to put it up for ages, but am too scared to do it before the 1st of December as I have an irrational fear that bad luck will follow.  I'm not sure where that came from??

Earlier in the week I had a moment where I was feeling a bit lost in all the Christmas hype.  I suddenly realised that for the first time EVER I would not be spending Christmas without my parents!  It's just going to be the 5 of us this year and I don't have a plan!!  As silly as it sounds I kind of feel a bit stuck between English traditions and Aussie traditions and I'm not quite sure where to place us.  I'm so used to having a big family Christmas Day (in the freezing cold) that I didn't know what to do this year!

After watching the kids get so excited surrounded by decorations, I gave myself a stern talking to and have decided that this is the year to start some new Christmas traditions that are just for us!!

The OCD in me had to really try hard not to totally re-do the tree once they had gone to bed

My next hurdle is to tackle the Christmas shopping!!  How is everyone else doing??  Are you organised or have to left it a little bit to the last minute like me??