Happy Easter, and welcome to the family from SA!

Another Easter come and gone. It still feels like yesterday we were running around the AFP K9 site having a huge easter egg hunt. This year it was to Aunty Jo's for a a hunt inside her new house. The boys got heaps of eggs, and it was a lovely morning. We then went and met Mum for lunch before heading to the other side of Canberra to catch up with the grandparents on Dad's side who are house-sitting for a month.

The cousins - from left to right, top to bottom row: Sammy, Cameron, Sarah, Lincoln, Lizzie, Rach, Bec, Carter, Brendan and Will.

We also welcomed some family from SA and that has been nice - especially the visit to the Zoo!

A little Enlightening...

What a fabulous concept - the Enlighten Festival... a bit from the website:

Over ten illuminated nights the whole family can enjoy free and ticketed events such as blockbuster exhibitions and rare films, captivating architectural projections, intriguing live music and performances, stand-up comedy, thrilling tours into the depths of our national attractions, exclusive dining experiences and more.

So the family headed down to Upper Commonwealth Place on Friday arvo with Aunty Suze to experience the Night Noodle Markets and captivating architectural projections. It was wonderful. We were glad we got there when we did (about 1730hrs) as we hardly had to line up for food - AND we got a table and chairs! We parked at Questacon too, so the car was close (which was lucky as we had to don jackets later in the evening as the temperature dropped).

We had chicken and pork kebabs, spring rolls, pad thai and prawn dumplings. Of course the only thing Carter would eat was the prawn dumplings, while Linc chowed down on everything! To finish off we had N2 nitrogen gelato (after lining up for about 40 minutes - lucky it was worth it)...

We loved the 300 coloured boats on the lake, and the architectural projections were stunning; as a bonus treat, the International Space Station flew overhead, so of course we all waved. I'm pretty sure they would've seen the Circle Of Light (laser beams shooting up from in front of Parliament House)...

Nitrogen cloud from the N2 Gelato stand

SUGAR HIGH!!!!

SUGAR HIGH 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Questacon looking amazing

'Patiently' waiting for the gelatos...

A hazy night added to the atmosphere - look at the people!

300 coloured boats to float your boat

Oh, and Happy Canberra Day! We headed down to Patrick White Lawns behind the National Library to see the Octonauts. Well, Octonaut - just Captain Barnacles bothered to show up... lucky we have bought awesome GOLD reserve tickets to see them all in June at the Canberra Theatre! We didn't stay long today though, Carter caught Linc's cold and has had a fever all day. Can't wait till Winter!

And I'm restaining the deck. Big job. But looking good...

Captain Barnacles is on the right...

The 26-Storey Treehouse at the theatre

From words in a book to real-life characters on a stage, the family went to see The 26-Storey Treehouse during the week. The kids really enjoyed it, although the Pirate was a little too 'real' and was quite scary (especially when a shark bit his head off!).

It was such good fun, we have bought the kids tickets to see the Octonauts Live Show in June - Gold seats, so we'll be much closer to the stage this time - Captain Barnacles, here we come!

Routine returns...

Kids at school, Mum and Dad working, we've certainly found a comfortable routine over the past month. Only one blog post for February was a bit slack, but there wasn't much to say.

After the first week at school Lincoln caught a nasty bacterial infection in his stomach, which meant he was sick almost every night and had a week off school. Mum had lots of fun collecting the bar stool sample... Carter also caught a small bug, but only missed one and a half days...

On returning to school, Linc had trouble settling in; it was only last Thursday that he finally didn't cry when dropped off; it was getting quite upsetting knowing that he really didn't want to go to school - sometimes it even made him feel a little ill - but anxiety can do that to you. He seems much better now though, so fingers crossed.

Carter has settled in really well; he is loving school and, as predicted, is having his 'individual' style of doing things constantly tested - he's a stubborn little fellow - it can be very frustrating.

Both boys have started cricket every Sunday morning; Linc loves it, but Carter only likes it when he is excelling at it - otherwise he cracks it...

We went to the Canberra show yesterday; they sting you $10 to park your car in a dusty paddock before you even get close, but that's progress for you... I'm sure it's going to a good cause... the highlight for Carter was the police display, and for Linc it was the motorbikes (although he was excited about seeing the cars, they turned out being too loud and very not fun!)... A couple of showbags later (Team Hot Wheels for Linc and Mister Maker for Carter) and everyone started getting a little tired (plus the crowds started to swell significantly) so we headed home.

Oh, and Dad sold his motorcycle.

Carter's first day at Pre-school

Another huge step for the family come and gone, as Carter has started Pre-school. A fair bit of angst in the lead up to the first day was expected, as was a few tears as we left him in the care of total strangers, in a class consisting of total strangers... but relief as Mum picked him up after his first 1/2 day and the first thing to come out of his mouth was: "Mum! You didn't give me any food!"... Yey! He had a great first day, and today (a full day) was just as good - he actually wants to go back tomorrow!

Linc started in Year One, with a new teacher, and a new group of class mates. Still a big adjustment for him, as he needs to make new friends all over again (what's with that?!) but at least he has some familiar faces in the class, as some of Mummy's friend's kids are in the same class.

So begins school life for BOTH boys, and it will be really interesting to see how Carter's personality changes over the next few weeks, as we remember Lincoln became a little more stubborn, and possibly a little more rough with Carter - but it's all part of a child's development, so bring it on!

Having some fun before heading off to school

A very proud Mum - pretty amazing to see the little man in uniform

Handsome boy and a hot Momma 

At least he won't lose his bag!

Carter made a bee-line straight for the play-do as soon as we entered the class room.

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

Six years old. Wow. Year One this year. Wow. And he loves Top Gear. Super Awesome! But seriously, Happy Birthday Linc - we are so proud of the little man you have become.

To celebrate we organised a party with eight of his school friends at AMF bowling. They had a great time, and it was a real success - especially the amazing cake that Mum made from scratch!

Happy New Year!

2015 has certainly kicked off at a cracking pace (excuse the pun) - a broken rib for Dad while retrieving a toy from the neighbour's yard resulted in over a week off work and lots of pain and heavy pain killers. Apparently I can't jump fences in a single bound like Superman can...

But on a lighter note, we have just returned from the coast where we had our annual three-family beach holiday. And in true style, it poured down for the last two days... Regardless, we still got to the pool and beach, played football, cricket and boccee, drunk a little too much beer, wine and champagne, and the kids did about 1000 km on their bikes... At $1600 for four nights it ain't cheap; but we will likely keep going back as it ticks all of the boxes unlike anywhere else we have looked at!