Vivid Sydney

Today we headed into Sydney for another wonderful family day. We started with a ride on the ferris wheel at Luna Park. We got great views from up top.

After Luna Park we walked across the Harbour Bridge. The girls were a little nervous about doing it but did really well.

 We climbed up the tower and peered down at the gorgeous city below.

The bridge tower also allowed us to get some panorama photos of the city.

This one shows the Opera House on the left and Balmain all the way on the right.

We stuck around for dinner downtown and then enjoyed the lights of Vivid Sydney - an annual celebration that transforms major downtown landmarks into colorful canvases for ever changing art. 

We took the ferry ride home and enjoyed the lit up bridge and the full moon. It was a magical night and we still made it home by 7:30!

And here are a few last photos from the Balmain East ferry stop. I just adore this city.

Week in review

This week Tessie's class led the lower school assembly. They introduced the speakers, spoke into the microphone, performed a few songs and skits and generally acted adorable. Tess walked into the auditorium in tears, clutching a tissue but she pulled it all together and delivered her line well. "Would Ms. Stone please look out for the best listening class to receive Marissa Bear." Yes, we all memorized her line this week. She wore green for her role as a speckled frog on a log and really embraced her role as Zero Zero Super Hero in the counting song. I love that their school encourages public speaking and performance at such a young age. 

The school meets for assembly once a week. Each class takes a turn presenting. They sing a group song as well as the Australian national anthem. The principal also stands up to make announcements and present awards. The teachers give out yellow Merit Awards throughout the year. When a student receives three merit awards the fourth award is a Gold Award and you receive it directly from the Principal. This week both Tess and Emily received Gold Awards. Emily's award acknowledged her "beautiful craft work" and Tess's celebrated her "always being a kind and caring friend." If you receive four Gold Awards you get to have tea with the Principal. Did I mention I love this school? 

This week we also experienced two days of torrential down pours including one storm that took the power out for several hours. Poor Emily has a nasty cough that triggers her asthma at night. It breaks my heart to hear that barky cough return. On Thursday she slept in three hours past her normal wake up time and awoke with a fever. I took her to the doctor and her lungs still sound clear so we think it's just a virus. We kept her home from school for Thursday and Friday and started her up on her steroid treatment again. It has been over a year since Emily had an episode like this but I guess some of that can be attributed to missing a winter. It feels strange to think of June as the start of winter but I guess it's time to get our flu shots again.

In other news, the girls tried out a ballet class this weekend. Many of their friends take dance so I asked around for recommendations and settled on this class. The kids can wear whatever they like, they receive real ballet instruction but they also get some time for free expression where they dance around as autumn fairies while the pianist plays. Both girls loved it and I imagine it will make an excellent addition to our Saturday mornings.

Lovely late autumn

We love Sydney in Autumn. The humidity of summer is long gone. The mornings are a cool 50 degrees but the temperatures get up to the upper 60's or low 70's on most days. We have had an amazing stretch of four weeks of solid sun in May. Last weekend we really took advantage of this.

For starters, we enjoyed brunch outside with my childhood friend Will Sargent. I'm thrilled he had another work trip to Sydney because aside from Brian's parents, and a single dinner with Brian's work friends, he's our only taste of home. Will has been living abroad - first in Sydney, then Paris, briefly Shanghai and now Singapore - for thirteen years so we really enjoyed discussing the pros and cons of international living. I know Will misses his nieces and nephews so he loved seeing our girls and we miss our family as well so it was great to all be together.

On Sunday we headed downtown to enjoy Sydney. We let the girls choose some of the activities and they opted for a snack on the Opera House steps.

Brian and I chose a trip out to beautiful Watson's Bay. We ate fresh fish at Doyles, let the girls play on the playground and enjoyed the views back to the city. Watson's really has it all.

Emily and Brian walked up to the ocean side cliffs while Tess and I played in the sand.

And then we took the ferry back home at sunset. 

It gets pretty chilly outside on the ferry but the view more than makes up for the wind.

And who knew the Luna Park entrance could get any creepier? Lit up teeth. Eeee.

Daddy's Back!

Daddy returned from his business trip and we could not be more excited. Yay!

Out on the town

This month I have resolved to get into Sydney more often. It is so close and so lovely and so much nicer than trying to drive and park and navigate unfamiliar suburbs and malls. Emily and Tess needed new school shoes so I thought it would be a fun outing to go downtown after school to purchase them. 

We succeeded on our shoe search and then took time to check out the Lego displays in the mall. Emily and Tess had no idea why the Star Wars one was interesting but all three of us really enjoyed the depictions of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach.

We capped the evening with a ferry ride home. Now that the days are shorter we could actually see the downtown lights in all their glory at 6:30pm. 

A little help from our friends

Usually I plan a lot of activities and distractions for the times when Brian travels. I lined up a lot of crafts this time but I somehow forgot to line up the play dates and coffee dates to go with them. As a result things were a little too quiet and all three of us felt a little homesick and blue. I shared this with some friends at drop off and I have to say it really helped.

Our friend Liz gave Tess lots of extra snuggles and even brought her a gift of some new art supplies to cheer her up. My friend Anna invited us over for dinner at her house. Anna comes from New Zealand so she knows the pain of missing home. 

Anna remembered Tess mentioning missing hot chocolate so she made special hot chocolate with marshmallows for each of the kids.

Anna also listened attentively to all Tess's stories and laments. 

Tess shared her new art supplies with the other kids. Kate drew beautiful mermaids and ballerinas for the younger ones to color in.

We all squeezed in around the kitchen table and shared a wonderful roast chicken dinner. It felt so homey nice - just what we needed. 

I feel really grateful for our wonderful friends here who take good care of us. Next time Brian goes away (in June) I am definitely going to plan ahead.