One Sunday morning this summer, joined by the Bell family, we were lucky enough to experience a king tide at Clovelly.

Clovelly has an unusual layout for a beach. The beach shore is quite narrow and there are rocks and cliffs that extend for a few hundred metres out to sea. In the 30s, as a depression era project, they covered the rocks with a concrete promenade. This is where we, and the sophisticated set, usually sit. The beach is generally crawling with toddlers and covered with family sized tents. The promenade has the added bonus of no sand. I'm not a fan of sand.

On the morning of the king tide, the water was high enough to be washing over the concrete promenade. It was lovely to splash along in the impromptu wading pool. Oscar and Leo (and all the kids at Clovelly) had a fabulous time jumping off the walls of the promenade into the ocean.

The snorkelling was great too. Mum and Dad have started taking jatz crackers to feed the fishies at Clovelly. I always put a few in the pocket of my boardies. The fish follow you around even when you have run out of crackers. On the morning of the king tide even Oscar had a go at feeding the fishies. We had our underwater camera out that day and were able to snap a few photos.



I'm hoping we can fit a few more mornings in at Clovelly before autumn, and cooler weather, actually arrives. Fingers crossed for good weather this weekend...

More photos on Flickr.

Merry Christmas from fushmush! We spent Christmas at the beach this year; you can't get more Australian than that! Pity the weather wouldn't come to play. After a gorgeous Christmas Eve (sunshine, blue skies, 31 degrees) the weather was pretty miserable on Christmas Day (rain, wind, mid-20s). We still managed a trip to the beach though and Andrew and I even went for a swim. I'm still in love with the fact that I can go for a swim at the beach whenever I want.

The rest of Christmas Day was filled with the same stuff as usual.

No presents until 7am. When I was a child, on Christmas Day, I wasn't allowed to go and wake Mum and Dad up until 7am. I also wasn't allowed to touch the presents until Mum and Dad were up and ready to go. We enforced the 7am rule this year with Oscar and Leo. They were both up at 6am though (which meant that most of the house was also up at 6am). The boys were running around excitedly checking to see if Santa had eaten his snack of tiny teddies and VB and the reindeer had eaten their carrots. Surprisingly, Santa hadn't had time to eat all his tiny teddies but did have time to drink all of the beer. I hope there aren't any RBTs up there (don't drink and fly Santa!).



The rest of the day was about too many presents, too much food and an afternoon nap. Well, an afternoon nap for everyone except the 3-year old and the 7-year old. It's funny how naps become appealing again when you're a grown up.

We hope that your Christmas Day was just as fun-filled and love-filled as ours was. Hugs and Kisses fushies!



More photos on Flickr.

This year, we've decided to donate the money that we would have spent on Christmas Cards towards a World Vision Smiles Gift. We made a donation to a child immunisation program

Summer Sydney: Thursday - Summer. Sydney: Thursday - Summer and then Sydney: Thursday - Summer. Sydney: Thursday - Summer.


" We've been spending a lot of time with the boys since we returned home. Since I don't have a job, I'm the perfect babysitter!

The first photo is from Oscar's Christmas Concert. Oscar's class performed a dance to Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground. The girls wore pink wigs and the boys wore sparkly gold waistcoats and headbands. In most photos Oscar looks like he is concentrating hard but in this one he actually looks like he is enjoying himself. "




"The next week we looked after the boys while Annie was at a Christmas lunch. Even though it was a scorcher of a day (31 degrees) we took the boys down to the park. Luckily there are sunshades over the play equipment at the local park so it wasn't ridiculously hot. After an hour or so at the park we headed across the road for lunch at Bitton. The boys had crepes with strawberry jam for lunch. Not exactly a nutritional lunch but guess who loves Auntie Jessie and Uncle Andrew!"




Check out Sue's day at noodlebowl.net and her photos on Flickr.

Gingerbread House decorating, it's a Christmas tradition. I've actually done it every year, except one, since 2003. I think six years of an event means it counts as a tradition. This year, as we were back in Australia, I figured it was time to include the boys in on the tradition.

The boys were great. They were very patient while Andrew and I made the icing and the boys even helped with the sifting of the icing sugar. Leo thought that icing sugar was flour and yucky tasting before Andrew suggested that Leo taste it (I had gone along with the flour comment). After that we had a hard time keeping Leo out of the icing sugar.

Oscar loved the decorating bit of the gingerbread house process. He loved making patterns with the lollies and was keen to cover every single part of the house. I think we did a pretty good job.

Leo wasn't so keen on the decorating and was more interested in the eating. He soon lost interest when we stopped letting him eat the decorations. He did announce that he was going to eat some of the "cake" when we were done. Luckily we convinced him to wait at least until Daddy got home so that Oscar and Leo could show off their creation. (Then we put it out of sight and out of reach of Leo's very sweet tooth).



More photos on Flickr.

Andrew and I are off to Romania for a few days to hang out with Clare, Brendan and Dracula. Here are a few photos from the Bells' trip to London for you to look at while we're gone. I especially love the one of the boys with the bobby. They both look really guilty! I wonder what sorts of mischief they were up to before this photo was taken.






More photos on Flickr.