The girls have been busy bees this last week. Scarlett has started enjoying some of the toys that she didn't show a jot of interest in when she was younger. She was consumed for a day last week with seeing how any different shapes she could create with a set of Beatrix Potter building blocks given to her when she was born. Could there be a future architect in the family or a demolition expert? 
Florence meanwhile seems to have suddenly grown into a little girl, helped in part by us putting her into dresses Scarlett cast off years ago. She looks adorable. 
Scarlett loves having a little sister to show stuff to, and when she isn't pushing Florence out the way, holding her head under the water or jealously sulking when Florence and I are having a cuddle, she loves to show her the books she loves so much. She is working out more and more words every week and is very excited at the prospect of reading by herself. Scarlett has energy in buckets and is always running around in the garden 
(see her chasing bubbles above), on the beach or at the park, but was mowed down by a dreaded lurgy this week and spent most of the early hours of Monday morning vomiting and then laying low for a day. Poor old Rob got up to her from 4am onwards even though he then had to stay awake all day looking after the girls while I went to work and then had to do a night shift that night. That explains why he keeps nodding off on the couch. 
The weather has been glorious again since Saturday. Godfather Brett joined us for ballet on Saturday morning followed by brunch and that night Zoe, Paul, Bella and Duncan came over for a dinner of spring leaf salad with fresh peas and feta followed by tomato and prawn stew and ice cream. On Sunday we decided to leave ourselves open and after pottering a bit, and soon getting bored with that, we invited the neighbours in for a last minute bbq. We are really looking forward to seeing my old mate Quancey when he flies in from Perth this weekend and I have been rushing about buying curtains and trying to get the guest room ready. All efforts to get a double bed delivered by Friday have failed, so it's the old blow up bed again, I'm afraid, mate. He's slept on worse. Once won a trip to see us from the UK, he came camping with us and had to sleep on the cold, hard, damp earth. This made for an uncomfortable night's sleep for us too as we had to listen to all his complaining. We will certainly be packing it all in while he's here as we have a lunch with friends from NZ on Saturday, plus a dinner out that night and a lunch on the Sunday. Lorks!
The next day it was pouring with rain and while Rob entertained the girls I got stuck into preparing lamb shank pie for a late lunch with our neighbours - 7 adults and 4 kids. 
This soon swelled to 9 adults when Laura, our newly discovered neighbour, saw Bretts' car outside and knocked on the door to say hello. Soon she and her fiance Ben, a navy diver bomb disposal expert - I know, that's what I said - had joined us around the table, too. It was chaotic with so many people but brilliant fun and great to live in a house that has the space for gatherings such as these. The pie was a triumph. 
Flo was super cute poking out her tongue at people and then sitting quietly looking at books, while her nutcase older sister amused everyone with zany outfits including running into the room dressed in her swimmers and goggles, just for a laugh. I don't know where she gets this show off attention-seeking behaviour from.....
As well as the wonderful food and wine, it was lovely to catch up with old mates, have a good laugh with some chefs and to see my name in very large letters on a big screen when my fellow reviewers and I were applauded for all our hard work on the book compiling restaurant reviews. Smashing. I started with champagne then switched to cosmos, then to wine, back to champagne, cosmos again - you get the idea. Scarlett called out at 4am having a nightmare about her new ballet shoes and then the javelin landed in my skull. I'm never drinking again - you read it here first. It does not help that I have a streaming cold and possible temperature - that could always be a hot flush, of course.
movie in - Tina Fey's pretty funny 
It seems due to some new politically correct laws, we are no longer allowed to push children up chimneys . Feeling more energetic on Friday, and no longer attached to my pain killers, I arranged for friends to visit on Saturday afternoon and for other friends to come for dinner that night. While the friends - Kendall and Richard - are super of course, I was exhausted before they even arrived and played an under-whelming game of TP, managing only to correctly answer questions relating to Catherine Zeta-Jones. Must be my Welsh heritage. Despite feeling pooped on Sunday morning, I dragged Scarlett off to soccer skills before disappearing off for a sleep at lunchtime and Rob dressed Scarlett in her favourite ballerina dress and wings and took her to Maya's 1st birthday party. 
Today, with Rob sleeping off a night shift I packed sandwiches and took the girls on the tram for a ride into the city to visit the Chinese Friendship Garden. 
Built to commemorate Australia's bicentenary in 1988, it also pays homage to the large Chinese population in Australia and in particular, Sydney. It was absolutely gorgeous with lots of peaceful places to sit and look at reflection pools, waterfalls and ponds, lots of massive fish and a lovely tea garden to sit in and feed the fish while enjoying steamed dim sim and Chinese tea.
slightly more successful ballet class for Scarlett who only had to be talked into dancing for the first 20 minutes of the 30 minute class, before finally joining in, and then only with Margaret the 56-year-old teacher. In the afternoon we went in to see our next door neighbours Kirsty and Simon for a bbq. Scarlett and Gabe play so well together we hardly saw them and Florence and two-year-old Charlie pottered about in the garden. Watching the kids play swingball, took me back and made me feel old all at the same time. The grown-ups in the meantime settled in for an afternoon of Singapore Slings, thanks to the generous donation of bush limes from another neighbour, while the sausages and chicken cooked and the potatoes roasted. When it was time to eat the kids all sat together at 'the kids table". My god, it really doesn't seem that long ago that I was sitting at such a table, when mum and dad had friends over to our house. After dinner they jumped in the bath together before being snapped, ensuring embarrassing incriminating photos to be produced at 21st birthday parties in the future.
On Saturday night Rob and I booked our babysitter and went out on a date. We realised recently that it had been years since we had been out for dinner when we weren't with other friends or the girls or reviewing restaurants. We booked two seats at the counter of the fantastic Glebe Point Diner, a new place in Glebe that has received terrific reviews since it opened. High demand meant earlier attempts to get in were impossible. We started off out on the deck with blankets over our knees sipping champagne before going inside for duck, rabbit, chocolate mousse and other comfort food. Apart from the food, what we enjoyed the most was that, as it's only a suburb away from our house, we were able to walk there and back through a lovely harbour front park. 
Once again, Scarlett was really looking forward to it and was great practising her ball control skills, but as soon as the kids were split into teams to play she was having none of it. While she stropped about the edges of the pitch, we caught up with some mates and drank coffee. Florence in the meantime seems like a natural, and I am officially a 'soccer mom'. The weekend finished with our friends the O'Briens and the McPhersons coming over on Sunday afternoon for drinks. 
It was perfect for a morning of shell collecting, sand castle construction and paddling and, for Florence, her first walk along the beach since getting on her feet. Here are a few pix of our beach trip and our house.
