We sold our much loved house in Leichhardt on Saturday. It was soooo tense. We spent the morning trying to put it out of our minds by having a long bike ride with the girls around the bays. When we arrived at the auction at 2.30pm on Saturday the street was already filling up with people but we only had one registered bidder. We hid out at number 19 where our friend's and old neighours Rob and Freya live with Martin and Drew and Dave and George and waited for the auctioneer. He advised that the woman who had registered didn't know she was the only serious bidder and Julie our agent agreed to walk among the crowd chatting to people to give the illusion of there being more bidders. At the last minute a second person registered to bid so we knew we had a bidding war to come. As soon as the auctioneer started, the woman started bidding, then the bloke bid, then she bid again and then it all stopped. The auctioneer was racing ahead with all the 'going once, going twice' nonsense when our agent walked up to the woman who had the bid and said 'will you bid more and it's yours?'. She said "ok then" and that was that! It was all over in about 5 minutes. We all piled back into Rob and Freya's for the rest of the afternoon and evening celebrating with sausages and champagne, not before putting in an offer on another house. We will hear back today whether the offer has been accepted or not. 
and at the pool, jumping in the deep end.
This week I took Scarlett to see her first film at the cinema. Rob had tried once before with Ratatouille, but strangely the old lady who appears at the beginning of the film with the shotgun scared her. As Horton Hears a Who is a G rather than PG certification, we were assured there would be no shotguns. Dr Seuss books are very popular in our house, and this adaptation of the book was a cracker. Scarlett insisted we sat in the back row for the best view, somewhere I haven't sat in a cinema since I was about 16. We had great fun talking through the trailers, eating snakes and throwing popcorn at people. It brought back many happy memories. A snuggle during the scary bit with the mean kangaroo fixed any desire Scarlett might have had to leave. 
As today is a Monday we had Flo's party yesterday with her Godparents. There was a lot of champagne, cupcakes and chicken sandwiches and some face painting, too. Before long the kids had got sick of having their faces painted and wanted to try it out on someone else. Being the best, nicest and cleverest mum in Australia, and the one who had drank the good part of a magnum of pop, I volunteered and the girls set to transforming my plain visage into a glorious work of art. 
Today, Florence awoke to a large pile of pink gifts containing wonderful gifts - books, 
xx
Scarlett turned four on Saturday and, as if this wasn't alarming enough, nothing could prepare us for the horror of 8 children hooning about in the manner of drug-crazed lunatics, later in the day. Thank sweet Christ we have a big garden, a sturdy, lockable fence and access to a reliable source of Mace. The day started well, with delight and genuine amazement on the face of our sweet girl as she opened a generous pile of gifts. She went through 3 wardrobe changes that day starting with the ballerina dress we bought her, before moving onto the dress from Maria and finally her birthday suit. 
Honestly, while parenting one does find oneself in the most bizarre situations. Last week I had to pick up our friend's daughter Sophie from school. From school. Can you imagine how weird it felt to stand outside the office of an infant school headmistress, waiting to pick up said charge? I felt soooo Old. This weekend, Scarlett had a friend for a sleepover for the first time ever. Milly was dropped off at 2pm and I immediately whisked the girls off to Sophie's 5th birthday party. The theme (because there it seems these days there is always a theme) was Princess. A look at these pictures will give you an idea of the slightly surreal quality the party took on. 
More bizarre was realising that we have turned into our parents. This struck me as we tried to get Milly and Scarlett to sleep in the same room, while high on a lethal cocktail of marshmallows and fairy bread (white bread and butter covered in hundreds and thousands). It is a revelation to hear yourself say the things your parents said to you when you wouldn't stop giggling when you had a friend to stay. Rob and I took turns going into the girls to speak to them firmly about the need for them to be quiet and go to sleep, then sniggering to each other in the hall outside. This soon escalated to threatening them with separation, to have Milly's mum come and get her and then finally making them cry until they submitted to our evil will at 9pm, two hours after normal bedtime. Hearing Rob shout 'Face the wall!' to Scarlett and Milly through the door was show-stoppingly funny. We were practically high-fiving each other we were having so much fun impersonating our elders.
Anyway, as expected it all ended in tears when the girls were so tired they started fighting and had to be split up. Rob put Scarlett in our room leaving Milly in Scarlett's room. Scarlett promptly jumped off the bed in the dark and walked into the edge of the bed frame causing a nose bleed. Milly in the meantime was crying alone in Scarlett's bedtime and asking for her mummy. Oops. We ended up having to lie down with them to get them to sleep. They then woke at 6am, making loads of noise in the process, and spent the morning charging about, being rude and naughty and laughing at me when I told them off. Milly's mum came to collect her, and Scarlett immediately returned to her usual delightful self.
In other news, the house we wanted went to auction and sold on Saturday. Unfortunately, we had our bridging financing knocked back 3 days before the auction and couldn't attend to bid. So it was particularly devastating when I rang the agent after the auction had finished and he told me that it sold for a price below what we were prepared to bid. Gutted. Still, the good news is that we now know that the kind of house we like and want and in the areas we like IS within our price range. So back to plan A which is to sell our house first, hopefully in April, and then buy.
Anyhoo, here are pics of the Scarlett and Milly off to the party, another of Scarlett with Sophie the birthday girl and one of Florence, the messiest eater in Australia, after the carnage that is a bowl of ravioli, 
and a short film of them on the slide at the park.
There was no sign of Barbara Windsor's thighs this weekend when we went away on the first Sydney Duthies family camping trip. We had a ball, the kids loved it, the weather was brilliant until the morning we left (when the black clouds gathered and it actually started to rain as we shut the boot) and the campground was in a top spot right behind a beautiful surf beach with a creek, ducks, pelicans, rock pools and headland walks. We arrived early on Friday afternoon and were given a pitch at the closest possible point to the beach, right on a lovely creek where a family of ducks waddled past. 
While Scarlett and Rob pitched our fantastic new tent, Flo and I did all the food and wine shopping, and we had time for a swim in the lovely campground pool before a picnic dinner of roast chicken and then put the kids to bed so we could sit back and listen to the surf. Poor old Zoe and Paul arrived closer to 9pm with a very tired Sam and Bronte, and Paul had to pitch the tent in the dark. On Saturday we woke to a mixed day weather wise, dark clouds looming, but they soon cleared and, after a full English, cooked in the spotless camp kitchen, we were on the beach and in the surf catching waves.
Is there anything better? We spent our days divided between beach and pool, taking turns playing with the kids, taking them on walks and shouting at them to come back when they were about to disappear from sight at the end of the creek. Our evenings were all about chatting, eating and drinking, before snuggling up in our sleeping bags. Absolute bliss. Scarlett and Sam always play so well, whenever they are together, apart from the odd fight, it's great fun for them and us.
This morning, while the boys packed up and Flo snoozed, I took Scarlett and Sam for a creek walk for stone skimming, fish and duck chasing and mud wading. 
We all agreed it was such a successful trip, we'd like to try to fit another trip in before winter, and have at least two more planned for next spring/summer. I can see an annual event coming on. Any takers?
I just miss her so much. She's such a lovely little cuddler and it just feels weird sitting here in the house without either of my girls. I occupied myself this morning by shopping and am about to trim the rose bushes before going for a run. I am now up to running for 25 mins non-stop three times a week. It is hard as it is so hot. In other news, Scarlett is becoming quite the little cook. Here she is in charge of some chocolate muffins. 
On Sunday as the sun was shining we had 9 for a lunch of roasted salmon. As you do.
Tomorrow we head off down the south coast to Kiama on our first camping trip with the girls, alongwith our mates Zoe and Paul and their two kids. Can't wait. (Bizarrely the real estate agent selling the house we want is camping at the same campground as us this weekend!) Rob and I haven't camped since Liz and Mike were here on their honeymoon and we were involved in an exciting rescue effort when a bloke jumped off a raised area of the beach into a channel of fast flowing water and snapped his ankle. Mike babysat the bloke's kids - the wife was in shock - Liz held the man's head out of the water and I had to keep his leg straight, and Rob ran for the ambulance. But that's another story.
...but don't think we will have our finances organised in time as the auction is the weekend before I go back to work. Banks are soooo picky about seeing evidence of income before handing over large amounts of cash it would seem. It is big enough for us and our guests, is in a perfect street with a gorgeous park at one end and is close to the city. It has a ton of storage, high ceilings, formal living and dining rooms with fireplaces, as well as a great kitchen/family room at the back leading out to the little garden. It even has an external studio space with a bathroom that would be great for guests or as an office or teenage retreat one day. Rob even noted that one day the girls could walk to Sydney Uni from there. It ticks boxes we didn't even know needed ticking. We even have the deposit, but until we sell our house we are stuffed as settlements here are only 6 weeks and it will be more like 2-3 months until we sell our place. The auction is on Feb 23 so fingers crossed pleased everyone for a lottery win for us between now and then. Here are some pix and a hilarious estate agent film about the place. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wU_Cx5xl3zM
The weather was roasting so we then popped to Zoe and Paul's house to make use of their pool for an afternoon dip. On Sunday we discovered the glorious Blackburn Gardens, a charming, shady park, more like an English country garden, set on the hill behind Redleaf pool. We have been going to Redleaf for ages and had no idea this gorgeous park was right behind it.
We met up with Carolyne, Luke, Melissa and Larry for a lovely picnic before heading down the path to the harbour pool, to swim out to the pontoons and cool off. It is soooooo hot again at the moment so we are definitely into night time shower season. I had to get up twice last night to cool off with a cold one. I set up the paddling pool yesterday afternoon for Flo, who was burning up. She liked it but promptly fell out.
