Happy New Year!

And while the New Year has already broken across Australia we anticipate a very quiet New year's Eve here. The darling boy is in the kitchen preparing a Greek style lamb roast after we have both spent a ridiculously lazy day reading and napping...what a way to finish the year!

I can't believe that the Xmas break is almost over for the kids who go back to school on Tuesday. I miss those regular 2 week breaks between terms that we had in Australia; a week between Xmas and New Year just seems too short.

Fortunately during that time, Matt has had a relatively quiet time at work. So the other afternoon we took advantage of the ridiculously mild weather and went up to the park for some fun. We weren't the only ones, and the playground was packed. Didn't stop the boys from monkeying around on the monkey bar. I love it that we can all have so much together (although Ella always prefers not to join in...she just does her own thing). At one stage Kit and Remi were having a competition to get across the monkey bars from opposite directions...they are so competitive and I killed myself laughing at them! When that started getting a little TOO competive we set off for a walk over to the beach.

Ella was having a ball playing in the sand making a fairy sand castle, and somehow a dare came up for Oscar to go for a swim. And while I say it is mild...it was probably about 7 or 8 degrees Celsius (possibly even less). Not one to miss out on a dare, Kit was in for it. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos of it as I was too busy laughing at them...especially when a guy walked past with a

video camera, filming away as they were screaming from the cold! OOOH we are mad! Mad Australians!

We whisked them home after that for a hot shower (we are not CRUEL after all) and a hot chocolate. They have survived the ordeal and we backed up and went in for a HUGE day in the city yesterday.

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Believe it or not, the first time we have ALL been in together since we moved back. It was actually a bit overwhelming as we felt we should be doing so much but in the end did very little. We had wanted to get in there before all the Xmas decorations and lights came down, but apparently so had EVERYBODY else, and consequently the whole of Manhattan was even MORE crowded than usual. We ended up at the MET, and pushed our way around to see the Egyptian and arms and armour exhibits, but by then the kids had had enough. The only one wanting to keep going was Ella who had double the stamina of her brothers. It was a big day though. I'm thinking I'll have to do a "Rec" day sometime soon and take them in mid week when the crowds have subsided somewhat.

SO ON MY 100TH POST, I'D LIKE TO WISH YOU AND YOURS A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

I have so enjoyed creating this blog, and though I have few comments left to me, I can only hope that there are those out there who enjoy reading. I look forward to continuing in 2007!