Visitors from Wodonga

Phyllis, Fiona and the boys came down for a brief but pleasant visit a few weeks back. We all had a bit of a catch up and the kids had a great time playing together.

Sadly, we didn't actually capture much footage of the visit, just a cute photo of Alicia and Ty indulging in their shared love of scarves, and Seth and Lucas dusting off the slot car set and having a race.

A little worse for wear...

Imagine you went to pick up your child from the local council school holiday program one day, only to be confronted by the following.

I must admit, it gave me quite a shock. Then, of course, I remembered that the theme of today's programme was make-up and movie special effects. So, the vast majority* of those wounds were all make believe. Phew!

* By which, of course, I mean all of them. ;)

Uncle Pat's visit

Pat recently popped over for a visit on his way back home from his New Year celebrations. The kids were absolutely chuffed to see him and get in a bit more quality time with their Uncle. The fact that he brought his Mazda RX7 with him might have added a bit to the enthusiasm as well, perhaps.

He stayed for a couple of nights, and was mercilessly forced to earn his keep by his draconian brother who kept him up both nights and forced him to play board games with him (having escaped the infamous New Year's Kingsburg Ordeal that he and Jason inflicted upon other innocent family members). Pat got through both evenings without slitting his wrists out of boredom, so we'll chalk that one up as a positive.

Pat also brought his inflatable canoe back with him, and was all prepped and ready to take the kids on a mini adventure. Sadly, Melbourne's iconic weather did what it does best to these sorts of plans, and it was too windy to go on a safe outing at the beach. So, both young and old resorted to more modern forms of entertainment...

All in all, a lot of fun, and we'd love to see him again (if only to whip his butt once more at Claustrophobia).

Some LEGO adventures

The kids have recently had some fun and games with LEGO. Alicia is a budding rocket scientist, whereas Lucas was challenging a few norms by combining the new and old (and I mean: OLD).

Christmas in Tasmania

The [Melbourne] Birds are back from a fantastic Christmas holiday in Tasmania. We had all of Ellen and Paul's children back in Launceston, and therefore all of the cousins from the Bird side of the family as well! It was a teensy bit crowded at the Franmaree Road residence, but we all got along pretty well, with only a couple of minor scuffles breaking out here and there.

We had a heap of formal functions to attend:

1. Christmas
2. Granddad's birthday
3. Oscar's birthday
4. Lachlan's baptism
5. Sarah's 30th birthday
   

Not to mention lots of catching up with friends and family. We had a fantastic time, and are a little bit sad to be alone by ourselves in Melbourne again. Luckily enough, we'll be off for another holiday in under two weeks' time, to catch up with Uncle Paul and Uncle Stev(ph)en in Perth - yay!