Matthew, Verity & Lachlan visit us in Drouin

Long weekend 9-12th March 2012

Matthew, Verity & 2 year old Lachlan arrived in Drouin about 8pm Friday night with a 5 month bump in tow. They are currently living in Dee Why in Sydney and decided to pop down to see where we live and what we do! It was nice to see them - we caught up with them briefly at our wedding in December, but as always happens at weddings, we felt we hadn't spent a huge amount of time with them. Lachlan was in fine form, not at all ready for bed and running around playing with the big blue ball - that would be our core ball that is pumped up in the living room. A source of constant entertainment for the whole weekend - looks like Matthew might have to buy one for their own house?

Friday night was fairly relaxed - we have some lasagne and a glass of red wine before catching up properly once the little guy was all tucked up in bed. Not having children ourselves, we were not quite prepared for the 6am alarm clock on Saturday morning but decided if you can't beat them, join them. So there we all were, up bright and early, eating breakfast with Dora the Explorer and playing with the big blue ball. Off to the park after breakfast! So much fun, especially when you have a small child to disguise the fact that you want to play on the obstacle course yourself. Ha.

After a quick tour round Warragul and a coffee in Good Habits, we all headed to Gypsy Creek Winery for lunch to celebrate our friend Chelsea's 31st birthday. Grape crushing was on the agenda after lunch and so I decided to hop into the grape container with Lauren and a girl Bob works with, Belinda, for some grape crushing - very sticky and slidey!! Wasn't too sure about tasting it afterwards.......

Sunday saw another early rise (!) and a trip to the pool for Lachlan, Verity and I whilst the boys headed off for a round of golf with our neighbour Jason. We met up with them at the golf club for breakfast before heading into the city, stopping off at the annual Moomba festival on the River Yarra - a general funfair/big top/live bands/waterski jumpers extravaganza - before heading to the airport.

A fun weekend with our good friends and an insight into having small children, with a 2 year old and a pregnant mum. Hmmm....perhaps we'll stick to the holidays and sleep ins for the next year or two?!! xxxx

Australian Wedding BBQ

Hello! I'm back! It's been a while, 7 weeks or so. Not that it's been particularly busy but at the same time, I feel I've not had time to sit down and blog! Finally, at 530pm this fine Sunday evening, it's time to update you on life down under.

All is good.

We had a celebratory wedding BBQ at the beginning of February in our friend Natalie's back garden. The sun was shining, we have our wedding photos on display and we have the ceilidh music all ready for the dancing later on. Bob was in his kilt, but sadly my dress did not make the journey back home so I opted for a slightly shorter and lighter summer dress instead. A wide variety of people attended - Dingoes, Dusties, workies from BawBaw shire and from the Albert Street Clinic and other random friends that we've acquired along the way. My netballers were extremely generous and gave us a lovely big clock for our living room, along with a voucher for the local gift shop. I went a bit mad with the soft furnishings (as every new wife must!) but our house is looking very homely now.

After a few glasses of vino, Bob and I decided to wow everyone with our 'first dance' moves, which I must admit wasn't as much fun as the first time!!! It was a bit cringeworthy actually but anyway, we still got the cheers. This time round, I decided to 'throw my bouquet' and, rather unsubtley, aimed it towards my netball friend Liza who is rather keen to get married to her boyfriend of 6 years. It didn't quite reach Liza but it hit Gill who, being the fantastic netballer she is, quickly passed it off to Liza, who caught it and leapt around like a loony. Hilarious.

Next was the ceilidh dancing. Never before I have realised how tricky it is to teach, when the people you are teaching have never even seen it, let alone tried it. There were lots of chants of 'forward 2,3,4, back 2,3,4' when we were doing the Gay Gordons - everyone was getting right into it. By the time the Strip the Willow came round, everyone was flinging everyone else around and having a jolly good time. No injuries thank goodness, although my boss Helen hadn't really thought her footwear through and had her feet in the ice troughs that the drinks were stored in. How hygienic?!

To top it all off, limbo dancing was the grand finale (apparently an Aussie party tradition?) - I realised how inflexible my spine is and I was one of the first out, leaving Karen, Natalie and Lauren to battle it out for the title. Being a little on the larger side, Lauren's chest got in the way and Karen was the winner! Hurrah. Punch drinking until home time. A fantastic night with 30-40 guests there to help us celebrate. Watch this space for the video!

xxxxx