A Weekend in Sydney

 Discovered some gorgeous parks during our last visit. Loved the bird's eye view from Sydney Tower as well.

See the Harbor Bridge and Opera House behind Summer's head?

Statues

 All sorts of art shows throughout the city parks - notice the giant photos on display.

 Little monkey child had it comin' to her.

 Aaaaaand, she's right back at it.

 Subways and Apple stores - endless entertainment in any city.

Topped it off with a ferry ride at sunset.

The Boy

Absolutely obliterates shoes. We're on our 4th pair of the school year.

Our Will is a go-getter. Has been from Day 1. And his energetic enthusiasm makes him pretty fun to celebrate each year.

He saw Dad lying here and 2 minutes later he came back in this twin get up. Serious devotion.

Summer is sort of his jedi-in-training. He gets her in all kinds of non-baby-friendly situations.

No one craves all this birthday hoopla more than this dude. He eats. it. up.

Girls helped him finish and launch his baking soda/vinegar rocket. That thing can FLY.

When he emptied the breakfast-for-dinner serving platter onto his plate we laughed and told him there was no way he could eat 4 eggs and 2 monster pancakes. Turns out someone was wrong.

And to top it all off we had nine 9-year-olds over to spend the night. (We've always had a no sleepover rule, but caved recently for a once a year birthday deal. I'm curious - how do you handle the sleepover thing??) Not sure I can describe THAT kind of chaos. It was sort of a relief not to have to prep with a creative cake or fun games/decor (definitely un-wanted this year) but the FOOD and the NOISE consumed and created by that pack of adrenaline. Wow... Funniest part was this moment:

That's seven electronic devices among the 10 of them. Seriously, boys are boys and this is a techy world we live in. I learned next time to have them all handed over at midnight because they kept 'em up til 3am and the sun woke the tent-sleepers up at 5am, so... gnarly night.

(Summer had a blast with all the wild attention.)

Bottom line: Will proclaimed it "the best birthday ever."

He chose to "nerf" the candles out. Actually burned some bullets.

An hour after the last guest left a friend dropped off her three little girls to stay with us a couple days so it was a memorable, sleepover-soaked Halloween weekend, but now I'm ready for a nice long nap!

Halloweeeeeen

No, Australians DON'T celebrate Halloween. I get the feel that they sort of think it's a ridiculous holiday.

Which it is.

But it sure is fun. Now, I admit it's silly and unhealthy and commercialized to death, and I'm not all gung-ho about it like some others (we're talking haunted houses in the basement, wired doorsteps with swooping ghosts, giant spiders dropping down from trees on unsuspecting trick or treaters, a whole storage room full of decor, etc.) But I do like me some spooky treats and a good costume party.  Here's the gang:

True to form, the US Embassy put on an all out bash with games, food, reptiles, prizes, etc and the kids had a ball. I like how they're each allowed one friend - makes for a nice community outreach opportunity. Here we are with Ambassador Bleich Elvis.

 Kids got to pet goanas, lizards, huuuuge snakes, long-necked turtles and a baby croc.

 Mummy wraps:

They created a ridiculously freaky haunted house that probably scarred some of our guests - I couldn't get over how good it was! They basically transformed the whole Embassy into a spook alley. It was huge and long and awesome and they loved trick or treating through it.

Our ward also did a fun little Trunk or Treat in the parking lot with prizes. I set up a Touch Table with some pretty nasty specimens. It's amazing what a little label on a covered box can do. People were super grossed out - it was perfect. Unfortunately, I was running around like a chicken witch with my head cut off and didn't snap a pic. But for any of yous wanting ideas for a future party...

Embassy touch boxes all fancy in black

Various boxes were filled respectively with: corn kernels, dried/wetted date (or slimy mango pit for bigger heart/liver), dried pineapple/papaya, cooked/peeled sweet potato, cooked cauliflower head, honey/corn syrup, oiled soft spaghetti (add pumpkin pulp for extra yuck), dried bananas, withered celery sticks, wheatbix/cereal, peanut butter, dried apricots, craisins/cornflakes, peeled grapes/olives, oiled tortilla.

The kids had a disco the Friday before which called for "fancy dress." A bit hesitant due to my previous "disco" experience (posted here) I abstained from going all decked out in sequins and sash and boy am I glad. Everyone was in Halloween costumes! Lost in translation again there - who'da thunk "fancy" meant "costume" but maybe as a Catholic school they didn't want to officially host a Halloween party? Fortunately Kenna got a last minute heads up from her friend and we just called Annie a Dancing With the Stars participant.
 
 (Side note: if an Aussie does dress up it's strictly in "spooky" costume. That's one thing I missed and in fact, my favorite part of Halloween: those impressive and imaginative costumes that are in no way frightening. Anything from a family dressed as Wizard of Oz characters, to a horse, chinese person, ipod, or mailman - the world is your oyster and it's so much fun for the ultra creative/crafty. Bless my mom, one year we were unpacking from our move to Utah and I was a spool of thread, my sis was a box of cheerios, my brother was a pack of bubble gum and another sib was a giant kleenex box. Awesome.)

I hear certain neighborhoods even host trick or treaters - you have to look for decorations though. So I guess Australians sorta celebrate Halloween. Either way, it was a good one. So good, in fact we didn't even try real trick or treating and even got to bed at a reasonable hour! Poor Kenna was desperate to get a trick or treater though, waiting behind the door, masked, w/ treats, but her cute signs didn't lure any in. (Just something you gotta deal with always living in a circle off the main neighborhood roads - oh well.) We did miss the friendly camaraderie of all the neighbors milling up and down the streets chatting as kids trick or treat, but we'll get that back again in a few years. :)