Paul Gray

Santa came to the school for the Community Christmas Tree last night. Gran E, Grandpa and Katie came up also.

We took a platter for entree, which was when Lachlan discovered that he didn’t like stuffed olives!

Santa arrived in the local fire truck, much to the excitement of the boys and girls who went running out to greet him.

Thomas stood on the edge of the driveway, not quite sure about all the fuss once he got up close.

That didn’t stop him from being excited about receiving a present though.

Lachlan also liked his present.

Of course, Santa did a mighty fine job.

I pulled the Christmas Tree and decorations out of the garage today – first time they’ve been out of the garage since we moved here five years ago. Thomas and Lachlan helped with the decorations.

Lachlan passed us the baubles and other bits and pieces:

And Thomas helped to hang everything onto the tree:

The boys sat on Santa’s lap and had their photo taken. There weren’t too many problems. We did have to wait for Santa to get back from feeding and checking up on his reindeers – Thomas was very surprised because he walked over to me to tell me Santa still wasn’t back, then when he returned Santa had arrived – like magic!!!

Lachlan was OK for a little while, then started to get a bit upset. We managed to get the photo done before he got too distressed though.

The school kids found a turtle in the sportsroom today. They caught it and Thomas had a pat, and managed to pose long enough to have a photo taken – he wasn’t too keen on staying too close to the turtle for too long! He then came for a walk to the very back of the oval so that we could release the turtle.

Cathy has her horses in the back paddock at school. They were quite close to our back fence, so we thought we’d see if they’d eat a carrot and let us have a feed. They weren’t too interested in the carrot, but they did let us pat them.

Lachlan checked that the carrots tasted OK before we handed them over:

Then I showed Lachlan what to do, and he followed suit:

Here’s a photo of me reading The Wheels on the Bus to Lachlan. We read a book to Thomas and Lachlan each night before they go to bed. This book was such a hit with Thomas, that we had to search to get another copy for Lachlan to enjoy – the first had been torn and broken from so much use.

So last weekend we headed to Sydney – the occasion being Katelyn’s christening, with Luci & I given the honour to be her Godparents.

We travelled to Dubbo on Thursday afternoon, so that we could head off to Sydney on Friday morning. We arrived at Leumeah, quickly unpacked the car, then went to the supermarket to get some bottled water, milk, alcohol, etc. We then went back to the motel and got ready for dinner.

We had dinner downstairs at The Hermitage Restaurant. Like the name suggests, it was quite fancy, well, a bit more than the Golfie anyway. We ordered our drinks and meals and relaxed after spending the day in the car. Thomas ordered a pizza and chips from the Kids Menu. At $14 bucks a pop, we were thinking it would be something special. I realised that we have been severely undercharging at the school canteen – it was the same as what we served up, except on a lovely white plate:

Here are some other photos of the night:

The next morning, Luci & Thomas went to the markets with the Tureks. After a couple of hours there, they rushed back to the motel and quickly packed to go to Katie’s place. Katie had been busy planning a picnic for the park. It was lovely. We met Julie, Jazzy and Hannah at the park. Lisa also came along. We had lovely food, some nice wine and the kids played nicely on the equipment.

On Saturday night we went to Mick’s folks place for dinner – and had Dumplings – nothing to be worried about there.

On Sunday morning, we followed Mick & Sarah to the restaurant to drop off the cakes, saw their old house then headed out to the church. The ceremony was held at St Mary’s Towers, in Douglas Park. The reception was held at Olives Restaurant, Camden. Both were very lovely settings. Here are some photos of the day:

The boys were eager for a bath when we got back to the motel later that night.

And then we had the trip home on Monday.

The Carinda Playgroup put on a Grandparents Day today. Gran E took the day off work to drive out to Carinda (all by herself!) First the kids did some craft – they made a clown face out of paper plates, paint, paper and glitter.

Then we had some morning tea. Lachlan enjoyed his patty cake.

Then the kids performed some songs – one of them being Rock-a-bye Your Bear. Here, Thomas sings with all his might.

Lachlan had another Birthday party on the weekend. This time we had Robbie & Liz arrive on the Friday afternoon, and Nanny & Poppy Gray arrived on Saturday morning.

On Friday night, we took Rob & Liz to the Golfie. It had been raining, and so they had to take a different road to get to us, as the dirt road was impassable. As it turned out they took a wrong turn and almost got lost. Luckily they met up with someone else on the road who got them going in the right direction. We had more rain while we were at the Golfie – followed by a blackout . Candles were eventually lit and we enoyed another drink.

On Saturday, we had the party, complete with party foods, and a cake.

On Sunday, we had a BBQ lunch and a cake for Robbie as he turned 25 yesterday.

Enjoy these photos…

Well, I can say the last year has really gone quick – I don’t know what’s happened to it.

On the 21st October, we trotted on down to Dubbo for a little party with the Everett/Clarke families for Lachlan. We had a lovely afternoon and lots of fun.

Then yesterday was Lachlan’s actual birthday. We woke in the morning, still trying to adjust to Daylight Savings Time, to a very smiley boy. Lachlan opened his card and presents, with a little help from Thomas , in our bedroom. He got some books from Mum & Dad, The Wiggles action figures from Thomas, and a Little People Circus Play Set from all of us. I think he liked them.

At recess time, Luci, Thomas and Lachlan came over to school with a yummy cake, and some little froggy patty cakes. We all sang Happy Birthday, cut the cake and had a slice. It was nice.

We had Butter Chicken for dinner, cause Lachlan likes it, then another little froggy patty cake with a candle.

This weekend, my mum & dad, and Robbie & Liz are coming up to Carinda for a party also.

I’ve set up a Flickr account to upload photos onto, cause it looks like a great service (and will save some of my bandwidth account usage – not that I’m a cheapskate or anything ).

Here’s some photos you might like to have a bo-peep at – the first four were taken when we went to Dubbo for the Everett/Clarke party (21/10/2006), while the other eight are from his actual Birthday (30/10/2006):