Strawberry Fields Forever

This is where we've beeen. Picking strawberries. I have to say it was amazing.

We headed up north to see some friends who have had another baby - welcome baby Asha, was a joy to meet you baby girl! - and just have some relaxation and family time.

We went to a strawberry farm where we could pick the strawberries ourselves. There were miles and miles of perfect strawberries. We ate as we picked. We filled many punnets. We were all very happy.

Then we bought some strawberry icecream, made from the strawberries from the farm and had it later too - divine.

The kids had so much fun - and we did too.

Lucio & Ely always get on so well, and Miss Aria and Ty had a lot of fun pretending Ely & Ty's guinea pig, Pinky (or pinkalicious as Aria referred to HER), was a baby of their very own...pushing it around in an old laundry thingo. I am quite sure Pinky was traumatised and came near to heart failure many times....Meeca & Adam tried to convince us to let Aria take Pinky home....can you think of anything worse? Four hours in a car with a smelly, crapping guinea pig? I have a hard enough time with two house trained children in a confined space for that long, with regular intervals of "How long now? Are we there yet?"....it seems, even with modern technology (their own individual DVD players as well as hand held computer thingo's) they can still find a four hour car trip almost impossible. What happened to the good old days where OUR parents would make us travel for days in the family truckster, holding a bucket on our laps to be car sick in?

Anyyyyyyway.... we also went to Tinaroo Lake and it was sooooo peaceful and perfect. Funny, Meeca & I were lamenting about how life is so different to the days (pre kids) we used to get together and drink a lot and go out dancing and sleep late.....and we were pondering who had changed the most out of the group of us girls we used to hang with....at first we thought Jenbabe (aka Seamanbreath)...if you are lurking Jen, now you MUST reveal yourself....but then Meeca said that when she saw me (queen of NO SUN thanks, I'm British) out on the beach with the kids for hours she said she thought I took the crown....

There's a pic there of Aria and I.....we were taking some self portraits together. Then she took the picture of me...not bad huh? Aunty Sheye would be proud of her photography skills! Can I say, most people don't like spending a lot of money on their sunglasses because they lose them , sit on them, whatever....see those Jackie O sunnies I am wearing? Well, they are TEN YEARS OLD. I am not joking. I bought them the year before I got married. They are Oroton, so were mildly expensive (though I did get them on sale), but have seriously stood the test of time. I so could do an ad for Oroton 'cause these babies have been sat on, thrown, dropped, stood on, lost briefly, then found at the bottom of toy boxes etc etc etc...but they keep coming back to me. I have tried to replace them....to update, buy a new swish pair....but I just cannot seem to find another pair of Jackie O's that I like as much. THe time is coming.....but the point is, how many people do you know that keep their sunnies for that long?

I love that pic of the men and the kids.......it shows ALex down by the jetty with Lucio & Ely....and Adam pushing Asha in the pram. Meeca and I commented, as we looked out at them, that we had great men......great men that loved their kids and were active in their care and development.

Love that pic of Lucio & Ely....they are 4 months apart in age. Have always got on. Very similar personalities. THey just pick up where they left off every time we get together. They are now in the stage where it's not cool to hug, so despite the last 7 years of photos of them together hugging, this time, all their pics were like this one....just too cool to hug.

So we are back to reality now and I go back to work on Monday (well, part time anyway) and I am in total denial. I have barely ticked off anything from my TO DO list. I am apalled with my effort. My linen is still not sorted. My filing still un-filed. Hey I did clean out my vanity. I did sort my wardrobe. I donated at least a truck load of "that will never fit me again" clothes to Lifeline.

Stay tuned for my rants about my work. I am not sure I can go up against Soozadoo's recent rants, but hey, I'll give it a good go.

together were like this.....