The Jetty, Coffs Harbour!

We spent a gorgeous couple of days visiting Davids parents at the end of the Easter holidays.  Amber had a Persuasive talk to prepare on her favourite part of Australia, so it was an added bonus visiting her favourite part of Australia while catching up with family.  It also gave us an excuse to do all the touristy things we don't normally do when visiting Coffs.  A rainbow even made an appearance, so it was just magical!

So this trip included places when living in Coffs Harbour that I would not be caught dead visiting.  I will share these photos in a later post, as this post is about my favourite part of Coffs, the Jetty, The Harbour and Mutton Bird Island.

We meet the most gorgeous family in the background of the below photo visiting from Newcastle and the kids both got a treat being spun around like an aeroplane before heading down to the beach.

It was so lovely staying for the sunset even though it was a little cool, the kids still managed to warm themselves up and get a little wet in the end and I got to ogle over the sunset and go mad with my camera!

I can't say that the ensemble that my children were wearing was exactly fashionable, but they were comfortable and had so much fun and that is the most important thing as it enabled them to play uninhibited.

Noosa, Sunshine Beach!

This has to be one of my favourite places in the world and luckily it is only just over an hours drive from home.  What better way to celebrate a joint birthday for the girls than to get away for the weekend.  Best birthday celebration I have had in years!

 

I love the above two photos that I snapped on our weekend away, as I was enjoying the experimental side of unintentional framing.  How often do you run into three seagulls sitting nicely in a row, just begging for a photo I think!!! I was hoping to get down on the sand and snap them a lot closer but alas they took the opportunity to fly away.

I love summer days, wearing thongs, loose fitting white dresses, big hats, ice cream cones, hazy afternoons, never ending smiles, discovering quirky little restaurants and no tourist strips in sight, being a repeat offender at my favourite and funky off beat shops down Hasting Street, I loved how warm the ocean was(nearly warm enough for me to swim in lol), interacting and observing our favourite sea creatures at Underwater World, I just love, love, love Seahorses, getting a big smackeroo from the seals(actually Aidan didn't seem to keen on that one), and just a little melancholy knowing that summer was nearly over and that we just didn't want it to end!

  Yes I know that they are not photos of them in the wild but I think that is the closet I will get to seeing a seahorse in the wild!

Kisses for the less whiskery and safer seal!

Looks like neither of the children looked very impressed with being kissed by an animal with long whiskers.  Luck daddy is clean shaven, I think!

 Did I tell you how much I love Hasting Street!!!!!!!

 

Yes, that is my child defying the retro mood by playing with technology!  I think the facebook sign is a bit of a give away also, but I loved the place and the food was AMAZING AND THE ATMOSPHERE ROCKED!

If you ever find yourself in Sunshine Beach one evening and are looking for somewhere to dine that is a little cool and a little unique than I can not recommend this one highly enough. We had such a lovely evening and they even had toys for the kids to play with, when they weren't distracted by iphones or dsi's .

Check them out here http://mooshka.com.au

 We even managed an afternoon at Bellingham Maze, and managed to get very lost and very tangled up, and some how we squeezed in time for putt-putt as well!

 

Some of Ambers beauitful beach artwork!

Pink sunsets, just perfect!

I am yearning for summer already and we are only halfway through Autumn!

Family!

I have not been very good at keeping up to date with my blog!  But I refuse to make something that I love doing so much into a task and another thing that I have to put on my to do list.  It is meant to be a diary and a reflection on our life to look back on and to share with family, friends and the amazing family I have made online, so I don't want to be a slave to it and I don't want to put that pressure on myself to set a date and make it a routine thing. I know I would end up hating it instead of it being the thing I love and enjoy doing. 

To me it is much more important to live life and enjoy being with my family rather than put some kind of pressure on blogging regularly. Don't get me wrong I love blogging and I love and look forward every day to sitting down and reading all the blogs I follow, it is the highlight of my day and what gives me so much joy and inspiration to try new things and discover all the beauty and wonder that is in the amazing world we share!

I am not the best at time management and I never have been.  I feel like so many parts of my life are filled with expectations, to keep up with this person, or too look a certain way, to keep fit and look after myself, that my house should look like some sort of show room or that my children should be learning this or doing two hundred activities or they will some how slip behind, and so on and so on.  It is really hard not to get caught up in everything and loose sight of what means the most to you.

I think I realized this year that all those things are just obstacles and a certain type of pressure that no one is putting on me and that I am only putting myself through this pain. We are surrounded by so many things these days telling us what we should do and can't live without, so it is not that difficult getting caught up in what is supposed to be societies norm and it is just not achievable or even real and never will be because each time I achieve something the bar gets raised again and that is the whole point.  I feel so caught up in this silly cycle sometimes thanks to what is written in a magazine or on a t.v. show that dictates to us that this is normal and what we need and must have.

I have realized this year that the most important things in life and the thing that our children want most is our love.  There is no such thing as a perfect household and there is no one right way to raise your children as we are all individuals and we are all unique and that is special and amazing and I want to grow and nurture that in my children, I want to embrace what makes them unique and celebrate that and not get caught up in the blur and expectations that life can bring.

I know that I am not going to get this parenting thing right every single time and that is ok because I know that the most important thing is to not shy away from things and just give it a go.  As my mum always used to say to me, just sleep on it and it will never same as bad the next day or as important. 

I guess I have lived so much of my life trying to please everyone and feeling that I have totally failed but what I have noticed while teaching my daughter about English is that it is ok too not get things right the first time and it is ok to fail as that is part of life, it teaches us to keep trying and work harder because the reward on the other side is worth all the effort. 

Life is an amazing gift and we need to not sweat the small stuff and know that we are going to slip up as parents just like our children will do also, but that is how we learn and grow to make us who we are! 

My house might not be perfect all the time, and sometimes I might get a little lost in all the expectations and pressure I put on myself, but I am determined this year that I will take the time to enjoy my children and take the time out to enjoy there company.  Because as a friend once said to me, what will you remember in 10 years time, that you had a clean house or that you went out and made those special memories with your children and friends. 

So I am going to try and throw caution to the wind and go and make some memories! 

On a lighter note, a nice little slice of family life was made when my husband's sisters family came up for a visit just after Christmas from Sydney.  Although we only managed to share a handful of hours together, it was a truly lovely afternoon and evening spent together.  You realize when you have children just how fast time goes.  Riley and Ella just seem so grown up now.  The kids had a wonderful time catching up and it was lovely waxing lyrical with Lisa and Shayne about the commonality of our life with children!

 It was very relaxing and the perfect way to spend a summer day catching up with family!

 All I can say is with the above photo, that if a photo could express and show the true essence of a child's personality well this one has it in spades and is Aidan all over!

Hope you have a nice day filled with lovely memories made!!!

Some one got their ears pierced!

It was slightly premature, but as a nearly big eight year old, I broke down and gave her that special something she has been holding out for, for a very long time, to get her ears pierced! 

I can't believe how excited Amber was, and brave, I almost couldn't look!  We decided that because her birthday was in a couple of weeks, it would be a lovely experience and early birthday treat to have them done before she went back to school! 

She is already counting down the days to when she can take them out and put in her special butterfly dangly earrings from the butterfly house in!

I can't believe my baby is only a week away from turning a big 8!  Her excitement is contagious at the moment.  She unfortunately has spent the first part of this week and her second week of school at home with a pulled groin muscle.  I am praying she is back to full health by her birthday next Thursday.

She will probably miss the big athletics carnival that is on this weekend,but I don't want to risk further injury and drag out her pain, as they say you have to be cruel to be kind sometimes.