Easter holidays: Part 2

It has taken me a while to get around to this... As always, there's so much to see and do, yet so little time. Autumn was showing her true colours in Canberra – it was stunning!

The War Memorial Museum.

Old Parliament House. The girls went back in time to experience the 'technology' used in offices waaay back in the 80s.

We braved the cold and attended the dawn service on ANZAC Day. Somehow, amongst the huge crowd we managed to get seats up the front only metres from Kate and Will.

There was an impromptu family reunion (minus a couple of people) when we all got together to celebrate Terry's birthday. One of the highlights for the girls was meeting their second cousins Mitchell and Henry. Or is that their first cousins twice removed? Maybe you could explain it to me one more time Yvonne?

One more spot of indulgence at the ice-cream bar in the Sydney Qantas lounge before heading home.

Another day at the office

Well, not quite. A couple of weeks ago I went along to Gibbs Farm as part of a team building day at work. Gibbs Farm is the setting for a sculpture collection on a privately owned property overlooking the Kaipara Harbour.

It's a balanced mix of culture and nature. Very cool!

I just loved feeding this guy. I could have watched him use his tongue to strip the leaves off branches all day [sigh].

Although entry to Gibbs Farm is entirely free, it is only open one day a month by prior appointment. It is not open on weekends, public holidays or school holidays – well that does make getting back there kind of tricky, but I am going to try. 

Easter holidays: Part 1

I started writing this post quite a while ago but have only gotten around to fine tuning it now. That's why it starts with Recently...

... we decided to holiday in Sydney. I can count the number of times I have been to Sydney on one hand – it's sad, but true. In fact, the last time I was there I was pregnant with Ava and Eadie still has the scars on the top of her feet from where she slipped on the ramp going down to the beach at Bondi [sigh].

There really weren't many long faces, I just happened to capture one here.

Hanging out at the Manly beach with a few thousand of our closest friends ;)

St Mary's. My kids can count on one hand the number of times they have been inside a church. They were interested to hear me explain the stations of the cross. I guess you could say that was an Easter lesson – tick!

We just couldn't get enough of Circular Quay. It's so beautiful! Sydney was really pedestrian friendly too. Each night we were in bed by 8:30 – all of us! We were just so exhausted from pounding the pavement.

Can you see everyone in the photo (below). There are four people.

At one of the art galleries, the name of which escapes me.

I really liked the funky paint job on this building. We went to explore Oxford Street but were left feeling a bit disappointed. Apparently the rent increase has affected shop owners : (

On our last morning we had a couple of hours to kill so we went back to the Queen Victoria building on George Street. Very cool indeed. 

Goodbye Sydney. We love you!

Coming soon (I hope). Part 2: Canberra.

RIP Ben

A few days ago a sweet little kitty was hit by a car. He died instantly. Even though his life was short, it was filled with love and adventure. Ben was adored by his family and friends and will be greatly missed.

Gnocchi

There has been a bit of talk on the subject of gnocchi. The girls remembered making it with me when they were smaller and I talked about getting a lesson on how to make it from the only expert I know -Nonna. I remember Corina, my cousin Simone and I getting a lesson from her one day, rolling the dough out on her kitchen table. Sadly, it has been a long time since I've made it and I could find the recipe which makes me wonder if I actually wrote it down. I did remember some important steps along the way but of course mine was always going to be different to Nonna's because it's gluten free.

Eadie was really keen to have gnocchi for dinner and keen to help. Ruby and Ava were distracted by the TV which may have been a good thing in hindsight as it allowed Eadie and I to talk and I got to share the secrets I learned from Nonna.

Here's how we did it, captured again, in images (so quicker to get something posted if you just let the photos speak for themselves) (a bit lazy, yes, I know).