Aaron is the first to celebrate 2 birthdays in AUS

Aaron's Birthday 2013

Last year on Aaron's birthday we received our official working Visa's to allow us to temporarily live in Australia. That was a HUGE relief because we couldn't enroll the kids into school legally until we had this.  Yippee!!

We received that call on our way back from visiting the Maru Koala Park. There Aaron and Josh encountered a Python and even held the creepy reptile. It was quite entertaining as we watched them from a distance. Joseph was a little uneasy at the sight of the snake and kept a good distance.

Rachael interacted with a baby joey, an albino joey. 

Rebecca and I got to feed a Koala, the claws on that animal were huge.

This was the first time we got to interact with the massive Kangaroo. We had seen many wallabies but they are much smaller than these kangaroo. Some of them were taller than me.

Red Kangaroo, Dingos, Alpaca and a Tasmania Devil were amongst some of the other animals we encountered. 

It turned out to be a really nice day outing and we were also able to enjoy a delicious meal and ice cream at the same park before heading home for cake and ice cream.

For our first 'birthday celebrations' in Australia i'd say it went really well.

Aaron's Birthday 2014

It was a busy day and began with opening presents and then off to Josh's Kenpo class. While he was at class we all popped into the food shop and got the few things we needed for our BBQ later.

After Kenpo we rushed out to the beach for a couple hours with our lunch. Becca was loving her new swimsuit from grandma and her purple sunnies. Her hair goes crazy curly when we are on the beach.

Joseph LOVED being buried in the sand. After swimming in the cold water he said the sand warmed him up.

From the beach we rushed home before Josh's Kenpo advancement. This is a big even he had been waiting a couple months for to receive his orange belt.

After the two hour ceremony we met our friends 'Blyths' at Braeside Park for an Aussie BBQ and cake. Besides the horrid flies swarming as we ate our freshly grilled sausages it was fabulous. We ate, chatted and played games. It was great!

My new friend Dharshi made the cake for Aaron, it was perfect.

We finished the night off watching the boys have a 'boules' play off. Aaron carried home the win and a few mosquito bites.

Happy Birthday Aaron! 

The magical number 30!

It happened, I turned 30!

First surprise was a large bouquet of stargazer lilies from my wonderful parents. They beautified our house for weeks with an amazing aroma.

 A trip to the Dandenong market was our first stop, Aaron had taken the day off. It was great to shop around for our fruits and veggies and devour some hot jam donuts.

 For lunch Aaron had arranged for a friend to watch the kids while we went to lunch. We found the Blackrock Cafe near the coast and shared a nice foccassia sandwich lunch.

From there we took a walk along the coastal trail and enjoyed chatting without any additional noise or distractions. It was beautiful.

 Before our dinner plans another massive bouquet of flowers arrived from my in-laws and Beth and Tanner. This bouquet was HUGE and absolutely gorgeous, my favorite colors. 

We had reservations at a place called The Pelican in St. Kilda with some dear friends Luke and Olivia. It was a Tapas place with Mediterranean food.  A new experience and new tastes, the food was amazing!

Before heading home we walked down a street in St Kilda with loads of bakeries. After walking back and forth gazing through the windows we decided on a few special treats and took them home.

It really was a great day and I was surely spoiled.

Many sweet little gifts from Aaron and the kids. New dresses, makeup, pampering products...

Its really these type of gifts that I love...

The bag of lemons from a friends lemon tree with a bottle of amazing lotion and chocolates,

another friend joined me for a delicious shake and gave me a painting from Peru the night before.

Many surprises such as homemade Almond milk (seriously tasted like vanilla ice cream), coconut chips, homemade nutella... It was all really thoughtful and appreciated.

The next day I had my birthday dinner with the kids (technically my actual birth date in the USA).

Chicken Mignon - it was delicious!

Check out the all natural face mask Aaron got me  - I love it!

It was a great week and I felt loved across the world. Cards came in the mail from a couple of friends back home a few days later and it kept the excitement going throughout the week.

Thank you everyone! xoxo

Rebecca is 1

Rebecca, Becca, Bidzy Biddles, Becca Boodles.... She already has so many sweet nicknames in our house. Aaron calls her Bidzy and it's so cute how she responds to that, usually only when he calls it.

Her birthday came so quickly. Aside from teething it was a great day!

She woke up to gifts and lots of love from her siblings.

While Rebecca took a short morning nap Joseph helped me set the scene for a mini photoshoot. We had a lot of fun! There are no words for the cuteness and I had a hard time deciding which pictures to post.

One of Becca's favorite times of the day is when Josh and Rachael come home from school. She loves playing with them. Rachael had been so excited for this day and was so sweet to play with her and the balloons.

I made becca's favorite for dinner. Aside from bananas she loves my homemade oatmeal with a dash of coconut sugar and covered in chopped strawberries. 

I made confetti cupcakes but the light colored sprinkled turned the batter a light peachy color. Still a lot of fun.

She showed a lot of excitement but was unsure of what to do with the candle.
Besides sticking her finger in the frosting, she didn't want anything to do with the cupcake or ice cream.

Before bedtime we all watched Tangled together. Becca fell asleep half way through, it had been a fun exhausting day for her.

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Josh's 8th Birthday

Where has the time gone? I can't believe Josh is now 8 years old…

Josh was the first one up this morning and full of energy and excitement. He waited patiently in our room for Rachael to wake up and join him. Joseph was still sleeping which is a rare thing as he is usually up by 7am every morning so we let him sleep in.

Our birthday tradition is to open gifts on our bed in the morning with everyone piled on. Rachael got his gifts out and Josh began the opening. Rachael gave him a hero factory and Joseph got him some modeling clay. Then onto the other gifts…. We gave Josh a Chima (similar to hero factory) and then last but not least a build your own internal combustion engine. As soon as he opened it he was beaming from ear to ear with the biggest smile. "YES, this is exactly what I wanted" is what he exclaimed.

The morning continued as he anxiously opened the box to examine the pieces.

We had planned to take him to the Enchanted Maze Gardens for his birthday so we quickly got ready, ate breakfast and headed out to hopefully beat all the crowds.
After a lovely 45 minute drive we arrived at the park in Arthur's Seat. It was beautiful there and smelt lovely. All the trees, hedges, flowers and distant rain made the air so wonderful. Thankfully it was a very mild day.

We explored our way through a hedge maze and let the kids play on the other attractions before getting to the real excitement, Tube Slides.  The kids were in heaven and I loved listening to them cackle on the way down. Rachael's laughter was contageous.  I went once with Joseph and couldn't' believe how much he enjoyed it, it was quite the workout walking up the hill with the heavy tube. I was then surprised at how quickly we raced down the hill on those tubes.

I sat and watched them go up and down the hill quite a few times before it started to get really busy. It turned out so perfect and the kids were sad to leave. After a bit more exploring of the park each of them got their own cup full of lollies to take home.  

The drive home was beautiful as we over looked Port Philip Bay from Arthur's Seat and watched the ships and sail boats go by.

Mama and Pops had sent Josh some birthday money so Aaron took him out to purchase a gift with it. He found this really cool Hero Factory set that was originally $60 on sale for $30. Josh used what Mama and Pops sent along with some of his own money to purchase it and spent the entire evening assembling it. 

He had his choice dinner of pizza, pasta, and garlic bread and then we ended the evening with a delicious cake and a #8 sparkler on top. 

Happy Birthday to our big boy!!