Grace's first violin concert!

In March, Grace had her first violin concert!  We were so proud of her!!  They offer a program starting in Year 3 called HOPA (Hands On Performing Arts) that the kids can be a part of during school hours. It's perfect because she has her violin lesson during the school day!  She started taking lessons at the beginning of school in February and they had a mini concert in March.  You can definitely see an improvement in her playing, the way she holds the violin, how she stands, etc. in just the last 6 months. Of course, it's nice that I am able to help her while practicing at home since I used to play.  If she had chosen the trumpet or something - we'd be in trouble!! ;)

Andrea - Featherdale

Her final day with us, Grace had to go to school.  We dropped her off, and Lance, Andrea, and myself all headed off to Featherdale!  A MUST see (as you know from all my blogs and the 500 times that we've been)!  But we love it! :)  We jam packed a lot into the 3 full days that she stayed with us, but hopefully it was all worth it!

 Lance and his wallaby buddy

 feeding the wallaby's and kangaroos

 This picture is actually hilarious because we are all a little afraid of the emu!  Watch out - he'll come up behind you and SNATCH the food away from you AND the kangaroos when you're feeding them!

 Bear with me....I got a few cute ones of the koalas, so had to post.  I can't get enough of them - they are just SO CUTE!

 Bright eyed! - you don't see that very often

 mama and baby

they're just so precious and fun to watch!

Andrea - Whale Beach

We took her to one of our favorite spots - Whale Beach, of course!  She thought it was beautiful and we enjoyed a relaxing day on the beach, playing in the sand and water.

 The kids dug this HUGE hole in the sand!!  They could play here for days!

pretty impressive!!

Andrea came to visit!

Our next visitor was my mom's cousin, Andrea Gilbert, who came to visit us in March!  It was fun in December to look ahead and know we had someone coming to visit us in Jan, Feb, and March!!  Something to look forward to! ;)  She came through an organized trip where she traveled with other people, but came to Australia early so she could spend a few days with us in Sydney before meeting up with her tour group to travel the rest of Australia.  We had a great time showing her around all the amazing sights Sydney has to offer.

 This kookaburra was sitting in a tree in our backyard, and I was able to get a picture of it!  One thing I love about Australia, is all the wildlife that is only found here in this country.  I love that it's "common" for us to hear the laughing voice of the wild kookaburra in our own back yard!  Not to mention the brightly colored parrots we always see and the cockatoos!  When you haven't grown up here, it's just so cool and never gets old!

 showing her around Sydney - we took her to "Wagamama" for lunch.  It's one of our fun little favorites that we have fond memories of with our friends, Mike and Lynsey, while touring around Europe with them back in the day..... ;)  ahhhh.....good times!

 we walked over to the Sydney Wildlife center and the kids got to pet a snake - ew!

 we then went and showed her the aquarium

We knew she would see the Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Gardens with her tour, so we went up in the Sydney Tower where they have the new 4D movie....ooooohhh!!

Grace swims in the ZONE!

We were so proud of Grace, as she qualified to swim in the Zone, which is the next step up from the swimming carnival!  At the carnival, you are swimming against other kids in the school, where the zone is competing against kids from other schools, as well as your own.  It was so exciting just to make it this far!  She qualified to swim both the freestyle and the backstroke.  Unfortunately, after diving in to swim the freestyle, her goggles weren't tight enough and fell off.  She kept her eyes closed and did more of a zig-zag to the end, thus really hurting her time.  I was proud of her for finishing and continuing on, though!  Regrouping for the backstroke, she did much better and came in 5th overall!!!  That wasn't enough to qualify for state, but for her first time ever doing this - I was one proud mama!!

 waiting for her turn - Lance and I were there to cheer her on!

 This is a lot bigger pool!

 the starting blocks

 her heat is up next

 getting ready to start

 she finished!

5th overall!
Unfortunately I was taking a video the whole time she was swimming for dad, so I didn't get any pictures of her actually swimming....

Date Night :) - Final Night :(

After we got home from a day at Whale Beach, we had our AMAZING babysitter, Sarah, come over and watch the 4 kids for us while we did a date night - just the four of us!  We went into Sydney and ate dinner at Cafe Sydney.  It was wonderful food and the view was amazing!  We then walked over to the Opera House and finished the evening at Guylian Chocolate by the Opera House.  It was SO MUCH fun and I think of that day a lot and how much I miss all of them.  I wish we could see each other more often. (tear.....)  We had to say goodbye early the next morning as they flew back to America.  Miss you!!

 notice the Harbor Bridge in the background

 our view - a cruise ship happened to be docked as well

 more of our view

 sisters!

 had to get one of the four of us!

 Opera House at night

it's actually quite "hoppin" at night!

Day 11 and 12 - Whale Beach

Day 11 - we did some shopping at the mall and then Scott and Erin took the train in together to go on a personal bike tour of Sydney while I got to stay home and babysit the kids!!  I LOVED having all 4 of them, although, the time flew since we had to pick up Grace from school, take her to drama class, and then go pick up Scott and Erin from the train station.  Solon even fell asleep in the car!  

Day 12 - I decided to let Grace play "hooky" from school for the day and we all went to Whale Beach together!  It was a great day!  Unfortunately, it was their last day here and Erin said she wished she could have gone a second time.  We DO love all the gorgeous beaches here!!

 Getting piggy back rides!

 family pic at the beach

 PRECIOUS!!

 The life guard was really nice and let Lance and Solon each have a turn on his 4 wheeler (just sitting, of course!)

 out to boogie board

 Enjoying their Aussie fries!

 mommy and Vera

 Auntie Raquel and miss Vera!

 playing in the sand

 Our beach tent we love to get the kids some relief from the sun - it's pretty intense here!

 Grace digging......

 Lance with some sea grass on his head??