big day out

Life has been just peachy here down unda. The weather has been questionable at times, but today was absolutely gorgeous! Today was "Australia Day," which pretty much means that all the aussies head down to the beach, drink, and hardly anyone is working since it's a national holiday. Last night a big group of us went to the Newport Arms Hotel for an Australia Day Eve party. It's about a 20 min drive from Manly. We got there and there was a massive line that we had to wait in for over an hour, but it was worth it! We had the best time and the place was packed, and it was huge! It apparently has the largest waterfront beer garden in all of Australia--and they even had fireworks at midnight! 

This past week of nannying was a little hectic, since the kids are still on Summer break (they start school on Thursday, thank goodness!) On Wednesday I took the kids down to the park to ride their bikes and when we got in the car to head back home, the car wouldn't start! It was a very hot day out, and you can imagine how hard it was to keep three little ones entertained in the car as we waited over 30 minutes for the mechanic to come. We made it back home and had fun playing games up in Mia's room, and of course when I thought things were going great, Harvey pulled his pants down and peed on Mia's carpet!! Hah, I still can't believe he did that! But of course just when things seem to get tough, someone says something hilarious that makes it all better....Mia was staring at my ear and I asked her, "Mia, what are you looking at??" She responds, "your ear." I then asked her why and she tells me "because your ear is so beautiful!" Then we both started to laugh hysterically--definitely what we both needed! 

Friday was a much much better day, as the older two kids went to vacation care and I just had Harvey....I took him on a bike riding path by the beach in the morning, then to the park, then to a place called "clown town," then to McDonalds for lunch...I forgot how entertaining it is to watch a child try to eat an ice-cream cone. He kept tipping it over and eventually the top half fell off...whoops!  He had me laughing so hard and whenever I start to laugh he begins laughing too! We had such a great time together....just the two of us...and I can already tell it is going to be very hard saying goodbye to that little guy!

Saturday was the best day yet! I went to an all day music festival called "big day out" with Shayli....it was at Sydney's olympic park and there were over 50,000 people there!! They had tons of food booths, bars, and even rides set up all throughout the park! The event started at 11 am and didn't end until midnight, so it was a long long day! It got up to 110 degrees but in the arvo (afternoon) it started to rain and cooled down a lot (which was actually a blessing!) Anyways, we had an awesome time dancing away to Muse, Jet, Lily Allen, Dizzee Rascal, and much more bands! One of the highlights was a guy pointing out to me that I'm, "fabulous. Just a side note." Haha, after he said that I realized that maybe Australians always seem so nice because they are always intoxicated. 

Anyways, I should get going as I'm hoping to get a full nights sleep tonight before the nanny week starts up again...just 3 more weeks and I'm off to Bali :) Hope everyone is staying dry and out of the rain-sending sunshine from down under! 

love, caitlyn