Hello from sunny Brisbane!

I'll warn you now...this is a long entry!

Well, here we are in sunny Brisbane. At 4am on saturday April 14th we put the kids in the car and began the 2 day drive to Brisbane to see Jan, Col, Ella and Hudson. It was definitely worth the drive to see the looks on the kids' faces when we pulled up in the driveway. Ella was so excited to see Max that she climbed up into the car to hug him before he was even out of the carseat. Huddy and Jemima had a cute little cuddle too. It was priceless. Jan has some pictures on her blog.

The kids were fabulous on the trip up. I really think leaving super early is the key and it's much easier if the drivers get a good night's sleep the night before. We stopped the night in Dubbo on the saturday and then left at 4am again. By 4.15pm on sunday we were pulling up in the driveway and it gave the kids some playtime before dinner, bath and bed.

Last week was a very busy week. We tried to do lots of family things with Andrew before he had to fly to the US yesterday. He's not back until May 3rd, so it's just Max, Jemima and me here for now.

Monday we took the River Cat ferry up the Brisbane river to Southbank where the kids had a play, we all had a wander and some lunch and then caught the ferry home again. Tuesday we caught up with some friends and their kids at the park and after 4 hours of non-stop playground exploration, we headed home for afternoon sleeps.

On Wednesday we drove up to Eumundi to go to the market and it was fabulous. Max and Ella had their faces painted as a Tiger and Batman. Ella had never had her face painted before and I think she was absolutely thrilled with the end result. Max chose Batman, no suprises there at the moment. He was SO excited when he saw his face in the mirror.

While we were at Eumundi, Max discovered the Bungy Trampolines. We've seen these before in shopping centres but he has always been too little to have a turn. You can imagine how excited he was when he found out he was big enough this time! It took a little while for him to get the hang of having to push off with his feet when he landed, but he finally mastered. Boy was he tired when he got off!

On Thursday we went to MovieWorld. Max was excited about this visit before we even left Melbourne. Whenever we talked about coming on holiday Max had to add "...and I'm going to MovieWorld". We had a great day. There is so much to see and do and both the kids were able to go on the junior rides. Jemima went on lots with Daddy and Max was able to go by himself most of the time. He was very excited at the thought of seeing ScoobyDoo...until he came face to face with him and the rest of the Mystery Gang. Luckily for us the characters were fabulous and they got down to Max's level to make him feel comfortable. He gave Scooby a big cuddle and had his picture taken with everyone. The professional ones they take there are much better than my little snapshot, but you get the idea. He saw Batman and Robin too, and they were just as wonderful with the kids but I guess that's part of their job really. Just between you and me, Batman was very cute.

We had a photo session on friday afternoon with a local photographer, her name is Rachel Richter and she's fabulous! She took some family shots, some of the kids and some with Ella and Hudson as well. Jan and Col had a session with her a couple of weeks ago, that's the second time they've had Rachel photograph the kids. Rachel has some shots of all the kids here.

Our weekend was pretty busy, we had a huge get together with some wonderful girls and their families. I've known them since we were all pregnant with our first children and we met through an online forum. Over the years the relationships had blossomed from online dialogues to lunches, playtimes, girls nights and an awful lot of love and laughter. Each year we have a National meet up. It was in Sydney the first year, Melbourne last year and this year it's here, in Brisbane. We had a great time and it was lovely to see everyone, especially those who had travelled from far and wide.

Andrew left for America and the UK yesterday. We won't see him until next week when he gets back. Thankfully we get to stay here in the sunshine and have a break, not quite a holiday but definitely a break from the day to day stuff at home.