We're still here! Still in Bali and we're all doing good :)
I thought about blogging all the time but we've been super busy. We spent the last week of 2011 and 1st week of 2012 in Sydney, celebrating Christmas & New Year. I was out of touch with the internet world almost the whole time we were there, it was that hectic.
The week before and the week after Sydney we were busy entertaining guests in Bali. We went to some cool interesting places together which I'd talk about sometime soon yeah. Then this week we were just getting back into our Bali routine - Ayisha back at school, Michael back at work and me back at doing household chores ie. organising my cleaner, gardener, pool, rubbish & laundry dudes (slap me, slap me now).
Sydney was so much fun. We did a lot of stuff and we couldn't believe 2 weeks went by just like that. There's so much to write about and share but I'm just going to sum it all up the best I can with loads of pictures.
Whenever we're back in Sydney, the priority is always to spend as much time with family. But it's always hard because we'd try catch up with friends too and do a lot of other things during our short stay there. This time, we really tried our best to do almost everything with family. Never enough tho, but there's absolutely no shortage of loving for our Lil Miss Squeaky who enjoyed every bit of it. There's plenty of special moments & memories shared with a lot of...
Baby Jack time:
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| Check out our cool curls yo! |
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| One is blonde and the other brown but they're so much alike! |
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| Picnic with Aunty Vicki & Uncle Darren, waiting for Christmas Carols |
Jack, a year younger than Ayisha, is such an awesome little kid. He gives great hugs & kisses and he's just great with everyone and anyone. I love spending time with him & can't believe we're missing so much of him growing up!
Abbey time:
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| They do a lot of dancing (or rather jumping :p) together! |
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| Smile!! |
Abbey, a year older than Ayisha, is a very grown up little lady. She talks with such amazing expressions on her face and they both jumped with joy everytime they see each other. They do have problems with sharing sometimes, especially with the many new Christmas toys around. But it's all in the name of luuuurve as there's plenty more hugs, kisses, giggles and special girly times between these two.
Grandma time:
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| Ayisha got spoilt by grandma a lot a lot! Enough said ;) |
Poppy time:
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| Poppy's stories are the best! He read every single word - even the thick books :p |
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| How cute is Jack??? heheh |
Then, there's Christmas at the Laidlers. Ho! Ho! Ho!
My sister
Wa who's living in Sunny Coast has been joining us for Christmas this past few years. This time was extra special as her husband & new baby got to join us too. It means a lot to us as we got to see baby Aariz for the 1st time and we're so proud to be the 1st ones in the family to get to enjoy him! He's super chubby and oh-so-cute. Ayisha LOVES him. :)
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Christmas eve - checking out the neighborhood's lovely Xmas lights & decorations
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| Fake snow's so much fun! |
Christmas day at my inlaws has always been so wonderfully crazy and joyful. It started really early with a big breakfast of muffins, crumpets, bacon & eggs (we drove straight to our halal butcher for our beef bacon after arriving at the airport!)
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| Ha with Abbey & her breakfast plate |
Then there's the overflowing presents eventhough we have Secret Santa/Kris Kringle organised. We just couldn't help it. It's more and more becoming about the kids now, everyone just couldn't resist. There's so many cool toys out there for us (oopsy, the little ones) to play with nowadays.
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| this is just half of the presents |
Ayisha was pampered with presents after presents from everyone - with a whole lot of Dora, from Dora Princess dress and pyjamas to soap & lotion & travel pack bag and loads of crayons, colors, books & stickers and a whole lot of purple stuff too, surprise surprise!
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| ..and we're just getting started. Check out all the Doras behind daddy! |
After presents we do the next best thing - more eating! Christmas lunch has always been so satisfyingly wonderful with everything on the table - stuffed turkey, 7-hour lamb, roasted chicken, fresh prawns & oysters complete with accompanying side dishes of potatoes, salads etc. This time was no different. I didn't get to take good pictures tho - too hungry!
After the mains, the whole table has to be cleared for the plentiful yummy DESSERTS!!!!!! This time, my good friend Yuz joined us for Christmas. She brought Baklava from her special Lebanese shop that was just the BEST I've ever had. She bought a plate for me last time I was pregnant and this time my tummy got lucky again!
There's also my favorite South African dessert with layers & layers of chocolate, cream & special S.African biscuits by our friends - Cindy & George, who's been joining us for Xmas every year, now with 2 kids - Bella & baby Michael.
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| layer cake between the coconut balls & cookies - table's not full yet! |
Then there's my MIL's yummylicious fruitcake - with lots and lots of custard and I made trifle topped with the awesome-licious fresh summer fruits & berries!
From then on, it's just all you can eat, all day long - perfect day for stretchy pregnancy pants :p In between, all we did was just relaxing, playing games and just chilling & chatting. This year, we have Abbey's bouncy castle set up at grandma's backyard. Super fun!
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| Ladies' Tea Party - this tea set is the coolest. Thanks grandma! |
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| Play doh fun with Abbey & Bella |
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| Dora painting lesson with Aunty Yuz |
For our New Year's eve celebration, we all agreed that we didn't want to do what we did last year - half asleep waiting for midnite in front of the tv.
So my SIL,
Vicki organised a popcorn & pizza party (Laidlers received a super cool popcorn machine & we all received a pizza oven from my MIL!) at her new place, which we love so much! She hosted it so well, with a lot of fun games to keep us up till midnight.
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| 6 hours till midnight - popcorn, chips & dips |
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| Laidler boys behind the fresh DIY pizza ingredients |
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| Laidlers' close family friend, Anna Maria with the pizza ovens |
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| Mine with LOTS of cheesy goodness |
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| Kids' fireworks - 3 hours till midnight |
It ended it with an extraordinary cake that came complete with your fortune for the new year. It was a pretty great start to the new year, thanks Vicki!
In between the Christmas & New Year celebrations, we managed to squeeze in a few things together including:
A visit to the tram museum just 5 mins from grandma's. No, we're not using our kids to get on old tram rides!
Another day was spent on a real train ride for a full day in the city. I've always wanted to go the very famous Fish Market. So we went there for lunch and got ourselves a seafood platter. The lobster & oyster mornay were sooooooo gooooooood!
We had extra large chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. I bought one each for everyone. Big, big mistake! Ayisha ate MINE as well..pergh...
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| Note to self: Ha = 2 person when it comes to dessert, just like me |
Later that day, we stopped by Town Hall to see the Lego Art Exhibition showing in the city. We thought we would get to play with the blocks but it's more an artsy fartsy kinda thing. Pretty cool stuff tho..
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| Daddy promised I'd see some kangaroos this time round, Lego osso can lah... |
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we did get to push some buttons at the Lego shops
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Hafta be quick or daddy's gonna take over!
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We also spent some time at Darling Harbour which was splendid. I always get a nice warm fuzzy feeling when I walk around Sydney and see the Bridge, the Opera House & the Harbour. Haven't been here for a while and it's changed so much. They have a big playground area that includes excellent water play and carousel. Great for taking the kids on a day out in the city!
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Lesson learned, no sharing when it comes to chocolatey creamy stuff - thank God for $1 babycinos!
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Another day was spent catching up with my friends in Sydney that was set up ages ago. We met at Azi's new awesome place in Balmain. It was a superfine day with great company & extremely delish food!
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| Getting crafty with aunty Azi |
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| My trifle looks so plain next to Azi's crazy yummy cheesecake that melts in your mouth! |
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| pool time with baby Aariz |
Another day was spent visiting family in Kiama - the Laidlers' favorite holiday spot. We spent all day with Tom's aunty and her family and had a truly fantastic day.
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| Getting in touch with his feminine side on his pink floaties |
Another thing that's been keeping us busy in Sydney was our
house that we left behind. Our friend that's been looking after the house all this while had to leave. So we had to clear all of our stuff and do lots of cleaning, to get it ready to be rented out properly. It sure brought a lot of memories as it was our first home together as a family. Ayisha got to spend the 1st 3 months of her life in this house. We were extremely homesick. Definitely made us stop and think about moving back in!
Ayisha helped with some of the cleaning but at the end of the day...
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| ...it was hard work!! |
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| saving the last chip in my mouth for later |
It's been a crazy 2 weeks so she didn't have a lot naptimes. But a kid's gotta do what a kid's gotta do!
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| Do Not Disturb |
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| Quiet time before bed, watching Dora Princess with her 'princess veil' towel - made specially by grandma |
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| time out on her favorite bean bag |
All in all, it was a perfect ending to 2011 and an exciting new beginning to 2012. We left Sydney with 3 bags full, with a whole load of Timtams and one 30kg bag full of Ayisha's Dora and toys.