Family outing

Meeks, Mitch and I decided to go on an outing to the city this morning. We started off by driving to Milson's Point and then walking across the bridge. It was a beautiful sunny day and Mitch was full of running. He ran most of the way across the bridge.

Although stopping every once in a while to take in the sights.



After crossing the bridge we walked down to Circular Quay caught a ferry back to Luna Park. Mitch loved it on the "Ferry boat" (as he calls it).



At Luna Park we went on the Ferris Wheel ...


And Mitchy and I went on the carousel

After all that we had a bit of morning tea and enjoyed the view from Bradfield Park under the bridge.





Then it was back home for a very tired little boy (and tired Mummy and Daddy). Mitchy was such a good boy and had lots of fun. Thanks Mummy for such a great idea!

In the park

Mitch and Meeks and I had a bit of play in the park this afternoon. Here some pictures, what a little cutie.






Mitchy is being very cute at the moment. His language is coming along so well and he has started asking questions like "What doing Daddy?" and "Where you Mummy?".

Unfortunate ... but memorable

Last night the Costa's came over for dinner and to hang out because Jeremy had agreed to model for me for some iStockphoto shots. Kate was just going to watch TV and chat with Meeks. It was the first time I had had anyone model for me so I was a bit nervous about it all. I had planned out the "shoot" and had a running sheet of photos that I wanted to take and had set up the lounge area in our house as the "studio". All was going well, until Jeremy who was sitting on the window sill leant back and managed to crack the glass of the front window with his back side. Huge shards of glass rained down around him and miraculously he didn't even get a scratch. It really was a lucky thing. Some of the shards of glass on the ground outside the window were a foot long and weighed quite a bit. I imagine if one of them had hit him we would have been racing off to hospital rather than searching on the internet for 24 Hour glass replacement. Of course the rest of the shoot was called off!

O'Brien couldn't fix the glass straight away because they were too busy and another company couldn't do it straight away because the glass pane was too big for what they had on the trucks at that time, so we boarded it up with a sheet of ply that the council had left outside Kate and Jeremy's place (don't tell anyone!). This afternoon O'Brien came out and fixed the glass and all is good again. What's more Jeremy has agreed to come back for a second helping tonight to finish the shoot. I've promised not to make him go near any more glass!

Mitchy slept through the whole thing. What a good boy!

The irony of Jeremy breaking a pane of glass with his backside while we were watching The Biggest Loser Finale was not lost on anyone :)

Along with the police visit after shooting the Shell Refinery at Clyde, I'm building a collection of unfortunate but memorable photography related incidents.

Mitch's Birthday pictures

Mitch's 2nd Birthday was a week ago and I have finally whittled the images down to a more limited set.

First up is Meeks' brilliant Thomas the Tank Engine cake began a train themed party.

There were 7 children at the party and they tucked into a bunch of yummy food.


Mitch was old enough to understand the enjoyment of opening presents this year. He didn't so much care what was inside, but definitely enjoyed the opening process! Here is a photo in the midst of present unwrapping frenzy.


There were lots of activities including decorating train biscuits.

Then it was time for the cake. Lighting the candles:

Yay!

Blowing them out.

Finally eating the cake. Yummy!

New Job

Yesterday I gave my notice to EDS that I would be resigning. I'll be starting a new job with IBM on 29th May. When I say "new job" it's really the same job, in the same location, with pretty much the same benefits, but with a different company (and more pay). Obviously I'm very pleased as it will make things like going to the UK for Krissy and Glenn's wedding next year financial easier (but still expensive!).

In other me news, iStockPhoto continues to go well. I had my hundredth image accepted last week and am very close to reaching 100 downloads (currently 97). I'm also approaching my first payout which wont be much, but it will be nice. I feel like my photos have improved a lot as a result of the "on the job training" (basically unless your photos aren't any good they don't get accepted) at iSP. I'm also going to treat myself to a new camera lens as reward for the new job. Not sure what yet, probably this one to go with this one which is the lens I currently use.

Birthday Boy

We can't believe our little boy is 2! The last year has gone so fast, it hardly seems any time a go that we were having his first birthday party in the park next door.

Yesterday, we had Mitch's 2nd Birthday. Unfortunately we weren't blessed with the same lovely weather as last year. As a result we were forced inside which made things a little chaotic. There are lots of photos, but not enough time to sort through them, so for now just one of a little 2 year old.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our beautiful little boy!

New nephew and cousin

Congratulations to Mike and Mandy on the birth of William (Will) Thomas Clark today at 1:43pm. Brother to Lilly, nephew to Meeks and I and cousin to Mitch. We're looking forward to seeing you all!

Mitchy wallpaper

Every once in a while I make a background wallpaper for our laptop with lots of pictures of Mitchy and our little family. Here is the latest one:

They take a little while to make, but it's good to sit at work and see lots of pictures of Meeks and Mitch.

I've been sick for the past few days. Very unpleasant flu thing, lots of coughing to keep Meeks awake. Hopefully it will be gone soon!

Wednesday fun

It's been a while since I've posted an episode of Wednesday fun. Mitchy and I spent the morning inside because the weather was foul. We made a cubby house out of the cushions from the couch and a blanket. Mitch did much better than his first encounter with a cubby.

By morning tea time it had cleared up outside so Mitchy had some rice crackers and a drink.



Do you want some crackers too?


Aunty Krissy returned to the UK today. Mitch has had fun getting to know her and she has been a bit of a favourite while she's been here. We'll have to wait until December to see her again. She and Glenn will be returning for an Aussie engagement party.

Visit to the Zoo

It's been a bit of a hectic week so I haven't had a chance to post about our trip to the Taronga Zoo with Aunty Krissy last Friday for Meeks' birthday. (Warning lots of photos ahead)
Some of the animals we saw:









It's hot work walking around the zoo, Mitchy needed to stop for a drink:

And hungry work too! Birthday cake for Meeky.


Some more photos too!

In front of the elephants: