Summer is here

I love hanging out with Mum and Dad, especially on the weekends. Sometimes we go to the beach and sometimes we have a BBQ on the deck outside. I'm not old enough to turn the snags yet, but Dad lets me watch while they sizzle. Bring on the sunshine, bring on the beach!

Hello Possums!

Hi, I love to dress up. I also love bags, hats, shoes and all that sort of girly stuff. I am looking forward to spending lots of time shopping with Mum and my Aunties when they come to visit!

Liam's New Excavator

Hi, Dad took this photo of me last night, and its a bit fuzzy but you get the picture. Here's my new digger! We spotted this when I went to the City for the day with Kaila and Dad. We walked all over town looking for a Spider Man suit and we just happened to walk past this great shop which has stacks of model cars and you-beaut trucks! It does everything a digger has to do and I love it. I think Dad likes it too. Santa please note, the B-Double model truck is in this shop too...........

Hey guys, check me out! Kaila a few weeks ago.

Kindy

Our young man is growing up, just about finished his first year at Kindy.

Has asked for a model B-Double Truck for his birthday!

Gusto at Sydney Fish Markets

How about this for a tasty little snack? A few weeks ago (I am the worls slackest blogger), AK, Colin and I did the Gusto Italian gig at the Sydney Fish Markets - tastings cooking demo's, cooking classes etc...On one Stall we did for Kirkfood we offered thsi for the punters, and they LOVED it. We've just started bringing in Italian Prosciutto di San Daniele from Italy and we teamed it up with Mozzarella di Bufala and a sprig of basil, a neat drizzle of Gargiulo Olive Oil from the Amalfi all sitting on a slice of Sonoma Sour Dough baguette. Suffice to say they were extremely pleased with our offerring.

Kaila's Christening Saturday 23rd June 2007

Here we are outside the Church for Kaila's Chistening. Father Bob did a great job even though we did manage to set the Alter Candle on fire by accident. Kaila was lovely and the centre of attention up front with Godparents Claire and Fitzy who made a special trip over from New Zealand

Thanks for the Rabbits

Liam and I went for a walk down to Abbotsford Cove early Saturday morning and came across Flopsy and Mopsy, munching on some green grass. Anyway we thought we'd make an old favourite of ours, Rabbit Pie. Nick and Susan Hickson came over and Vicki as well, but Charlie got called out at the last minute and had to go collect a young man who fell foul of the law.





We slow cooked them in some red wine and chicken stock for about 6 hours till the meat was falling off the bone. Then, we cooked up the kidneys, added some mushrooms and bacon, parsley and a spoon of Creme Fraiche and the mix was made. You have to have home-made pastry for this sort of treat so Anne whipped up her Short Crust Pastry and then filled the pies - here's the result - served on mushy peas with buttery mashed spuds, Brussel sprouts and a green salad. Simply Delicious!

Liam Rides the Fire Truck

Look at me!! No fear. One of the girls at day care is so lucky, her Dad is a Fireman. Anyway, he brought the fire truck in for us to see and it arrived with its sirens wailing and lights flashing. Then, the fireman came in and talked to us all and then he let us sit in the drivers seat! I wanted to jump on the back so I could be just like a real fireman, racing off to put the blaze out! I was the only one who jumped on the back too.

Martina comes to visit

Since Dave and Martina left Australia a few years ago it's never been the same. They now live in Ireland and have 2 lovely girls. So it was great to get a visit just the other day from Martina, Kiera and Eamer. They jumped on the ferry and headed out to Abbotsford for the day, and naturally Anne was really excited to see the girls. Thanks for coming guys, see you again soon.

It seems like an eternity since we last updated our blog, but we've been busy!!....Liam and Kaila have both done the rounds with coughs, colds and sore throats but have fought of the winter chills and are right on top of it again. Kaila is a little angel, sleeping through most nights and is really coming of age. She's just turned 11 months now and is saying a few little words and starting to love reading books. Liam, its all dinosaurs!

You can see from the pic here we had a great time at Emilia Dunkleys 3rd Birthday Party, Liam got right into the jumping castle and spent a few hours with the mini Hummer on the back lawn. Emialia was dressed as a fairy and had a bright blue birthday cake, blowing out all the candles.

Justice Kirk was on hand as well and had most of the attention of all the ladies in the room all night long. JB had a hard time fighting off all the girls at this party, but Tuckers came to the rescue for 5 mins.

Next week we caught up with Stav and Trudy at Easter when they visited us in Sydney. It was Easter Sunday and we had a great relaxing day down at the Rowers Club with AK, Lisa and JB, Guy, Colin and Tammy. What better way to spend the day than lazing on the deck there, with a couple of Dede's Seafood Platters and a few cold beers!
Stav and Trude at the Sydney Rowers Easter Sunday

Punto Turbo Diesel

Check out this pocket rocket - the latest Fiat Punto is the newest entrant to the Targa Tasmania Rally which kicks off today.

Our favourite food providore has made a joint sponsorship of the Turbo Diesel powered machine that's sure to grab attention, as its the first diesel to enter the Targa Tasmania Rally.

When Targa Tasmania gets underway with the official Prologue in George Town on April 17, at the start line for the first time will be a diesel-powered vehicle.

Motorsport veteran, Phil Buggee and his co-driver Paul Freame, will be behind the wheel of a Fiat Punto, competing in the Showroom category. Not only will it be the first time that a diesel-powered vehicle has entered Targa Tasmania, it will also be the first diesel-entry in any tarmac rally in Australia.

The Punto meets the toughest emissions standards of Europe, EN590, and will use BP's latest generation 10ppm low sulphur diesel making it the most economical and environmentally friendly vehicle in the field.

"We are looking forward to contesting the Modern section after five years of competing with the Classics, in a brand new car, literally straight off the showroom floor," Buggee said.

"Fiat has returned to the Australian market after an 18-year absence, so it's great to see it back and in such a high-profile event."

"When the opportunity came up to drive the Punto in Targa we jumped at the chance, and with the support of BP in Tasmania and Pirelli, we've made it happen."

"The Fiat Car Club of Victoria is 50 years old this year and entering Targa is a great way to celebrate."
"The chance to be the first turbo-diesel to compete in Targa Tasmania is just one of the firsts for this project."

"Diesel really is the way of the future. We're probably going to use less fuel than any other car in the field. We reckon our total usage will be less than 250 litres for the whole trip, which is pretty amazing."

"I know that the organisers of the event are really looking forward to growing the Showroom class and we'll certainly welcome any others who want to join us in the future."

Welcome Baby Emilie Morris

Congrats to Jeff and Orla on the arrival of Baby Emilie last night!
She's a healthy 8lbs 6 oz and Mum and Baby are doing great. Well done guys, looking forward to meeting your little baby girl.

My first slide

With a little help from Mum, I made my first trip down the slide at the Playground today. Dad reckons that I did a perfect 10!

Our Lift to the Football last night.

Check this out, all $480,000 worth. That's alot of coin! A mate organised this Stretch Hummer with Phil our driver to take 9 of us out to Homebush Stadium to watch the opening game of the AFL. The Swans played pretty badly and lost by one point, but all the fun was had inside the hummer which seats 14. To give you an idea, it had no less than 8 plasma TV's inside. The pic here was taken outside the Phoenix Hotel where we had a few cups of tea before departing.

Sunday March 25th 2007

Another week and Liam is starting to try his best at big sentences and long chats, and telling us all the words he knows - big truck, digger, dump truck! Kaila is pulling herself up using Dad's leg or the coffee table but still pretty wobbly so she cant stand up yet, maybe next week she might.

Got a pic here of Liam up at Palm Beach yesterday while I had Kaila in my arms, the water was pretty nippy but as you can see Liam loved it. He was chasing the blue stingers being washed up in the water, luckily none stuck!

He did however get bowled over for six by a freakish wave about 30 seconds after I took this pic, knocked the feet from right under him but the water was very shallow. Just couple of rolls and tumbles and a mouthful of sea water and sand, but all was ok.

Then off to Newport for fish and chips in nothing but a nappy, much to the delight of surfers and surfer chicks who loved his jumping tricks, laughter and Buzz Lightyear impersonations.

Tuesday20March 2007

OK, time to get cracking. Need to sort out photo's and videos of the kids, sift through all those memory sticks and post em! Hopefully we'll try and update this once a week so family and friends in USA, Ireland, UK, and locally down in Melbourne will be able to visit from time to time.

Last Saturday was St Patrick's Day and of course we had our own little slice of Ireland at home. Guinness, Cashel Blue Irish Cheese and a hot humid Sydney Day - sounds awful doesn't it? Well actually the Guinness was icy cold, the Cashel Blue just perfect and even though the barbie caught on fire and we almost had a visit from Elvis above, it was great.

Friends Isobel and Paul and Mick and Emma joined us and the wee snappers to have a BBQ and a good laugh. Gone are the days of wild and debauched celebrations in those hot sweaty bars in Paddington with a few thousand other backpacking Irish. Brad, Dillon, Erin, Liam and Kaila had a great time and much to their delight managed to squeeze in a ten minute rain dance out the front much to the dismay of older neighbours.