Birthdays and Mother's Day

Hard to believe that we only have a few weeks left here! Kate's class had a farewell 'play' at the park Friday (though she's still in school this week). Tess celebrated her 12th birthday at Moo with a cadbury creme egg milkshake (oh yeah!) and moo burger. She also participated in the girls qualifying races for cross country and placed second in her age group (clearly not taking after her father, who ran the same miles as the varsity runners, just slower). On Saturday my girls took the train down and met me after a Wollongong shift on my birthday to go have high tea in Royal National Park which is a massive park south of Sydney with many waterfalls that cascade over cliffs into the ocean - the peppermint tea was the highlight. Kate keeps her pinky out properly when drinking (but often has her tongue out as well, ruining the effect). We went to Pompeii, our favorite Italian restaurant a block away for thick Italian hot chocolate (awesome with or without chocolate gelato in it) and pizzas, then white chocolate gelato with melted nutella for dessert. Heaven... Mother's day John worked and the girls joined Ila for her baptism celebration next door. Great excitement (and noise) this morning when excavators and dump trucks arrived and began ripping up the sidewalk in front of our house. We'll have to see what we can immortalize in the fresh concrete... We're getting our cat fix as a large rag doll named Cocos moved in a few doors down and climbs along the back fence and into our yard every few days - he's beautiful, though not as friendly as Hank is.