Bye Bye

New year, new country, new adventures, new blog!

brown-family-moments.blogspot.com

Work Christmas Party

This year the work Christmas party was at Luna Park! We had lunch, free rides, ice cream, games, crafts, and Santa!


Hopefully he will get a new costume next year :) But he brought great gifts.

 
We went into Coney Island and had fun in the mirror maze, the silly walk

Tasi drove lots of car rides


  and Makoa learned how to go on the giant slides by himself!

Then we went back to the work party and while Don and I chatted to friends the kids had the best time ever with the animals!

PS Did you check out what the kids were wearing? I made Makoa's shirt in the style of the company logo holding a candy cane and Tasi's dress is made from one of Don's work shirts - they were a big hit :)

Morning Tea with Santa

One of the shopping centres in Sydney has a Morning Tea with Santa that costs a $5 donation to the children's hospital. It is a fantastic event so we went this year again.

 Koa loved the chocolate muffin, Tasi loved she got juice, and it cracked me up that Santa's helper wears a mini skirt with fishnets . . . only in Australia!

 Tried to quickly distract Tasi with a picture as Santa and Rudolf arrived.

 Makoa was excited, but Tasiana's eyes are not so sure.

After a quick shot we grabbed our goody bag - with stuffed animals and coloring books- and had a play on the indoor equipment. Great start to Christmastime!

Minecraft Birthday Party

This year Makoa wanted to have a party with the family, especially since we had some special visitors. Minecraft is a relatively new game so there aren't any decorations or props we could buy, so it was very homemade :) but luckily we did find a blog post about a 9 year old Minecraft party so we had some ideas. Makoa wanted a Minecraft spider cake.

And while I was putting on the finishing touches Makoa decorated the living room with Minecraft clouds and cacti and putting some trees in my room for one of the games.

Dad assembled my cereal box pinata idea and Mom decorated it to look like a Minecraft brick.

At 2 o'clock I announced it was the start of the birthday and we all sat down to watch a video about how to play the game.

After the video clip Makoa led us all in a 'real-life' Minecraft game where we had to collect wood (from the trees) to make tools (made from cardboard) so we could mine and fight bad guys.

Then we went outside for the pinata and 'Zombie Tag'

And back in for 'Pin the Head on the Skeleton' (maybe my skeleton looked more like a Halloween decoration than Minecraft, but whatever!

And cake and presents . . . I made Makoa a Minecraft backpack - definitely a theme here!

Thanksgiving

Mom and I spent the morning at Makoa's school giving a guest appearance to teach the kids about Thanksgiving, and then eating cupcakes for Makoa's birthday morning tea. I quickly dropped mom off at home to start making pie for our Thanksgiving dinner! 

Making American Thanksgiving dinner is not as easy in Australia. Mom and Dad brought in some essentials - canned pumpkin and gravy mix and ranch dressing packets. And I preordered a turkey breast for us meat eaters. Not too bad of a spread with mashed potatoes and gravy, blueberry jello, olives, cranberry sauce, rolls, turkey, and BBQ fri chik, with pumpkin pie for dessert! Hope everyone else had a Happy Thanksgiving too!

Minecraft Cupcakes

Makoa's favorite game is called Minecraft and this year he wanted me to make Minecraft cupcakes to bring to school. About 3 weeks before his birthday he and I talked and drew what he wanted on the tops. He has a lot of faith in the crafty abilities of his mom!

 

So that's what I had to work with Wednesday night - the picture of tools and creatures from Minecraft and some white icing and food coloring. It took a while but I was pretty pleased with the results.

 

Makoa loved them too and I made the cupcakes with a red velvet mix so the cupcakes were surprisingly red inside. Too fun!

At his preschool all the kids sing Happy Birthday then pose for a photo. Then the birthday boy gets to hand out all the cupcakes. It was adorable to hear all of the kids say 'thank you' and Makoa to tilt his head 'your welcome'. They are all so polite!

It was so fun to celebrate at the school with my big boy 5 year old. Happy Birthday!

Opera House High Tea

When Mom and Dad come to visit we are just horrible about taking photos, so I apologize for not being able to show more of the fun we had, but luckily I did take my camera to the Opera House High Tea that mom and I went to. It was POURING and we were all dressed up so we took a taxi into the city, and were a little early so explored the Opera House. Then we were seated in one of the front sails that looks onto the city.

 

It was AMAZING! We had a beautiful lunch, followed by gorgeous desserts, then a pianist and opera singer stood next to mom and I for 4 songs. We literally could almost touch the singer and her voice gave me chills.

Doesn't mom look great? It was supposed to be spring/summertime so she had brought a dress to wear, but instead she had to borrow a shirt. Yes, that is the top I wore last Christmas. My mom and I have NEVER shared clothes, can't believe it! Looking good Mom!!