bermagui

It's absolutely freezing here at the moment and hard to imagine it was only a month or so ago that we were swimming at Bermagui. Actually S and Jack swam, they had wetsuits. I just paddled a bit.

the blue pool - too cold even with wetsuits

catch up

Sometimes it's nice to get away from it all and just dag around and relax. I certainly thought that would be the case in Bermagui but we just kept running into people. Luckily they were nice ones so it was okay and we had a good catch up.

I knew beforehand that my friend Annabel would be down there (thanks FB) and arranged to meet at the beach. I'm not sure but I think the last time I saw Annabel was at a writer's festival when an ex boss gushingly greeted me with a "Hi Kate!" much to our amusement.
So lovely to catch up however briefly with the lovely Annabel and so glad she introduced us to Cuttagee.

gelati

chai gelato (behind) and honey and ginger (front)

When we arrived in Bermagui I breathed a huge sigh of relief. There was the fisherman's co-op of course (fresh fish squeeee!) but there was also a patisserie and a gelati 'clinic'.
We soon became regular visitors and I got to agonise over which flavours I should put together.
This gelato is the real thing, no pretend flavours and every time we went there were new flavours to chose from (not that Jack noticed as he either went with chocolate or stracciatella - choc chip).
I tried nocciola (hazelnut), stracciatella, guinness chocolate, chili chocolate, chocolate, chai and my favourite honey and ginger which was amazing. This was over a week mind you, not just in one sitting. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to try the rhubarb - such a beautiful colour.
We are all looking forward to going back to try more.

Go Fish!

For some reason it came as a surprise to me that the library would be shut on the Saturday of the Easter weekend (meaning I didn't have to work). With all those days off in a row I suggested to S that maybe we should go away. He didn't seem too enthusiastic and so it was a lovely surprise when he called to say we were going away and that we were going to Bermagui (on the south Coast of NSW). S already had a wetsuit and he promptly ordered one for Jack. I know I eat lots of cake but I wasn't sure I could rely on my reserves to keep me warm.
Anyway S was also keen on getting Jack a fishing rod. I wasn't so sure - my childhood fishing adventures had been abject failures but we went to the shop and Jack selected his own rod and was jumping out of his skin as we got sinkers and bait and hooks.

We went to a spot at Cuttagee that my friend Annabel had shown us that was perfect. Within no time we'd all caught our own little fish which we promptly released (after Jack kissed them goodbye).

party!

For Jack's party we decided to keep things simple. Barbecue, cake and party games. For some reason I kept thinking about the doughnut game where you tie doughnuts to a clothesline and kids have to try to eat them - without using their hands. There was a whole lot of cheating going on but it was very funny.




We also did pass the parcel with the most enormous parcel (every child gets a prize, though not always the right prize)

and pin the badge on the puppy (ow!)

and a hilarious game where the kids had to let go of blown up balloons and try to get them in a bucket. much harder than you think except for Jack who held onto his balloon as it deflated then dropped it in the bucket!

teddy racers!

It was a pretty successful party even with the birthday boy getting a touch tired and emotional and putting himself to bed at one stage. He also had a teary when someone beat him to the punch blowing out his candles. We relit the candles for take 2 and everyone was happy.

take 1

uh-oh!

take 2 - success


opening presents - so many presents!

Jack's new preschool friends Torah and Tyler

cake!

I made a whole lot of cakes last week. One for daycare, one for preschool and one for Jack's birthday party. Initially Jack wanted a Peppa Pig cake, then it changed to a Lightning MacQueen cake then a Buzz Lightyear cake. I was worried. Thank goodness for ebay. While S was away for work I found myself looking at things called edible cake toppers at midnight. I ordered a Toy Story one and some smaller ones for cupcakes then crossed my fingers that they would arrive in time.
For daycare I made a Cars cake, but I cheated and used small cars to re-enact a race scene from the movie. And cacti made out of white chocolate I tinted green.


For preschool the cake toppers still hadn't arrived (starting to feel nervous) so I made a Fire Engine Cake from the new AWW birthday cake cookbook. It was a big hit though next time I need to put 25 oreo wheels on so every kid gets one. No one seemed to have any food colouring sensitivities which was lucky as there was another birthday cake that day and it was bright green.
That night Diane made a tennis racquet cake for Jack. We were very impressed with her use of a Terry chocolate orange as the ball. Jack stated that he had eaten enough cake and didn't want any. There was a shocked pause until Jack rallied and decided he could fit some in after all.


The edible cake topper turned up the next day so on the day of Jack's party all I had to do was pop it on top of the icing. It looked pretty fab especially with the purple icing (Jack's fav colour).


All the kids clamoured for a bit of Buzz or Woody and it was a big hit. That night though I heard Jack having a little cry. He was sad because we had eaten Buzz and Woody. I told him that I had saved him some of Woody and Buzz for the next day and strangely this made him feel better.

treasure hunt

Jack talks about Mollymook quite often. What's not to love about a beach, lots of fish and chips and quality time with your cousins. One of the things we did (my mum's idea) was to have a treasure hunt on the beach.


While we distracted Jack and Scarlett by popping bluebottles with a plastic spade, Mum snuck off into the dunes to bury the loot. After she gave the signal, we consulted a map and then made towards the treasure - where towards means zigzagged to and fro across the beach with us saying, "ooh I think I see pirate footprints over there!"
Jack and Scarlett and Chelsea dug up the 'treasure chest' and were very excited by their loot. Pirates seem to have gone declasse and moved into less traditional forms of treasure but no one seemed to mind.