almost 3

Reese is going to turn 3 next month- can you believe it. Of course she still gets mistaken for being 2 - poor little shrimp.

more pirates

here are some more photos - playing pirate lego & pirate dress up

Pirate Cake

Thanks to Jen for mailing us two boxes of goodies from the US- sorry that she had to cancel her visit to Sydney. Hopefully it is just a postponed visit.

One of the favorites (besides the wonderful book that Jon co-authored) was a fun cake mold- of a pirate ship. Fitting for our currently love of pirates. Of course I had to make a pirate cake the very first night ;) I made a peanutbutter cake with chocolate gananche frosting.

RRRRRRRRRRRRR it was tasty

tale of two weekends

Oh what a difference two weekends can be. Two weeks ago we went to Port Stephen's.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Port+Stephens,+New+South+Wales,+Australia&sll=21.654282,-158.060646&sspn=0.009254,0.013711&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FVrtDf4dPWARCQ&split=0&hq=&hnear=Port+Stephens,+New+South+Wales,+Australia&z=11

It was about 2.5 hours outside of Sydney- not a bad drive (very peaceful since everyone but me napped). A pretty coastal area filled with many inlets and scenic beaches. It had been a while since we explored a new part of Australia so I was excited to check it out. All in all we had a great overnight there. We stayed at a Holiday Park- think RV park plus cabins. That was one of the only open places left to stay -guess that is what you get for booking it the day before you leave. Good thing there aren't tornados in this area (or at least I think not). Fine for a night and the kids loved the bunk beds. We tried to do some touristy things without much success (go-kart track was closed down; ATVs had a minimum age of 10 and Nate can't pass for 10; and everyone feel asleep in the car on the way to sandboard -huge sand dunes there that you sled down).....but we enjoyed the views. (pictures below)

On the other hand last weekend was a completely other story. Nate and Reese caught a cold and Reese spent most of Saturday and Sunday puking- including twice on the couch. I spent most of the time doing seven loads of laundry (I think I washed every towel we own). Better than Michael who got puked on not once but twice. I am very happy to report that it was a violent but fast case and other than a stuff nose we are all much healthier now. (no puke pictures ;)

Arrrrrrr

Yo ho ho - me hardies.......

here are my favorite pirates. (Nate's current favorite thing is pirate legos). He even watched Yellow Beard (one of Michael's favorite movies) and now walks around quoting the movie. Michael has never been so proud ;)

Go Ravens

It is soccer season here in Australia. Nate has joined the Curl Curl team and Michael is the team coach (I volunteered him to get Nate on the team post the registration deadline). We just had game two and we are off to a solid start....you may recall last year's first game was full of tears. Not this year- Nate is loving it and playing aggressively. He seems to be a natural defender.

And of course Reese is his biggest fan :)

Check out some pictures:

last chemo session

Wednesday was my last chemo session (hooray! yippee!)....let's hope it was the last forever. It was a bit odd at the hospital- no fanfare, crown or singing. No celebration at all. You get to know the nurses there going every two weeks over last four months....plus you know me I had to bring in homemade baked goods. Oh well. At least my oncologist thinks I am a rock star- in that my body handled the chemo (extra often and high doses) remarkably well.

Michael took me out last night for a celebration dinner at a new fancy restaurant that just opened in Manly. Here is picture of me in my wig- although it looks a bit off center already - and I hadn't even drank yet.

What's next you ask? I get seven weeks of recoup and healing for rebuild my system prior to surgery. My lumpectomy (the tumor is now only 1 cm) is scheduled for June 4th. The about two weeks later after recovery I will start the last part of my treatment plan- radiation. Daily for 6 weeks- ugh.... But I'll deal with that later.

Unfortunately that means we won't be able to travel to Seattle in July as I had hoped. But when we do come in August/September post radiation I will be done with all my treatments!!! I might even have a little new hair by then. It should start growing in about six weeks....still fuzz for now.

family picture on Manly beach:

date night photo: