Chinchilla Melon Festival

We've been waiting a loooong time for the Melon Fest to come around and it didn't disappoint. On Friday night we could've gone to the Rodeo but I knew it would be really crowded and difficult to get good seats for the kids so we went to the 'movie under the stars' at Amita's school. We watched Oddball which is probably a very funny movie but I couldn't understand much of the dialogue with all of the kiddies running around! haha... next time I'll request subtitles :) 

Lizzie being cute.

Amita being crazy.

Lizzie snuggling up to Nan and Pa.

Saturday morning we headed to the markets down the main street. We have never seen so many people in one place in this town before!

Amita and Lizzie had a go on a ride each and got to choose one thing to buy. Amita chose a necklace from the crystal shop that looks like Moana's necklace. Lizzie got one of those plastic expanding ball things. She's holding it in a photo lower down. 

Time for the Street parade. We saw lots of interesting cars and people.

This is Miguel from 'The Living Room' being filmed for a segment on the show I guess. Those are some pretty big Watermelons on that float but the one that won the biggest weigh-in was 75kg heavy. 

A family shot just before heading home. We were on the last day of this 4 week long heatwave and at 11am we were done and needed some air conditioning. 

About 4pm and we all went out to check out the Melon Sports (It was still about 40 degrees at this time) and we were very grateful for the free watermelon! Even Steve had a piece to eat.

We stayed to watch a chariot race and then decided it was just too hot and headed home. We had a great time though and are hoping we won't be in a heatwave next time and will be able to see all of the activities. 

Amita is back at school

Here's Amita on her first day back at school. This year she is in grade 1 and has settled in nicely with her new teacher and friends. Lizzie on the other hand is missing her play buddy and keeps asking me to play doll house with her.

Amita received an award on parade. 

It says: For consistently being a responsible learner who follows all the school values. Amita you are a very respectful class member. Keep up the fabulous work.

Christmas and New Years

Christmas was so good this year. Nice and relaxed! Which is just the way we like it. We woke up and checked out our goodies from Santa and then had a yummy breaky of coco-pops, croissants and mangoes. Christmas, being on a Sunday this year meant that we could get dressed up in our Christmas dresses for church.

 Here are the girls obliging me with a pose under the big tree outside the chapel.

Once home it was time to put baby Jesus in our nativity (a new tradition we started this year). And then we opened our presents. I know it doesn't look like it but Lizzie was super excited to get a Star Wars play-dough kit.  

Amita was so happy to get a Harry Potter book. We have been reading it together at bedtime and are almost half way through.

I can't remember why they were hugging but it's such a cute photo.

Here's my crazies! We had a delicious lunch/dinner with turkey, ham and salads. Poor Steve had only just got his braces on 2 days before and was struggling to eat. He was grateful for the soft potato salad. After Steve set up our new Xbox we got to skype our extended families and wish them Merry Christmas.

Here's just a quick pic from New Years. We stayed up to watch the kid's Sydney fireworks and had some fun with sparklers.

And this is a picture I just found after Amita hijacked my camera. 😁