Nick's Birthday and Ice Skating

So amongst  the craziness that is December Nick's birthday managed find it's place.... and the thing to do for Nick was go  ice skating!

Lily's Brother Brendan was in town with his Girlfriend so the five of us set forth to find the local outdoor rink in Glassboro, NJ.  This would be the first time for Bella who was super excited as so was Nick because it had been 8 years since he'd done it last. As you can see in the photos we were the first ones on the ice so it was all nice, smooth and clean; not so after we ripped it up!

We all had an awesome time ice skating and taking turns in helping Bella get her ice feel.  We stayed the full 2 hours and by the end we all felt like we'd done a good amount of exercise!


Nick's Birthday "Cake" was the tradition American Sweet Potato Pie made my Lily's lovely mother, Vahlia.

 

Christmas and New Years love from all of us here in NJ!

Thanksgiving, Santa Claus and NYC

So we are definitely feeling festive after an amazing Thanksgiving and all the Christmas decoration everywhere you turn.  We've been busy, Bella missing daddy everyday he goes to work asking the night before "Daddy when the sun comes up will you be going to work?" and if Daddy says yes it is followed by "Nooooo, I don't want to you go to work, I want you to stay here".

Now Nick knows how Thanksgiving goes down in the States.... Food, Football and time to hangout with friends and family. Oh and turkey, you can't forget the turkey.  Nick had never seen so much of it in her life as he was help Emilio monitor the oil temperature of for the deep fried turkey while Lily helped inside.  We are talking over 45 pounds of Turkey on the dinner table and full leg of pork.... And macaroni and cheese, potato salad, home made cranberry sauce and about 10 pies for dessert (sweet potato, pumpkin, apple cinnamon etc etc).  Here are some of our first American Thanksgiving:

Bella learning how to skate board:

Unfortunately we were having so much fun that we didn't take many photos!

Bella is so excited for Christmas this year, it's the first one she's old enough to understand!  She is intrigued about the idea of Santa coming down the chimney, but she is so happy for presents that she doesn't mind the idea of a strange man coming in the house to give her presents.  And recently we went to visit him at the North Pole!

And Nick hung out with Steve in NYC

It's snow here as I write! We might have a white Christmas!  Love you all

November in the land of crazy viable weather and ice...

So yeah freezing and snow one day to the next being in the 70s Fahrenheit I thought it wasn't meant to be that crazy.... maybe something to do with are the carbon entering the atmosphere, that's what most people point to when you talk to them about it! Crazy Melbourne weather has nothing on this!

Few things going on, it's nice to be able to drive if the weather isn't great and it's good to have the flexibility to go out when we want as a family!  Last week was Nick and Lily's anniversary so we had a night out in Philadelphia, including cocktails, tasty bar snacks and some dancing.  Nick's been feeling a little let down on the dancing front of late so it was great to hit a cool little bar with a DJ mixing it up to get our bogie on. 

Bella has a new favourite outfit (other than her Princess Sophia PJs), Mira the leopard:

And we saw Bella's love for animals in full focus at the Philly Zoo when we visited with our new friends James and Henrietta:

 Ant display

 Baby lions: Bella's absolute favourite even if she doesn't roar like crazy any more..... Some things we wish she didn't grow out of :-(

Big Daddy Lion

The Zoo had many paths a number of animals could use to check out different areas of the Zoo.  Here a leopard is making the most of it

 Girls loving the animals moving around above!

Inside the treehouse play area at the Zoo 

Group shots! Can't get the girls attention though....

When the weather hasn't been too bad Nick's been riding and exploring more the of the surround areas/towns. Below are some photos from such a ride!

Nice park

Still frozen! 

The back route 

Local factory 

All rugged up! 

Bella is still getting lots of time climbing and sliding even with with it getting colder

Get the ice of the slide Daddy, please!

Time to decorate Christmas tree number 1 (of two) and sing some good old Christmas carols!

 

(Notice the large number of decorations at the bottom of the tree) 

Much love from Nick, Lily and Bella