The Great Thoe Adventure: Autumn

I love Autumn. In Kansas City it makes my think of crisp mornings, cozy sweaters, pumpkins, and football. It is so odd to be going through Autumn here while hearing my friends and family talk about Spring. Many of my nieces and nephews are graduating from high school and college. School is getting out soon in the States. They have had some very warm days with temps in the 90's Fahrenheit (around 32 degrees Celsius). When I see those posts on Facebook, I kind of feel like I am on a different planet.

Proof that it really is Fall here.

Autumn in Australia is completely different from any Autumn I am used to. The mornings have a certain cool, crispness to them. I try to take a moment to breathe the fresh air when we are walking to Carter's school in the morning (as long we are not hurrying because we are late). It warms up quite a bit during the day and all the crispness is lost by 10:00 am, as long as the sun is out. By midday, it feels like an early summer day in Kansas City. But, by 5:00 pm, I am well reminded of the appropriate season. Because it is dark. Yes, the weather has been glorious for the most part, but we are dealing with the shortened days of Fall going into Winter. I am ready to feel the freedom of staying outside until 8:00 at night and forcing myself to go inside to put the kids to bed. But, I don't have too much to complain about, so I will stop there.

We have yet to find out what Winter is like in Sydney. Everyone talks about it as though it is pretty ominous. I am hoping that is mainly due to the fact that most houses do not have heating. I am still thanking my lucky stars that we were able to find a place with ducted heat and air con. I will have to update you in a few months on the subject of Winter.

An update on us all:

Carter has continued to become accustomed (or as Aussies say, climatized) to his school. He still says that he loves it there. We have learned that Aussie children are expected to be very active. He is going to begin swimming lessons next week as all Aussie children need to know how to swim well. They even have "swimming carnivals" at school. (Carnivals here are usually a competition of some sort.) Hopefully Carter will get up to speed by next year with his swimming. They also run longer distances at school here than Carter did in the States. Today he had a cross country running carnival at school. I'm not sure the distance, but I am estimating around 1 kilometer. He has been practicing at school for this over the past week and a half. He has told me that he often comes in near last. He starts out fast, but he quickly runs out of steam. This morning he said he was going to try to "set a pace". I was very proud of him today when he ran the entire distance and finished in the middle of the pack.

The runner in action

Yay!! Carter did great!

Aubrey has been loving being with me all the time. We have been doing swimming lessons, dance lessons, and soccer. She loves it all. We are still not sure what we are doing about preschool. Hopefully we will figure something out in the next month or so.

Aubrey at soccer. She is one of about 3 girls playing.

Sean tells me work is "fine". He bought a "push bike" and has started to bike a little bit in the mornings. Some days he does have to drive out to a far suburb of Sydney for work. Parramatta is really is only 33 km away, but with traffic, it takes around an hour each way. Those are long days for him.

Purple pin is Mosman (where we live) and Red pin is Parramatta

I'm doing very well. Other than losing my engagement ring somewhere in our apartment during the move, everything is going very smoothly. Being a stay at home mom is a little different for me. For example, I am trying to cook more. Today I am making Garlic and Herb Lamb Shanks in the crockpot. I will be ecstatic if it turns out to be edible.

Sunday was one of the best days we have spent together as a family since we got to Australia. We started out at a market in Frenchs Forest. We have been to many markets here, but they have mainly consisted of clothing and crafts. This one had tons of fresh produce and had a feel of City Market in Kansas City. We loved it.

At the Frenchs Forest Market

Purple pin is Mosman and Red pin is Frenchs Forest

Then, we proceeded to the Pittwater Food and Wine Festival. It took place in a large park next to a beautiful lake. They had a stage set up with an Aussie group playing 70's and 80's Rock, good wine, a small carnival, and a huge playground. Carter and Aubrey did bumper cars for the first time. It also didn't hurt that the weather was amazing with barely a cloud in the sky. We spent several hours there and a great time was had by all.