Happy New Years!

Friends of ours on holidays from Emerald dropped in to spend New Years with us. With their four kids and all of ours it made for cramped sleeping conditions, but not in our bedroom, so that was alright. Plus she's preggers as well, so next time they visit we'll have two more bodies to fit in. That'll be fun :)

G-town puts on a fantastic night in the park for families, from 6pm to 9pm (so not too late for the littlies), with rides and live music and, importantly on New Years, fireworks. Admission is free, and so are the rides, so it seemed to fit into our budget really well.

The lines for rides were long, some stretched all the way across the park (dodgem cars). We stuck to the jumping castles and merry-go-round.

Even Miss2 enjoyed racing around inside the jumping castle and tackling the slide. Just the kids from our two families took up a whole turn. Immediately our kids were off a jumping castle all three of them deflated, with kids inside. I asked Master6 what he'd done, but he assured me it wasn't his doing.

The Merry-go-round was a big success, although Miss4 was petrified. Bizarrely though, when we called out 'smile' for a photo the terror would disappear and she's smile largely and even gesture gracefully, often with one arm draped back over her horses hindquarters, as she passed. It was a beautiful act. She's very professional - once you turn the camera on her she makes sure you get the shot. It became an amusing game for us waiting for her to look scared again and then changing her back into Miss Supermodel.


Miss4 was petrified of the fireworks, and spent the whole show with her head in my shoulder, demanding it stop. She'd peek a look every now and then but no amount of coxing would change her opinion of these loud, obnoxious bursts of colour. At one point near the end of the display she screamed out "They're getting closer!!" and went into even more of a tither.

They were beautiful. Although I do wonder why they waste time and money on anything which doesn't burst into twenty feet of colour. I just want the big ones, not the screamers or trees on the ground.

Finally got the kids to bed around 10pm so we could settle into our balcony and have a drink ourselves - although I'm on a diet so it was a weak scotch and water for me.

No New Years resolutions for me this year - I never keep them anyway. Maybe I should use that to my advantage - this year I pledge to not win first division in Gold Lotto. Lets see how I go :)

I hope you all had a fabulous time, whether you stayed up for the countdown or slept through it. Here's to a bright 2012. Cheers.