The Dower Family

We went to see Santa last week and these two absolutely rocked their cheesy Santa pic grins. They really are seasoned professionals at this now! While we were getting in the Christmas spirit we thought we would spread a bit of Christmas kindness.  First up was putting a few scooters under the wishing tree for the kids who don't have any toys:  Then we put a few notes with $2 coins on them on the rides outside the supermarkets:  After that I gave the kids a giant bag of silver coins to put in the guide dog and the Salvos's collection:  Then we rounded out the day by dropping in a box of chocolates to the police station to thank them for keeping us safe this year:  (Ol wouldn't pose for a photo in front of the car in case we got in trouble). It was a super day to be these kid's mama. They got such a kick out of doing these acts of kindness and I got some pretty good lumps in my throat from watching them. 

We got the jump on the school holidays with a sneaky little camping trip to Straddie the last weekend of school.  Our favourite camping buddies joined us and as usual, the kids had an absolute blast. I put together a movie of what a great time they had.  Check it out and tell me that our little ones don't just have the loveliest existence.

We had a sneaky pre-school holidays camping trip to Stradbroke Island on the weekend. The trip had been planned for a good month or so but the timing ended up being perfect, with us taking delivery of Nick's new 4wd ute just the weekend before.  Ol got a sneaky day off school on the Friday and we were on the 7am barge. This got us into Flinders Beach around 8am where we managed to nab the perfect camping spot that we had been crossing our fingers for. Set on a little freshwater creek that eventually runs into the ocean, it was just what we needed for our party of 10. The boys got the campsite set up beautifully (with a cold beer in hand) while the wives kept the children and dogs safe while offering pearls of wisdom about where everything should go. The creek we camped on would have been perfect for bathing in, except these two seem to prefer their black tub. We couldn't help but notice that it was a bit squishier than it had been in Septmember and I'm thinking we might nee