After 5 weeks of vacation with my aunt on the Central Coast, I am now back in Oatley with my host family since Monday.
Since it is still summer vacation in Australia until next week, I had both kids all day this week except on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I only had Sofia for the first time since Matthias went back to daycare. I originally planned to practice bike riding with Sofia in the park, but she was not very enthusiastic about the idea and preferred to bring her scooter instead. However, she promised me that we would try it next Tuesday, which is our girls day, but we'll see if she keeps that promise... ;) On Tuesday, I also went swimming in the pool with Sofia for the first time because the weather was perfect and the pool was very swimmable. We had so much fun that we went in twice and then again after picking up Matthias.
On Wednesday, I took both kids to Miranda at the shopping center where there is a big trampoline park called 'Skyzone'. We booked a ticket for two hours, and of course the kids loved it and had a great time. When we got home, we took a short break and then jumped in the pool for a refreshing swim in the afternoon. Both the kids and I were super exhausted in the evening and quickly fell asleep.
The next day, the kids slept in longer than usual and didn't get up until both parents were out of the house. Unfortunately, we quickly realized that the electricity in the whole house was not working, so we couldn't turn on any lights or fans, and things like the toaster, refrigerator, and coffee machine didn't work either. So we went to the big playground first, hoping that the power would be back on when we returned. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and it seemed to be just our house because a fuse had blown. Fortunately, my host mom came around 4 pm and took care of it. Although the day was more challenging than usual since the kids usually get to watch TV for an hour in the morning or afternoon and I had to come up with alternatives for meals, we still managed to have a good time and keep ourselves busy.
After that, I started my weekend and met up with another au pair from Orange on Friday. We took the ferry to Manly and spent the day at the beach. We found a relatively shady spot, and it was very nice and enjoyable. We got along really well and went out for pizza together in the evening.
Saturday was Australia Day, a national holiday in Australia that takes place every year on January 26th and includes fireworks in the evening. During the day, I didn't do much (except successfully assembling my own fan, haha), but around 5 pm, I met up with a good friend in Sydney, and we walked along the harbor and then went to an Australia Day BBQ and Pub Crawl for which we had already bought tickets. Luckily, the city wasn't as crowded as on New Year's Eve and much more relaxed. The BBQ and Pub Crawl were very nice, and we quickly made friends with other girls with whom we went to bars and clubs. Unfortunately, we didn't have a good view of the fireworks at 9 pm from our location at Darling Harbor, but I wasn't too disappointed since I didn't spend the whole day waiting for them like on New Year's Eve.
Now my weekend is almost over, and my host dad will fly to Perth tomorrow morning for two weeks, which means I will be alone with my host mom and the kids during the week and have to get up earlier since he is usually still there when the kids wake up. But everything will go well. Wednesday is also the first day of school, and then some routines will return.
