Christmas with the Pikes

It was a quiet Christmas at the Pikes this year with only the Walkers and one other sister at a time. Lisa come on Christmas eve for some pressies and good food and Sarah and Aaron came Christmas night for some more pressies and some more good food!

Poppy with his turning fork                                            Nanny with her pasta maker

                                                       Santa Abi

Wow - Diesel 10!

guess who got face paints from Santa??

Bubble machines rule.. fun for the whole family

 One happy boy, with 5 new trains and a diesel works station for Chrissy.

Abi was pretty happy with her Zhu Zhu pet princess and carriage.

Emily was smitten with her new baby alive doll - who drinks, wees, talks and kicks it's legs!

Wow!  Baby Alive!

Sarah receiving a present and Sarah giving out a present on behalf of one pregnant sister (who shall remain nameless)

 Around the dinner table - what a feast!

Lloyd being cheeky - you can tell by the smile!

the kids singing "we wish you a merry Christmas"

Aunty Lisa happy with her photo of the nieces and nephew.

Camping in Echuca/ Moama

As soon as school finished for the year we took the opportunity to make a dash for it and start the holidays with a (relaxing) camping trip up to the Murray.

The Walkers and the Barnes kids.

 Emily and Abi relaxing in the pool.

Angus pretending (quite convincingly) to be a little Lloyd.

The kids about to go on the Emmylou paddle steamer.

 Abi, Emily and Nyah enjoying some local cherries.

Emily flying a kite with Dad.

 The boys about to go for a bike ride.

Enjoying the bouncy pillow.

Pony Tales

Here are some photos of the lovely Lily and Nibbles.

 Abi on Lily, Emily on Nibbles with Angus holding Nibbles.

 Angus on Nibbles.

 Abi doing some bare back riding after Lily had had a wash.

 Emily on Lily after her wash.

Pretty ponies sharing some hay.

Random photos from December

Here are a selection of photos from December...

 Emily being a Koala at her kinder.

 3 cheeky monkeys eating ice cream

 "Bluey" - our friendly neighbourhood blue tongue lizard.

 Flowers down our driveway.

mmm.... Angus in teddy bear dress ups!

Christmas Tree 2011

Scally getting into the Christmas decorating.

Emily putting the tree together.

Even Mummy gets a turn.

Abi thought she might become the Christmas tree.

Angus helping out.

3 cute kids!

Camping in the rain!

Camping over the Melbourne Cup weekend is proving to be a bit of a wash out. Last year we only lasted 2 nights and came home due to flooding and this year wasn't much better. We did manage to stay right through till Tuesday though which I must say was well worth the effort.

Day one involved playing in muddy puddles... I'm so glad all the kids had showers before going camping!


Well and truely past the point of no return.

True camping - roasting marshmellows by the fire.

On the one nice day we managed to get a group bike ride in along the Warbuton trail, the kids did a great job and I managed to try out my new bike!

On the not so nice day we kept busy by going to an indoor pool and trying Abi's new 'tough' camera to see if it really does work under water - luckily it did !

For much of the time the rain just kept on coming but we did manage to get out and about, even if only for a walk around the camp grounds in our coats and gumboots.




Let's face it, less hard core campers would have packed up and gone home!
But we did enjoy Warburton for it's beauty regardless of the weather.