This weekend was extremely busy with birthday celebrations. Tea’s 6^th birthday was on Friday, which meant presents and cupcakes at school, a Japanese birthday dinner and cake on Saturday, and a birthday party at the Princess Parlour on Sunday, where she and her friends were prettied up like little princesses all afternoon. This morning when I dropped her off at school, she told her teacher Mrs. Lees that she wished every day was her birthday. No wonder when you get pampered for three days straight!

 

Tea's favorite birthday present

In my free time I hung out with friends and met some new au pairs who live in my area. Saturday was spent with a group of American girls – Kelsey from Oregon, Lana from Texas, and Tessa from Wisconsin. We explored Southbank’s regional food festival, wandering around the food tents, getting free tastes of soft brie, chicken curry, salty cashews, chili chocolate, and red wine. When the skies turned dark and the rain came, we hurried under cover at one of Brisbane’s beer gardens. We sat around the table with our hard ciders, listening to some live music by local Australian artists and talked about our kids. “So how old are yours?” “We should plan a play date!” When we actually stopped to listen to ourselves, we realized how silly we sounded. Everyone around us probably thought we were a group of hot, young moms! It was really nice for us to all have a break from "our" kids that afternoon, and we sat around and day dreamed a bit about the adventure ahead of us.

With the birthday festivities over, I’ve had some time to sit back, relax, and finally start thinking about some potential travel plans in the near future. My room is filled with heaps of travel books on Brisbane and Australia, and I’ve been sitting on my bed all morning with them sprawled out around me. Australia is such a beautiful, amazing place. There is so much to see and do. On the east coast alone, we have three major cities – Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. I’ve started a bucket list of sorts for my next year here. I want to go up to Whitsundays and see the Great Barrier Reef. I want to explore the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and Surfer’s Paradise. I want to go to Sydney and see the Opera House and climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I want to venture down to Melbourne, see some art, travel the Great Ocean Road, and visit Phillips Island and the little penguins. I want to take surfing lessons, ride camels in Noosa, meet aboriginals, go sky diving, bushwalking, camping on the beach… Just to name a few! I honestly feel like I’m living a dream. Nothing feels real at this point. It seems as if I’ve become part of this family who is paying me to explore a whole new world. All I can hope is that I don’t wake up anytime soon!