We were able to spend Saturday evening at a Billy Joel concert. It was brilliant! We knew and sang along with almost every song. He was amazing in person and so much fun to watch. He only strayed from his own repertoire for one song (AC/DC) where a Roadie sang lead and Billy played electric guitar. And we had never heard his "Christmas in Fallujah," which only upon coming home did we learn that he wrote it.
Jared threw away his pacifiers today. We all went to the garbage can initially full of excitement only to have Jared say no and run away. Bella convinced him to actually throw them in, only to have one pulled out immediately and taken into the other room. He also tried to put it in a drawer in the kitchen. Finally, Bella convinced him again to throw the pacifier away and we quickly tied up the bag and took it out to our rubbish chute. As he helped put the bag down the chute, he said "Bye, bye paci!" (We are unsure what Bella had to say in order to get him to actually throw his pacifiers away, but her power of persuasion must be amazing!)
We did haircuts on Saturday. Brooklyn decided to go very different...okay, to be honest I started cutting and went a little shorter than planned...but she was happy. 
This is the vehicle we get to drive while we are in Melbourne. We commonly refer to it as our minivan, but if you say you drive a minivan in Australia they think you drive something similar to a bus. This is a people mover, which is how you should refer to all vehicles that are driven by mothers.
Ziziki's Restaurant in Dallas is one of our favorite places to eat. I find that I crave their food fortnightly. Moving here we have found that Tzatziki sauce is available everywhere. It is one of the best things about the food in Melbourne. I just didn't realize how prevalent it was until I found this! Yum. A baked not fried bit of goodness! Are you jealous?
He will be so sad when I take them away next week. Actually, John and I will be so sad, we love pacifiers as well, but for entirely different reasons! At least we let him keep his blanket.
Phillip Island
Baby Sea Gulls (Jared loved watching, chasing and pestering the birds)
Nobles Rock (where we should have seen Fur seals, but did not)
Direct quote from Lonely Planet's Guide to Australia about the neighborhood we live in. "Hotels, dance halls, sea baths, theatres, galleries and fun parks have all found their place here over the decades, and this seedy and glam, alternative and mainstream pocket remains a place of extremes. Sniff hard and you'll catch the scent of cakes, pasta, beer, roadies, sex, yoga, hair product...and the sea." Okay technically we don't live in that neighborhood, but we can see it right outside of our window.
As we packed up our home and got ready to leave we thought of the millions of things that we needed/wanted in Australia. We wanted to bring our computer and all of its bits, my scrapbooking stuff, the children's comforters, winter coats, John's waterski, and some of the children's toys. What we ended up shipping was in this box: coats, toys, blankets and other winter gear. The cost of shipping equaled the value of the items within the box. We were shocked to say the least. We shipped the box on the 9th of October and finally received it on the 3rd of November.
