What's A Birthday Without A Party?!

People that know us would probably agree that we don’t spoil our kids—at least not with material possessions anyway.  But we do love to indulge them with typical childhood experiences and this includes annual birthday parties.  In fact, our youngest daughter's been looking forward to it since we’ve returned home.

Much Needed Family Fun

Now that we are back to our day to day lives, we’re finding it a bit of a struggle to not get sucked back into a society that is all rush rush rush.  Ideas for affordable family fun at home becomes a bit more of a conscious effort.

Our Cost of Living In Australia

When people hear about our year long travels with our 2 kids, almost immediately they jump to the conclusion that the trip was very expensive.  More and more, people are slowly coming to the conclusion that the cost of living in Australia is very high.  Without a doubt there was a price tag attached to our trip, yet relative to just staying at home, living day to day life in Australia, just how did it compare??

Read the Words, But Don't Judge Why It Was Written

The Digital Age of the Internet has redefined interpersonal relationships drastically.  We are no longer bound by space, time or distance thanks to the likes of email, Facebook and Twitter. We keep in touch with old friends, and make new ones that we may sometimes never ever meet in person. 

Added to all this is the medium of blogging. Bloggers are an eclectic bunch.  Some do it for a living; others do it to be heard.  Yet others (like me) do it as a shared diary of their lives and or opinions.  But one thing is for sure—what is posted is out there for the world to see.  And unfortunately, to also judge.

Within the span of 2 days, there have been two tragedies among our traveling families community.  Both of these families chose to post very personal tributes of their experience online.  And I suspect, both of these families have been unfairly judged for doing so as a result.

I’ve never met either of these families and only ‘know’ them through their writing.  I can’t say that I can directly relate to what either family are going through right now, both having lost their babies in separate tragic circumstances.  But as a mother and a family who shares their love for family travel and who can relate somewhat to their ideology of parenting, I feel their loss tremendously. 

Now is not a time to judge them, but to admire their courage to give us a glimpse, through words, of their painful journey.  For them, this is what they need to and that’s all that should matter.  My heart and my thoughts are heavy.

R.I.P. Trek Ingram (11.04.11-21.06.12) and Elijah Rainbow Fisher (26.11.11-23.06.12)

Report Cards in Kindergarten?!

After 5 months at school in kindergarten (aka ‘Prep’), Maddy came home with her first report card.  Between our little bit of ad-hoc interest-led style of home-schooling while we were away, and now being a part of the public state education system, albeit following the International Baccalaureat philosophy of learning, we were keen to read how she’s officially doing.  And the results shocked us quite a bit. 


(Disclaimer:  This isn't meant to be a boring I'm-bragging-about-how-great-my-kid-is post, but merely another chapter in our ongoing *experiment* as parents.  So if you chose to continue reading, which I hope you do, please keep this in mind!) 

Best Family Beaches in Asia

For those who know us well, we’re a family of beach bums!  We absolutely love being at the beach:  the kids love to play in the sand and frolic in the water and mom and dad love to laze in the sun, go for a swim and maybe even read a book. As such, we consider ourselves somewhat of ‘connoisseurs’ when it comes to picking to perfect beach. 

So what do we consider a perfect family beach?

I'm A Travel Writer!

Can you believe it??!!  I’ve just had my first ever article published today as a Travel Writer.  Special thanks to fellow traveling parent Talon Windwalker for making this possible and to the team at Travel Generation. 

Hopefully this is just the first of many more,  but for now, head on over to their website  to check it out and leave some comment love (leave some here too please!)!