Documenting Delight: day one hundred and forty nine {CERES & lunch with friends}

{in a seed pod at CERES}

A little family holiday to a fun and funky city was well earned but the real reason we make the trip to Melbourne was to spend time with our dear, dear friends Melinda and Chris and their two girls. Chris was our friend when Lachie and I were living in Sydney and only newly dating. We were long living in Canberra before the beautiful Melinda came on the scene. In fact the first time we met Melinda was the day before our wedding.  With young children we have only visited their hometown once before, on their wedding day three years ago. Thanks to phonecalls, cards, letters, emails and of coarse Facebook we have remained firm friends despite the distance. Setting a cracking pace Melinda and Chris have welcomed two delightful children, Maggie and Edie, since our last visit. I was beyond excited to hug these two gorgeous girls in the flesh.

To spend three days with this kind and loving family, to see the three older children bond so quickly, to soak up the gentle and patient approach to parenting this couple practise all left me wanting to bundle them up and take them back to Canberra. I am forever grateful that their family is closely connected to ours, but at the same time I do get a tad bit sad that we live so far away.

{baby edie. 3 months old. adorable.}

{miss maggie. 2 and a bit. pure cuteness}

So on the last day together we got a bit sentimental and walked through their wedding venue, CERES, before joining them for lunch one last time. A long lunch where we watched our kids play, where I cuddled baby Edie and tried to push away feelings for a third baby and where my love and respect for our friends grew even more.

{ahh yes, edie's here. I'll just put her on}

{once finn got over the shock that he was actaully allowed to draw on the windows with these textas, he whipped up a pretty impressive picture of a street sweeper}

{alrighty then I'll just be loading up the two plates for lunch}

{delicious lunch prepared by Chris. with heston blumenthal’s triple cooked chips no less}

{a parting gift for harper from melinda. custom made winter clothes for harper's much loved jemima doll. is that not the sweetest gift?}

Blessed to travel this parenting journey with others.

Blessed to have firm friendships where distance doesn’t interfere (much).