Bye bye old car, hello new car!!

Getting closer... we sold the tv! And the car!

I was so excited when we sold the tv, dvd, set top box & surround sound!  The lady came to pick them up yesterday, and they only depreciated by 90% in 6 years! :P

It was pretty exciting to think we'll be without one actually.  We stopped watching it a while ago anyway and only watched dvds as it was, which we can now watch on the computer which is now sitting on our tv unit as we also sold our desk and chair! :D

We are only without a screen for one day though, as today we pick up our new car!!  Woohooo!!!  It has a screen for the kids to watch dvds, however we have made it very clear it will only be used on long trips.  So as soon as Tony gets home with the car we plan on going on a long trip, just for the fun of it!

We had to buy Amelia a new car seat as she is 6yo tomorrow and growing out of her old one, and we want her to stay harnessed for as long as possible.  The new Infasecure Evolve seat means she can stay harnessed until she is 8yo.  It has aqua padding and looks rather fancy for a car seat!  Oliver is moving up into Amelia's old seat and Luca will hopefully move into a new type A4 seat, that allows for extended rearward facing until the age of 2-3yo.  We are off to the babies & children expo this weekend to try to grab some special expo offers!

I drove our Mercedes R320 home from swimming yesterday, my last drive in a luxury car for quite some time.  It has been fun, but our new car is much more suited to us & to our adventures in the near future!  I never would have imagined I'd be more excited to be getting our Isuzu MUX 7-seater 4wd, than our Mercedes R320 6-seater SUV!  But I can't wait!!!!

Celebrations for miss Amelia's 6th birthday!

With four more sleeps until her actual birthday, we celebrated slightly early with friends by going to the Dreamworks Exhibition at Federation Square in the city today. 

They all had such a great day & the weather was beautiful!

We got to watch a helicopter land on the helipad on our way to fed square. 

Everyone enjoyed the dragon flight so much we watched it twice! With the semicircular screen it was incredibly real and a few of us (adults) came out feeling a little nauseous...

Thankfully the 6 of us adults managed to keep a regular head count of 9 children in party hats! It did make it easier that at this age they mostly preferred to stay together though ..except the escapee 18mo that is! 

All in all a wonderful day of birthday celebration! 

And because things come in three's, we also (finally) decided on our caravan!!! Here is a glimpse of our Adria Altea 552pk with bunks...

So, this is our van!!!  We looked and looked, and looked, and looked for a van and it wasn't until we saw the Adria that we both finally decided it was the one for us!

We are getting it converted to triple bunks, so with the dinette converting to a bed (in about 2 minutes), it can sleep 6-7 people!  And it has an ensuite (yay for no middle of the night toilet freezing cold toilet runs with the kids)!  Plus an enormous fridge.

We have to have the ducted heating/cooling removed to accommodate the triple bunks so we are having an Ibis reverse cycle installed in the ceiling.

And the best part is it is under 2 tonnes towing, fully loaded!

We wanted to find a car with high towing capability and a van with a lower towing weight, so that we weren't on the top end of the cars towing ability, putting strain on the engine (and everything else), and that is exactly what we have got.  We are so pleased!

We have a weekend between handing our house keys over and picking up our van and then we can head off on our first adventure!

It's all coming together...

Yep, it's all happening! Not only did we sell our house, but we're getting a new car! Introducing the Isuzu MUX 7 seater!

But selling the house is not all the exciting news!  After months of discussion we finally decided on a car!  Tony wanted the Isuzu d-max, but we compromised on the brand new 7 seater MUX over a secondhand landcruiser. 
The Isuzu has 2 tonne towing capacity and three baby bolts plus isofix and (much to the children's excitement) a dvd player!  We were trying our best to find a car without it as we would much rather they enjoy the view out the window, but we agreed it would be beneficial for those times we do need to drive for a number of hours in one day.  And unlike some other cars, there is only one screen so everyone needs to share and agree on what to watch!

So this is it, in titanium silver...

Time will tell if we made the right decision but we are pretty happy at first glance!  Fingers crossed we can pick it up next week!!

It's getting very real! We sold our house & move out in 27 days!

Yes, it is getting very real now!  And we can finally be excited with all the big decisions out of the way!

Firstly, we sold our house after being on the market for a week.  We absolutely have to take our hats off to our amazing real estate agent, Jan Brewster from Ranges First National in Belgrave!  She is simply the best!  Warm, inviting, easy to talk to, always professional, and furthermore great with the kids (and when there are three under six running around, that's saying something!).  She will come highly recommended to anyone looking to sell in the Dandenong Ranges!

Here is what we are leaving behind...  It will be sad to leave and we are absolutely enjoying every last minute here!  But we are going to see so many exciting places on the road, I have no doubts we will quickly realise it was worth leaving this beautiful mountain!