It must be the spring before I turn 40 because

• we are eating our dinner out on the deck most nights - thou we do eat our dinner at a kid friendly time (we have always been a one meal eat all together type family rather than the kids meal followed by the grown-up meal type of family);
• my washing line is full of Al's all-in-one short and top thingos instead of little cords & cardigans;
• soccer season is over so our Saturday mornings are free of driving around this crazy city at peak weekend time finding remote soccer fields (shhh as I say a small hooray at that, thou I will miss the weekly catch-up with the team and enjoy watching the kids play);
• "nippers" season has started (and Thomas was keen to do it again for the first time in a number of years) and so our Sunday mornings now involve a trip to the beach - which is completely gorgeous;
• my oregano is 30 cms high, the newly planted basil is about 20 cms high, the tomatoes and the passion fruit are flowering and if half the limes and lemons that are budding come out we will be able to supply all our friends with fresh lemon for their summer g&t's;
• we have booked our summer holiday - four whole weeks off work for me and more than two whole weeks for us all up north in a cabin near a beach and a pool and a low-key-but-groovy-enough-to-have-good-coffee small town;
• the jacaranda are flowering outside my window at work. A view I will miss ALOT when I move to my new building in two weeks;
• Thomas has started swimming lessons again - his face when they told him he had 'finished learn-to-swim' and was 'ready for squad' was priceless and reminded me what a little boy he still is in some ways
• we are doing the picnic regularly as a socialising event. In the next few weeks we have a halloween picnic (Thomas) , a masters attainment celebration picnic (for Gaye and our friend Gary who both finished their masters this year) and a 10th wedding anniversary picnic (for two dear friends) planned;
• and that last one sort of ties into the next one cause at that wedding I was lovely and pregnant with Thomas and right now I am seriously thinking of having another baby.