June Photo a Day - Day 23

Day 23 Prompt - Movement

Jelly Fish - Melbourne Aquarium

June Photo a Day - Day 5

Day 5 Prompt - Sign

A sign I need to do some browsing and help stimulate the economy!

June Photo a Day - Day 2

Playing along again this month with Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day Challenge. Make sure you join in!

Day 2 Prompt - Empty

Finished off a mini bottle of Fresita sparkling wine infused with strawberries after a long day 'doing my thing' at the Good Food & Wine Show.

June Photo A Day - Day 1

Playing along again this month with Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day Challenge. Make sure you join in!

Day 1 Prompt: Morning

This was my morning - Side of stage on Day 1 of The Good Food and Wine Show at The Chopping Block with Miguel Maestre! Taken on my crappy camera phone as I didn't want to take my big expensive camera and leave it unattended back of house.
Hard work behind the scenes but lots of fun.

February Photo A Day Challenge - Day 4

Join in HERE
Today's challenge: a stranger

I think he likes me.

Back at Scienceworks again. The kids loved it so much I decided to take them again, and found out today they have extended the exhibition!! Remember my memory card this time too.

Australia Day at an Australian Icon

For Australia Day the council organised a celebration at the local foreshore with a free sausage sizzle, jumping castle, live band and fireworks. (I love living within a municipal that holds heaps of free events!) I was asked to volunteer but I thought I'd take the VIPs to the event instead and declined. The event started at 6pm until dusk which was a bit later than the VIPs are used to being out but I thought that just this once it would be fine. They'd never seen fireworks afterall.

I wanted to get a good spot and enjoy the beach before it got too cool so we headed off after lunch.
We spent the day building sandcastles, playing in the water, chomping on scrummy lamingtons and slurping up melting ice cream. By the time 6pm arrived the VIPs were spent and ready for bed. I called it a day and missed the foreshore celebrations rather than push the day too far and deal with 3 VIPs having mental breakdowns.

They all fell asleep on the 10min car ride home and after a quick dinner and shower, slept until 7:30 the next morning. As Baker Bob said, there's something about the salt air that is just exhausting. For me, it was the sand clean up at the other end that did me in! I'd forgotten just how bad sand can be.

Dino - mite!

In this household we have a little paleontologist in the making. Eva L-O-V-E-loves dinosaurs. Scienceworks has a dinosaur exhibit on at the moment and I have been trying to take her to see it since November. Since it finishes on the 5th Feb I decided that this was the weekend for it and I packed a lunch and headed off to Spotswood, Wiggles blasting all the way. (I was so upset when I got there and released I'd forgotten my SD card for my new camera, so all shots are taken on a crappy phone camera.)

We walked in to the exhibit, the boys on foot, Deedee in the pram and the looks on their faces was GOLD! Mans ran straight over to the fence to get a better look, Linc hid behind the pram (he told me later that he thought the dinosaurs were going to eat him but they were actually nice) and Eva all but jumped out her skin trying to get my attention to unbuckle her out of the pram. Her hands were going and her little mouth couldn't keep up with her thought process. All she could utter were random sounds!

They had so much fun. That exhibit was especially great for their age group as the fencing is low, there are things they can reach to touch, a massive sand excavation pit and it was all very open, so when you have 3 running in different directions it's easy for you to keep track of them.

I must say they were all very well behaved today. The other areas they loved were Nitty Gritty Super City and running with Cathy Freeman, but they spent quite a bit of time in House Secrets as well.

I also must add the pricing at Scienceworks was pretty good. The Dinosaur exhibit is extra on top of the general entry but so, so worth it! The VIPs were still talking about it at bedtime.

Kudos to The Wiggles

I was so exicted. The Wiggles are a favourite in this household and we were off to see them in 'the big top' at Flemington Racecourse.

I was super impressed with the quality of the event. The Wiggles really put a massive effort into their shows and you can tell they enjoy what they do, and appreciate the support. Never have I seen an entertainer put in so much effort into making sure each individual audience member feels a connection.

There were preshow things to do to keep the VIPs occupied and plenty of space allocated for them to just be able to run and play.

Linc loved it, as I knew he would. He's the BIG fan. Mans was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing. The noise got to him, and the amount of people but he was getting into it at the end. Eva seemed a bit bemused by the whole affair but I busted her a couple of times twirling and and clapping her hands.

We went with our friend Noah and his mummy and daddy. I think they all had fun too. We bought the VIPs a balloon on the way out and while the balloons made it home, the VIPs flaked in the car.

Toy Store Vs Library

It is Murphy's Law that the weekend I've organised lots of indoor activities, is the one weekend were we have decent weather.

Saturday we went to a Cars 2 Launch party at Toys'R'Us. The wording of the promotion lead me to believe it was to celebrate the release of the Cars 2 movie. Therefore I assumed (I know, that was silly) that the party was a Disney PR and Toys'R'Us collaboration. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

The 'party' was a bunch of tables with buckets of colouring items and a couple of Toys'R'Us store workers, who were hopeless with children, playing games that were totally not age appropriate. All this was set up in front of a massive wall of Cars 2 merchandise. The approch of throwing the 'Launch Party' was obviously to bore the younger children out of their mind until they throw massive tantrums and their parents would then buy them Cars 2 merchandise to stop the tears.

The boys were happy to colour for about 15mins but after that they were completely bored and just wanted to go. The little boy that was about 8 won all the 'Mater says' games so left with about 6 balloons, much to the despair of every parent of a young child there, as they then had to explain to their 2-4 year old why he was getting all the balloons  As the boys' had already managed to get texta on their clothes we decided to skip the fabric flag decorating, which was supposed to be the climax at the end of the 'party', as that involved paint and glue and we left early.

The boys' didn't come away with any of the over priced Cars 2 merchandise but I did feel bad that it had been such a massive let down and bought each of the kidlets a hot wheels car to add to their collection.

Notice Baker Bob's super impressed expression

The kidlets had a lot more fun on Sunday when we headed to the library for a book reading and signing by Hazel Edwards.

We got there early and Hazel came over and signed the kids books and talked to them and us about her family and how there was a famous historian name Manning.

The kidlets were a little bit younger than most of the other kids there and being 2pm meant they were way overdue for a nap. We sat down and read some books, entered a competition and then settled in to listen to Hazel Edwards read one of her most famous books "There's a hippopotamus on our roof eating cake." before the free activites started up and the competition was drawn.

Linc is the one with the monkey on his back

But all the excitement became to much for the kidlets and all three started to loose it right at the end of the story. The librarian assured me it was okay, that Hazel would be used to it and the free activities would start up soon but I think they'd reached their limit, and so had I. We'd walked to the library so I flew the white flag and started the walk home early, which was disappointing. I really would have loved for the kidlets to stay and join in more but the library still came out the winner!

Overall it was weekend of family together time.

Plus I sent off my first Assessment for school on Sunday. Can't wait to hear how I did.

The Ups and Downs of a Bright Sunny Day

I had planned to take the kidlets to the indoor play centre today. The weather was supposed to be terrible and I'd found a different one in our area that I wanted to try out. The toddler area had it's own jumping castle, decent slide, ball pit and it looked pretty clean from the photos online.

But I woke up this morning and the sun was shining. Actually it wasn't just shining, it was beaming. Even better it had no heat to it. So I thought I can't waste this opportunity for them to get some fresh air and a decent intake of vitamin D. Win!

When I volunteered at the Million Paws Walk it was at a park that was a 5-10min drive from our place but I noticed that not only did it have a man made lake with ducks but it had what looked like a fabulous fenced playground.

We throw some warmish clothes on the kids, packed some day old bread into their bag and headed off to the new playground. They loved it and I have to say I was really impressed. Win!

One of the locals told me it was burnt down by vandals recently but they had rebuilt it. Honestly who burns down a children's play ground!

The equipment is suitable for so many age groups and is so big that there's always something for them to do.

There was even a slide that was small enough for Eva to go down by herself. Miss Independent was tickled pink by this and I think I spent about 10mins repetitively lifting her back up to the top of the slide.

She really got involved with the other kids after that, realising she was just one of the yelling, racing banshees hurdling themselves around the playground.

It did start to get pretty crowded though and some of the bigger kids were getting a bit carried away but generally they were aware of the littler kids, if not a bit impatient about it.

After the kidlets had just about worn themselves out, we went on the 5min walk to go see the ducks. I was a bit stressed as there was no barrier between us and the water but they were very well behaved and it wasn't nearly as muddy as I was predicting. Win!

I thought I'd give them a treat and bought mini chicken burgers for them for lunch but silly me forgot to order them without mayo. Fail!

Having had a massive day out, burning up all their energy, I thought the afternoon would be blissfully quiet as they had their naps. Once again life showed me nothing is predictable and the boys fought sleep until 15mins before the 'I give up, there's no point you sleeping now as you have to get up soon" time. (3pm). Fail!

After that war I realised that Baker Bob was making dinner tonight. Win!

What a lovely day spent together, enjoying the sun.

Last Night I Was Out After Dark

I was most unexpectantly surprised by a night out last night. (No one can accuse me of being a vampire. I'm only ever out of the house when it's daylight.)
It had apparently been organised since Mother's Day.
Persumably because I didn't really have a mother's day, whole other blog entry.

Baker Bob got home from work and asked me if the kid's could have an early, simple dinner and then he'd cook us a nice, late dinner. Great I thought. The boys hadn't slept for their nap and Eva has been a bit cranky so an early night for them was a good idea.

While the kids ate I chatted to Grandma, who was waiting to be picked up from work by Grandpa. (Or so I thought). Kid's in bed, Baker Bob leaves to pick up the ingredient's for our special dinner. 5 minutes later he returns with Grandma and Grandpa in tow. I still didn't twig until Grandma annouced "Now that your babysitters are here you guys can go."

In a daze of shock (It's not often people can get away with keeping a secret from me, especially Baker Bob), I was ushered out the door. I had no idea where we were going and when we were half way there I realised that my pants leg and shoulder had half eaten pear smudged into them. Score one for me!

We had dinner at the 'old faithful' Pancake Palour and then popped in to see the movie Source Code. Neither of us knew anything about the movie but I'd mentioned that I wanted to see it during the week because of it's great reviews. (Even the super critical reviewer at the Herald Sun gave it 4 and 1/2 stars!)

It really was an excellent movie. We got home a bit after 12am and we were both exhausted. We said cheerio to the babysitters and fell into bed. Spent and content!

Baker Bob's Super Ice-cream Soda

Thank-you Baker Bob, but you really didn't have to go to so much trouble.

Matilda's Mystical Creatures Party - The Set Up

I helped out with Matilda's 1st birthday party on Saturday. It was a Mystical Creatures Party, where everyone was instructed to come in dress up. (Although due to the age of the party guests, the costumes didn't stay on very long).
 It was a group effort.
My tasks included...
Designing the invite, which was saved as a jpeg in 6in x 4in for easy printing at any photo kiosk.

There was the welcome sign...

...Food labels...

... & reasonably waterproof sippy cup name tags.

I also made the birthday cake and the 'fairy wands' for decorating. (More on them later)
I'd like to say thank-you to Liz who made these fabulous 'Bug" cupcakes, (not only do they look good but they tasted yummo.)

Liz also organised the gorgeous decorations that transformed an ordinary backyard into an enchanted garden, suitable for the mystical creatures.

And a MASSIVE thank-you to Trish who organised the delicious and mouthwatering food - in abundance.