Ice Skating

Jack and William were very excited to meet their friend Rowan for ice skating. Earlier in the week they had a short segment on Playschool about a 5 year old girl who was learning to ice skate so they were keen to try. 

 

There was a lot of slipping and sliding for the first half hour and Jack mostly held the wall or a hand until he got his balance then he was off in the middle of the ice. Rowan was an excellent role model having practiced the day before so he showed Jack and Will not to be afraid of falling and how funny it was too. 

William was happy to take long breaks on the side and watch the bigger boys race around the ice. When he had two witches hats to balance he was happy to be pushed along then of course he needed another snack and juice break. 

Wellington Caves and the Kangaroo Crash

 The kids enjoyed the hour long tour of the Cathedral cave at Wellington. They had a great playground to enjoy after a lunch break so they were all well and truly exhausted when we pulled out and minutes later ran into a very large kangaroo. 

It was a pain that there was a rather large hole in the radiator so they had to tow the Pajero to Wellington. Within 3 hours we were back on the road with a hire car with some truly exhausted kids. Poor Jack was suffering some shock, pale, shivering and clutching a sick bag. 

 The saddest thing was Stu's $2000 bike which had a new bike-rack bar and tube. Hopefully the insurance will cover it sooner rather than later.

Dubbo Zoo

It was a perfect day for the 5 hour trip to Dubbo. The kids enjoyed stopping at the Cowra Rose garden and the Dish. Some decided to ride their bikes to the zoo the next day which turned into a disaster after we rode through a patch of cat's head bindis and 7 tyres were punctured. 

The kids enjoyed driving around the zoo anyway. Dubbo zoo is just the way a zoo should be. The animals have wide open spaces and visitors can wander around without the crowds.
  

The Galapagos Tortoise and the hippos were the favourite and even after 4 hours of driving and walking around there was still plenty left to see the following day. We got back to the Big 4 cabins with time for a swim in the beautifully heated pool before dinner. 

The Urban Family Street Party dinners involved Mexican and BBQ themes. Stu won eveyone over with his 3kgs of chicken wings. The kids particularly enjoyed the soft tacos. 

It didn't take too long for the tubes to be replaced in the bikes the next day. This time we drove the bikes to the zoo and the kids rode for about 5kms before being completely worn out. 

We were so glad we fixed the bikes because the inner parts of the zoo were a beautiful bushland with bridges and animals that we hadn't yet discovered. 

The last dinner was at The Lion's Pride. The kids were impressed with their meals which all came with chips, juice, ice cream and jelly. 

 We dropped by the Dubbo Observatory after dinner and amazingly saw Saturn under the telescopes. It looked exactly like the picture below except you could see the rings rotating. At $20 per adult it was heavily priced but definitely worth it for Jack who is constantly getting out his own telescope and fascinated by space.

Anthony Caffery Photography

Anthony did a great job in capturing us. This is the final cut and I'm pleased with how natural they look.

The one below depicts how I feel with the boys at this age. Like we are constantly wrangling them. You take one and I'll take one is a great strategy for getting through a crowded mall or even Woolworths!

This one of William is my absolute favourite. I love the cheeky glint in his eyes and his wonky smile. 

Hooray for school holidays

We had some little visitors on Sunday morning and ventured out to Tidbinbilla after swimming lessons. 

The boys enjoyed the novelty of catching a crowded Action Bus to shuttle people from the Tidbinbilla carpark to the playground. The playground had loads of kid orientated free fun but the lines were all quite long so the boys were happy to get a dinosaur balloon and head out to the Sanctuary.

We ran into our urban cousins at the Platyapus Pond. We were lucky to see 2 platypus in the water within minutes of walking up to the pond but the boys were mostly taken by the water bugs and spent almost half an hour looking at them under magnifying glasses and identifying their specimens.
 

They climbed rocks and Jack said 'look at me I'm investigating.' Rowan pointed out the Cherry Ballard trees which he had found last weekend on a walk around Black Mountain and little Drewbee chased the bigger boys, hysterically laughing with a piece of wallaby poo.

 

Random and Spontaneous School-Night Fun

There was no reason at all for jumping in the car after dinner and venturing out to Max Brenner. We took the scout mascot too so that Jack would have a great story for the 'JJ Book'. 

Making memories.

The Perfect Day for a Wedding

We took the opportunity to have some family pictures taken before the wedding on Saturday. The weather was crisp and beautiful but it was quite a challenge to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling all at once. The pictures here are just a sneak preview but the one above captures us perfectly at this time in our lives. William is the funny guy and Jack is all cheese.

The ceremony was beautiful and we were so positively happy for Doug and Carol. Jack listened intently to the vows and took it all in while William took photos on the iphone.  

 The brunch menu was delicious and Jack's favourite was the scrambled eggs. They were very spoilt with the children's bags which had  kept them entertained throughout the 4 hour reception.

 

Sunday was a much slower pace and there was plenty of time for playing with friends.

Happy Easter

We've enjoyed the most wonderful Easter. Will and Jack made marshmallow stuffed bunnies on sticks for their teachers. Jack dressed up as an Israelite and Introduced the Palm Sunday play at his school. His reading has come a long way in the last 2 months and he had no trouble at all with the 'Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem." 

 With Stu working all weekend the boys had plenty of time to play in the backyard and enjoy a boiled egg and soldier breakfast which has become an Easter tradition. Grandpa joined us for a seafood feast on Good Friday and I made my first fish pie.

 We took the Easter Steam train ride and enjoyed a Blind Duck lunch in Bungendore on Saturday.

The boys slept in until 8am on Easter Sunday and were excited that the bunny had been. Jack read the note which led them on a hunt through the front yard. They spaced out their hollow cadbury eggs but still had some trouble with the sugar highs.   

 We had a delicious lunch with Sam, John and Jules followed by afternoon tea with the best china, more chocolate and red spiders at Grandpa's house.

Nanna, Pop, Aunties, Uncles and Cousins enjoyed a bbq dinner on the deck. The neighbors topped it off by showering more chocolates over the fence and we spent our family day on Monday oiling the deck and cleaning the barbeque. It looks like new again.