Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Ella Turns 3

On Monday Ella celebrated her 3rd birthday with a ladybird cake!


Together with Al, Max & Mira we headed to Birdland Animal Park in Batemans Bay while Rob rode his mountain bike from Mossy Point to Braidwood (a mere 80 or km's!)

Entry to Birdland was quite pricey ($9 for Ella!) but we did have a great time. There were lots of animals to see - koalas, lizards, peacocks, echinda, deer, emu, ostriches, kangaroos, rabbits, loads of birds....

The most exciting was getting up close to a wombat and a diamond python (similar to the one we saw at Katoomba last year).


Although Max and Ella might argue that chasing the miniature train around the track was pretty fun too!

The perfect way to finish our long weekend away.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Mossy Point

About once a year (often in March) we head down to the coast for a long weekend and get our fix of sand, sun and surf. This year, the frenetic goings-on pre-easter lead us to delay holidays until the Anzac Day weekend. As we often do, we rented a house in Mossy Point from Nat's boss, and took a Friday off, giving a total of 4 days away. This year, Max, Mira, Al & Rob tagged along.

Life in Mossy Point is pretty simple. There are only a few choices of activity -- either you go to the Muffin Shop (who do good coffee and outstanding muffins in a great outdoor setting) which is about 10 minutes walk from the house. Or you go to the beach, which is only slightly further. Or you can do both in one trip. To be honest, I'm happy just doing that every day, but this year we spiced it up a bit with a visit to the local botanic gardens, Moruya for Fish'n'Chips and a few runs around town.

Beach play was pretty fun this year, with Ella & Max really getting into the full range of sandcastles, looking at rocks, fighting over sand buckets and assorted tools. Even Katy got a bit of swimming action, while Mira was dipped into the pool between naps.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

I Spy

Over the Easter weekend Ella surprised me by wanting to play I spy! Not sure who she learnt it off but I think she needs a little more practice - don't you?


Translation for those who can't understand Ella

Ella - I spy with my little eye something beginning with P
Nat - Is it people?
Ella - No
Nat - Is it a plum?
Ella - Yes!
Nat - But where is the plum?
Ella - At home!!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Easter Extravaganza

We hope our regular readers (both of them) will excuse our blogging performance of late; the point is that we've all been rather busy, thanks to our easter twenty10 orienteering carnival. Things really ramped up in the last couple of weeks before the races, and stayed at fever pitch for the Easter weekend. We had a few days to draw breath before we were up to Cooma for the second set of races. All in all, 7 races, 6 Arenas to set up, courses to check, trucks to drive, crises to deal with. Despite about 100 or so volunteers there was still a staggering amount of work to be done, and much of it fell onto the shoulder of Nat & Al.

Needless to say, the kids pretty much played second fiddle during this time, as Nat & I raced around trying to get things done. For starters, we experimented with camping in 2 hiking tents -- Nat with Katy and me in with Ella. The first night we camped was Good Friday out in Namadgi and if it weren't for the stress we were under it would have been a beautiful setting. Having never camped before, it was great fun playing around inside tents and with sleeping bags, but there were a few difficult adjustments. Ella had trouble staying in her sleeping bag and kept getting cold -- at one stage she even tried to escape from the tent. Katy just did her normal trick of waking for a 2am feed, and Nat then discovered how much more difficult it is to prepare warm milk (and Katy is *very* fussy about the temperature of her milk) when you're in a tent. But we all survived, and by Sunday night (our second camping expedition) they were kind of used to it. It also helped having the Collector Hotel nearby with steak, chips and beer on offer.

The second weekend we stayed in a small cottage onsite, and had Al, Rob, Max & Mira with us. Ella and Max had a great time together and slept in the same room!! (Until Ella crept into our room at ungodly hours each morning.) They also ran around a lot together, but as tiredness took it's toll Ella's capacity to niggle Max came to the fore. Katy took a fair interest in Mira -- poked at her eye and grabbed at her ears. On the other hand, Ella has a new best friend, Becca, a 12year-old super-child-minder (see photo).

Finally, we're back into a normal routine, but have returned to work feeling very much like we need a holiday. Luckily we've booked our regular holiday house down the coast for the Anzac day weekend.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Clever Chicken

Katy has exploded in cleverness recently. She can now crawl from one room into another.

At childcare, they put her hair up into pigtails!! Not quite sure how they managed to do it. I tried to get a photo but wasn't that successful!


Advances in the bath include moving around more, pulling herself up on the edge and driving the boat (also know as the taps in the bath).


She has begun to wave goodbye (although not that reliably), blow kisses and make sounds by moving her fingers over her lips as seen in the very short clip below.