After School Activity

A snap decision was made while getting into the car to find a few nearby geocaches before heading home. A quick investigation revealed several on The Pinnacle - a short drive and short walk would be perfect!

The afternoon was warm with a hot dry wind and we all know that energy levels are relatively low post school so with these factors combined I knew there was lots of potential for complaints. However a snack seemed to cheer everyone up and soon we were off following the phone compass. Pippa seemed to be the most eager of all trying to pull everyone down the track!

Both geocaches were named after the parts of the 12 days of christmas song reminding us that Christmas was fast approaching. We were close to ground zero for the first of the two geocaches. The only problem was there was head high grass between us and the cache!! With Pippa leading the charge we managed to locate the geocache in a log, write in the book and swap treasures.


Once back on the track, the complaints were not about tiredness or hunger but rather the grass seeds in their socks!! We spent a considerable amount of time de-seeding ourselves before continuing on to the next cache. We were treated to lovely views overlooking Lake BG, southern Canberra all the way to the mountains.

Cache number 2 came up quickly although both girls were reluctant to venture into the head high grass again. The allure of the possible treasures helped with this and we found the cache quickly. Again the same routine as before including the de-seeding of the socks!!

Everyone decided to run back to the car which was all going wonderfully until Katy had a big stack. Eventually we made it back and arrived home 5 minutes later. A nice change (except for the grass seeds) to the normal afternoon routine.

Making the Most of Tuesdays #3

John Knight Memorial Park was our destination via the library and a new (for us) coffee shop which overlooks Lake Ginnindera.  We parked and scooted thought the houses eventually finding the well hidden coffee shop. Unfortunately not much to report on this one. Fairly disappointing really especially as it has so much potential with a fantastic location. Anyhow after drink and snack we scooted along the lake to the park.

Obviously we haven't been here for awhile as the old timber fort has been altered with a newer mostly metal one. They did well to retain the huge slide though. We mucked around before eating our picnic lunch. Next was the flying fox for a few runs and then to the smaller playground before spotting a group of very small ducklings. A nice day to be out and about!

A New Treasure Hunt

Andy was treated to a new treasure hunt that Ella created...He needed a little help on the way to finding the treasure!!

Unfortunately Ella didn't find any spare teeth in the process! She recently lost tooth number 5!

Canberra Nara Candle Festive

Canberra and Nara, Japan are sister cities.

This is an annual festival held at the Nara Peace Park on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. The first candle festive was held in 2003 when a delegation of citizens from Nara participated in an informal ceremony to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Sister City relationship.

The Canberra Nara Candle Festival is based upon a much larger candle festival, known as the Nara 'Tokae' where in August each year, Nara's parks and special sites are bathed in the light of the thousands of candles. The name of this festival comes from the Japanese work 'to-ka' describing a shape resembling flower petals which sometimes forms around the wick when a candle is lit and the occurrence of this is believed to represent good fortune.

So off we headed to bathe ourselves not only in candle light but immerse ourselves in many Japanese traditions. We made our own lanterns, flew kites, watched samurai and sumo wrestling, had our name painted in Japanese, did origami, listened and watched some wonderful drumming performances and finally ate sushi.  With the hot weather it was a fantastic way to spend the afternoon and evening.

Ella  Katy

So far behind...

I'm not really sure what happen in Term 4 but I seemed to have blinked and we are nearly into the next year! Hence I am going to make a concerted effort to catch up on posts.

We the lovely company of Kraig, one of Andy's US colleagues come and stay with us for three weekends in October. Unfortunately we show Kraig much of Canberra as we had hoped. Once you factor in Little Athletics and a few birthday parties/social gatherings there wasn't much time left.

We did get to one of our favourite canberra spots - The National Arboretum. Visited Dairy Farmers Hill so Kraig could marvel at the spectacular views of Canberra; a little (unsuccessful) introduction of geocaching to Kraig en route to the Village Centre before marvelling at the bonsai collection.  Refreshed ourselves with coffee and snacks then on to the pod playground.

Little Athletics Begins

The 2014/15 season for little athletics is well under way. Katy is in her first year of under 6's and enjoying it thoroughly. Helps when there are few friends participating too! The focus for the under 6's is exposure to the variety of techniques and procedures in a fun and non threatening way.

Katy has completed many obstacle races - jumping over streams, leaping hurdles and trotting over ladders; learnt the two main concepts of throwing - helicopters and putting; practiced lots of race starts; mastered the long jump take off and last week began to learn high jump with the scissor kicks!

Ella is in under 8's and has a great group of 10 or so girls who are improving as each week passes.

Of course the best bit of the day is cooling down with an ice block at the end!!

Holidays with Dad

As per normal, Andy stayed home for a few days with the girls during the school holidays. They joined Max and Mira at the Yearrabi Ponds adventure playground in Gungahlin. A great playground with the usual playground equipment, a large flying fox plus a bike track. Kept everyone happy for several hours!!

Next on the agenda as requested by Ella was a visit to Floriade - the flowers were in full blossom and looking spectacular; the reptiles were out and ready to be patted and the gnomes ready to painted!