Rhymes Festival

The inaugural Rhymes Music Festival for kids was on and we had pre-booked tickets not knowing what to expect.  It was held at the showgrounds and is like the Gastonbury Music festival except that it is for kids.  Starting at 9 am ti did not finish until 4pm !!  All in a all it was a very long day !

In addition to music from characters such as Raggs the Doll, Angela Ballerina, Yo Gabba Gabba there were also lots of activities for the kids. There were trampoloines, Hey Dee Ho music sessions and even a traffic school where the girls got a drivers licence complete with photo and all.

Abbey at her first music concert

Eloise was intrigued by the cheerleaders

But Abbey, not so much !

Picnic at the festival

Getting a briefing at the traffic school

                           

Talk, talk, talk ....

It would appear that we have another talker on our hands.  Abbey is turning into a real little talker and at 18 months has between 30 to 40 words.  Most of the time it is only one word at a time but quite often she will string two or more words together such as "birdie chirp chirp".  There was one afternoon where she talked non stop for over 2 hours !

Here are some of her words that she uses all the time: mumma, daddy, jeh jeh (big sister), poh poh, gung gung, sit (although sometimes it sounds like 'shit'), doggie, chu chu (pig), wa wa (water), chicken, cheese stick, fruit, more, mare (horse), birdie, meow (cat), open, wet, poo poo, wee wee, night night, sleep, no, up, down, shoes, socks, nose, cado (avocado), nana (banana), toast, ump (jump), baby, spider, bear, milk, walk walk, duck, frog, mouse, floor, "uise" (Eloise), cuddle, drink.

Eloise at 4 years is continues to be an unbelievable talker.  She too can talk non stop and asks millions of questions. Mummy often gets a headache when she is alone with the kids in the car because it is constant chatter chatter chatter.  
Eloise is also very logical in her thinking and a real problem solver.

                        

Point Lonsdale / Queenscliff

Another weekend and another weekend away.  This time we went to Point Lonsdale to try out the Beacon Resort Big 4 in Point Lonsdale / Queenscliff.   Once again the Big 4 resort was well equiped with a jumping pillow, playground and a swimming pool.

Abbey making friends at the playground

We think that she was pretty pleased with herself for going down on her own !

                                   

But it is still more fun with big sister.

The frog was a hit with both girls

The indoor pool was great as it a great activity for a wet Saturday morning.

Lochie and his family also happened to be there as Point Lonsdale is their second home. Saturday afternoon was spent with a leisurely walk around the Queenscliff fort, a play on the beach and coffee at Queenscliff marina. The kids were intrigued by what lay beneath the pier !
 

Knocking on the big doors at the fort

Walking around the fort

                    

Queenscliff beach

Queenscliff beach

                               

Digging a big hole to China

Qeeunscliff Marina - What's that Aunty Ann ?

And that ?

On Sunday, the sun came out and we had a great day playing in the sand at Point Lonsdale beach.

Point Lonsdale beach

Ahhhh...chocolate milkshake ...

Slurp....

Eloise's excursion to Edendale Farm

Eloise had her first real excursion with her 3 year old kinder group to Edendale farm.  Each child had to be accompanied by an adult so mums had to tag along for the excursion as well. 

It was a great day out in the beautiful spring sunshine and it was nice to watch Eloise play with her friends.  There seems to be a group of kids that she plays with consistently including Zoe, Eden, Monique, Cooper and Tamsin.

We have also noticed that Eloise likes to be at the front of any group activity.  She will always want to be up ahead of the group so mummy had a hard time trying to keep up with her ! Whilst other kids were quite keen to milk the goats and touch the worms, Eloise was not that thrilled with the prospect and politely declined to touch the worms or have another go at milking the goat.

During the planting session when the Edendale Farm teacher asked who knew what plants needed to grow,  Eloise went one better impressed the class by telling the teacher  that plants are good because they use up carbon dioxide.  The teacher was a little taken aback as she was not expecting a 4 year old to know about cardon dioxide!

Feeding the baby goats

Racing up to the front .... L to R: Xavier, Eden, Zoe, Eloise and Tamsin

One of the highlights for the kids was climbing up on the tree. L to R: Lucas, Tyler & Eloise

Waiting for the guinea pigs(L-R:Mia,Keely,Tamsin,Ben,Rhys,Lucas,Eloise,Cooper,Monique) 

Very cautious about patting the guinea pig

Eloise & Cooper - one of her best friends at kinder

Apparently, Cooper is infatuated with Eloise and talks about Eloise at least 3 times an hour at home !

Ice Cream !

It was one of the first real hot days after a pretty cool winter and we were down Port Melbourne way.  So what better way to cool off then with an ice-cream from Jocks on Victoria Avenue in Middle Park. In our humble opinion, Jocks has the best ice-cream in Melbourne and better than Trampoline or Seven Apples.

Eloise polished both her won ice-cream and mummy's whilst Abbey just made a huge mess with hers  ! 

Rough-housing with Lochie & Dylan

It felt like only yesterday that the three of them were only babies all lying quietly on the bed. Now they are 4 or almost 4 and playing rough is all part and parcel of a playdate.

We had breaky with Lochi, Aunty Ann and Uncle Dave at the Moka Pot Cafe and then went on to the train park in Box Hill where Dylan and Zoe joined us.

All the kids had a ball going on the miniature railway.

Are the boys ganging up on the girl ?

Cuddles with Lochie while waiting for the train ....



... followed by cuddles with Dylan whilst Abbey patiently waits for the train.



Sisters

At 4 years and 18 months respectively, Eloise and Abbey are starting to find that having each other around is great fun. First thing every morning, Eloise would ask for her sister so that she can give her a cuddle or to play. They also do a lot of role playing and Abbey is often referred to as "my little Bubba" by Eloise who pretends to be Abbey's mummy.

Where once Eloise was the aggressor, Abbey is just as likely to be the one to hit her sister with a toy. Although in the last month or so, Abbey has refrained from hurting her sister so often and has started to give her sister cuddles. It is so cute watching them cuddle up to each other.

Giving big sister a hug

Eloise is very generous with her cuddles



Sometimes the attention is just a little too overwhelming !

They are starting to play well together, although more often than not Eloise gets annoyed with Abbey as Abbey still enjoys pulling down whatever Eloise has built or running off with a puzzle piece or a Barbie that is in play. One of the phrases heard quite commonly in the house is "Oh, Abbey ....." followed by Abbey throwing or dropping whatever it is that she has snatched and bolting in the opposite direction.

The girls at play  

Despite how much Abbey may sometimes annoy her, Eloise is very protective of her younger sister and is generally on the lookout for her.  She is very concerned whenever Abbey appears to be wandering off when we are out and about and has on several occasions prevented Abbey from going down the stairs when the gates have been inadvertently left opened.

A protective arm around her sister as they wait for the bird show at Healesville Sanctuary

No, the mark on Abbey's face was not from her big sister !

Eloise also takes on a very mothering role and will sometimes help feed her little sister or help her put her shoes on. However, occasionally Abbey may just be asking a bit too much of her sister ....Abbey will sometimes say "poo poo" and bend over for Eloise to smell her bottom, and Eloise will always oblige !