Healesville train ride

Every time we have gone to Healesville, Brett has always suggested that we should get on the the train ...and some finally did. It does not actually go anywhere but it was a good experience for the girls to hop on board an old school diesel train.

Amber's Laotian string tying ceremony

Amber had another ceremony in her honour and this time it was the traditional Laotian ceremony where the baby is blessed and strings that have been specially blessed by a priest is tied around her and her parent's wrist. 

It seems that the Laotians don't do things small, there were over 200 guests at De's parent's place with enough food to feed an army.

Abbey and Macey watching the ceremony from afar.

Cold wet Anzac Day

It was a cold wet Anzac Day this year and we had a day in with the girls. So out came the paints. 

Eloise loves her arts and crafts and not a day goes by where she does not run off to her craft boxes and creates something.  She is showing some real signs of having a bit of an artistic bent, and has the patience to spend a very long time creating a master piece.  She Has even gone to the trouble of learning her primary colors and what colors are needed to be mixed together to make the non primary colors!

Abbey too loves picking up a texta or crayon to draw and you can often hear her saying "Abbey draw, Abbey draw" which means that somebody needs to get her some paper and a crayon / texta!   And  her favourite iPhone/iPad apps are the drawing ones ! 

Amber's first moon

Baby Amber is now 1 month old which means it was time for the traditional Chinese first moon celebration.  Suckling pig, red eggs and pigs trotters were on the menu.  The guest of honour like all other guests of honours at their first moon celebrations was oblivious to the fuss around her.   The other kids though were hard to contain ! 

The drunken sailor look after a big feed !  Amber oblivious to the fuss around her !

Aunty Cass' cake for Amber

Another two more cakes as it was also Steve, Aunty Violet's and Richard's birthday

Older kids waiting patiently for cake!

Zoey and Abbey with Aunty Vickey and Aunty Violet... Abbey still looking very bruised !

Black Eye

Abbey's black eye didn't stop her from enjoying her sushi

Poor Abbey ...first she got bitten by mozzies or some sort of insect right under her eye which made the area under her eye swell, then she fell up (yes up) the stairs and got a massive shiner on her eye. 

We were actually on the way to see the doctors about the swelling from the mosquito bite when she fell but the bruise came immediately and the black eye looked so awful that I thought that the doctor would actually query the bruise and refer us to the authorities! So we decided that it was probably not a great idea to visit the docs after all!

Have you ever gone out with a child with her black eye? The number of filthy looks one gets  made me wish that I could put Abbey into a shirt which explain what really happened and exonerate the parent from any perceived wrong doing!

And if you are asking how she actually fell up the stairs? Well it turned out that Eloise had sticky taped the bottom of Abbey's ugg boots resulting in her boots not having any grips. And why would Eloise do such a thing? Well we think it is due to the Tom and Jerry episodes the girls have been watching on You Tube!

Easter in Dromana

Easter this year was spent down the beach in Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula. The camper trailer was again called into action. The park we stayed at was filled with families all around the same age as Eloise and Abbey. Eloise was in seventh heaven as there was a little girl on tHe site next to us and the park was traffic free enough that we felt quite comfortable letting her go off with her little friend. If we let her, she would only have come back to eat and sleep and even that might not be guaranteed.

Eloise with her new friend Lauren and Abbey trying to join in

Lots of playmates

Dromana is a great spot with a nice sandy beach that seemed to be quite sheltered, plenty of cafes and restaurants, wineries (although we did not attempt to visit these with two kids in tow).

And there was a wonderful garden called the Enchanted Maze. First stop was Arthurs Seat for a cofee and then we thought we would only spend half an hour at the Enchanted Maze but we ended up spending the whole day there. Lots to see and do, a truly impressive garden and the maze is just a very small part of it.
                        

Walking the plank at the Echanted Garden bush course

Tube slide at Enchanted Gardens

Mini hedges were just the right size for the girls

                       

The maze at the Enchanted Gardens got the better of us ...we wandered around for over half an hour trying to find our way out !

                          

Eloise was very excited to see"Grandma Willow" ... one of the characters out of Pocahantas

    

On Easter Sunday we had another egg hunt for Eloise and Abbey and then the Easter Bunny came to visit.  Before that all the kids were invited to take part in a coloring in competition with the Easter Bunny to judge the best one. This is off course right up Eloise's alley and she took to the task with her usual creativity and she was so proud when the Easter Bunny judged her work as the best in the 4 to 5 year old category! 

Eloise and her work in progress

Eloise's winning entry on the right

Abbey not to be outdone took part in the egg and spoon race and absolutely trounced the field in the 2 to 3 year old age group. Before the others had even worked out how to keep the egg on the spoon she was already halfway across the lawn ... it must have been the previous practice she had at egg and spoon races at her 2nd birthday party! Even the adults had a go, although none of us did as well as Abbey. Eloise refused to do the race (we think it might have something to do with her fear of not winning!).

Abbey off to a flying start