Picnic in the Botanical Gardens

It has been quite a while since we've been to the botanical gardens and I'm not sure that Abbey has ever been.   We met up with Marina and her two kiddlets, Scarlett and Harvey at the Children's Garden and had a lovely day playing in the stream and exploring the garden. As expected the kids were filthy by the end of the day and they were ravenous at dinner time!

Our Abbey is quite forward and wasted no time in giving Harvey a cuddle ...

Can you spot Abbey ? 

L to R: Harvey, Eloise, Scarlett and Abbey

Checking out the vege garden

Catching up with Grandma

Grandma has been down in Melbourne staying with Larry and Sally and we caught up with her and Sally on a gorgeous sunny day. Lunch at Sandbar in Middlepark, followed by a play on the beach and then ice-cream at Jocks.  If you are ever down Middle Park way you must try the ice-creams at Jocks,  the best ice-cream in Melbourne,  try the Strawberry Sorbet .... yum!  Sorry no photos of Jocks this time, too busy trying to make sure that the kids did not wear their ice-creams home as they normally do!

As we walked through the streets of Middle Park and Albert Park, it again struck me as a very nice place to live especially with kids.  Lots of parks and cafes and off course the beach, nice wide tree lined streets, not far from the city and off course the beach. It has inspired me to re-invigorate the real estate hunt.  However, I don't like my chances as it is currently very tightly held and the prices are still heavily inflated.

As we walked through the streets of Middle Park, the girls kept finding swings that local residents had hung on trees just outside their house.

 

Posing

Not quite sure where she has learnt this from, but Eloise has started posing for the camera and wanting to make sure that she looks her best. She is a very girly girl and loves wearing pretty dresses and putting on her 'makeup'.   

Beach days

Just about every day during our Port Fairy stay was down by the beach. Whether it was the ocean beach across the road, pea soup or our new favourite spot which is the ocean beach near the cannons. Here we almost have the beach to ourselves and it is much more sheltered.  Besides the fact that it is not a patrolled beach, we are still trying to work out why there is no one on 'our' beach.

The routine was generally beach in the morning and then ice-creams / iced chocolates / coffees on the main street in the afternoon. 

Eloise did start to get a little sick of the beach and it was in part to do with her not being able to stay in the salt water for too long as it stung her eczema skin. 

Races on the beach

Abbey digging away at 'pea soup' beach.

This year we discovered the 'skim disk' which is a foam type disk that the little ones sit on and the adult gets to work up a sweat by running them on the sand and in the water.  There was quite a couple of spills when the adults took some turns too quickly and the girls were a lot more hesitant about getting on again.

Uncle Dave doing some circle work in the sand

Abbey and her chicken ....without fail each day around 11, Abbey would start asking for her poached chicken for lunch.  There were a few days there where the supermarket and the butcher had sold out of chicken and there were no new deliveries because of Christmas / New Year and so Abbey went without.  But when it finally came back on the menu she devoured them like there was no tomorrow and is always able to finish one whole thigh fillet. Here she is happily sitting in the beach tent eating her chicken when everybody else was out playing.

Looking for star fish

Long walks on the beach collecting shells

Eloise has finally learnt to jump ...for a while there and only until very recently, Eloise just did not know how to jump.   Here she is practising her new found skills playing hop scotch on the beach.  We now just have to master the art of playing by the rules !

A Typical Port Fairy Day

On the rare day that we did not go to the beach (because it was too hot), we had a fairly typical sort of Port Fairy day ... first up was enjoying the carnival that was on the oval.   

Abbey with the sad face after her balloon dog popped :-(

Then it was a bike ride / walk to the light house. Abbey was supposed to be on the bike first and then the pram later for her nap but she fell asleep within 2 minutes of being on the back of the bike.

Nobody there to open the door ...

                         

And then the highlight of the day for both girls was the coach ride.  Abbey watched enthralled the entire time whilst Eloise asked the poor coachman a million questions - from the horse's name to what shoe size for the horse.

This was followed up with ice-cream on the lawn and annoying daddy when he was trying to have a cat nap.

Bike riding

Abbey has discovered a new pleasure in life ... watching the world go by on the back of the bike.  This year she was old enough to go on the back of the bike and mummy had to learn how to ride with a kid on the back (it really was not that hard). 

The girls ready for their bike ride

It must be quite soothing sitting at the back because both girls fall asleep readily whenever on the back.

Abbey also loves the trip to the butchers because of the horse which is outside its windows.  The amazing thing about the horse is that it only costs 20c a ride ! 

40 degree days

It would not be Port Fairy without a 40 + degree day and this year we came prepared with a little inflatable pool.   The kids were quite happy jumping in and out of the 'pool' and squirting each other (and then everything in sight) with water guns whilst the adults dipped their feet in.