Happy 1st Birthday Amber

At a blink of an eye, Amber is already 1!   We celebrated with an Under the Sea themed party at the Port Melbourne community hall with lots of De's relatives.  Janet (De's sister) did a great job with the under the sea mural... it must have taken her hours !  And Amber looked very cute in her homemade mermaid tail and shelly top.

The birthday girl and her daddy

Amber with her other grandfather

There were lots of food including some traditional Laotian dishes and off course lots of party food.

 

It was a great venue for a kids party as there is also a playground just outside.  And as it turned out, it was also the Grand Prix weekend and there were aerial displays in the skies with hornets and large jumbo jets doing tricks overhead.  Eloise was impressed that Aunty De had managed to organise the jets and hornets to do a fly by or Amber's birthday!

Amber with her cousins, Eloise and Maisie

 

The birthday cake was a moist carrot cake made by De with a picture of Amber as a mermaid.

 

We think it was also Amber's first time trying out cake and she looked like she could have wolfed down a whole lot more!

"So this is what cake tastes like!"

"More cake please"



Poh Poh to the rescue with more cake!

Bon Voyage Aunty Violet

Aunty Violet has been talking very excitedly about her cruise on Queen Mary 2 for months and the countdown is nearing a close, so we gathered for a Bon Voyage party at Bella Cosi in Port Melbourne to farewell Aunty Violet.

The kids for the most part were quite happy to colour in and eat hot chips whilst the adults enjoyed a high tea of scones, sandwiches and arancini balls.  

 
 
 

 

And off course they all wanted to help with blowing out the cake!

Castlemaine

Who would have thought that it will still be so hot in March over the Labour Day long weekend!  But hot it was and this time we were not heading to the beach but inland to Castlemaine.

It is a historic goldrush town about an hour and a half hours away from Melbourne.  We stayed at the Big 4 which was right next to the Castlemaine Botanical Garden and walking distance into town.

Burning off energy in the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens

 

Walking into town we saw some very nice old homes one of which was a B&B that mummy and daddy had stayed at on a pre kids visit.   Eloise asked why we were not staying at the nice old mansion with all the old antiques?!?! 

In town, we cooled off with iced coffees and ice-creams before hitting one of the many antique shops in town.   We went to Restorer's Barn and the kids really surprised us with how much they liked looking at the 'olden day' things and Eloise even wanted to go back the next day! There was just so many interesting things for them to look at and touch and we were just glad that at the end of the visit there was no breakage to any of the wares

Abbey checking to see who was home in the bird house

So many knick knacks at the Restorer's Barn, the girls did not know where to start 

Don't drop it Eloise !

Checking to see if there were any thiefs hiding in the 'Ali Baba' jars

Eloise thought it was hard work playing the piano in the olden days

"How does this lock work?"

"Who is behind the door?? 

Abbey loved turning the switches on and off

Our home away from home was thankfully under some nice shady trees as it was such a hot weekend and fortunately we were also next door to the Castlemaine pool which was we headed in the afternoons to cool off. 

Our home away from home

The girls enjoying their al fresco lunch outside our camper trailer





As usual, Eloise had no problems with making friends and by the end of the weekend had a little posse of friends to hang out with and Abbey did her best to tag along !

 

 

Abbey's Creative Side

We know that Eloise has well and truly got a creative side to her and her one of her favourite activities is craft where she is constantly looking around the house for 'rubbish' to turn into a craft project.  

Well, it looks like Abbey may have a litle bit of the creative spirit in her as well.  She found a pink paper plate lying around the house and decided that it will make a good steering wheel for a car.  Next she hunted down something that will be the body of her car and settled on a pink play box.  Then she instructed mummy to make a 'neck' for the steering wheel and to stick it to the car body.  

We then found some toy plates for the wheels and a cup for the exhaust pipe and before we knew it, we had a car! 

Abbey hopped into it and was genuinely disappointed though when it would not move!  She really did think that her car would move !! 

Messy Play Day

One of the local toy libraries had a Messy Play Day and what a great idea for kids.  There was lots of goopy slime, paint for finger painting, coloured water for painting outside and the best one was the table full of shaving cream.  

Eloise had a ball getting dirty and had even more fun when we happened to meet one of her old kinder friends there.   

Eloise spotted her kinder friend, Abby, and it was inevitable that a shaving cream fight started!

Results of the shaving cream war ...looks like Eloise may have come up slightly ahead.

Poor Abbey though was still feeling under the weather and not her usual self and so was not too keen to participate and kept nice and clean.

 

Abbey with her sad eyes was not up to joing in

There were also cubby houses to build out of bark, sticks, branches, leaves and twigs.  Once again, Eloise was in her element directing how the cubby should be built.