30 April - Dorothy and Away

This morning was Dorothy the Dinosaurs Big Beach party at the Q, and we were invited!!! (well we paid to go!). We went with Cass, Nathan and Maddie, and again it was a good morning, starting with a Maccas brekky.

This afternoon we stayed home since Leah and Grace left for a visit to Hobart tonight, but when Grace felt like a snack, she went to the pantry and helped herself to my M&M's and happily sat on the couch with the whole container! Very unlike her to snack on chocolates like that!

And the third photo is from the airport.
I wouldn't say I like the new sculpture thingy, but I don't hate it either. And since it stands about 10m tall, I'm sure it cost an absolute fortune. But my question really is "What the F*#k does it have to do with an airport?"

29 April - Stardust Circus

Been looking forward to today for a while as we went to the Stardust Circus with Nathan, Cass and Maddie.

Circus was excellent, and very entertaining.
Grace got a show bag (although I'm pretty sure Leah will say it was for me!!) which had, among other things, a flashing red clown nose.

I was a little surprised once we got home how happy Grace was to wear it and keep pressing the button to make it flash!

28 April - bug bug bug bug bug bug bug

At the moment Grace is not at all keen or helpful with nappy changes. So when she needs it changed and we are out, I dread how drawn out the experience might be!!
But today, with some luck (for me) when I had to change her in the parents room at the Plaza there happened to be a moth sitting on the bench.
Grace saw it, started pointing and saying "Bug, Bug, Bug" and gladly lay down to watch it while I changed her.

And for about 10 minutes after the change, she still stood and sat admiring the bug.
For reference the bug is the tiny dark spot in the lower right corner of the two photos!!
I did like the effect of the pure white benches and blue backgrounds in a photo though!!!

27 April - Inflatable toys...

We have been looking for a while to buy an inflatable jumping castle or similar for Grace. But we want one small enough to fit in her playroom.

I'm not sure this one is appropriate unless we move all the rest of the furniture out, but I must admit its
Pretty cool. And a good price!

26 April - Graces drink

We had the usual schnitzel at the leagues club tonight, and it was as delicious as always.

And what better way to top it off than with an awesome Choc Whirl Frappe from McDonalds?

I sat them on the bonnet of my car when we got home and Grace literally dived at them! Then she couldn't decide which one she really wanted to share!!

25 April - Friends

This afternoon after a failed attempt to go to Monkey Mania (since it was so ridiculously busy) Maddie came over with Nathan to have a play with Grace.
Just as they were arriving, Jacky,Quinton and Kahu also arrived, so it was a busy playroom for a while!!

As it got later, and Grace was getting tired, she started zooming down the slide without waiting for Maddie to move.
Not that either of them seemed to care.

24 April - Maccas bugs

I met Leah and Grace at Maccas for a play this afternoon after work, as it was way too cold for the park.
Turns out the play equipment at McDonalds is nowhere near as wind proof as I thought!

Grace did have fun up in the plane spinning the propeller but she was also convinced the black Allen key bolts that held it together were actually bugs.

23 April - Nathan's surprise Cake

Leah and Cass were being mean (or since Nathan fell for it, being FUNNY) today and tried to make me believe that Leah had taken our wicked profiterole cake to Cass's house. Surprisingly, Nathan inadvertently fell for it; believed them and apparently got home tonight and went looking for it!! :)

I honestly didn't even realize from the messages that they were implying it had been removed from our fridge and I was subsequently totally clueless about the whole joke!

Funniest part is, at the end of the day, I still had the cake!!

As you can see Grace thought it was pretty good too!!
And who could blame her? Shortcrust pastry, topped with chocolate Bavarian mousse, topped with custard cream filled profiteroles, drizzled with melted chocolate.
I might just have to go and have another piece right now!!!!

22 April - Insect

Today when we got home after we had been to Majura for the morning I noticed a stick insect on the wall inside the house.

Grace was pretty impressed with it, and actually got quite upset when I explained we had to put it outside and not keep it.
Eventually I managed to convince her that I would place it on the bird
Feeder in the yard (NOT for the birds!!) to have some food and it would be there tomorrow for Grace to visit.

21 April - Walking

We went for a walk this morning to see the lions down on the main rd at the show grounds. Couldn't really see the lions very well, but then Baxter got a bit tired and had to swap Grace for the pram for a while!

On the way back home along the river we stopped at a little play area where I had some fun pretending I wasn't nearly 40!!!!!!

20 April - Graces long day...

Grace only had about a 40 min nap all day today, so by the time I got home from work at about 4:30 she was getting pretty tired and was happy
To just sit with us.

When Leah sat with Graces blanket, Grace quickly climbed aboard for a cuddle under the blanket!!

19 April - 3 little guitars sitting on a stand...

My awesome new guitar stand arrived today.

Since I got guitar number 3 a while back it has sat leaning against my 2 guitar stand as I have had nowhere else to put it.

This new inline stand is so much better, looks neater and is more compact.
Yet again, brilliant prices, products and service from Artist Guitars!

18 April - Farming is a serious business

Ok, so it's not my photo, it's one Leah sent me this morning, but I just love it.

Especially how when you look closely you can see her fingers on the pig!!

17 April - Morning Drinks

This morning I met Leah and Grace at the Coffee club for a drink.
Loved Graces hair when they arrived, but as you can see, Leah definitely needed some patience to get Grace dressed this morning!!! I believe it took some time!!

16 April - Best Lay

Funny...

15 April - Ultimate Lazy

It occurs to me when I look at this packet of coffee, milk and sugar combined just how lazy the world has become.

But I'm gonna try them. Delicious and easy!!!

14 April - MMMMEEEEEOOOOWWWW

This afternoon we went to the zoo and spent nearly 3.5 hours there.
The whole time all we heard from Grace was 'Tur-tle'. It was pretty clear the turtles were the highlight for her as they are definitely her current favorite thing, along with bugs!!!
She gets so excited when she sees bugs or turtles...And apparently also when she meows.

The photo is her Meowing at the Meercats there!!

13 April - early start

Well it wasn't really any earlier than usual for me, but while driving past Parliament House this morning on my way to work I saw a balloon and figured they had a very early start.

I thought it looked pretty cool against the pure blue skies!

12 April - Swimming....or not

This morning Grace decided she didn't want me to go to work, so instead we decided I would start late and we would go swimming at the early 8:55 lesson they have for the holidays.

Little did we know until we drove to Kambah that the holidays don't start until next week and there was no 8:55 lesson today! Ooops.

Awfully glad we didn't get Grace into her swimmers before we left or there would have been trouble! :)
But she was happy for the drive and gladly waved goodbye for me to drive to work from the pool!

I, on the other hand, did get into my swimmers at home. Only problem was I had parked the ute on top of my sandals last night and couldnt get one of them out from under the front tyre (oops again)
So I wore my work shoes with my swimmers. I didn't see a problem with the fashion, but Leah thought I looked pretty amusing.
What do you think?

11 April - Kings Swim Centre Deakin

I went and had a look at the new Kings Pool just over the road from work this morning.

It looks pretty good, 4 pools in total with two shallow ones for kids lessons only, so we will probably give it a try with Grace next week to see if it's worth using instead of the normal lessons we do at Kambah.

10 April - Graces Head

Leah removed the plaster strip things from Graces head today as they started peeling off this morning.

Looks like its healing ok. But I still say she is NEVER wearing the Elmo clogs again.

9 April - Planes again..

Today Grace found a Dorothy the Dinosaur toy that was nearly as big as her at Toys'R'Us and she was determined not to give it up!
I eventually managed to bargain with her to put it back on the shelf and we would go and look at the planes at the airport again.

Dorothy got dumped on the shelf faster than you could say plane and she was out the door!

As you can see she still loves watching the planes!!

8 April - Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday means eggs. Chocolate eggs. Eggs for me...eggs for Leah...eggs for Grace.

As you can see Grace even gave me a thank you kiss for hers. :)
Only problem is the egg she was eating came from her Nan not me. Oh well!

7 April - Feeding the Deer

Today on our way back home from our short stay in Ulladulla we went to Mogo Zoo with Cass, Nathan and Maddie.

The girls both seemed to enjoy the zoo, and Grace got a little more brave than last time we here there, and she actually fed the deer herself.

I think she was still more keen on chasing the ducks to give them
Some of the deer food though!

6 April - Ulladulla

We are spending a night at Ulladulla this weekend.

Extremely nice location right on the lake, and great to see some wildlife and ocean views at times too.

Grace enjoyed the playground too.

5 April - Ouch!!!!!

I bet you can't guess what took the chunks out of the corner of our kitchen cabinet?
Ok so the second photo is a bit of a giveaway.
But you wouldn't really expect a toddlers head to do it would you?

Poor Grace found out the hard way tonight how to stop suddenly.

Luckily nothing too serious apart from a pretty impressive bump, bruise and cut on her forehead. Hopefully the tape will keep her Brains in....

4 April - Bath time

Tonight Grace had her bath in an inflatable pool in the shower bay.
She really enjoys it in there as you can see.

3 April - Pebbletastic

This afternoon Grace came out the front and helped pull a couple of weeds out in the pebbles.
She sat on a paver and wouldn't move
Off it since the pebbles aren't nice to walk on.
She was pretty happy to sort the pebbles into a bucket for a while.

2 April - Planes

Leah's mum left tonight and while we were at the airport we got Grace a soft Qantas plane toy.
She was pretty happy with it.

1 April - Still call Australia Home

Finally arrived back home today after an interesting late trip to the airport in Tokyo yesterday, followed by a late departure and late arrival, meaning the connection was very tight to transfer and get into the flight from Sydney to Canberra.
I was pretty relieved when I was finally sitting on the Sydney - Canberra
Flight and knew I was going to make it home.