Trampolines and friends

Reconnecting with old friends in an awesome backyard. Both boys were very impressed with the trampolines we encountered during our visits.
American readers - note the fences! This is very normal for our part of Australia.

More parks

 

They have upgraded a park near a grandparent's place - the highlights were two zip lines and a huge slippery dip with several options. Enough to keep a wide range of ages interested and active for the morning.

Symbio zoo

Echidna (albino and normal)

Common wombat

Koala

Mainly Australian natives, with some other additions around the edge. Much expanded since our last visit. Cheetahs are the latest, and they were unsettled by the bobcat doing work next door, so we got to see them quite close up!

Highlight of coming home (for me and the four year old, not for the six year old, who really just wanted to play lego all day), was spending half an hour at Bulli Point watching a hang glider get ready and take off.

Inflatable world

Someone thought of a good way to use indoor netball/cricket grounds - fill the space up with jumping castles, and small children's birthday parties... This was both awful and fantastic at the same time.

We went and ate fish and chips and played in a real park afterwards, and it was a very good way to spend a cold, clear Saturday.

Sausage rolls and cinnamon doughnuts

I didn't realise just how much I missed some things, until walking around past shops in Australia.

This is a sausage roll (plus sauce, 30c...)

This is a cinnamon doughnut. When you eat this you don't get a sugar headache, or feel full. It is just a light and tasty morning tea.

Sunrises

Red sky at night, shepherds delight,
Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning...

We have been getting some beautiful sunrise colours, and some colder, wet days are on the way!

Having a little fire

In what is becoming a bit of a tradition, we went and lit a camp fire in the BBQ area at the park near the house, and boiled the billy. This time instead of damper we cooked sausages. Both boys got to start and look after a fire.

Sandpit play

So, we think we travelled for two days, basically, and we made it, sort of in ok shape.
Nana and Grandpa had the foresight to install a sandpit, and buy half of the town's second hand, large diggers, so very big construction happening here. Weather is beautiful - cold but not too cold, with a stiff breeze.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Things to do in a five hour layover:

• Eat dinner (beware the enormous servings)
• Travel on the monorail circuit (about 20 mins for a full route) three times
• Go to terminal E (other side of airport) for tea at Starbucks, only to realise there was a Starbucks just around the corner from where you are waiting
• Let children run in art installation for atleast 20 mins. Only realise that this might not be socially acceptable when you hear another mum giving her child a lecture on not running. I thought tag was fine...
• Change into pjs
• Watch them fuel and load your aeroplane

Our Produce

We ate the strawberries, but we also managed some snow peas and some cherry tomatoes. Plants are all going on holidays, and hopefully will keep on producing for the minders!

Last day of school

Last day of year one!

Iced Tea

It is confession time... we're making and drinking iced tea.
Ingredients:
2 Bigalow Constant Comment teabags (black tea with a twist of citrus, I think)
2 cups hot water
1 sprig of mint
bit of sugar to taste

Let the tea steep for 5 minutes, the mint a little less, add sugar, stir, then put in glasses with ice cubes. by which time it is luke-warm, and very refreshing at the end of a humid day!

Recipe from Elizabeth, who unwittingly combined two family recipes to make her own!

Patriotic Skittles

You saw it here first...The flavours are (left to right): Blackberry, Yumberry, Wild Berry, Strawberry and Rasberry. But I don't think that is the point.

Blueberry Season!

The long awaited blueberry season has started. 'Our' little farm where we go sells at $3/pound ($6/kg). This was their first open day, so it was definitely first fruits. We ended up with two pounds of slightly tart blueberries. Infinitely better than the berries shipped from the other side of the country, that are slightly overripe/past it, and therefore flavourless.
Unfortunately we'll be overseas for the next three out of the approximately five week season.
Photo is of mainly green berries, in the next couple of weeks, there'll be berries galore!

Field Day

Every year at the end of the year, our elementary school has a 'field day', which is a half day of random team activities. Not athletics, but things like, throwing a wet sponge in a bucket etc. It seems to me to be a good way of passing one of the days in the last week and a half of school, where I don't think anything much gets done. The flip side is that the middle schoolers have exams until the second last day of school.
Our boy was in the 'turquoise' team, and happy coincidence, his new socks also were turquoise.

Mango month

For some reason, Trader Joes has decided that summer = mangoes, and with the same enthusiasm that they have pumpkin for fall, we have mango products this summer.
Given that fresh mangoes are definitely not freely available, we are a touch intrigued. We are trying the mango bars for travel, but passed up on the mango flavoured cheerios.

Dining Alfresco

Our table and chairs are worth every penny, it appears. We are eating outside at every opportunity (ie, most dinners) and loving it. I suspect our neighbour is getting to know the various personalities in the family much better too (she sits on her deck a fair bit as well).

Greek Festival!

The food

Loukoumades

The local orthodox church holds a Greek Festival once a year. The first year we were here we probably didn't know it existed. The second year, we were probably at soccer, or something, but finally, this year, we got there...
It seems to be about food and Greek music and jumping castles, but more about food. We ate lunch there, heaps of lovely Greek food, the standouts of which were: the moussaka, the dolmades (vegetarian and meat) and the baklava. And a new one, loukoumades - little fried dough balls, like savory dumplings, not quite doughnut mixture, fried, with honey sauce drizzled over, and then sprinkled with cinnamon. We also tried Galaktobouriko - buttered sheets of philo pastry filled with egg custard and semolina, baked and topped with honey syrup, and the boys went halves in what I understand was chocolate covered baklava, but I think was is officially known as flogeres.
The kids got a go on the jumping castle that was a slide, for about 20 mins, until they were exhausted (and had carpet burns on their knees from various tricks they were trying), and then we went home!

Peas and Corn

I have a few staples for fast and easy veggies in our house, frozen peas and corn being one, and there has never been a hugely happy reception for them, but we get there.Today I got home to find out the boys request to eat their peas and corn out of a glass had been granted...
It was so new and amazing the baby insisted on and ate three tablespoons instead of arguing over the usual 2. I think they were a lot easier to round up. And I wondered, why do they have to be on the plate anyway? What are the thousand little rules that we're holding onto, esp in relation to food, that really just exist because that is how it has been done previously?