TiddlyWinks

 They have partying down to a fine art at TiddlyWinks. There were five, five yar old parties being hosted at the same time, including two of them for two Evelyns. The three storied playground was the focus at the start. The main attraction was the dance floor/stage/disco room. This had two main sessions for the disco beats. Food was served in a seperate upstairs room where two staff entertained with magic and ice cream. Phew! It took  the whole back of the car to get the 20 or so presents back home. Evie was excited from start to finish, although we still have the afternoon to go.

Evie CowGirl

 We had a final session at the playground in Portarlington followed by a lunch in the old butchers shop now called the Staple Eatery. The play area was busy but not to crowded as Evie could move from one area to another as they freed up. Her climbing is non stop now. The water pumps also held a lot of attention. Across at the Eatery this was very busy but we did get a table, even though there was plenty of food at home and the bike riding just happened to be on.  They do a good meatball sanga here. Later we dropped them at Avalon. Now this is a way more relaxed way to fly. No queues and state of the art everything complete with free parking. Our only problem last time was that Jetstar cancelled our flight. I believe there are penalties now for sudden cancellations.

Paper Planes

 We need to bring out all the tricks and paper planes is always a winner. If you have parents where aeroplanes are ingraved in your brain then bring out the paper planes. Evie would have to be the most plane travelled four year old in Australia. I am not sure how you can check that but I am sure an AI somewhere could go it.  We got the flight path organised down the hallway and like anything it gets fast and physical.  It was a good 30 minute shoot out and then I needed a sit down.  Four year olds can do it for hours.

Chores - Who would have thought

The TV has come into its own lately. If you need an hours down time put on a good old fashioned cartoon. Except they are not old fashioned.  Then you have to drag them away from it.  The apricot tree is a winner. Evie helps to select them, carry them and eat them. We have now come to the end however, as the tree has given up its yield and I think we got around 50 apricots all up and lost about 10 to birds.  Seems a good result in its second year.  The windows always need a wash around here so hello, there is another activity. Evie always wants to help.  I tried a few older cartoons like the Flintstones but Fred was laying into Barney in true slapstick style so we changed tack and tried Inspector Gadget which didn't click either. Somehow this lot know the cartoons made for them so we were back to the Octonauts or Bluey or Paw Patrol or Grizzly.

apricot delight

windows bright

Last Day Timing

Evie and Charlie had never seen fireworks so the whole day was scheduled around getting them tired enough to want an afternoon nap but not overly tired as they need to be up and about at 9:30pm.  So there was a morning gardening session followed by an energetic pool session with water pistol shooting and chasing.  This was now supposed to be the afternoon sleeping part.  Bring out the sleeping weapon. We never needed to use the car as a sleep inducer but for these two it works amazingly. The other day a fighting Charlie was asleep with one circuit round the block.  Having had a good nap we then had an afternoon beach session. This was the best yet with Evie using her goggles to dive and look under the water for snails, shells and grasses. Whatever Evie does Charlie has to do, so he was diving and swimming as well.  This all led into a good feed of leftovers and the drive to Portarlington. We had 90 min before show time and the playground used up 60 mins.  At first Charlie did not like the explosions but got used to it quickly.  This was a good 15 minute show for kids. The drive back was timed for grandies to fall asleep and the same for us. What we did not need was possums at 2:00am and the the power to go out as well. Maybe there is one less possum on a wire nearby.

book ends

Rest Day Video Day

 Time for a rest day although there was a cleanup which was mostly done by Debbie yesterday while I was doing the airport ferry bit.  I have gone back to check on any videos that may have been overlooked.  These are a hit with the stars of the show lately. Some TV time always grabs their attention and also means some quiet time but now there are requests to replay things that have been done during the day, especially with them in it. I have a few more here from last week.

action shot

Travel Day

 We have to be co-ordinated today trying to tire out some grandies whilst at the same time gathering everything from one end of the house to the other for the packing process. We included a walk and playground session as part of this.  The next bit is to have them sleep for the 90 mins to the airport so that when the flight is happening it will be nice and relaxed.  Easy, snacks and relax.

Water Play

 It is warming up again. Today's first activity was a garden job that got abandoned when we opened the lid of the green bin and a horde of black flies escaped. Debbie got the grandies going to the playground up the road while I did something with the bin. I caught up to them when it was coffee time during an hour or so of swing pushing. As the hairdressers was right there another job was crossed off with a quick booking for two kiddie haircuts.. The rest of the morning was water play and there will be more of that this afternoon across at the beach.  Beach update: Just got back from a wind change that blew our beach session away, so its more water play on the front porch which is nicely protected from the Southerly.

Wyndam Cache

 The action has continued today with another Pre birthday lunch, this time it was grandma who will be 90 next month. However in order to get some beans out, we stopped off along the way at a flying fox race track where Evie is now an expert at working the whole contraption on her own.  We then proceeded on the hour or so drive to Wyndam Cache for lunch.  There is a lot of choice here foodwise, although there is no play equipment. However there is a grassy play area and 1,000 cabbages. You can buy any of the produce in the shop attached.  Right now there is another beach session happening but to quote Jethro Tull, I have been allowed to "Sit this one out".  I did change Laura's shower head from a water saver to a water pourer, in this case the pourer the better.

Playing with the Tap

There must always be activities no matter how much there might have been the day before or coming up, So this morning we travelled to PortArlington to the much used playground high on the hill with Bay views over the You Yangs and beaches. It might have been high but not so dry as they have a water feature there which is good for paddling on a dry day, not that they haven't been stomping in puddles this week. So they walked the creek bed in barefeet as well as using the swings and slides. Evie also started to pickup the skills of finding treasures with the aid of directional heat markers... you're getting hotter.

Geelong Show

 This has been on my list since we moved here and also since we saw a good session of fireworks from our balcony some 5 yar ago. Because Evie and Charlie are here you are always looking for things to do and the Geelong Show beckoned, despite the rain.  Three adults cost $30 each to get in. Everything was awash from carpark to seats, to rides, to feet.  We used two spray jackets of ours on the kids and we had umbrellas. We tried to stay indoors for the first two hours and the the second two hours was Sun and heat. There were many highlights like getting up and close to many animals.  The showgrounds here are bigger than Melbourne. Most of everything is bigger and less crowded. There is a vintage machinery shed that is a permanent attraction here and it is huge with large boilers running everything. As for costs two show bags cost $75, two rides each was about $75 total and lunch was about $85.  I would recommend this as a dayout but not if you have a tribe of kids.  James' dreaded $10 curly potatoes were there but we did not go near them.

Charlie loves Diggers

Real Digger

Licking the Rain

Grandies Playtime

Debbie invented a new thing in the play area. Hills made under the carpet. These are good for dinosaurs to climb up and also for cars to go up and down.  These are currently the two big things, dinosaurs and cars, which is good to know because they are still the two things we have here from a generation ago, as there will be another week of action coming up here again soon. The first video shows best behaviour cherubs.  Later in the week we went to an indoor playground during the wet days. This is not as big as the Geelong one and was way more crowded.

Stacks on the Pill

Mini Bounce

 Grand Final day is a long day already but we got the Grandies to an indoor playground for a two hour session before lunch. We may have overdone it as Charlie was completely cooked when we sat down for lunch at the local tavern. This was abandoned in favour of packing it in takeaway containers. The final is about to start and we have to get back to the house but these teams are not particularly high on our list. We do have a birthday cake to have this afternoon.

Google TV

 Since we updated our TV last month we now have a spare Google TV device. These are very portable and easily taken on the road. The catch is your hotel room needs a TV with a HDMI port and a reasonable internet. We have been using it to catchup on the World Bicycle Champs, or should I say we have been falling asleep trying to watch the WBC. Today we have ferried the Grandies to Day Care so we have the afternoon for some site seeing. 

Dinofest

Travel days are normally long but we were on time and playing with Grandies by 1:00pm. We just had time to book into the room here and do some quick shopping before our half hour walk to the Dinofest. These are puppet dinosaurs of all sorts that are walking around or being carried or are just static reminders in their habitat. Evie and Charlie were convinced and a few times they were not willing to get up close. After the show it was a playground session for an hour or so and by the time we got back all we could do was get some pizza ordered in.  We have made it back to the room again in time for the world champs time trial for women but I doubt if we will be awake long.

Playgrounds

 There were a lot of photos taken in the last week and it is a tour of indoor and outdoor playgrounds.  It was a rest day yesterday but I did collate a few of them and some more video. The video is from the All4 Kids venue.  It is pretty funny. Nana gets buried in a pillow and cannot easily get out. The photos are from various parks.

Pirate boat

Mouth open Park No 1

Double swing Park No 2

Queenslanders Away

 Laura has passed her trial by aeroplane.  Take two kids under 5 with one large suitcase, a backpack and a computer bag and get them on the flight, all the while timing their sleep pattern to an exact period before boarding so that the actual flying time might be as less ratty as possible. Don't forget snacks, drinks and video devices with at least 10 Bluey episodes.  Before all that it was haircuts, chalk drawing, garden cleanup and book reading as well as more Bluey.  Topped off with a late airport lunch of regfrigerated sandwiches. We can look forward to all the same fun all over again in about two weeks.

big sand pit

Airport Leggo

All 4 Kids

 The cleaner was coming this morning at 10:00 am so it was best to move out for a couple of hours. The All4Kids is an indoor playground with a cafe in Geelong.  No appointments are need just pay for the kids ($13) and you are in. After you pay for snacks, drinks and lunch then they will have made their money. This place is huge and must have the world's biggest jumping castle. Now this makes two jumping castles in three days.  It fills a factory sized space with undercover parking.  There are a lot of injury potential.