Sunday, February 23, 2014

Proud Dad alert!

Eli and I went to Old Parliament House for a knock-up at tennis. We played for about an hour and a half and was me who insisted we leave as I think we'd still be there now.

Perhaps this will be replayed on national TV in about 15 years time when Eli wins his first major!


Monday, February 10, 2014

Fun in Weston Park

We enjoyed a sunny Sunday morning with our friends Gill and Anthony at Weston Park - Audrey rode her bike and Eli got soaked in the small water-play area with his friend Tommy. It's a nice spot by the Lake and a lovely way to spend the day.
 

Amy with Sarah



Sunday, February 9, 2014

Multicultural Festival

Canberra's Multicultural Festival was back in town. It's 3 days of multi-cultural events in the otherwise semi-abandoned Civic Centre which really brings the centre of Canberra to life. It comprises stalls and stages representing places from across the world - there are some great bands and the noise, sounds and smells are always exciting.

Mostly the event is an excuse to gorge yourself on food sourced from menus from across the globe. It's also an excuse for Canberra's many Embassies and High Commissions to have representative stalls and give away free fridge magnets.

We made our way in on Saturday evening and there were throngs of people. The weather has been really hot in Canberra over the last couple of weeks - most days in the high 30s which made shade a premium commodity and access to drinks and water an essential.

We met up (by accident) with Freya - one of Eli's friends from pre-school and her parents and we found a good place to listen to music, eat and catch up. Amy ate Turkish bread with fetta and spinach, the kids had Scandinavian hot-dogs and I had a vegetable curry - Amy and I washing down our meals with Slovakian beer. The temperatures were hot and the music loud - we could have stayed longer but the kids' bath and bed beckoned so we headed home for an early Saturday night.




Thursday, February 6, 2014

Amy's Birthday

Sadly Amy celebrated her birthday by returning to work!

When she got home though the kids wanted a party and so we all got kitted out in party hats had a great game of pass the parcel (thanks Barb for both wrapping and buying our pass-the-parcel!) and then enjoyed Vietnamese take-away followed by baked cheesecake birthday cake.

Thanks everyone for so many lovely cards and gifts for my beautiful wife.

Mummy's boy

crazy children


New Term Begins

February saw the start of the new school term. The kids have enjoyed their six weeks at home with Amy and have had trips aplenty and trips to pools and parks. Finally the first day of school arrived and the kids excitedly got ready to head off and meet old friends and make new ones.

 
 



Pool Party

Our friends Dave and Danielle invited us to their (beautiful) house to a pool party.

The temperatures in Canberra have been soaring recently so the prospect of sitting in the shade then jumping in their pool interspersed with eating ice cream and drinking beer seemed like a pretty good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

A great time was had by all - Audrey and Eli spent so long in the pool that their fingers went beyond wrinkled and it we enjoyed the day immensely.

Cool by the pool!



Peppa Pig at Canberra Theatre

I confess that we're big Peppa Pig fans. I guess because we have an older girl and a younger boy our family dynamic is pretty similar. I don't (currently) wear glasses like Daddy Pig, but my stomach is growing in a similar manner and of course I'm a bit of an expert at most things.

Unfortunately when we were in UK it rained during the days when we were within driving distance of Peppa Pig World (I'm sure it would have been our Mecca) but we were thrilled when the travelling theatre show arrived in Canberra.

Canberra theatre benefited from several days sell out performances and you could hear an intake of excited breath when the Peppa Pig theme tune piped up and the curtain rose.

All the favourites were there, Peppa, George, Zoe Zebra and of course Pedro Pony. Miss Rabbit made several appearances - we saw her flying balloons, driving trains and buses.

It was an excellent hour and a half and the kids talked about it for days afterwards.

Here's some pics;