Mexican Orange Blossom and Painted Lady

A butterfly enjoying the flowers in our sunny garden.

Elijah's Merit Certificate

The kid's school has a nice system of regularly recognising the work that the children have done during classes. This morning was Elijah's turn to pick up a merit certificate - he also has a wall at the school pretty much dedicated to all the great work he has been producing! #proudDad #hisMum'sbrains

Floriade 2016

Floriade is a big deal in Canberra's calendar - an annual flower festival which takes place in Commonwealth Park. The festival has been in the news recently as the National Capital Authority (a National/federal body which looks after all of the federal land in Canberra) have been in conflict with the ACT Government which looks after the 'local' land (via the Land Development Agency). It's all very complicated, but suffice to say the two bodies don't always seem to get along and appear to be at loggerheads as to whether the festival remains in Commonwealth Park or moves to another park. This therefore could be the last year in it's current location. 

Either way, the festival draws throngs of visitors from other parts of Australia and this time of year coachloads of people head to the nations capital!

The festival had been going for a month, but we hadn't managed to time a family visit because we had been otherwise tied up with football, netball, swimming, horse-riding, karate etc. Sunday was actually the final day of the festival and so we, along with thousands of others made time to go along to have a look.

Unfortunately the last month has been beset with quite heavy rain and winds and so a number of the beds were 'past their best', but generally it was still pretty spectacular. It was notable as this was the first time that the organisers had used 'drop in beds' (essentially huge boxes of flowers) rather than ones grown on site. Somehow it wasn't the same, but still effective and fundamentally the festival is FREE - so it's difficult to complain!

The kids took part in a free flower arranging session and got to take home some lovely blooms (about half a dozen people asked me where we had bought the bunches from!)

We spent a really nice Sunday afternoon there - the kids ending it with sticky fairy floss (candy floss).

Audrey working on her display

Eli with his bunch of flowers- nobody got my Oasis joke (oasis is the green foam that holds the flowers and my Wonderwall rendition was completely wasted)

flowers

fairy floss

more flowers

Flip Out!

Canberra is home to three trampoline 'warehouses'. Two 'Flip Outs' and a Skyzone. There's not really much to choose between them. Skyzone is probably a bit more 'polished' but they're essentially huge warehouses filled with trampolines and staffed by 18 year olds.

The kids love their trips there and I guess they are perfect for kids who are full of energy and bounce. Skyzone is a bit more regimented on time allotted to jump, whereas Flip Out is a bit more easy going (I think we paid for an hour and they jumped for two). Here's some pictures.

Sk8er Grl

Audrey landed herself a skateboard for her birthday and she's pretty good at it so far - learning to 'ollie' in a couple of afternoons. Hopefully no broken arms await...

"The Emergensea" by John Hegley

"The Emergensea" by John Hegley
The octopus awoke one morning and wondered what rhyme it was.
Looking at his alarm-clocktopus
he saw that it had stopped
and it was time to stop having a rest
and get himself dressed.
On every octofoot
he put
an octosocktopus
but in his hurry, one foot got put
not into an octosocktopus
but into an electric outlet
and the octopus got a nasty electric shocktopus
and had to call the octodoctopus
who couldn't get in
to give any help or medicine
because the door was loctopus.
The octopus couldn't move, being in a state of octoshocktopus
so the octodoctopus bashed the door
to the floor
and the cure was as simple as could be:
a nice refreshing cup of
seawater.

Bought the kids and I new sandals for summer...

A tadge unimaginative, but at least we don't wear socks underneath.