May 3 - Brisbane!!

Lilly and I arrived in Brisbane at about 9:00 on Monday. We walked quickly to get our luggage to find my cousin Emily waiting for us. This was supposed to happen as she arrived in Brisbane at 6:00 in the morning and there was no way we were getting there that early!

Between the three of us we had 4 large pieces of luggage and 4 carry-on pieces and only two of us were really participating in the carrying of said luggage. We looked like a couple of clowns trying to get our rental car. While trying to get all the luggage to fit in the car and getting Lilly's car seat installed we made a few people wait to park cars but hopefully no one missed their flights.

We got our car and headed off towards the city. Emily didn't do too bad with sitting on the 'wrong' side of the car and I only turned on the windshield wipers once. Our hotel was only about 15 minutes away so we were there in no time. I hopped out to check us in only to find out that it was a public holiday in Queensland and no one was working in the office (according to the sign taped to the door). To the right of the door was a bulletin board with a bunch of envelopes. My name was on one and inside was the keys to our room. While I found this very strange, I was excited as this meant we could get in the room and Emily could take a shower.

After she showered and I got Lilly out of her pajamas, we went to hop on the train. The process for buying a ticket was a little different and the machine wouldn't let us get the ticket we wanted. I finally asked a guy if he could help and he was also American and not really any help.

We traveled down to a part of town call South Bank, which was (if you can't guess) on the southern bank of the river, with the Brisbane CBD being on the northern bank. There was a very nice walk along the river so we headed back towards the information booth to see if we could get a map.

We walked around the Maritime Museum to get some pictures of the city.





We came upon a great area with loads of water. There was a tiled pool and water shooting out from all areas. Across a bridge was another water area with a beach - we avoided that area as we didn't want the sand everywhere! Anyway, Lilly asked to take off her shoes, so I said sure. In the water where it was shallow was a cement dugong so I encouraged Lilly to go stand by it for a picture. She was really good about trying to holding her shorts up. Of course, she walked to the other side of the statue and the water came up to the bottom of her shorts so she started to get wet. She walked around to different water squirters and was mostly good about avoiding the spray. But she was watching a couple of children and saw them walk under a waterfall of water. Without thinking she just walked right under it. The look on her face told me she didn't think it through and of course she was wet from head to toe. After that, it didn't matter how wet she got, she pretty much just went swimming.



Next stop was lunch. Now keep in mind Lilly is soaking wet at this point and while it is sunny and warm poor Lilly just wanted to stay in the water (I think she was warmer in there). We tried to find a store so I could buy a t-shirt so she could put it on and take off her wet shirt and shorts. But, since it was a public holiday, there wasn't anything open! I let Lilly eat in the sun which I don't usually do since the sun is so harsh here.

After lunch we continued along Southbank and went to the Queensland Museum. They had a huge animal exhibit that mostly showed the differences in sizes between whales, kangaroos and dinosaurs but also a lot of different tidbits about animals.

Dugongs getting hit by a small fishing boat.

We headed back to our hotel and sort of figured out the train ticket system. Of course nothing was really open to we couldn't buy food. We ended up finding a little grocery store and paid way too much money for groceries (little did we know if we had turned down a different street we would have been in fast food heaven). It didn't matter, Emily was falling asleep by 5:00 and Lilly had a light dinner and feel asleep pretty soon after she ate some pasta.

Author Visit

We went to see another author today. Hazel Edwards wrote There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof. I believe it is this book that is 30 years old. She has also written another book that has been recently published. We got to listen to the story as well as have birthday cake! What a wonderful Sunday morning!

All Caught Up

These have been taken over the past week.

Friday is story time day. This is in the front entrance of the library. Lilly goes and hangs out while I get books checked out. She's just trying to look cool.



Baking cookies with our friends. We made two batches cause our friend is gluten free. It works out well because then the kids have their own cookies to decorate. the green cookie in the middle is Australia. And the red cookie to it's right is a door - as all rectangles are currently being called. And for the record, Lilly did not eat her cookies. She liked to lick the icing but I think she was hoping for a softer, thicker cookie (the way I like them). Or maybe chocolate.



This one is for my mom. Lilly loves this outfit and it is cold enough to wear it (along with an extra t-shirt underneath). You will notice a mostly clean kitchen as well. Must mean we are expecting guests.



And on that note, yes, we are expecting a guest. Just one. My cousin Emily is coming for a visit. Which is why I'm all caught up - so I can get behind again during her visit. As usual, I'll try to post as we go but no promises.

April 13 - Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall and then Lilly smashed him to small bits and ate him all up.

Just an Observation

I don't know how many times we have walked across this steet. We go across it pretty much whenever we go to get dessert at this one place. I guess I'm really distracted by the store on the corner which is called fcuk. I never noticed that in the middle of crossing the street, there is a staircase to go down, sort of like a subway stop, but instead of public transportation - public bathroom. As if I would want to stop in the middle of the street for all to watch me descend to the toilets!

April 10 - Back to the Museum and the Park

I had to stand in line at Vic Roads so I could make an appointment to get a new drivers 'licence'. I had tried to just call in but I couldn't get through so I just gave in and went to wait at the office. Lilly always likes to see what the office workers are doing so I held her up to show her the lady putting in the info into the computer. The lady thought she was cute (of course) and asked her name. Lilly answered "Tinkerbell". The ladies jaw dropped. She looked at me and asked if she was serious. I wanted to say "yes, that's what I named her" but I was laughing so hard I almost dropped Tinkerbell, I mean Lilly.

Anyway, Lilly was amazingly patient and I told her we would have a special day together. So we went to the museum. We went through the area about the body. We walked by the dinosaurs.



We played in the kids area and then we played in the park by the museum.



**Sorry I don't go and edit these pics. They aren't the best but neither is my computer so I'll make due.**

Next I took Lilly to get some ice cream. I didn't get pictures of the ice cream but I took pictures of Lilly waiting for the tram. She loves 'So You Think You Can Dance - Australia' and I find her dancing everywhere now.

April 4 - The Mansion

I got a call from our friends and they asked if I wanted to go on a picnic with them. I wasn't sure, I was feeling blue about it being Easter and not being with family. But I decided it would be good for us to get out of the house. So I asked them where? They told me in Werribee at the Mansion. Now I'm sure there is a proper name for this Mansion, but I couldn't tell you what it is. And anywhere I look it just says Werribee Park Mansion, so I'll go with it.



The weather was a bit warmer than we expected. I was given the opportunity to tour around the Mansion and my friend took his son and Lilly and played with them in the garden. It was a pretty nice Mansion.



There was a small pond that we walked around and then on the way out was the rose garden. It was amazing. I couldn't believe all the different colors and types of roses. Keep in mind these are not edited.

March 28 - Eggstravaganza

This is the second year the AWA put on the Eggstravaganza. We were not as organized as last year but it still turned out to be a nice day. It was warm (which is always a worry where there are chocolate eggs involved) but not uncomfortable and we had lots of water to offer everyone!

Lilly was not feeling well. This made it difficult since I went early to help set up. She wanted to run around with some of her friends but she had a bit of a rough time. The bunny arrived and Lilly followed him around for a few minutes. For the most part, once everyone started to arrive she ended up hanging out on our blanket.



This year Lilly was in the big kids area to collect eggs. She did a very good job hunting the eggs but they ran out! So we ran to the little kids area to get our last couple.



Lilly knew what was in the eggs because she was helping to fill the eggs. So as she was picking them up, she was trying to see what was inside so she could get one of everything!

March 26 - Egg Hunt

We went with a friend to their Kinder picnic/Egg hunt. They had the Easter bunny come and he passed out stuffed rabbits and candy. It was a little chilly outside and there were lots of little sprinkles but it was still a nice evening. The kids were told they could get a couple of eggs. Lilly was done in 3 seconds and I had to tell her to leave the other candy alone.




In the end we went back to my friend's house and we had dinner there in the warmth of their kitchen. And that picture is Lilly and her best buddy Alex. Well, they were best buddies that day, it comes and goes.

March 22 - Teddy Bear Picnic and a bottle of Wine

Lilly's Kinder had a teddy bear picnic. They were able to bring their stuffed animals to class and they had lunch outside with their animals. They also made bear drawings and ears. Each kid got their nose painted with some whiskers. When the parents pick up the children, the teacher calls them one-by-one out of the classroom. Each child that came out gave a loud roar. It was very cute.



Lilly's face looks like she smeared a little chocolate around her lip.

The Kinder does various fundraisers throughout the year and one of them is an Easter Hamper (aka Easter Basket). Everyone was asked to bring in something to donate to the hamper (candy, mugs, toys), then all the families were asked to sell raffle tickets. I don't really know anyone to sell the tickets to so I just bought the pack of tickets. When I picked Lilly I was told that we won the biggest hamper. Oh goodie, all the chocolate I could ever want!! Unfortunately, no one put any Reese's of any sort. Sigh!



If you look closely, you can see the bottle of wine to the left of the large rabbit in the back. Too bad the hubby is not here to share it with me!

March 20 - See you soon?

If you haven't heard, Seth has gone back to Michigan. Sounds bad doesn't it? He is there for work, back in Dearborn doing testing. I don't know how long he will be there. We'll say three months for right now. It might be longer. It might not. So if you see Seth, give him a hug from Lilly and I. I'd say give him a kiss but that might be a bit strange. We'll miss him.

March 13 - Lilly's first Soccer Practice

We found out about this great Futsal place that is only about 15 minutes from our house. On Saturday mornings they have an hour long session for 3 and 4 year olds. They spend most of the time doing drills and then a 10 minutes scrimmage time.



I know what you are going to say, she shouldn't be using her hands. They do this relay every week! Run around the cone (they call it a witch's hat by the way) with the ball on your head. The kids enjoy it, I guess that's part of the point.



Lilly absolutely loves it. She always has a huge smile on her face. She does pretty well with following directions during the drills. Once you put all the kids out there chasing the ball down, she sort of just runs around. She did have the opportunity to score a couple of times this past week, but she got too excited and kicked the ball back towards the other end. Oops! She'll figure it out one of these days!

March 7 - Moomba Festival

Let's go back a day to Saturday the 6th. I was on the computer talking to a cousin and Seth was watching a video. I made the comment that it was getting very dark. All of the sudden it sounded like a huge bucket of golf balls were being dropped on the roof. We looked outside and sure enough golf ball sized hail covered our balcony. After a few minutes of that the rain and wind came. It rained for several hours. We went to a friends house that evening but we didn't think much of the weather besides seeing quite a few trees down.

Our friends had the television on and I sat and watched part of the news. This storm had brought so much rain that parts of the city were flooded. They had to close one of the major train stations because the hail had broken a few windows and it flooded. A major sports stadium as well. They showed pictures of the Moomba Festival and it was completely deserted and there was a foot of water everywhere. Talking to a friend later she said they had been caught in the storm at the festival with their young children and it had been a scary experience.

Anyway, we decided to try to go on Sunday to this festival as there were supposed to be a lot of children's activities. If I hadn't watched the news the night before, I wouldn't have known there was a storm and flooding the day before. Everything was cleaned up and running as normal.

So I'm not sure about the origins of the festival. We didn't see the entire thing, but it was a lot of fun. They had rides, a petting area, craft tents and face painting tents. The rides required paid tickets but everything else we did was free.

At the craft tent they were making the flowers attached to the wooden people in this picture. You can't really tell what they are, but that's what they are supposed to be. It was a little difficult for Lilly, cutting felt and then plastic. I did most of it but she liked one of them enough to bring it home.



These butterfly things were walking around and Lilly was scared of them. Once she saw one she was completely stressed and crying but we did what we could to get her to see it was just a person.



The last thing we saw were these cubby houses. They were built by various organizations to be auctioned off to raise money for a group that builds additions on houses for teenagers (or something along those lines). Anyway, several of the cubbies were two stories. One had hook up for water and electricity. They were pretty cool. We did buy a ticket for one that was being raffled. Although if we had won it we would have had to park in at a friend's house. The one we are standing in front of had a ladder to the upstairs which is in the back, more of a balcony. The inside was decorated as if it was a camping cabin. Very cute!

February 25 - a little play at the park

I just wanted to throw this picture in here because it cracks me up. Lilly still likes the comfort of the little kid swings until we get to this park. Then there is this monster contraption that is just crazy. It swings around in a big circle and I've seen kids holding on in all different ways. The kids wanted to sit in the swings and have us push them around. But I wasn't real sure about that and just encouraged them to sit on their bellies and push themselves around like this. It worked but they were looking for more of a thrill!

February 20 - The Symphony

The Melbourne Symphony plays several free concerts in February in a nice park. We've never been to the music venue but we have passed it several times. We met our friends in the park and took a picnic dinner. We sat towards the back where there was a spot of shade (it was a rather warm day) and in a place where the kids could have a little run.



This was not a view of what we could see. We could mostly see the back of the promotions tent. We weren't there to watch the Symphony, we were able to hear it just fine.



We thought we would leave early due to tired a tired child but we ended up staying until the very end. Lilly fell asleep on the tram ride home and it was a very long tram ride due to an accident. Sorry, I was holding Lilly and didn't get a picture of the accident.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day Seth got me a favorite - Mrs. Field's cookies! It wasn't a giant one, but a one person sized cookie. The weird thing was that the icing was different. It tasted different and made it not nearly as good. But don't you worry, I ate the whole thing :)!

Let's go Fly a Kite

These were taken in early February. We had bought the kite around the Christmas holidays but never found a useful windy day. I'm sure we just aren't experts at the whole kite flying experience and could have flown it at some point. But either way, Seth was able to get the kite to fly even if just for a few minutes.

February 3 - Learning to Swing

Lilly is trying to get the hang of swinging on her own. She doesn't quite have it but she has fun trying. She would stay on the swings all day. Her buddy Alex doesn't have the same love for the swings and will try to convince her to play elsewhere. I side with Alex so I can rest my arms.

These pictures were taken at Coburg Lake Reserve. It's the closest play park to our house (at least that we've found) and the one we go to most often. Lilly's 3rd birthday was celebrated here.

February 1 - First Day of Kinder

When we first moved here, I can't tell you how many people asked if I had Lilly on a waiting list for 3-year Kinder (aka Kindergarten, aka pre-school). Apparently it was important that I get Lilly into a good Kinder right away. Well, I just giggled and pretended I didn't know what they were talking about (cause I didn't). I didn't enroll Lilly in 3-year Kinder.

I did apply for one 4-year Kinder and we got in! Not that I was worried. It is within walking distance from our house and is in the same building as the Primary School where I was going to do some work for the first term. I figured if she didn't get in, I wouldn't sweat it. But she did, and she goes Monday and Wednesday for 5 hours each day.

First day of school: We had to wake Lilly up to get her ready. It wasn't the best day, Lilly doesn't do well with being woken up. She didn't smile until we stepped out of the house and that was just for the picture. She cried the entire time we were walking.



But once we got inside, she was much better. She did want me to come into the classroom and was reluctant to let me go. I helped her with a little activity and she seemed ok.



When I picked her up, she told me about her day and asked when she could come back. She's going to do well in there.

January 29 - Saying Good-bye to the Family

The family was leaving and Jaime spent the morning getting everything equally divided between all the luggage. We really wanted to get pictures of the kids together but it wasn't meant to be. Jenna wouldn't let go of Michelle. We tried, but it was a losing battle. The closest we got was a picture at the airport while Michelle and Jaime were checking in.

January 28 - Let's play some golf!

Jaime and Michelle left the kids with us and went on a bus tour of the Great Ocean Road. They got to see some animals as well as the house on a stilt. They took a helicopter ride over the Twelve Apostles. I think they had a good time.

Seth and I took all the kids to see a fairy show in the city. We also happened to know one of the fairies. I don't think we took any pictures which is a huge disappointment. At one time the kids were all playing (after the show was over) and Lilly took a slide through a mud puddle. She had mud from her toes all the way up to her bum. Luckily we had friends there who had a pair of sweatpants that we were able to use.

In the evening we took the three kids out for a walk. There is a 'driving range' along the bike trail near our house. Since no one was around we let the twins out of their stroller and got Lilly off her tricycle and told them to run free. And they did! Eventually we found a golf ball which was not helpful when there were three kids. As we were leaving we did find two more so everyone was happy.

January 26 - Australia Day

Jaime and Michelle took off for a three day holiday up to Cairns. They did some snorkeling around the Great Barrier Reef and saw some rain forest stuff, I think.



Anyway we had the kids and had quite the adventure toting them around Melbourne. We went into the city on Australia Day to see some music and the fireworks. We left a bit late (surprised? you shouldn't be) and saw the end of some stuff. It was fun and the kids did great for the fireworks.

January 24 - My baby turns 4!

From the 21st until the 23rd Jaime and Michelle took off to Sydney. From what I heard, they had a great time. You'll have to ask them to see the pictures.



For Lilly's 4th birthday we had a ladybug party at one of the local parks. This was actually a different park from last year. We still wanted to do a bbq but this time we wanted some shade. It was a good thing we did as it wasn't overly hot, but it was very sunny!



I made invitations for a few friends. We played a couple of games, had some food, and let the kids play on the equipment. I made a ladybug cake but didn't get a single picture of it. I think Michelle did, but I'll have to get those birthday pictures from her.





Seth and I got Lilly a Barbie bike. She was laughing hysterically when she saw it. We put on her helmet and let her have a go but we didn't get very far. As soon as she sat on it the bike wobbled. Lilly started screaming for Seth to hold onto her. It didn't matter. She didn't go anywhere. The wobbles were too much for her. End of the thrill of the Barbie bike.