July 2 - Kung Fu Panda

Lilly and I rode with our friends to a shopping center on the other side of the city to see a free live show with Kung Fu Panda. Have I mentioned recently that Lilly is rather afraid of people dressed in large costumes? She hasn't gotten over it! When we arrived there was a meet-n-greet with the panda and Lilly's friend Alex (age 2) ran right up and hugged the big guy's knees. Lilly hopped into Alex's stroller and refused to go any further.

We watched the show and while Alex danced and hopped about, Lilly sat in the stroller. She clapped her hands one time.

We'll keep trying! I'm hoping we'll see enough stuff that when Christmas rolls around she won't be terrified to walk through the mall. I just hope Santa doesn't show up at the library again - she still asks if he is coming to story time.

June 7th - Phillip Island

We headed out to Phillip Island on a rather chilly day. It was overcast with a little rain but the drive was rather uneventful.

We purchased a pass that will allow us to see the Penguin Parade as well as two other parks in the area. There is also a free Visitor's Center on the island so that was our first stop. We went with the intention of only seeing the Visitor Center and penguins on this first trip. We will have six months to visit the other parks.

So, off to the Visitor's Center. It was rather nice. It had a large cafe so everyone could get their coffee. There was a little game room and a children's area. The main attraction was the seals. There was a boardwalk where you could go look at the seals. However, the seals were very, very far away. I don't know that we actually saw anything. We tried taking pictures but it looks like we got some rocks. Inside there were cameras that we could pay to use. Since we bought the big pass we were able to use it for 5 minutes for free. It just gave us control of a camera that was on the island. Pretty neat.

Next off to the Penguin Parade. We weren't allowed to take pictures because the flash hurts the eyes of the penguins. So we sat in stadium type seating and waited until the sun went down. At least we went in winter so we didn't have to wait until 10:00 for the sun to go down! Once the sun was gone we started seeing the penguins. The seating area did have this huge spotlights so we were able to see everything (I do wonder if that was harmful for the penguins' eyes.

Anyway, the penguins go out into the water to feed for about a week. When it is time to come back home, they come back in groups. So a small group of about 15 penguins would walk up the beach, past the seating area and into their burrows. These penguins are called little penguins and are only about a foot tall. So they get very nervous about their walk up the beach. The group close to us would get mostly out of the water, someone would get spooked and they they would all turn around and go running back into the water. It was really funny to watch. They slowly ventured a little further each time but it took them about 25 minutes to run across the little strip of land. We did get to watch a couple more groups come across. Penguins are pretty cute.

After we watched them we walked back up this long board walk that was basically built over the penguins' burrows. So we were able to observe the penguins going back home. All the penguins came out of their homes to greet those coming back. It really did look like a little party.

We probably left about 6:00 so we headed back towards Coburg and grabbed dinner at Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King). It was a good day!

A little here and there

Here are some things just from home. This is Lilly's tricycle she got for her first birthday. She has always loved to ride it (with us pushing her around) and she is finally getting the hang of pedaling herself. This is on a hill close to our house so she feels very accomplished when she rides down it very fast! She still runs into things because she turns her head to watch people/dogs/cars/insects/birds and then will run into a tree/wall/curb/fence.

This is at the grocery store in the closest shopping center. They have these wonderful trolleys for the little ones but they slow us down a great deal! We use them only when we have a few items to get and when we aren't tired or wanting to get home. Lilly loves putting things in her basket and then loading the belt at the cash register. She still won't talk to the cashier (or pay for her own groceries) but she's getting better with at least not running when they say hi. If they don't look at her, she'll usually say something. I tell people not to make eye contact (yes, sort of like approaching a wild animal).

And finally we went to the circus. No animals, all people. The tent looks huge but it was pretty small. There were only about 15 performers and they would do some tricks, play in the band, move props and then contort their body. It was strange. There were some interesting choices in clothing. Or lack of clothing, it seemed. It was hard to watch what they were doing when I was analyzing why they would be wearing what they were wearing. I was a little disturbed.

And Lilly's thoughts on the circus: 'I didn't like the part she was stuck in the chair. I liked where they jumped through the hula hoops. I liked one teeny tiny bit.'

Me: 'Do you want to go back?'

Lilly: 'No!' (runs away)

We are fine!

Yes, it has been forever since I last updated. I know, I'm behind. I really need to get with it! I could go on, but really, you aren't here to read apologies. You just want to know what's going on. I have some really great pics to share of our time with my mom but I have to update June and July and then we'll get to some good stuff!

I found out that Scholastic has a warehouse pretty close to us. And for those of you in with the Scholastic crowd, you'll know how awesome their warehouse sales are. Wouldn't you know it, they have them here as well. The warehouse wasn't nearly as big nor did they have as big of a selection but it still was great. We scored some Charlie and Lola books and a handful of other books. I purchased a set of Diego Snap cards for $3.00 and that's all we have played for the last two months!

There is a new indoor play area down in the Docklands, close to the city. We took another family and let the kids play for a bit. It was new so entry was only $2.50 per person. It's not that cheap now but I guess adults get a coffee with entry. I hope I can exchange that for a hot chocolate (I'm still not a coffee drinker).

While we were down in the Docklands there was supposed to be this big light and fire spectacular. These were the only people we saw that had to do with it.

On the upside, we found the COSTCO office. It'll be coming soon (more about this at a later time)!

Footy Match - May 30

We headed downtown to check out Australian Rules Football. It's just known as 'the footy' here. The family Seth stayed with last August came to enjoy the game as they are fans of the North Melbourne Kangaroos. The mascot wandered around the field before the game. Lilly was excited to see it but very worried that it would come up into the stands.

Just like teams in the U.S., they make huge banners for the team to run through. I guess that was more high school, huh. Anyway, apparently this guy has made it through 50 games, although the other team had a banner for a guy that made it through 200 games. The Kangaroo player didn't look so great after I saw the other banner.

The game was fun to watch. It's 18 on a side, a cross between football, rugby, and a little volleyball thrown in for good measure. I get the idea but I don't know all the rules so I don't know why there were fowls called or people were pummeled. There are four posts so you get points depending on where the ball goes through (either 6 points or 1 point). And after points are scored a guy stands on the end line and flings his arms around and then flaps some flags. Seth got a video of it, I find it amusing, but that's just me. The day was rather cold and we were sitting in the end of the stadium so we had the wind in our face. We were under dressed since we figured they would have the dome closed, oops!

The guys still ran around in shorts that I think are a little short and sleeveless shirts. The game is 4 20 minute quarters although they end up being more like 30 minutes and the guys are running the entire time so I don't imagine they notice the weather.

Hey, Mr. Postman!

Shortly after we arrived I got a scare by the crazy guy riding his scooter/motorcycle on the sidewalk. Well, that's the letter carrier. They don't walk house to house, they deliver on these nice little vehicles, on the sidewalk. I couldn't tell you if it is faster or why they use these? Did they start with horses and move right to mopeds? Not sure. I can tell you I have never had a conversation with my letter carrier, it's hard talking over the motor (makes me miss my letter carrier, Mary Ann).

(Uncle Dave, do you think you would be game for a scooter?)

There are post boxes every couple of blocks and I thought it was odd. I then found out that you don't leave your mail in your own mailbox to be picked up. You have to put it in the red box. I asked the lady who helped us find our house why you couldn't just leave it in your box and her response was 'That seems rather silly, someone could just come and take your mail.' I let it go but I have noticed that when the post person leaves the mail, he leaves it sticking out of the boxes. What is stopping anyone from taking that mail? Her logic really doesn't make sense to me.



And on to us, Lilly and tried to go to a concert for children this morning but didn't make it on time (our friends were running a bit late). So we checked out the town a bit and found a park to eat our doner kebabs and let the kids run around. Lilly has been into climbing trees lately and we found this one to satisfy her curiosity for a bit.

The temperature has been in the 60's during the day with drops into the 40's at night. Wouldn't be too bad but our house doesn't really warm up during the day. I'm cold pretty much all the time. I do complain about the temps and I know I shouldn't. From what I hear, it won't get too much colder, even in the winter. I'm crossing my fingers!

On Saturday Lilly and Seth went shopping for Mother's Day. When they came home Lilly handed me a bouquet of lilies, I'm waiting for them to open, I bet they'll rock (and I'll take some pictures). Seth was very thoughtful and bought some scrapbooking magazines, he told me to pick one and he'd get me a subscription. Seth made breakfast but other than that, we hung out at home. We made a quick run to Bunnings (similar to Lowe's or Home Depot) on the way to my soccer game. My team lost the game by one but I did score!

Have a good one!

One Fab Weekend

Friday was a Mom and Tot outing with the AWA. They met at the Scienceworks Museum at 10:00 and I think they planned to stay until 12:00. We tried to go. Really we did. We got to the museum at 12:05. How is that for timing?

Overall we just had a very slow morning start. I had a 10:40 game the night before so I was rather tired and I wanted to get a little exercise first thing. Lilly had a meltdown somewhere in there and we just couldn't seem to leave the house. Very frustrating. We took a different route than normal and it seemed to also take a lot longer.


While we were at the museum Lilly spent most of her time in the pretend cafe. She served me lots of tea with lemon as well as chicken, spaghetti and lots of fruit. Her other favorite part is the bridge. Not so much with building, just walking across. She wanted to play with a wheelbarrow but there were just too many kids.

Saturday was a busy day. We met our friends on the other side of Coburg and hopped on a tram. Well, first we had a piece of cake. Don't ask why, we were offered we said, yes, we ate cake. We went down to Vic Market which has everything! They have meat, fruits and veggies and then it looks like a flea market after that. Not so much with the odd antique stuff but knock off everything. We bought some UNO Princess cards and the cards are different but the directions are for a regular UNO game. Not that it is difficult to figure out but we have 4 cards that we don't really know what to do with. We'll have to make up a rule for them.

We had a quick lunch and then headed off to the Melbourne Museum to see the new dinosaur exhibit. It was impressive but smaller than I was expecting. There is going to be more opening later in the year and even a third phase next year. Maybe that will meet more of my expectations. Our friends had to get a coffee fix but Seth and I held out for our final stop.

Final stop was Lygon Street. This is a good place for eating Italian. Most important, there is a dessert place that rocks! I would get the same thing every time I go in there so I had Seth pick something. It was ok. I like more chocolate!

After that, we headed to a book store for a quick look and the tram back to our house. I ended up driving our friends back to their house since it was late and I didn't want them to have to wait for the bus.

Then there was Sunday. Seth left the house to get a light for his bike and a neon vest for riding in the dark. That was pretty much it!