Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day.

We had an eventful Australia day, spotting all the Australian flags in shops/houses windows and and having a very typical Aussie BBQ which we were to tired to fully appreciate after the mammoth day we had. I began the day with a walk on the beach with the kids and their cousin Mia (who had a sleep-over) and Kooly, followed by a visit to the library with Myles and his two cousins. After foolishly suggesting we visit the art gallery and when I say foolish I mean taking three kids under the age of 6 into an art gallery where the words 'quiet' , 'don't touch' and 'stay with me' mean nothing and to top it off loosing the 5 year old for 5 minutes, which seemed like 5 hours. However, once we located the missing toddler, I was still feeling amazingly energetic and patient, and we ended up on adventure around the city.

The art gallery was featuring an exhibit by one of the artists involved in a public art event 'Back to the City' which started this weekend. It is a collaboration of artists and designers, featuring 16 works scattered across the town in prominent and obscure locations alike, all commenting on the city as a living environment. It was great and so wonderful to see our city embracing art and the best thing was that the kids enjoyed them all, particularly the ones they could touch or sit in. This one was my favourite, "Second Nature" , by Nicola Xavier and Adrian Hill. The fabric is stencilled with a William Morris wallpaper design impregnated with wheat grass seed and will be watered daily. I cant wait to see what it looks like once the grass grows through the design. After our little adventure I couldn't get the energy to take them to the carnival (as promised) and decided it was Daniel's turn to take on the tribe. So today he took them on rides as promised and spent a small fortune in space of a couple of hours. Oh well it was worth, to see their smiling little faces and hear their colourful stories.

Thumbs up for a day at the bay

A day at the Bay with Nanny and Poppy and Uncle Todd who visited from Melbourne was a highlight of the holidays for us all. Myles was in his element when all "the men" went fishing on the boat and came home with fish and crabs for dinner.

The next day was spent on the beach where we started off building a castle for sea creatures to visit at night. Myles constructed a seaweed path for them to follow from the water so they knew exactly where to go at night.

And we even saw our own little sea monster, who Myles delightfully helped dress up in seaweed...

Later, Myles and I went for a walk and ended up on an brilliant adventure on 'rock island' (termed by Myles), a place for pirates, pirates treasure and even mermaids.

After following lots of secret paths, discovering loads of treasures we knew the pirates who inhabited this island had been stealing from mermaids, as we found a mermaid's earing,

and a mermaids necklace.

The pirates, unhappy with us taking their treasure, eventually caught up with us, put us on their boat and made us walk the plank..................................

After a lot of "ARGHHHH me matey, shiver me timbers ya scurvy dog", we fought off the pirates, and escaped with the mermaids treasure. What an adventure, an adventure full of magical, dreamy moments that I certainly wont forget in a long time.