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Party time
The first Saturday afternoon in June, we had two birthday parties to attend. We started with Jordan's first birthday. As is typical, Piet and Emma were very
reserved during the first half hour, also because they had slept in the car on the way out. Gradually, they were happy to take up a more
central position and soon they were playing with Jordan's
new toys, together or
alone, or his all too familiar
old toys. We stayed till the cake got sliced, got our piece for in the car and drove to Callum's third birthday. He had cake too!
The rest of the month, not much happened. Generally, we can now play very nicely together. We made drawings with our pencils. We help mum peel the veggies while sitting on our favourite kitchen bench top spot. We all got colds as the daytime temperature dropped to 13 degrees.
Campbell and Callum came over for a play after our Thursday swimming lessons - they get lessons too. Callum proudly played with the toy whipper snipper. The kids went outside and played in the sandpit. Campbell and Piet made a joint effort to put the spilled sand back into the sandpit. That's good work, boys!
Sitting side by side, Piet and Emma watched the pool company man clean the pool from behind the window.
Eating grated cheese off the table is still popular with Piet and Emma. On Tuesday, our other regular playmates, Jacinta and Jordan came over for a visit. They rushed off to our toy kitchen and cooked some chili con carne. After that, we all ate some apple at the kitchen table.
Trip to Puffing Billy
On the last Sunday of June, we went on a day trip to the
Puffing Billy steam train at the eastern outskirts of Melbourne. We boarded the train at
Menzies Creek and chose a
luxury coach with windows that could be shut. It was a
sunny day and despite the strong wind, still suitable for a
picnic near the Lakeside station. We admired a green
steam engine, which wasn't pulling our train, and returned in
tourist coach. The narrow gauge, single track line winds it's way through a valley. We enjoyed
nature,
more forest,
distant views on the Cardinia Water Reservoir and a
level crossing - note the old 'ute' (pickup truck). After a half hour journey, we pulled into our departure station reaching our
good old Volvo.
The snow
We made a snowman together and later Piet was inspired to make one on his own. It was a glorious day and mum had bought the kids some warm snow trousers, boots and mittens, which meant that we could stay a lot longer than in July last year. We had our picnic in a new large indoor area - previous facilities had burned down in the February 2009 bushfires. Then we went for a walk in the forest behind the car park. The kids enjoyed playing with the snow on the forest floor, while the parents enjoyed the sight of new trees sprouting from the roots of the trees that had been killed in the bushfire. After a few final runs down the toboggan slope, we were on our way home again.
