Melbourne Zoo Field trip

Sam's class enjoyed a field trip to the Melbourne Zoo. The butterfly room is always a favorite.

Sam was still enough to have one land on his head!

Sam loves to have a good time with his friends!

Flags for Bazaar

For the School Bazaar (a big fundraising event) I sewed flags to hang on the fence at school.

The flags looked very festive. Unfortunately the flags have since been vandalized and are no longer around. I was feeling pretty bummed this morning that people do such rotten things. I had spent so much time trying to make them look nice. Oh well, I guess that is one of the bad things about living in a city. The bright side is that the flags made it for the bazaar:)

Sailing at Albert Park Lake

John has been wanting to get the boys in a sailboat and finally had the chance a couple weeks ago. John has fond memories of learning to sail with his Grandfather and wants to pass that on to our kids.

I think Sam would have liked to just jump in the water!

Penguin Parade

We went to Phillip Island to see the penguin parade. Phillip Island was just beautiful, it reminded me of Prince Edward Island in "Anne of Green Gables". It is quite an ordeal to see the penguins. You buy tickets, walk out to the beach where there is stadium like seating, then sit and wait until sundown for the little creatures to hop out of the ocean! I thought it was hilarious that you can even buy popcorn! It's like a real live penguin movie.

Like clockwork, at sundown, the penguins start hopping out of the water in groups. They are not sure whether they want to brave the long walk across the beach (as the ranger put it, "they get stage fright"), finally the urge to get to their babies win and they waddle across the sand in little groups.

You can hear the penguins making a clucking sound as they go along. Their little houses are all along the boardwalk, we were able to see them fairly close. The babies are so cute and fuzzy. We were not permitted to take photos so I had to get those off the web. The kids really wanted to bring one back.

We were instructed to please check under our cars before leaving! Mrs. Proctor we thought of you because we know you loved the Penguin Parade so much:)

Finished Sweater

Bec's mom gave me the pattern for this sweater and I have seen several little girls wearing this one around. I am quite pleased with mine until I see one at school that was made by her grandmother. I just can't compete with the skill of a seasoned knitter, maybe one of these days.. at least Madeleine wears hers. That is a step. We have a few that will be passed down to her cousin Shilo that did not get much wear!

The Melbourne Cup

John and I had a little date the other day at the races. Tim and Bec were so nice to let us drop all the kids off and enjoy some time to ourselves. The Melbourne Cup is a huge deal here, it is a state holiday! John was feeling like he belonged in the mafia with his suit and hat.

I wanted to get this shot so you could see the city in the background. The weather was great, not too hot but a little windy.

The Melbourne Cup was the 7th race that day and a horse named "Shocking" took the trophy! The lady sitting behind us bet on Shocking and so she was very excited for the win.

Majestic Music was my pick for the 6th race because the jockey was wearing red,white, and blue! A lucky pick for me:)

I made my little hair "fascinator" with a flower and some fleathers. The fashion at the races is almost as important as the race itself. It was fun to get dressed up for a day.

Cool Creatures

We had fun searching in the tide pools for cool creatures. Sam is also proud that he has recently lost 3 teeth:)

This is a cool crab. He has things growing on his back to stay hidden.

This is a crab also. You can hardly tell this is a living creature, he is so well camouflaged!

We had a great little picnic spot overlooking the bay.