sunny day at the lake...

I took the kids down to Lysterfield Lake Park. It was pretty hot so we only stayed for a while. We met Celeste and Owen and had planned to also meet Roula and the kids. As it turns out Roula was at a different part of the lake and it seems a much nicer part too. We had been sitting in the area that was gravelly and hard, but there is a whole man-made beach area up a little way... next time we will try that out I think.

marti's birthday in the park...

Today we all got together at St. Kilda Gardens for Mart's birthday. Marti and I concocted the plan a couple of weeks ago. It was fun deciding what each of us would make to bring. I made a potato salad and mart made sandwiches and salad. There was also plenty of cake : )
I didn't get any pics of the kids because they both spent the whole time running around and having a ball. The park was pretty full with families and kids. I just love watching the way children interact... there is no inhibition and you see kids just running off with one another only to be side tracked by another game with some other kids, it seems within a playground full of kids each child has interacted with each other at least once. Anyway I think it's lovely and so sweet.

I was pretty tired all day because Liam and Kai kept us up since 3am... they take it in turns to be awake and then just both decide to stay awake if it's getting toward dawn. I plopped them in front of cartoons when it became early enough hoping to get a little more rest on the couch, but before I could get the telly on was asked by Kai "What are we made of?" and "who made us?" ... it was these big questions that made me finally give up on more sleep... I just couldn't come up with a good answer at that time, the best I came up with was we were made by the world (hey, it was still only 6am), but I will have to think about that some more, I am sure there is a better answer than that.

Tomorrow it is going to be HOT, so we are planning to take the kids swimming somewhere local.

saturday with mart...

We went down to St. Kilda on Saturday instead of Sunday this weekend as we wanted to do some shopping on Chapel Street. It was getting pretty warm when we left and stayed sunny most of the day. I took the kids to the Library before we picked up Mart and Kai really loved it... I used to love St. K library too when I was a kid. Come to think of it I should have taken him outside to jump up on the ledge that runs all the way around... that was my favorite part. Actually now I am having another memory of a kid from school discovering that a lolly factory somewhere in the vicinity used to dump all the malformed snakes and jubes in the Library bins out the back and we used to ransack them... erhhhhhh...
And taking a trip down memory lane, we also re-discovered Alma Road Park which has had a lot of work done to it since we used to play there. The boys loved it. There was a flying fox and lots of other great things for them to play on... I think that may become one of our usual destinations now when we are wandering around St. Kilda.

Yesterday was pretty mellow, I got a chance to give the house a good clean, which felt good A good clean usually results in me piling up Eli's tools and junk in a huge pile beside the front door until it gets moved... which may not be any time soon, judging by his expression when he saw it.

I took Kai to Earthly Pleasures and met Gyps, everyone was there to listen to Andrew and Joel play. I talked to Joel later about maybe taking some guitar lessons, which I may or may not be able to afford.

Note: This week Kai's new thing is to tell mumma to "chill out mate" or just to "chill down"... it's a good reminder actually : )

kaisy and mumma...

My beautiful boy : )

lovely afternoon...

So nice to have a kid-free lunch with Gyps and Simmone. We had intended to go to Earthly Pleasures in Belgrave, but it was closed for the Christmas break so we had to settle for the only place open in Kallista. It was a bit of a downer as it would have been the perfect day to sit out on the lawn at EP, oh well. It was great to get together and we really had a chance to talk. I think the best thing about having friends, especially great old friends is that they know you and can give you insights, advice and observations all with the wealth of many years of knowing you, I guess what I mean to say is that I really listen when they speak...

liam and the chooks

We are loving our new chickens. They are so sweet natured and follow us around the garden all day. They always stick together and it's really fun watching them explore the big backyard. Liam especially loves feeding them and watching them, sometimes crying if he has to come away from them. Anyway, they have made their first bed for us and Eli has planted some herbs and an orange tree... we just pick up the movable coop after a few weeks and voilå, a fresh patch of fertilized earth.
PS: Kai has named the chooks, Reindeer, Polly and spotty.