Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Lorikeets and Rubies - Soccer Begins!



Katy's team, the Lorikeets, have 5 members. They play on a very small pitch, four a side with 15min halves. Having never played together before the Lorikeets received a hiding for their very first game..which was a little harsh. The last few games however have been much more even and way more enjoyable too. The girls are bonding well together and having lots of laughs.




Ella's team is the Rubies. There are 9 members of her team with the majority of them from last year's Blossoms team. The Rubies are extremely lucky to have a fantastic coach who is just lovely with the girls, teaching them the not only soccer skills but also focussing on team work and playing strategies. Ella must have been listening as she displayed great ball control and awesome passes and as a result was awarded the best on the field certificate at last weeks game.





Go Go Girls

Ella was dying to test out her new rollerblades so off we went...all of us for a lap around the bike path. Cautious and controlled was Ella learning the new way to skate. I'm pretty sure that skiing has helped in the department of propelling herself forward. Stopping with the single backstopper on the other hand was somewhat more tricky and she found it easier to pull off onto the grass!

Once at the bike path Katy strapped on her roller-skates too. Mostly holding my hand for balance she managed to skate the rest of the way home. With a little more practice I'm sure Katy will have the control and power too.

It was a beautiful evening to watch the girls having fun!







Tuesday, May 3, 2016

C'mon Winter!

I think this is the first Canberra winter I have looked forward to. I mean I have even been willing it to get cold enough to light our fire!

Andy too has been busy in the workshop preparing for the big kick off. Using the leftover floor timber he has constructed two boxes - the larger one for the pieces of wood and a smaller one to hold the firelighters and kindling. A nice touch.

 

 

Ahh finally...so beautiful and so warm....




9 Years Old



Wow so much changes in 9 years!!! Where has that time gone....

It was a hectic start to Term 2 with Ella turning 9! Despite the birthday present distraction, we still managed to get to school on time!

Katy took advantage of Ella's current bird obsession (like many others) to buy Ella a lorikeet mug and  apron. Ella was also blessed to receive a pair of binoculars (thanks cousins), a Bird Field Guide Book (thanks Nana and Grandpa), a macaw pillow and soccer ball (thanks Nana and Grandad). We deviated from the bird theme and bought Ella a pair of blue rollerblades plus wrist guards etc. She was pretty stoked.





As it was a work day for both of us, dinner was a little chaotic. Somehow though I managed to pick up a bunch of roses surprising Ella with her favourite flower and finish decorating the bird nest cake!







Bye Grandad

Grandad enjoyed his short visit especially joining in Ella's party!  After a flurry of visits, it will be going quiet with the Grandies as they embark on their 6 week trip to the UK. For Grandad it's his first trip back to the UK since leaving on a boat as a 6 year old and for Nana it's her first time there! We wish them a safe trip and look forward to hearing about all their adventures and discoveries.


Monday, May 2, 2016

Beading Birthday

Ella celebrated her 9th birthday with a small group of friends at Bead Barn. The girls attended a workshop in which they made a bracelet and a bookmark. I'm not sure I've been to a quieter party as they all were concentrating so hard on threading the beads in the correct order!












After the workshop we headed over to Stripey Sundae, a little ice-cream shop specialising in homemade ice cream. Sitting outside, we had birthday cake cupcakes first. The girls then ventured inside to discover what flavours were on offer. I left Andy in charge of this and the girls came out with the biggest ice creams ever!! No fault of Andy's....apparently the cafe owner couldn't count!




And so silence descended once again as they attempted to devour their ice creams although a few were unsuccessful! The girls then played around before parents arrived. Ella had a lovely afternoon with her friends and cousins. Andy and I enjoyed it too especially the ease of having a party away from home!



Sunday, May 1, 2016

Riding with Grandad

Another gorgeous autumn day just perfect for another bike ride this time with Grandad and neighbour Sofia. First we had to pull the girls away from their knitting!!



We loaded the bikes on the car and drove to Lake Burley Griffin with the intention of riding around central basin, a short 5km loop.


Our ride began heading over Commonwealth Ave bridge towards the National Library. It took a little while to drill into the girls that this wasn't a race, it didn't matter who rode first and the most important thing was safety - looking out for others walking, running, riding around the lake.

Seeing though we were all still excited about our geocache finds from yesterday, we loaded up the app once again to see what was nearby. Our first cache was a nano with Grandad getting line honours. The girls were slightly disadvantaged with a lack of height - the nano geocache was on top of a utility box!

Our next port of call was a walk around the sculpture gardens. No caches here only interesting sculptures!  The shiny stainless steel sculpture known as Cones was an instant attraction due to it's distorting images. Grandad was fascinated by his reflections and was almost in tears with laughter which then had everyone cracking up!!



Onwards we crossed over Kings Ave Bridge failing to find the nano in the middle and so continued on to the Carillon. An easy find there with the bells playing in the background. Up to the Boundless playground. Turns out the girls weren't really interested in playing here so it was off to the next cache located behind the playground.





Here we bumped into Shannon and kids who were also looking for the cache! It was discovering hanging in a tree disguised as a bat! Container was tricky to detach but we got there in the end. Kids were disappointed with the lack of goodies to swap.













Waving goodbye to Shannon and kids, we continued on to the next cache located somewhere close to Blundell's Cottage, a stone cottage built in 1860's. It's named after Flora and George Blundell, the second tenants of the cottage who raised their 8 children and lived in the cottage for 60 years. Recently restored the cottage sets to reminds us of a way of life of an era long since gone. It was closed so we couldn't go inside, instead we focused on finding the cache but for the second time today, we came up empty handed.



Back on our bikes, our route took us past the Rock Castle and instantly the girls pleaded us to stop for a play. How could we resist? Grandad and I camped on the grass while the girls explored the tunnels. It wasn't long though before we decided to search for the next cache located near a small creek on the northside of Nerang Pool. Our last cache for the day was an easy one. Post cache find, we discovered a bamboo forest with many little criss crossing tracks and enjoyed running around scaring each other!



It was a short, flat ride back to the car with a parking inspector issuing tickets. Luckily for us we had timed it perfectly with 2 minutes to spare!