Going bush for Father's Day

In amongst all the crazy, we kinda almost nearly forgot about Father's Day.  Well we knew that it was Father's Day but we just didn't have time to plan anything special for the day.  When we found out that Ellen and Sarah were going for a hike at Werribee Gorge, we decided to join them after soccer, after all, the sun was shining and it is spring!

OK, all we really wanted to do was to get out and have some fun and we figured that we could show dad and the others the really cool beach that you get too by rock climbing above the river!

Of course we knew that there were going to be other great places to explore too, so first we set off up the hill.  It was steep and rocky but lots of fun.  There were some great lookouts to stop at for a rest.

Eventually we made it to the beach and stopped to have a picnic lunch.  We could have stayed there all day long but we were kind of excited o show everyone just how much fun it is climbing around the rocks high above the river.  

The grown ups were much more afraid than we were - we were able to climb the entire way without even needing the help of the guide rope!

Oh and in amongst all of the adventuring, we forgot to actually stop and get the obligatory Father's Day photo!  I guess this will have to do, to prove that we did actually have fun hanging out with Dad today. 

Thanks for being a great Dad and having fun adventures with us.  I hope we get to go on more adventures again soon.

Love the best kids in the world,

AJ and Milla xo

A Day for Mum

Today is Mother's Day, so that means that we have to do everything that mum wants to do.  Luckily mum loves to do cool things.

Now most people get their mum's pretty things for Mothers Day but not us, we stocked up on some more Lego for mum.  Isn't it cool that a present for mum is something the whole family can enjoy!

An awesome Mother's Day present

After Milla's soccer game, we headed out to visit Grandma so we could have some fun and so dad could wish his mum a happy Mother's Day.  We could have stayed all day but since it was mum's choice, we headed back to Docklands to go to the hockey - Melbourne Ice were playing again.

Ice ready for action

And because it was Mother's Day, a heap of mum's got to do chuck-a-puck and mum was one of the lucky mums, along with Webby's mum and the Wong's mum.  Mum didn't quite win, but was a close second (just like Milla was when she did chuck-a-puck!) and was lucky enough to get a Melbourne Ice Chocolate Puck!

Mum's chocolate puck

After the game, which was 'freaking awesome' (mum's words, not ours!) we headed over to Harbour Town Hotel for some dinner.  Not only did we have a delicious dinner, mum was given a complementary glass of bubbles.  Not a bad way to end the day.

Bubbles for mum

Did you remember to do something nice for your mum for Mother's Day?

Love AJ and Milla

PS - this is one of the other things we did for Mother's Day, I think mum was pretty happy about it!

A holiday for Billy

My cousin Billy is having a sleepover at our place tonight.

My Crazy Cousin!

I hope he isn't this crazy when it is actually bed time!

Love Princess George

Edited to add - We had so much fun during the afternoon that by 6.30pm, Billy was so exhausted that he was sound asleep in the study so I had my own bed all to myself.  I was pretty tired too so I went to bed super early too! x

Gone Bush

We had a curriculum day today so instead of heading to school, we headed bush. Out to Werribee Gorge State Park to be exact.

Look around... This place is awesome!

We went wandering along the river track for a few kilometers, making heaps of detours along the way to look at interesting things, to imagine what lived in the caves or to throw rocks across the river.

For one section if the track we had to scrabble along some rocks at the bottom of a rocky cliff. We had to hold on to the cable that was attached to the rocks to make sure we didn't slip and fall into the river.

The best (and the trickiest!) part of the walk

It really wasn't that tricky but nan would have freaked out just watching us!

Just past the scrabbly rock area we found a nice little beach area to rest.

A beautiful place to rest, if you have time for rest!

Well a nice area for mum to rest for a few seconds before we found boulders we could use as stepping stones to get us to the other side of the river! Mum decided to come and see what we were up to. I don't think she was worried about what we were doing, but she did have her camera out just in case one of us fell in!

Jumping from one side of the gorge to the other

Luckily we crossed over the river and back (a few times) and didn't even get wet feet.

We could have spent all day exploring the gorge, it was amazing but we had to head back to the city - we had a dentist appointment to go to. Really, who schedules a dentist appointment on a day off school? I guess we will just have to come back and explore some more of the gorge another day.

Love Princess George

PS - I think we walked about 3kms each direction, plus another k of wandering (and trying to round up some sheep), 7kms - not a bad effort for a day off!

Milla's Massive Haul

I know that AJ has just told you all about his fun day at the Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt yesterday and how we were lucky enough to be given free tickets to join in the fun of the chocolatey day.  Now it is time for me to tell you about the fun that I had and show you some of my favourite photos from the day.  

We all screamed in excitement, waiting for the start.

Running for more more eggs

Super happy about my haul

Thanks for an awesome day Cadbury

I needed to stop for a rest on the way back to the car 

(Even after sharing dozens of eggs with mum and dad, and munching on them the entire way home, there were still 128 Easter Eggs left in my bucket when I got home!

Thanks for an awesome day Cadbury, and congratulations on raising so much money to support the Royal Children's Hospital.

Love Princess George

PS - Just a reminder that we were lucky enough to get free tickets to this event from Cadbury but all of the smiles in the photos show just how awesome the day really was.

Good Friday or a Great Friday?

Every now and then, mum gets an email inviting her to go somewhere interesting.  Occasionally we get an invitation to go along and share in the fun too.  Good Friday was one of the days when we got to share the fun and go along to the Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt at Werribee Park Mansion thanks to some free tickets that were sent to us from Cadbury.

We packed up our picnic and headed out to Werribee Park to share in the fun.

I couldn't believe just how many people were there having fun.  Rather than pick out a picnic spot straight away we decided to do a lap of the entire place to see just what we could do.  We could have gone on the rides but seeing that I didn't go on the rides at the school fete the other day, I didn't think I would go on the rides here either.  Instead of getting ride tickets, I negotiated with mum and dad to go exploring inside Werribee Mansion.

After the tour, I could scope out most of the picnic from the mansion balcony.

The view from the balcony

After exploring the mansion, we still weren't ready for our picnic lunch so we went exploring along the sculpture walk instead.

Fun in the Meccano Truck

The walk, and climbing all of the sculpture, made us work up a thirst so we stopped for a drink.

Drink time

By then, we were starting to get a little peckish so we headed back to the main picnic area.  We had just enough time to scoff some delicious hot corn before it was time to line up ready for our Easter Egg Hunt.  Milla was up first and then finally, the final Easter Egg Hunt of the day, it was my turn.

Ready to run

Every time I thought that the hunt was over, the Oompa Loompas (that was the all the wonderful people who volunteered to help out at the Easter Egg Hunt) kept scattering more eggs out for us to find.   I'm in the middle of the madness, scooping up dozens of eggs!

Scrounging for eggs

The crawling around the ground was well worth it, I think I found a few million!

Chocolate goodness

It was an awesome day that was there to raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital.  I have been lucky enough to not have had to visit the new hospital, but I have been to the old RCH a few times (this was one of my visits) and I am happy to say that they did a fantastic job of fixing me.  They did such a great job that I took $20 out of my money box to help make some other kids feel better when they are stuck in hospital.

Giving back

Thanks for inviting me and my family to join in the fun of the Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt.
Love AJ Pickle


PS - Mum wanted me to let you all know that we were given free tickets to go to the Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt.  We didn't have to blog about our day there but I wanted everyone to know how much fun I had, and to brag about how many eggs I found!  Cadbury also sent us this delicious hamper that mum still won't let us eat yet.

Earth Hour

When I first found out about Earth Hour, I have to say that I thought it was completely insane. How in the world could we possibly last an entire hour without power? Sure when we are camping we can manage it, but when we are camping we are usually so exhausted after running wild all day that we are ready for bed as the sun goes down. An hour at home with no power would be a completely new challenge. No TV, no computer, no i-devices, no lights. It was going to be a challenge.

The first few minutes were spent running around finding all of the candles we could, than searching in the dark for a lot longer trying to find some matches to light the candles!  We gave up on the search for matches and we ended up using the stove top to light the candles, I hope that wasn't cheating - it is a gas cook top so I think it would have been OK!

Now that we had light, all we had to do was find some way to fill in the rest of the hour without power or technology. What to do... Play cards, a board game, create? AJ decided to use the opportunity to teach mum and dad how to make origami cranes.

Making Cranes by Candlelight

Before the hour was up we had created more than a dozen teeny tiny cranes, had fun together and realised that having power and technology is awesome but we don't really need it to have fun.

AJ and I have decided that we need to have an earth hour every month, to remember that fun isn't reliant upon technology to have fun.
Love Princess George

Bring on the ice

It is nothing new to anyone that we LOVE ice hockey and going to watch games in at Icehouse. It isn't long now until the season starts and we can't wait.

Today we were treated to a match between the Australian team (that will be competing overseas soon) and the Victorian All Stars. We really couldn't decide who I wanted to win. Of course as Aussies we wanted the Australian team to do really well but the Victorian team has some of our favorite players in it.

The game was awesome and the Australian team did win. The most exciting part is that the season is almost back!
Love AJ and Milla

Another adventure and more crazy places to visit

We left home this afternoon to go to a football (soccer) festival but just as we arrived it started to bucket down with rain. As much as I love soccer, I would prefer to be playing it rather than standing in the rain to watch it. When mum suggested that we go treasure hunting instead, we all agreed.

Our first and last finds were the best. I would tell you all about the cache called Dodgy Gorilla but it would give away the awesome secret. Instead I suggest you go find it yourself just to see how creative some finds are. (GC3V5QH - Dodgy Gorilla)

We had a quick 7 finds that were heaps of fun and finished off at Melbourne General Cemetery (GC12NFV).

How many other kids are lucky enough to spend their Sunday afternoon exploring a cemetery?
Love Princess George

Junior's Christening

ready to upload

24-Feb-2012

Junior’s Christening

Mum gets to become a parent again today.  She isn’t really having another baby, instead she is becoming a god parent for Junior.  We all went to the church where the whole god-parent thing happened.

Then we went to Junior’s grand parents house for the most fun celebration ever.

There were water balloons...

and a jumping castle.  And water balloons ON THE JUMPING CASTLE... 

Seriously so much fun :-)

Welcome to our family Junior!

Love AJ and Milla

When the Queen came to Town

Did you see the Queen when she was in town?  We did.  We figured it was a nice night to go out and have some fun and what better place to have some fun other than at the beach right?

The queen was much bigger than I imagined!

We wanted to stick around until the Queen left so we filled in time the best way we know how - having fun!

Goodbye Queen Mary, I hope to visit with you another time.

Love Princess George

Celebrating Harmony

How did you celebrate the diversity in your community?  

I went to a picnic where I could share delicious food from all over the world.  The picnic was delicious but even better than the picnic was the face painting.  

How cool is this?

Love Princess George

Cooling Off

What do you do on a hot sunny summers day?  You could always cool off by heading in to the ice rink for some fun.

You can hang out with a Yeti... 

Or slide down the ice...

Whatever you do, it is much nicer being inside and cool.

How are you staying cool this summer?

Love Princess George