Waiting and Waiting Some More

I woke up super early this morning, I was too tired to sleep, I had things to do and places to see and I wasn't going to school!  Once I was ready I had to sit around and wait for the taxi to take us to the airport.

Filling in time

We were early and managed to beat the rush and it didn't take long for us to be through customs and at the gate waiting for our plane.  Of course there was a slight delay so the wait was even longer.
Luckily I am easily entertained!

The flight from Melbourne to LA was long, really long but at least I managed to sleep a few hours this time  round!  I am pretty sure AJ only fell asleep as the plane was getting ready to descend into LA.

Ready for Take-Off

At LAX, we had to clear customs and recheck our luggage and wait some more.  I rested for a little bit but I was still too excited to sleep.  Instead I rested, thinking about how we could possibly be in LA, in a completely different country and it was really a few hours before we had even left Melbourne!

Waiting some more...

Finally we boarded the American Airlines flight for O'Hare.

Having flown 15 hours already and then waiting at LAX for another 4 hours, the 3 1/2 hour flight to Chicago was so quick, it was like it was over in the blink of an eye, or just one movie!

Of course, being in Chicago, we had one more wait, this time for a taxi to take us to hour hotel.

The Last Wait for the Day

Finally after what feels like a billion hours, the waiting is over and we are on holidays.  We have had a swim and some dinner and now it is time to get some real sleep before we go exploring tomorrow.

Let the adventure begin,

Love Princess George

A New Place to Play

Some things may never change.  Mum is still dragging us along to work with her whenever she gets the chance.

At least now when we get dragged to Flemington there there is a new super cool playground for us to explore at Debneys Park!

There are so many cool things to play on, a climbing net, giant sider web, dizzy sticks, a ginormous flying fox and places to ride bikes, skateboards and scooters.  I haven't had a chance to go on the flying fox yet, there are always about 4 billion other kids waiting to have a go on it.  Maybe next time I am there I will get a turn on it too.
Love AJ Pickle

Weekend Work

It is the weekend so that should mean that we get to spend the day relaxing and having fun right? I wish! Sure I went to ice skating this morning and had heaps of fun but when I got home I had to work, work, work. Mum had decided that my room was a mess and it needed to be cleaned. Why? I really don't know. It is my room and it is way cleaner than her room but I had to spend my day inside cleaning and it took forever.

With all of the things I got rid of - 3 garbage bags full of stuff to be donated to Vinnies and another 4 big bags of rubbish you would think that my room would be empty right? Wrong. It is still full of stuff. The best thing is, now I can actually find where my stuff is, just don't tell mum other wise she will say 'I told you so!'

Love Princess George

(Almost) Record Breaking

What did you do today?  I tried to get my name listed in the Guiness World Records.  We all decided to head in to Icehouse to join in a conga line on ice.  Everyone that registered had to join in the conga line and skate around the ice for 15 minutes without letting go of the person in front of you and not fall over.  Now I know that I can skate for ages and ages without falling over but I wasn't too sure about mum and dad!

We had plenty of time to warm up before the record attempt began.  Instead of using this time to warm up with us, mum and dad used the time to rest and to get photos!

Finally it was time for the conga line to start.  We were in the middle section of the line - dad was first, then AJ, me and then mum.  It was actually pretty hard to skate so slowly and in a squishy line but I managed to stay up the entire time, and make sure that I held on tight to AJ.  It was easier said than done, I don't think mum actually skated at all, she let me tow her around!

Whether we broke the World Record or not, it was a pretty cool way to spend the start of the holidays,

Love Princess George

**edited to add - there were only 202 people in the conga line, not enough for a world record, we will have to go back next time they try to break the Actual World Record.

Crazy Busy Days

Saturday morning is normally the day that I hide from mum as she nags me to clean my room... put my stuff away... find all my dirty washing... when all I want to do is snuggle on the couch and watch tv. Normally my Saturday morning is really boring. This morning was different. Sure mum still nagged me to clean up and put stuff away but that was so that I could find my iTouch and a few bits and pieces to throw into a bag before we set off on an adventure or two.

I knew it was skating day for Milla and that we were going to visit some of mum’s friends at the beach in the afternoon but I didn’t know what we were doing for the morning. First stop was a complete surprise, we went into Southbank to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform with dancers from the Australian Ballet. At first I thought it might just be full of little kids and boring but I was wrong, it was great. The first solo of the day was the clarinet - the instrument that I play. He was much better than I am, I could almost hear mum (nagging) saying “One day you could play as well as that but first you have to practice!” She might be right and I might start to practice more, might (but probably not)!

All of the performances were really good but the best part was when Patrick the dancer snuck out in his tap shoes to make music. He would tap a rhythm and then the guy on the drum would copy him. They started off pretty slow, doing tap steps and making rhythms that I knew but got faster and faster and more complicated. Then the drummer made rhythms and Patrick copied them, it was awesome and he ended up dancing the rhythm of a drum roll!

My favourite musician had to be the guy on the Double Bass, he really had fun when he played, he was almost dancing in his seat as he played. He was really cool and fun to watch.

To be honest, I had heaps of fun at the performance and was lucky enough to have my photo taken with a few of the musicians and the dancers too.

Not a bad start to a crazy busy unexpected Saturday morning!

Next stop of the Crazy Saturday was to fill in time at Icehouse when Milli had her lessons and before we headed to the beach. Normally I don’t like hanging around when Milli has her lessons because only the people having lessons can go onto the ice but today because her lesson was at lunch time I got to go skating too. Not only did I get to go skating but I got to play with the giant snowball on the ice. Certainly much more fun than having to clean my room.

The adventure continued after skating. We grabbed some lunch from Costco and headed to the beach. All I knew is that we would spend the afternoon with some of mum’s friends, I didn’t know them but I knew that there would be boys to hang out with instead of just girls so I figured it would be fun.

Let’s just say that fun would be an understatement, I had an awesome time.

There were 4 other boys to hang out with, as well as 4 girls but the best part was that where we were staying was great, we were in the town but there was so much space around that we could be up the front building cubby houses and digging booby traps and the parents couldn’t even see us!

I think mum must have been having fun too because before she realised it, it was really late and we were ready for bed. Instead of getting back into the car and driving home, we grabbed out our ‘just in case we need them’ sleeping bags out of the car and went to bed. Can you believe that there was enough room for all of us to sleep in the one bedroom! Of course sharing a bedroom with 8 other kids meant that we stayed up really late and woke up really early to make sure we had plenty of time to hang out together.

We spent hours mucking about but even digging booby traps didn’t stop mum from making us get back in the car and heading back to Melbourne for another day of madness. I really wished that we could have stayed down by the beach to hang out with my new friends. Hopefully we can go back there again some time soon.

Love AJ Pickle

Musical Magic

So it was Saturday morning, the day I normally get (woken) up bright and early to head in to Docklands to go skating. I knew that my lesson wasn’t until later in the day so I really didn’t know what the rush was all about, but mum made us get dressed and jump into the car. I thought maybe she had forgotten the lesson times but she said she had a surprise for us before we went skating. Who was I to argue, so I got ready and off we went.

It wasn’t until we were on our way that mum let us know that we were going to see a performance of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) at Iwaki Auditorium at Southbank. I was already pretty excited and then mum said that there would be ballet dancers from the Australian Ballet there too I could barely sit still.

We managed to get into the theatre at just the right time, the family that were sitting in the centre front decided to sit in the seats instead of on the floor so we go to sit right at the very front where I knew that I would be able to see everything. The conductor came out and soon the performance began.

There were 4 beautiful dancers; Patrick, Alex, Polly and Hannah. They were all amazing dancers, the way they moved they looked like the music. Polly was my favourite, not only was she a great dancer, she had a really pretty smile and looked so happy when she danced.

All of the music was fun but I had a few favourites. One was the music that the conductor said had a Spanish style, I didn’t think it sounded Spanish, it reminded me of Indian music with snakes dancing out of baskets! The hoedown was great too, the dancers made me laugh and when Patrick and Alex danced together they reminded my of Twiddledum and Twiddledee! I think my favourite piece of all was called Light Speed and it was fast and fun, it made me want to get up and dance.

Somehow mum had organised for us to meet some of the orchestra and the dancers and even had our photos taken with them!

With some of the MSO and the dancers from the Australian Ballet, and with Heidi from Stuff With Thing!

I had such a great time listening to the orchestra and watching the dancers, I really hope that we are around during the holidays to go and see another performance of the MSO - they are playing Peter and the Wolf at ACMI and I already know that music but I don’t know much about the the story.

Don’t tell mum and dad, but I had so much fun that I think I want to do dancing again and perhaps learn an instrument again, maybe the flute!

Love Princess George.

Loving Lego

Now it is no surprise to anyone that in our crazy family we ALL love lego. You can imagine I was pretty excited today when dad and I decided to catch the train in to the city to meet Milli and mum after ice skating to do something special together. Milli didn't know it, but dad had bought us tickets to go and see Art of the Brick at Fed Square. I didn't know what to expect other than it was all about lego and that had to be a great thing.

First stop when we got to the exhibition was the shop but do you think that we were allowed to buy anything? Of course not! Instead of complaining, we went upstairs to see the lego. I guess thought it would be just normal things built with lego, you know, like buildings and stuff. I really didn't expect it to be sculptures of people but it was and it was pretty cool.

I loved the sculpture of the guy who ripped his chest open so is insides could pour out!

Naturally Milla preferred the peace sign!

We both loved the skulls!

The best part was going upstairs and building our own lego. We had a great time at the Art of the Brick that I want to do more lego building. I wonder if I can be a lego artist when I grow up?

Love AJ Pickle