Summer is finally on the way

Do you know how I know that Summer is on the way?  It could be because the sun is shining more or because we don't need to wear a jumper all of the time, but the real reason I know that summer is finally on the way is because our season Summer Fun passes to Adventure Park Geelong have arrived!  That means it is time for us to jump into the car and head down to Adventure Park to have some water fun.

All of our old favourite rides were there, the Lazy River and the Wild West Canyon but there were new adventures to try too.  Before long we were clipping on life jackets and pedalling our way around the lake.

Enjoying the ride

A helping hand

3/4 of the family racing around the lake

It looks like we have found a new favourite, enjoying the single paddle boats on Barracuda Bay.

Another great day and I am looking forward to even more water adventures at Adventure Park.
Love AJ Pickle

Missing in Action

Hmmmmm, it seems we haven't been here in ages but there is a really good reason for that - mum has been pretty sick.  When mum is sick, we don't have anyone to remind us to blog our adventures so that we don't forget them.  We have had some adventures that we will eventually get around to writing about.  Things we still haven't shared are our new bedrooms, there is also stories about learning how to use power tools, as well as climbing into the ceiling and all manner of fun things.

Of course there are about a billion more entries we could write about the Festival of Boo (that would be Milla's many birthday celebrations) and also our day at the races.   AJ is even going to write a review about a game that he was sent - Skylanders Giants that he loved so much he finished.  (Of course if the review for the game is anything like his book reviews that he has to do for homework then we will have to nag him about a billion times to get it done! - from Milla)  We are pretty sure that we never got around to blogging about Billy's birthday celebrations.  We can't even remember the last time any of us played along with Unknown Mami and Sundays in my City but it was probably forever ago too.

Now mum doesn't normally get sick, so this is a pretty crazy time for all of us.  She seems to help us out in the morning before school, then if she doesn't have doctors appointments or tests she sleeps most of the school day.  She hangs out with us after school and goes to bed when we do.   That's of course if she isn't in hospital.  If she is in hospital then we go and visit her instead!   Dad is pretty busy too, doing the laundry and the shopping, even making our lunch for us some days.  When we are all home together of a weekend, we go on mini adventures whenever we can.

Hopefully mum will be better soon so we can go on crazy adventures again rather than stay around the house, then we will be able to blog our stories and share our fun.

Get better soon mum,
Love AJ and Milla

The Christmas Crazy Begins

It seems that the Christmas Crazy has begun.  We have our first Christmas get-together tomorrow and so I had to get busy making a treat to share with our friends.  I wanted to make something that looked good, tasted great but was super quick and easy to make.  I have seen about a billion different variations of mini-plum puddings, do you like what I came up with?

Now normally I hate plum puddings but these are delicious.

Mini Plum Puddings (that actually taste great!)

The other good thing about making these is that all of the ingredients are delicious - Chocolate Royales, Jaffas and Mint Leaves.  Even the splodge of icing tastes OK.

I wonder what Christmassy treat I will make next?
Love Princess George

Winning

What's a boy to do when he is spending a day at the races?  First stop, find a friend to hang out with.  Second, pester your parents until they let you place a bet or 3.  Next, get the form guide and start studying.

This is the hardest I have studied all year!

Who knew that studying really does pay off!

The first bet we had placed for us won, so did the second.  We were doing so well that when it came to the last race I could hear mum and dad cheering for any horse other than the one that I had bet on.  I think they wanted us to have fun but I don't think that they wanted me to actually make money from gambling in case I wanted to gamble some more.  They really don't have to worry, we may not have won on the last race but we decided that we will come back next year and re-invest our winnings.

Love AJ Pickle

A Day at the Races

The Spring Racing Carnival is in our neighbourhood every November and I love it.  It is a great time of the year to picnic in the parks, watch the odd horse race, dress up and have heaps of fun.  As much as I love the Spring Racing Carnival, I love to travel too and last year I was in America and the year before that I was in Japan.  

Can you believe that it has been 3 years since I last went to the races?  This year a couple of our friends invited us all to join them at Stakes Day again.  I was so excited to be going to the races again, not only to go to the races but to be able to catch up with 2 of my best friends who live on the other side of the city so I don't get to see them very often.


This year, we arrived at our picnic area, grabbed a snack and then took off exploring, only coming back when we were hungry or thirsty.  There were so many things to see and do that we were busy all day long, barely stopping to watch a horse race.

There were balloon animals to befriend...

fairy floss buckets to wear as a hat...

and of course shoes to swap!

I can't wait until next year, I am going to make sure that we are about for the Spring Racing Carnival so that I can go to the races with my friends again.
Love Princess George

Guess who is 9 - Birthday Boo

I went to bed last night as an 8 year old and woke up as a 9 year old... that also meant that I woke up to a pile of presents that were all for me!

I am 'one in a million' - that's what the card said!

Present Time!

Trying to guess what is inside

Yippee, just what I wanted

How to wear new skate pants!

The best present EVER!

How about that for a ginormous pile of presents!

Happy birthday to me and let the Festival of Boo begin,

Love Princess George

Mansions for Millipedes

Normally when we go geocaching we spend our time running around looking for actual geocaches.  Today when we went geocaching we were looking for earth caches - we were learning about geographical features of the area.  We figured that as we were learning about how the different rock formations were created we would have a closer look.  By the way, all of the different rock formations in the area were created by lava flows about a million years ago.

As we were looking at the tessellated pavement we found heaps of millipedes.  Now of course these millipedes all needed somewhere to call home so we went millipede house hunting.

There are so many places to look for millipede mansions.

There could be some over here.

This millipede mansion is so big it could be a 5 star millipede resort.

Just so you get an idea of what a millipede is looking for when it is investing in real estate, I will show you one of our favourites.  This was one of the best millipede houses we found; plenty of places to rest, lots of rooms in the little holes in the rocks.  What makes this millipede mansion so impressive is the swimming pool with its own and the garden!  Who wouldn't love to live in a mansion with a beautiful swimming pool set in a garden that has plenty of dappled shade so that you don't overheat if the weather ever warms up.  We estimate that this millipede mansion would be worth about a million millipede dollars.

Have you ever been looking for millipede mansions?  It is heaps of fun, you should try it some time.
Love Princess George