Friday night (June 5th) I made the birthday dinner Lydia had requested - mac and cheese. Surprising for a toddler request? I think not! Then we watched The Incredibles as a family.
Saturday, June 6th, our crazy little lady turned 3! She was so excited that it was finally her turn to have a birthday. She opened gifts in the morning and ended her day with cake!
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| Birthday cupcakes |
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| She looks so grown up in this picture! |
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| She blew the candle out so fast! |
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| Our sweet birthday girl! |
Saturday we also went to Portarlington (only about 20 minutes from Ocean Grove) and attended the National Celtic Festival. Our friends have a daughter that plays in her school's Ceilidh Band. She's in Grade 5 and plays the violin very well! Her band was playing at the festival around 11am on Saturday, so we aimed to arrive for their performance.
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| At least 3 are looking! |
After the band played we grabbed some food from the street vendors. We found spinach and lamb on Turkish bread (called G
รถzleme). So good! After eating we walked to the pier to sail on the Enterprize. The Enterprize is a replica of the original Enterprize that was built in Hobart in 1830 as a coastal trading vessel. According to the brochure I picked up, the task of building the 72 ton, 27 meter vessel involved six years of dedicated work by expert craftsmen and volunteers. It was launched on August 30, 1997, and it is the first square-rigged commercial sailing ship to be built in Melbourne for over 120 years.
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| View of Enterprize on the water |
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| Hannah and Kiernan dancing to some Irish music on the ship |
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| Kiernan getting comfy in the ship's cabin |
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| Enjoying the sailing experience |
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| Mommy with the birthday girl |
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| Watching the water |
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| Melbourne in the distance |
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| The Irish band playing-so cool! |
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| What a neat ship! |
After sailing the kids played at the park for a bit and we shared some desserts.
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| Our sleepy koala |
Sunday morning we attended Mass in Geelong and had brunch at 63 degrees on Pakington Street. Great food and the kids were good. We love that kind of morning! My breakfast included a poached egg that was beautiful. I've never poached an egg, but someday I'm going to try. We spent the afternoon at a Lego event in Geelong called Inside the Brick. There were displays of Lego already built and then a creation room that was fun for all of us. It was a great day!
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| Hannah and I would love to build this |
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| Lego Luna Park |
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| One of many pictures Kiernan requested I take |
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| Lydia loved the Lego play space |
Monday was the national holiday to celebrate the Queen's Birthday, so Barry didn't have to work and the kids didn't have school. We decided to go to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. Sovereign Hill is an outdoor museum that re-creates Ballarat's first ten years after the discovery of gold in 1851 when thousands of international adventurers rushed to the Australian goldfields in search of fortune. It was a super fun place.
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| The kids and I at the entrance |
First, we went to the confectionery factory to watch the boiled candy demonstration.
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| That's some super hot sugar there! |
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| You can see the rolled out sweets here. |
Next we went to the gold pouring demonstration at the gold smelting works.
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| Liquid gold in the cup |
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| Pouring the gold into the bar mold |
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| Glowing hot gold bar |
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| Holding $140,000 AUD gold bar |
After that we went on a mine tour.
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| Main Street |
We had potato soup, beef pie and damper at New York Bakery on the main street. After lunch we went to pan for gold. Let me just say - we are rich! We found 4-5 flakes of gold. Okay, maybe we aren't rich, but the kids couldn't believe "we get to keep it!"
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| Professionals here! |
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| It's intense I tell ya! |
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| Daddy giving Hannah lessons on technique |
We headed up the hill to have the kids try candle dipping and then we went bowling in an old bowling alley.
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| Listening to the rules |
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| Lydia getting a bit of assistance |
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| Dipping |
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| The kids with their completed candles |
There was also a Gold Museum that Lydia lasted for about a minute in, so her and I headed to the car while the rest of the crew quickly went through it. We made it back in time for me to make breakfast for dinner. Yum!
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| Inspecting some real gold |
It was an incredible weekend of fun!
Sarah
