Ella is five

Our day began early decorating 50 ginormous cupcakes according to Ella's chosen colour scheme, insect designs and range of lollies.

It was quite an exercise loading the cupcakes, fresh fruit platters and presents and two great grandmas safely into the car and making our way to the CSIRO's Discovery Centre, the site for Ella's fifth birthday party celebration today - careful going round corners Robbie!!!!

18 little people were Ella's guests.  Everyone got a big hug, which the girls enjoyed repeating for an extended time - while the boys quickly reverted to floor wrestling each other.

Luckily the science discovery program started quickly. First stop was the mat and some close up examination of the insects and the turtles - under the watchful guidance of the beautifully trained Jason.

Ollie certainly was the most well informed young person in this circle of aspiring entomologists.  He even knew that turtles breathe out of their mouths AND their bums. 

Then there was time to look at some of the "specimens". "Yes they are all real birds and animals", says Jason. "They're just not alive anymore!"

........before heading into the lab. Of course every scientist needs a lab coat before they can check out their lab specimens under the microscope!

I was impressed with how engaged Ella became with the story of DNA.

While the boys enjoyed the zappy stuff....

........ and working out how to unlock this little 2 ring rope challenge.

Science and energy take on a whole new meaning when jaffas are involved - they were all immersed in the physics of this one!

Abi enjoyed the party today very much too.  She found the sunny Discovery Centre atrium cosy and bright and enjoyed having cuddles with all the extended family members.

Jody and Joshy devised a beautiful, healthy lunch menu for all the kids - and sensibly had it catered by the Turkish Pide House at Jammo.  They must have been pleased to see all the kids LOVING it! (as did the Great Grandmas too!)

Ella's insect cupcake tower caused quite a stir - so much more exuberant and fun than the delicate little pink fondant masterpieces many other girls her age choose.

Happy fifth birthday darling girl; it was so lovely sharing the fun!

Mothers

It's been five years since I started this blog, a week or so before Ella was born in 2007. Whers's all that time gone?

This week was not an easy one for everyone in the family. Granny K is struggling with her broken wrist and reduced mobility and little E has not had an easy time either being away from her darling Mummy and baby Abi.

All is well though when we can share some time together especially when fifth birthday planning is high on the agenda. Abi is taking much more notice now of everything happening around her and is a lot more communicative.

Abi and Ella continue to adore each other and the shared room trial is now a permanent arrangement.

The difficult week ended well with a lively gathering at our place on Saturday to celebrate a visit from Melbourne Erin and John, and gorgeous baby Liliana.

The presence of five cousins saw the  backyard tree house/climber put to good use, in between bouts of ball throwing and carrot cake eating.

The two baby girls (both of them around 13 weeks old now) remained calmly oblivious to all the mayhem. Liliana Rose looked like she was taking the noisy Canberra branch of the family in her stride.



Luckily Abi has grown used to big sister's attention and extreme "close ups".  They are extremely tactile towards each other and shared a lot of laugh out louds on Saturday afternoon.

Lucky Granny K got to see and have hugs with five of her six beautiful great children on this Mother's Day weekend.  That was the best gift of all. Thank you John and Erin and Liliana for making that possible.

Stromlo Forest Park

Thank you Jack and William for the link to the new cycling facilities opening up at Stromlo Forest Park.  Nine years on from being completely devastated by the January 2003 firestorm an exciting new park is emerging for keen Canberra cyclists and runners.

We took Ella for a very late afternoon ride this week. She quickly tired of the little track around the play area, opting instead for a complete circuit of the 2 kilometre big person's track.

She gave Stromlo Forest Park a mark of 1100 out of 10!!

BTW we were amazed to hear her reading (unprompted) "Cotter" (Road) from one of the roadsigns leading to the park

Bendigo Grace

Bendigo is only two hours drive north of Melbourne, but together we've only ever visited this small town once before, many years ago (that's apart from my short work related visit there back in 2002).

Seeing we were in Victoria anyway at the weekend we couldn't miss an opportunity to see the Grace Kelly Style Icon exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery. First staged at the V&A Museum in London, and then on to New York; it seems amazing that it has ended up here in Bendigo of all places.

The gallery has been inundated with visitors - tickets all have to be prebooked and there is timed entry. We were booked in at 10.00am (opening time) on Monday morning and there was quite a crowd waiting to get in from 9.30am onwards.

Needless to say we both enjoyed the exhibition. Rob and I have seen enough of Grace Kelly's old Hitchcock films to get a buzz out of seeing her costumes and the background stories on them and I really enjoyed seeing her princess paraphernalia, her French couturier wardrobe (a Hermes bag and Chanel suits for walking the children to school no less) and the family stories told very discreetly but revealingly through montages of old film clips and still photos. Seeing this material prompted me to help Rob stay alert during the late stages of our 7 hour drive back to Canberra by reading him Wikipedia summaries of all the scandals befalling the ill fated Grimaldi family over the past 40 years.

I will enjoy my next Rear Window viewing (for the 5th or 6th time by now) that much more now I understand the significance of Grace Kelly's wardrobe in that film so much better.

Back in Canberra it was great to catch up with the girls today. Abbie looked a perfect peach in pink - and now 9 weeks old.

Ella was in fine form. She's been watching Dancing Down Under carefully and can now do a very creditable Irish jig - Riverdance style - kilt and pony tail flying, head and torso very erect!

She keeps it up for hours on end while ever the Chieftains are playing and there is an appreciative audience.

Melbourne day two

Melbourne dawned foggy and cool for us today but we had brunch to look forward to - with David and Vanessa. While they stayed vego we went for the best rare beef noodle soup (Pho) on Victoria St Richmond (at I heart Pho), which is really saying something in this little corner of Vietnam in Melbourne.

We said goodbye to this very special pair at Rose Street Fitzroy. Rob and I wanted to spend some time in one of our favourite areas of Melbourne today starting with the Saturday morning markets in Rose St.

A stroll down Rose St gave us some great street views of tumble down terraces, super modern architectural marvels and lots of purposeful (we think) grafitti art.

With a lot more walking westwards we found our way eventually to Lygon Street Carlton. Of course then it was impossible to resist trying the food at one of the enticing looking Italian eateries lining this famous Melbourne Street. We were at Tiamo Coffee, and I am so pleased I chose a lightly crumbed bocconcini salad with pears and proscuitto with my Peroni beer. Beautiful!

After lunch we headed south down Lygon Street, then left at Pelham St until we found the glossy, modernist Imax and Melbourne Museum buildings standing proudly opposite the grand old Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens.

We found it very easy to spend an hour or two in this wonderful museum enjoying the Mind and Body and the Top Designs exhibitions showcasing student works produced for the Victorian Certificate of Education.

Walking back to the city we found the late afternoon light particularly suited this most mellow of Australian cities, with its affable and well mannered citizens. 

This is our lovely view outside our hotel room on the eighth floor across to Flinders Street Station, the Yarra River and Southbank beyond.

Melbourne

This is 12-18 Yarra Place in South Melbourne...an exterior shot of the reknowned St Ali (cafe) where we had arranged to meet Erin and John and baby Liliana for Friday morning brunch. Our first view of St Ali made us wonder how baby friendly the place might be.

Inside this unprepossessing industrial building though, the place was really buzzing, loads of atmosphere, great coffee roasting smells and uber cool but friendly service.

Liliana (9 weeks old on Friday) had no trouble at all continuing her morning sleep among the cafe hubbub while we caught up on new baby and Melbourne news from John and Erin.

Liliana slept all through coffees and breakfast, finally waking up for a relaxed feed, a bit more dozing and then time for a bit of socializing with us.

Erin and John look very happy with no sign at all of the reduced sleep time they now have. They are making a great life and a new family now in wonderful Melbourne.

We were treated to a full on display of Liliana's ability to charm. She is smiling up a storm now and is full of curiousity about facial expressions and making sounds.

I was lucky enough to have my own lively, smiley interaction with Liliana, which she seemed to enjoy - what a heart breaker!

We had a lovely two hours or so with E & J & L and it was sad to see them go.

Afterwards we spent some time up on Cavendish Street, exploring the wonderful South Melbourne Markets, the cool shopping options available in the little independent boutiques...

and exploring some of the character filled side streets in this very trendy part of inner Melbourne. It reminds us of some parts of Surrey Hills in Sydney but without the heavy traffic and crowding.

 







For a complete change we then walked up to St Kilda Road where we caught the number 8 tram to Toorak Village for bit of a wander around the very upmarket shopping village there. I found a pair of Arche boots to buy while Rob counted all the BMWs driving past on Toorak Road.

 
 
We caught the tram back to Flinders Street Station, enjoyed a lovely floral scented beer in the very comfy top floor lounge of Young and Jackson's Hotel before meeting Rob's dear friend David and his Vanessa for dinner at Akira, 177 Brunswick Street Fitzroy, their favourite Japanese Restaurant in Melbourne.

It's been almost two years since we saw David and Van in Bali so there was a lot of catching up to do, while enjoying the freshest most beautifully prepared seafood I've enjoyed in a long time.

Big

Life's a lot more relaxed during school holiday time. The girls all love a walk up the road, at any time of the day, to Biginelli's, a proper Italian cafe in the depths of Canberra suburbia.

This afternoon Ella orders us all a coffee (and gets it all correct!) and herself a choc mint gelati. The energetic young Italian barista knows Ella quite well, being the regular she is.

Abbie (now 8 weeks old) hasn't had an Italian experience directly yet but enjoys these visits to Biginelli's nevertheless. She's been smiling for a few weeks now and today I am very thrilled because she smiled (a lot) at me for the first time.

The park nearby rounds off the outing.

We continue to be amazed by Ella's fitness. In the pic below she was pulling her body weight up by her hands....she has great abs, great biceps. No match for Granny & Grandpa.

She's also a whiz on my iPad. This week she changed my screen saver to a photo of her choice (of herself) without anyone showing her how to do it.

She still loves putting on a "performance" for us: wild free form dance moves to an assorted playlist. Today for the first time I saw Abbie getting very excited watching her big sister dance..arms and legs kicking, eyes blinking, especially during the pirouettes! Ella has begged her Mummy & Daddy to let her share a bedroom with Abbie. They're on a week long trial.