VISITING THE BOTANICAL GARDENS......

We had a little talk to the kids this morning and convinced them that it would be nice to have them stay for another week.  Willow was a little concerned at first as she really missed her Mum, but poppy can be very convincing and in the end she was happy to stay longer....

Being the end of the week, the kids were pretty tired, and school had been full on this week, as they had extra work to do to make up for the public holiday... so I let Willow skip a couple of things, we just needed to get out of the house.....

Working on her technology unit...

 One good thing about doing school from home is that you get to go to school in your PJs....
She decided this morning that she did not want to get dressed, she just wanted to do her work in her PJs so why not.....

Her technology unit...

 I was really surprised that she knew what each of these items were, except for the hand drill..  These are all items I am familiar from my childhood but they haven't been around for a very long time....

She found creating her own problems here a little difficult but had not problems doing the ones on the worksheet.

 It is never any problem for Max to get his work done... The iPad is a huge draw card for him...

 I am amazed at how much he is learning about his letters and sounds by doing Reading Eggs on the iPad.  It really engages him, and he has been telling me about the different letters and the sounds they make... 

Doing his Reading Eggs on the iPad....

We grabbed our hats and the kids collected their scooters and we headed up to the Botanical Gardens....

It was a lovely walk, and Willow in particular scootered all the way there.... Max enjoyed riding his scooter on the down hill sections but complained of tired legs when he had to go uphill and it was then that I had to carry the scooter for him.

 Max was only just down the road and the whinging had started...  and he planted himself on the footpath... 
His legs were tired...
His legs were sore....
He didn't want to ride his scooter...
He told us he wasn't going....
 Willow and I just continued to ride and walk towards the gardens... I figured or at least I hoped that once we had rounded the corner and were out of sight he would come running...
Well we head him all the way down the footpath... He had the biggest crocodile tears....

A very unhappy little boy

totally loosing the plot....

 Poor Willow was trying to encourage him, but his little shoulders were still dropped....

Whenever they come to visit we always head  up to the Botanical Gardens,  but normally we would visit the zoo and then the playground.  This time round, both of these areas were closed....

Instead we headed up to the kiosk under the beautiful fig trees and ordered some little mini cookies and malted milks...

It is such a lovely area and there were plenty of tables and chairs out in the open so we found a spot and sat down.....

The kids loved that the birds came and settled on our table....

Honey eater birds

 There were lots of ibises around also, but Max was a little worried by these birds and a little frightened by them.  He loved the parrots and honey eaters and loved that they were coming to the table to be fed....

enjoying her malted milk

love that smile

Enjoying his biccies...

My beautiful granddaughter

Both the children  wanted a lime malted milk, but as they didn't have lime decided to try a caramel malted milk instead.... The drinks were huge and neither child could finish their drink... They were a little too sweet I think,  both children admitted to me after the event that they hadn't tried caramel before but in hindsight I probably should have only bought the one drink between them.

I ended up finishing their drinks for them...

 Whilst we were up there, I caught up with a friend who scrapbooks with me, and she was telling me about some fish hotels that the council has set up on Murray Lagoon, so I thought it would be good to come back later this afternoon with Steve to see if we could find them..

The kids  were keen for a movie night or games night tonight... Normally at their place, they have a family movie night on Friday night where the kids get to have finger food for dinner and watch a movie... In trying to keep there stay with us as normal as we can, we decided to have continue their routine at our place, so we discussed what food they would like for dinner, and it was decided that Pizza would make for a good dinner tonight.  Now that they were staying the extra time with us, we needed to head down to Aldi to pick up a couple of pizza's and some food for extra toppings for it. 

It was just before 5.30pm when we left home.. We decided to head up to the Botanical Gardens to see if we could find the Fish Hotel... As we only had half an hour before the gates closed we knew it would only be a quick visit...

Unfortunately the round around the lagoon was closed to general public and only staff could enter.  We could of got out the cars and continued the walk, but we had no idea how far round they were and since we now had less than half an hour decided not to risk it tonight....

Instead we headed down to the pontoon into the lagoon to check out the bird life and the turtles...
The kids particularly loved seeing the turtles come out of the water and head towards us especially when they pretended to throw bread to them.  Just the arm throwing motion seemed to excite the turtles and they all came running towards us...

Sunset over Murray Lagoon

 The turtles came running up to visit us....

 A lovely time of days to be outdoors...

Birdlife around Murray Lagoon...

 By the time we left here we only had about 5 minutes before the gates were due to close....
We made a quick trip down to Aldi to pick up the few things we needed and then it was home to get the kids bathed and ready for dinner and movie night...

On the way home, the kids decided that rather than a movie, they wanted to play Sonic on the X-Box with Poppy instead...  Once we got home they got their gear for their baths.  Steve supervised them whilst I put more topping on the pizzas and got them into the oven....

Meat lovers and Hawaiian Pizza for dinner....

Once they were dressed, they headed into the lounge where they were keen to help Steve set up the XBox ready to play.. Meanwhile I was getting their dinner out of the oven and setting up a picnic area on our lounge floor...

Willow getting into the groove of the game....

Max was just keen to watch..... not participate.....

This was a great activity to do together, as instead of using remote controls, you got to do it kinetically instead... Willow loved it, but Max was a little more reserved and was just as interested in watching rather than participating...

Today has been a great day...
Tomorrow will be better as we have a full day planned with the kidliwinks.