The Rainbow Connection

A few days ago, when Alanna had some friends over for a play, we saw this:

   Sorry about the horrible picture, but hopefully you get the idea. And at the end of the rainbow is Alanna's golden hair  :-)
   A couple of days later, Alanna called me over to look at the birds in the tree in front of our house. Here's one of them, a rainbow lorikeet!

   The next day was the Fourth of July which, alas, is not a holiday Down Under. Andy was in Adelaide all week, and the girls were out of school (week one of a two week holiday, dividing up Terms 2 and 3 at school.) No fireworks, no beloved neighborhood bike parade, no water balloon fights, no hotdogs/hamburgers/watermelons/potato salad. We settled on some playdates: one set of sisters in the morning, another set of sisters in the afternoon. I considered taking the girls to "Maccas" aka McD's for a hamburger like one of my American friends. Instead we made homemade pizzas.
   Afterwards, the girls watched The Tooth Fairy while my friend and I poured through travel guides. They were supposed to come with us on our trip up to Queensland, but those darn ballet competitions of her daughters got in the way. She promised that they'd come with us on a trip in September, on the two week holiday between school terms 3 and 4. Where to go? Uluru? Adelaide? Kangaroo Island? Margaret River? hmmm, most Aussies tend to vacation overseas...Fiji, Bali, Thailand, Vietnam...we're undecided, but stay tuned!
   The next day we went to a very cool park, the St. Kilda Adventure Playground. From that website is a great description: Chock full of play areas including a big aeroplane, big wooden horse with saddle, trampolines, tree for climbing, go-kart path, big metal slide, chook house, ride on dinosaur, various swings and slides, real flying fox (six years and older), cubby house, elephant, climbing frames, pirate ship, metal half-pipe, little basketball court, big tepee, big wooden castle with lots of nooks and crannies (like the House of Horrors at Luna Park without the horror) and great tunnel slide. 
   The trampoline was at ground level and there were even numbered spaces for kids to wait their turn:

   On Saturday, we were faced with the harsh reality of Melbourne winter. Frost! Andy actually had to scrape off the windows of our car before he could head in to the city for his race on the Yarra. I wanted to stay snug and warm in my bed (sending many thank yous the person who invented the electric blanket..which in this country are more like heated mattress pads you lie on top of instead of underneath) but Aliya jumped out of bed, eager to cheer Andy on. How could I refuse? Alanna was at a friend's house for a sleepover, so she was safely, and warmly, dozing away while Aliya and I tramped through the frosty grass to the train station. She got a kick out of making "smoke" come out of her mouth when she exhaled!
   The last race we watched was drizzly, so I was thankful it was a bright sunny day, and not too windy. We got a great view of Andy as he rowed under a bridge.

   Our cheering must have worked, as he came in second! Okay, his strong rowing might have had something to do with it. Regardless though, he's loving  the fact that he's now rowing, and racing, on a fairly regular basis. Normally he's with a group of eight in a larger boat, but he's enjoying the winter single sculling races.
   That night we were invited to join another family at the Wild Nights at the Werribee Zoo.  Oh what the heck. What's the point in trying to stay warm? We followed the Zoo Director's advice which was to "Grab a torch (flashlight), rug up (bundle up) and head to the Zoo." 

 A highlight for us was the Serval under the Stars presentation. Having no idea what a serval actually was (we joked maybe it was like a web server) we were delighted to see this little guy:

 Toasting marshmallows. No s'mores unfortunately, as they don't have graham crackers here, although you can find Hershey's chocolate occasionally...

We headed off home and went to bed, which is what I need to do now. Tomorrow is going to be a very big day for us. Not sure if I can blog about it before we leave on our trip, but stay tuned!