Pizza!

On Sunday after church, we went with some friends to Noreuil Park where there is a community pizza oven.  We brought some dough and a whole lot of pizza toppings, and made our pizzas together.  The kids made their own, choosing their own toppings, which they loved.  They then took their pizzas on trays over to the pizza man running the oven.  He popped them in the 400 degree oven for us, and brought them out 4 minutes later, cooked perfectly.  The kids loved it (and so did us adults!).  Here's some photos

Mondays

I love Mondays.  They're the only day in the week that we have nothing on, and the kids and I can just hang out together.  Often we go to the library.  One Monday a few weeks ago we had a picnic lunch in the botanical gardens.  It was the first Monday of winter, and so there were still some autumn leaves on the trees.  It was very pretty, and the kids had a ball.

Mansfield zoo

We discovered, while we were staying in Jamieson, that it's actually a very touristy area.  Unfortunately, most things are closed for winter.  I guess this is because a) it's too cold and b) most people in the area at winter time are there for the snow at Mt Buller.  So, we found ourselves with two free days and not much to do.  We heard about a zoo in Mansfield, so I dropped Stefan and the two older kids off there while Claudia and I headed off to do some grocery shopping.  The kids were excited, although a little perplexed when they arrived - Mummy, where's the cable car?  This zoo, while nothing like Taronga, was good in its own right.  Its biggest positive was that the kids could get up quite close to the animals, and were even able to feed most of the animals (just not the lions!).  Here's a few photos

Farm-stay

We went away for a few days last week to a farm-stay in Jamieson (http://www.emeraldpark-jamieson.com/).  Such a great place to go with kids.  We fed the animals and did a few farm chores each morning and afternoon, which the kids loved.

Here are some photos from our time there.

Holly eating frost when we went out to feed the animals one morning.

Zac chatting to the cows

Feeding the cows...

...and the chickens (I think Holly was in the hen-house collecting the eggs).

Brushing the ponies.  They were a bit disappointed they couldn't have a ride!  (Apparently the ponies were very old... and maybe the kids are a bit too young anyway)

The kids had a ball!  Even Claudia was fascinated by the animals, and made cute little noises of surprise and delight when she saw them.  Two of our nights there we built a fire in the evening and roasted marshmallows.  Holly really got into it.  Zac didn't quite have the patience for it and preferred to just shove as many in his mouth as he could.

We loved our time there, it's definitely a place we'd go back to.