Saturday, January 12 - Melbourne

The girls started the morning off by picking fresh fruit from Helen's back yard. They collected kumquats, green apples and crab apples. There is a lemon that should be ready by next week, too!

We then headed to the Collingwood Children's Farm. We went there 3 years ago with my dad, so it was lovely to go again. The girls really enjoyed it this time (as opposed to being only just-turned 2 years old and Ida in an ergo and asleep most of the time!). It is a lovely farm full of farm animals and a few peacocks! We saw goats, sheep, horses, cows and chickens. There is also a farmer's market there the second Saturday of the month, so we got lucky to go there, too! We found a present for daddy there (everyone is missing daddy and excited for him to arrive - C even wrote him a note!). There also was a "children's sensory room" set up, which was a lot of fun. The girls ran around bouncing on things, lying on things, checking out the glow room. All in all, a success, and a much cooler day than when we went 3 years ago!

Another exciting thing about yesterday was that we got to see my cousin, Jeremy, his fiancé, Lena, and their beagle, Moose. The girls don't remember meeting them all 3 years ago. Being total lovers meant that the girls were so into Moose and walked him, played with him and gave him lots of pats. They joined us at the Children's Farm.

We headed back to Helen's house, with a car nap on the way. Once there, we decided to check out the local library to borrow some books. It is a lovely, modern space, new construction with obvious attention to making it a place people want to go. It was clean, light filled, bright and comfortable. We had a great time reading tons of books in the beanbags and Helen and I almost fell asleep! We borrowed 6 books and then headed out for some ice cream. C chose banana this time, Ii chose cotton candy flavor, and S chose vanilla. After ice cream, we headed back to Helen's house where she showed off her art skills by making bat wings out of the cardboard she and C went on an errand to buy. The girls ran around the backyard playing "bat" for a long time. Then it was time for a bath and bedtime, but not before reading the library books!