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Christy and Sydney have just returned from a short visit to Brisbane. They both seem to have a fantastic time. Only, the plane arrived at 0050 which meant that we arrived home in the early morning hours of Saturday. After sleeping in and a hearty breakfast (at least for Christy and Thomas) we decided to get some fresh air and tire Sydney out.
What better than quickly heading to Brighton beach. This was the first outing in our new car. We all enjoyed some time at the beach despite the gray weather with cooler temperatures. As a matter of fact, swimming would have been a real option as the sea was still quite warm.
Now here is the interesting tidbit. These lovely beach houses at Brighton Beach start at 350'000 AU$. For this money, other people can buy some quaint houses! It never fails to amaze me, what people spend their money on.
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Switzerland! We have not been there for three years. The last time was when Sydney turned a few months old. So we decided to heed the invitation to Mother's special birthday and visit Switzerland again.
Given the new job situation, which also meant that Thomas has no cushy vacation bank or as they call it here leave bank, we had to squeeze as much as possible into a very few days.
The trip this time was not only longer (23h air time!) but also not in the luxury of business class. Still, it was worth every aspect. Also, this time Tyler could not accompny us, a pitty!
The trip started in Melbourne with a flight to Sydney. This flight is only about an hour an no further problem. After arriving in Sydney, we managed to walk through the internals of the airport straight to the international gate. As it should turn out later, this was not the way we should have done it. In any case, after a few hours of lay over, we boarded a 777 under the wings of Singapore airlines. The flight was heading to Singapore and it was our first long leg of the trip. We were amazed to see how far Singapore is from Sydney. After 4 hours of flight we barely left the Australian continent. Another four hours later saw us in Singapore. At that time it was almost midnight local time. We were so happy that Christy had reserved a hotel room.
After consulting the schedule for the next bus to the hotel, we decided to take a cab and thereby minimize the additional wait. In the hotel we sank to bed and slept like rocks. The next morning there was time for a hearty brekky followed by some time in the simming pool. (Sydney knows by now, that hotels mean, there is a swimming pool!) Then packing up and back to the airport.
The next leg of the trip was even longer. We flew from Singapore straight to Zurich, were we arrived in the evening. Luckily Zurich serves the luggages rapidly up and we found ourselves soon on the way to Basel.
The time in Switzerland passed by in no time. We wanted to visit a large number of people, but in the end only managed to see the immediate family. Apologies to all we could not see. We do hope to come back for a longer time in the future, or host you in Melbourne.
The trip back was uneventful after having worked out some problems at the checkin. The fact that we did not exit the terminal in Sydney and check back in meant, that there was no trace of us leaving the country. Coming back in caused a bit of a problem. This was sorted out with the help of the checkin assistance. We travelled the reverse path to Sydney went by minute by minute. Luckily Sydney slept for a long time. In Sydney we missed the deadline to check in luggage for the flight to Melbourne by a few minutes. We hence ended up once more in a hotel and took the next flight in the morning. All in all a long trip and we all were glad to be back in our own four walls, but happy to have had a chance to see family.
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This weekend was Anzac Day in Australia. Anzac Day is best compared to Veterans Day in the US. There are parade and dawn church services.
We had a long night with Sydney needing some attention and certainly did not get up for a dawn service. Instead we attended our regular church service. It turned out to be special. We ended the service by singing "Advance Australia Fair". These are the moments when we are glad for modern communication. Thomas managed to quickly pull the lyrics off the internet. So we stood and sang the hymn peeking at the phone with the lyrics. Later on, Thomas was asked to give the closing prayer.
Monday was a public hoiiday and most stores kept closed. We took the opportunity as a family to go to the Collington Children's Farm.
The day was nice and warm and turned into a roaring success. Sydney started with feeding the horses. A bit hesitant at the beginning, after all horses are really big, she overcame her fear and gave the horses some grass. We then continued into the farm and made it just in time for the Guinea Pig cuddling. Sydney was all excited and took several turns to hold, pet and feed the animals. Once the cuddle session was over, we headed on to the chicken and geese. Luckily we had some bread with us. The animals were quite aggressive, something Sydney did not like. Still she loved feeding the chicken. After a quick visit to the goats, with another attempt to feed animals, we had to return. Christy got us some fantastic, organic lunch. It was great!
We yet had to see the rest of the farm, but this is for another time.
PS: did I mention, that Sydney loves to cook? She starts the morning with helping to cook some bacon; or pasta in the evening when daddy comes home.
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Hard to believe but Sydney already turned four this week. She has been mesmerized by Dora over the past year. What else but a Dora party could we do in this situation? Yet, let's start at the beginning of the week.
Sydney's birthday fell on a Thursday today. So after having some of gymnastics first, Christy had organized a get together at an indoors activity place. Sydney enjoyed her little friends showing up and playing. they also got to enjoy home made cup cakes (thank you Mammi!)
Kindergarten was on the next day's program. There, too, they acknowledged Sydney's birthday. Once more cup cakes, games and songs.
And then, today we had the big finale. Christy had planned a Dora themed princess party for a long time. She had been looking around for all the things needed from dresses, to napkins, eating ware and and and. We also purchased a helium kit to blow up balloons, another thing Sydney just loves.
At 13:00 it was finally time to start with the first guests arriving. In the end there were 8 kids accompanied by parents. They started the afternoon with decorating cupcakes. I am not sure whether there was more decoration on the cakes, in the stomach or at the floor, but it was fun! Following the cup cakes Christy had planned out games. After a little hesitation about the rules, the kids liked the game. All in all the afternoon was far to fast over. Last but not least, Sydney got to open presents. She got so much and loved her new toys.
Sydney declared that she would have some more birthday tomorrow. Good try! Then again, this is nothing compared to the Birthday month some other members in our family declare.
Anyway, thank you Mammi for getting the best party; thanks to all who contributed to these memorable days and Dad you should really lose some weight. Check out the pictures!
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After weeks of waiting the Queen's Birthday was today. We had a particularly bad start with Sydney waking up with terrors. She would not sleep well, nor did we. Well...kids.
After a hearty breakfast consisting of Christy's fantastic Ricotta pancakes, berries and ice cream, we got a few things done before heading out to Healesville. As you may recall, Christy has been proud owner of a zoo membership. Sydney loves seeing animals and recently indicated that she wanted to go to the zoo again. The combination of these brought us out to Healesville Sanctuary which is part of Melbourne's Zoo system.
The day was fantastic; the weather warm. Sydney was very good in the car and spent a lot of time singing and painting. Soon enough we arrived at the Sanctuary. This was just in time for the start of the shows.
First we got to see the domestic parrots, followed by a quick potty run. Back again, we got to the end of the Dingo presentation before having to head to the prey-bird demonstration. This one had to be cut short for the unplanned visit of some wild predator birds. They circled first well above us, but soon joined in to watch the show from nearby trees. At this time, Sydney started to get visibly tired. Hence, we made it to the Platypus and the snakes before having to head back.
All in all a marvelous day together as a family. Especially fantastic is the fact that many of these animals are still in the nature and can be seen close to agglomerations. We have had lots of different parrots in the area!
Before I forget, happy birthday Queen and thanks for such a splendid day.
Enjoy some of the pictures from today. Sydney obviously enjoys her dancing and the time with her Mammi.
