Friends, beach, a spider and a snake, climbing Pete's tree on Australia Day

We visited the Lawn Bowls club. Max has established a "clubhouse" behind the building. Members only, and you have to have a club "key" which is actually a flattened bottle top.

We went out to the Lindenow Pub for a counter meal. Our friend Seth from across the road came with us. The kids had chicken nuggets and a raspberry. It is in a beautiful setting with a view of farmland across the road.

The next day we bumped into Seth and his brother Coby again, at the giant slide at Howitt Park in Bairnsdale.

After that we went to the beach at Lakes Entrance. Here the kids were seeing jellyfish and schools of tiny fish over the side of the bridge. The beach is on the other side of this bridge. We paddled between the flags, wore sunscreen, and learnt never to turn your back on the waves in case they knock you over unexpectedly.

A few days ago we went along with Kate to visit her horse Ella at the Plunkett's place and caught up with Sam Plunkett the guinea pig, who was much fatter than when we met him a few months ago.

George with a blackberry muffin. The tears on his face are because his previous muffin was pecked out of his hand by a chicken. He dropped it and the chickens all came running over and ate it in about 5 seconds.

There was a dead red-belly black snake on the side of the road. This kind is poisonous, but very timid - they run away when they hear footsteps (or actually feel the vibration).

In other creepy-crawly news, a few days before, we found this Redback Spider in an out-of-the-way corner of the fence. (They are always in out-of-the-way corners which is why it is easy to avoid them).  We killed it after we took this photo. They don't always have the red spot, so the kids were told to stay far away from any spider with this shape. You can see a cockroach or something in the web next to the spider.

We were invited to a BBQ at Pete and Leanne's place on Australia Day. The barbie was in the shade of a beautiful climbing tree which entertained Max for hours. We had to pass potato chips and things up to him from time to time.

George took a few photos.

Max also took some "spy" photos from up the tree.

Towards the end of the day George thought he would have a go at climbing the tree too. Then they made some little rope swings. 

 

Road Trip to Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton

Last Thursday we went on a road trip.

Here are some horses we saw in the back of a truck.

We drove to Ballarat via Melbourne. After a long hot day, we stopped at Ballarat's Victoria Park and the kids played in the shade of huge mature Oak trees. Here is Max with an acorn.

We stayed at Gary's place (thanks Gary). His daughters have this cool fibreoptic lamp.

It was hot and sunny so we put on sunscreen every morning before going out. On the days we were swimming we reapplied 4 or 5 times. In fact George has become obsessed with sunscreen and wants to play with it all the time.

In Ballarat we visited old friend Kirsty and her husband Brett, and 2 of their 4 kids. Max and George and Anthony and Ryan played on the trampoline.

Here are Max and George watching cricket at the Ballarat Cricket Club later that day.

The next day, we visited Brett, Michelle, Jess the dog, Goat the cat, and rats Monster and Tank. They live in Bendigo. It was love at first sight for Max and the rats.

Rats are so agile, especially Tank. Max played with these rats for hours before Michelle put them away out of concern for their health. Thanks Michelle!

Monster even crawled under Max's shirt and into his armpit.

Later that day we were in Shepparton at Karen and Geoff's place. It was not a very warm day at all, but Max and George were determined to swim in Karen and Geoff's swimming pool straight away.

The next day was George's birthday. Sausage rolls for lunch.

This cute photo of Max was taken by George.

Karen and Geoff had very thoughtfully gotten George his very own baby alien for his birthday.

The alien likes to spend 12 hours in the light, then 12 hours in the dark, and you have to feed it or else its light stops flashing.

We made a birthday cake and sang happy birthday. Over the next few days emails saying happy birthday kept arriving and we sang happy birthday from those people too.

Karen and Geoff, thanks for being so great with the kids, and we are sorry that George bit the face off your duck.

Max was doing bombs in the pool.

Max explaining to George: "Come underwater with me and just slap my face when you want me to bring you up."

George went under with Max, but forgot to slap Max's face to signal him to come up.

But he gave him a good whack when they eventually did come up (Max thought it was very funny - it didn't hurt him).

The following day George was actually swimming underwater all by himself!

We drove back to Lindenow via Melbourne, stopping at the Pakenham McDonald's for lunch. Here is a handy map of all the "Maccas" in the state of Victoria.

We are planning to enquire about the pregnant guinea pig advertised for $10 on the bulletin board of the Lindenow General Store.

This week we will enrol Max in school and find out what his school uniform is going to be like. We are planning on catching up with Kate and wonder if she will let the kids ride her horses again.Cousins Holly and Piama have their birthdays in the same week as George, so we will visit them with our birthday presents.