Mordialloc Food and Wine Festival

Last Sunday the Bird family headed south to Mordialloc, to check out the Food and Wine festival that was on over the weekend. We had already been to this event a couple of years ago, but alas, although the kids had a lot of fun on the rides and so forth, the adults were left a little bit disappointed at an apparent lack in quantity/quality of this much-touted "Food and Wine" that we saw on the signs. In the end, we ended up getting a sausage in bread. It was apparently a "gourmet" sausage, but a sausage nonetheless.

This time around, we came with plenty of time to spare (just before lunch as opposed to just before dinner), and with a distinct lack of time pressure coupled with an abundance of daylight, we were free to more fully explore the place. As such, we were far more successful in locating the various food and wine stalls! Result: finicky adults were far more happy, and the kids had just as much fun as last time, so all in all, a fantastic day out!

PS. A word to the wise - if someone offers you a Peking Duck risotto cake, do NOT, under any circumstances, refuse it - yummo!!!

Mohawk boy and bubble girl

Just a couple of amusing photos from recent days.

Lucas had a "crazy hair day" theme at his school, so we decided to go the whole nine yards, and give him an old-school mohawk:

(We did, of course, complete the hair trimming after the day was over).

 Also, a quick snap of a very happy Alicia after Daddy forgot about the bath water for a little too long, ending up in a veritable mountain of bubbles (and only just missed out on flooding the bathroom!)

Guess who?

Lucas and I both went under the hair clippers today. Can you guess which pile of clippings belongs to whom? Take your time...

Labour Day long weekend - Wodonga, here we come (eventually)

Labour Day holiday in VIC last Monday - yay! We took advantage of the long weekend to catch up with the folks from Wodonga. Sadly, we got away way too late (about 4pm Friday), and spent the lion's share of our trip time stuck bumper to bumper in Melbourne traffic. Six hours in total - ouch! This was not helped by Alicia asking "are we in Wodonga yet?" every five minutes or so, starting from when we left the house.

Still, boring trip aside, we had a great time. We caught up with lots of friends and rellies, and Lucas and Alicia had a ball playing with Seth and Ty. Wodonga put on a bit of a carnival for us (they even put an "e" at the end of it - fancy!), and we had lots of fun there too. Alicia in particular really got into the spirit of things!

It was sad to leave, but at the very least, we managed to get a break on the traffic coming back into Melbourne, and the kids spent a lot of time in sleepyland, which was good for all concerned parties.

A day out at Oakleigh

Hmm, haven't been taking too many photos recently. Still, here's one of last weekend, when we were originally planning to go to the beach, but ended up being defeated by the rather strong winds that were blowing - sand in our faces, not to mention the complete inability to get the sun-tent standing up. In the end, we surrendered and instead went to the outdoor swim centre at Oakleigh. Not quite the beach, but a very nice place for a family picnic, nonetheless!

Unusual luggage

Jules recently went on a weekend away with some close friends. She took the smallest suitcase in our collection, as it was just a weekend trip. However, she quickly found some extra luggage that she did not plan for forcing its way into the equation!