Water Play at Darling Quarter

As we are in town for the Australia Museum, and the weather is beautiful today, we stop off at Darling Quarter to visit the Playground, an open air public playground incorporating large water play features. Not really prepared - all the other children are in swimmers and sunshirts, but we will make do. At least there is a towel in the car.

The water play area included several mini-canals including sluices and gates, plus water jets, water screws, scoops and funnels. Incredibly busy, which doesnt bother the tripinos - but makes it interesting trying to watch out where they are going. Cat herding in a cattery.

Incidentally, Arup are environmental consultants for the new 6 star GreenStar accredited Commonwealth Bank office buildings which form the public precinct for developers Lend Lease.

Australia Museum

Kate has been banished - sent to stay with friend Janet in Mosman for a couple of days post-christmas relaxation. There were a few indicators that Kate might be of some well-needed rest when she tried to polish the kitchen table with spray adhesive.

So with Kate away, we need to keep the children engaged. Off to Australia Museum on College Street. The Museum exhibits Australian natural sciences and cultural history from Aboriginal culture, local flora and fauna (and there is quite a bit of that) and so on.

The Kidzone has a series of pods exhibiting insects, sea-life, volcanos etc, and Hannah, Zach and Thomas move from one to another to look at stick insects and spiders under the microscope.

Hannah models her new butterfly wings...

One section of the museum contains a definitive exhibition of Australian birds, insects and spiders. All three really enjoyed this and took time to look at most of the exhibits - at least the ones at their eye level. I'll spare the spider pictures.

Third turkey in three days - one in our garden, one in the park, and another in the museum (it's Brush Turkey (not Bush Turkey, as I have been calling it).

The final section is Search & Discover - an information and resource centre. One of the staff members kindly explained how an echidna eats only ants, and sent them on a 20 minute exploration to find an Echidna feces display. Lovely.

We also discovered that a Zach Turtle can't carry a Thomas.

Captions welcome for Thomas below.

My go.... "Schieß' auf die Fenster!" (You would have to know: (A) Die Hard (B) Some basic German (C) That Tatti, our Aupair, is German).

Christmas 2011

Christmas at Lane Cove. The decorations made it over from Dubai, but apparently we are meant to have a gold star on the tree, and not a red one. According to Zach, "You have to change it, right now!"
Christmas morning and Hannah has a new ballet outfit, which she is quite pleased about.

Thomas and Zach get toy cars which change colour when you put them in hot or cold water. You would nat have thought that this was the most interesting thing in the world, but in a three year old's hands, that takes care of the afternoon.

Just made me laugh

Nothing to do with Triplets

Happy 125th Arsenal.

Rain in Sydney

More rain in Sydney, with thunderstorms coming through on Sunday afternoon. We spent the morning in the park, with SPF15 everywhere. We spent the afternoon at home, with rain coming down outside, Zach with his fingers in his ears claiming "The clouds are banging together."

It does make some spectacular images though, as the storm front comes in.

At Kate's request:

As part of a general plan to get the children more tired in the evening (and go to bed quicker), we have re-introduced an after dinner walk to burn off that residual energy. The boys, in particular, have been bouncing around on their beds, leaning out of the windows and shouting at the neighbours (Hey Guys! My name is Zach!!), or pulling all the toys, books and blankets out the cupboards and having a camp out / picnic / rave party.

These walks have now turned into "Adventures" and can take any number of routes (Favourites include 'Tatti's Walk to Germany' and "The Steps"). Invariably, the Tripinos come back bouncing with energy, running up the final hill, followed by one or more exhausted parents.

First, we need to make sure we have our bags, carrying refreshments, pieces of paper (maps), and the occasional Familiar.

And, we're off....

This particular route is the Bush Walk - down the hill next to the house, into Lane Cove reservation, along a bush trail alongside the river, across two bridges, back on to road, an uphill slog back home. 1.8 km with a refreshment break halfway.

The red route is the Bush Walk, and the Blue Route is known as The Steps. But beware! There are occassional hiding places along the way, and you may be ambushed unexpectedly.

Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park

It's been raining for about 5 days constantly, so when the weather finally breaks at the weekend we head to Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park on the North Coast ("Australia's Best Wildlife Sanctuary" - it's okay, but there is obviously not very much competition).

About an hours drive north of Sydney, this is a small managed reserve with some larger areas for more mature visitors. We'll stick with the touristy stuff - especially as I only brought "thongs" {transl:flip-flops}. We start with a few snakes, lizards and other things whose natural habitats involve walls and little doors that only open to drop dead mice in.

Thomas and Zach take great interest in the fruit bats and owls. One of the bats is named Hannah, so we all have to have a bat named after us.

The emus dont seem to show much fear, so you have to keep your eye open that they dont try and grab anything out of your hand.

The bush track straightens out, and the boys turn it into a running race.

Next, we explain the life cycle of a tadpole/frog. I only have to make some of it up.

We stop on the trail for lunch with a friend.

And then say "hello" to Dexter the Cockatoo.

Hannah is particularly concerned that we didn't see any of the Dingos in their enclosure. She then spends 20 minutes telling us that we must not go near "the Mangos". Not sure what that was about.

Zach and Thomas - sometimes they are hard to tell apart....

And the grand finale - the snake. A black headed python - to be honest, I am not suprised that the kids were not afraid of the snake, but I am suprised that Kate got that close!!