Hazel does Australia: Trips and treats part 2

While looking online, I found that it was Robert Irwin's birthday on Monday 1st December and in line with Bindi's celebrations, there would be a dinosaur themed day at Australia Zoo. Jack is into dinosaurs so I thought it would be a great day out for the two of us. With a little bit of groaning from the girls and a few reminders that they'd had annual passes before Jack was old enough, we made plans to spend the day there while the girls were at school.

With packed bags, we arrived at around 9:10am and just inside the entrance were all sorts of animals available to pat. Unsure of the echidna, Jack held back as I gave the pointed spines a stroke but as soon as the snake appeared he was right in there giving it a tickle.

After a hunt for the face paints (and even after choosing a design off the sheet, he still asked for Spider-Man!), we took the land train down to the Africa section and admired (and counted) the giraffes, zebras and rhinos.

Heading in the direction of the Crocoseum, we meadered round a yet to be opened Island and to the tiger enclosure. By this time we were both peckish so we ate some snacks as the keepers explained how the tigers are kept. Next was the koala and kangaroo walk through and we had the chance to pat a koala. We wanted to feed the kangaroos too but I wasn't sure where to buy food from.

Knowing that the Wildlife Warrior show was at midday we had a little time to spend on the rides...

...and the huge dinosaur inflatable which had been bought in especially for Robert's birthday.

It was nearly lunchtime so we grabbed our seats in the Crocoseum and polished off our sandwiches and other snacks while we waited for the show to begin. As it was Robert's birthday, he, Bindi and Terri were there and I couldn't help but feel it was incredibly staged. Of course it's going to be a little scripted and the gushing nature suited 16 year old Bindi on her birthday but as an 11 year old, Robert just seemed a little awkward and over enthusiastic. Still, the show was as exciting as it was back in July and the novelty would take several visits to wear off. My favourite part was still the birds swooping over our heads and this time a macaw flew onto the arm of a man close by, taking his $10 bill back to the trainer in the arena.

Because it was his birthday, Robert interacted with a 'dinosaur' before Bindi fed the crocodiles leaping from the water.

This was one of Jack's favourite moments as well as a blue macaw we'd seen earlier. The staff at the zoo are incredibly friendly and as we were walking around, we past a keeper taking said blue macaw to the bird walk through. Jack took an interest so she stopped to talk to him. Before she left she got the bird to say 'hello'. Jack was so impressed that he recounted what had happened to a complete stranger in front of the snake cages.

After the Wild Warriors show we stopped at a clay workshop, another special activity put on for Robert's birthday. Although the idea was to create a dinosaur, Jack wanted to make a snake and who am I to argue?! - he was still getting creative!

After a quick go on another crocodile inflatable slide and a pose in front of a real snake, it was time to collect Gracie from school.

By the time we got back to Narangba, it wasn't worth going home so we went straight to school and this time I managed to not leave the keys in the car!

On several evenings recently the younger kids have played out the front after dinner and even poor Millie is involved in all of the games.

Tuesday 2nd December arrived and both Jack and I were pretty tired after our big day out yesterday so we had a quieter day at home. Again, Jack would've been happy to watch the TV or the iPad all day but I enticed him away with a hand print Christmas tree. We carefully drew round his hand several times before cutting them out. It's interesting to hear young children say they can't do something when they've just not had much practice. This was the case with Jack and using scissors, he was adamant that he couldn't cut out but with a few encouraging words he donned the face of concentration and was cutting his hand prints out beautifully. I still found myself teaching, modelling different patterns on the baubles, and the look on Jack's face here shows how proud he was of our finished creation. His first words when we arrived home with Gracie were 'Come and look at my bedroom door!'

Thursday 4th December 2014 brought Molly's birthday 12th birthday and the day before saw me at the shops stocking up on birthday cake ingredients as well as birthday balloons and banners. We'd blu tac-ed the decorations up in the evening so they were up ready for the birthday girl in the morning. Molly's so polite that she opened every present with a 'thank you' but there were also plenty of genuine smiles when she opened her gifts.

Most of my day, while the children were out, was spent baking and decorating Molly's chocolate paw print cake. I quite impressed myself! When she got home and saw it Molly's exclaimed 'I get two cakes?!'

Deciding to spend Friday 5th December in the city, I took the train to Central station and headed to Dymocks to buy a New Zealand travel guide. I'm still undecided as to whether finances will stretch to a trip there but we'll soon see. Aimlessly ambling round and listening to buskers, it was still strange to see Christmas decorations in the warm weather!

The city centre was scattered with adverts for various events but a board describing an exhibition showcasing 'Costumea from the Golden Age of Hollywood' caught my eye so I headed to the Museum of Brisbane in the Town Hall to check it out. It was wonderful to see all the glamorous costumes collected by a Brisbane lawyer - for free as well! Many of the elegant costumes were worn by actors and actresses I'd never heard of but amongst these were a jacket worn by Frank Sinatra, a suit and blouse worn by Ginger Rogers and a coat worn by Barbara Streisand. Cleverly displayed dancing up the wall were a pair of trousers worn by Fred Astaire and they were accompanied by a large screen showing the scene where he danced over the ceiling and walls in The Royal Wedding. It took some innovative tricks and editing as I couldn't tell how it had been created! While I was watching him dance I realised that I'd never knowingly watched Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dance! Perhaps I need to add one of their films to my bucket list!

I'd planned to go to an event called 'Christmas at Sandgate' on Saturday 6th December. It was due to be held outside next to a lagoon but because of the bad storms which our area had endured recently, it was held in a grotty little community hall and kids face paints and jumpy (bouncy) castles didn't really appeal so I took a quick detour to a wet but peaceful beach to watch the many kite surfers.

After a search online to find out what else was on, I ended up in Scarborough (yes, it's near Margate!) where they were holding another Christmas event. Wandering round the stalls here was what I thought I'd be doing at Sandgate and to top it off there was a parade complete with wise men on tall camels!

It's funny what you recall from your childhood. As soon as I saw this old car I pictured Dad and I at Kenilworth library searching for Gumdrop books!

Seeing the Santa at the end reminded me that I won't seen the Round Table/Lions Santa tour round Kenilworth this year. Even as an adult I get excited when I hear his Ho Ho Ho echo out of his big speakers and wait with anticipation at the window for him to pass, waving wildly at him. I freely admit to being a big kid at heart!

With my trip out had ensured that I'd escaped Molly's giggling sleepover friends for a while but I was still woke early on Sunday 7th December 2014 when they decided it was a good idea to play hide and seek round the house!

Later that day the pool was invaded by around 10 of her friends for her party. Adults definitely kept out of their way as the leapt, dived and splashed the hours away, occasionally stopping to refuel on fizzy pop and snacks.

Just before the party finished, Molly blew out her second batch of birthday candles on her Hunger Games cake.

I'd bought some pool hoops for Molly's birthday but as they went unused I realised that perhaps they weren't cool enough for a 12 year old and felt guilty knowing that the younger two would use them more so on Monday 8th December 2014 I went to North Lakes to replace them with a How to Train your Dragon book. Cementing my prediction, when we swam in the pool during the afternoon, Jack's first request was to play with the hoops!

In the past couple of weeks I've made trips to the library a regular event so on Tuesday 9th December 2014 Jack needed to take his current books back and replace them with new choices so we went up to Caboolture, knowing that there was also the art gallery and a playground. After we'd chosen new books, we visited Caboolture Art Gallery because there was an exhibition based on cars and I'd previously seen paper models for children to make. They were no longer there however they'd been replaced with 'My Street' art so Jack got to work sticking black paper for the road, adding white sticker lines and thoughtfully choosing the colour and number of cars to drive along. Next we added the surrounds with very particular colours and precision!

During the afternoon we made chocolate cupcakes and Jack was excited to crack his first ever egg and again, his self doubt appeared when he said he couldn't whisk the mixture but with lots of helf and supervision he tentatively whisked the mixture up.

In the evening, I unexpectedly joined the family at Molly's primary school graduation. It was amazing how much effort had gone into the evening's 2 hour celebration, from the balloons to the cupcakes, the performances to the large cake, the PowerPoint presentations to the certificate packs. All for 127 students finishing primary school! That's more than 4 times the number I'm used to and the school is only 10 years old! Molly proudly sang the national anthem at the beginning of the evening and she looked gorgeous amongst her peers, even if she normally prefers trainers, caps and shorts to dresses, nail polish and curled hair.