On with the weekend!

We had probably the busiest weekend for a while planned - morning tea with the Nevin side of the family at the Botanic Gardens before Grandie left to go home followed by lunch with the Graham side of the family at Gungahlin/Yerabi Park. We also had a date with some Princesses on Ice on Sunday - but more about that in the next post!

A wonderful suggestion was made to have a morning tea at the Botanic Gardens - it was a lovely winter morning and sitting outside in the sun was an excellent way to start the day (well for some it was the start of the day - we'd been awake for hours ;)). The aunts and uncles took turns taking Alex and Sebastien for wanders around and managed to see some kangaroos and different birds - and an inquisitive (or perhaps knowledgeable) wattle bird came to check out our table, eventually settling on the sugar container on the next table.In a repeat performance, Sebastien managed to charm half of Aunty Clare's milkshake away from her - sucker!

It was sad saying goodbye to Grandie and Alex kept asking why Grandie had to leave, why she lived in Armidale and why she couldn't come to China - oh and she also renewed her questions about why Poppie had to work in Armidale, after all, he was a Poppie and they don't work (it reminded me of the time in America when we told her he was a doctor and she laughed and said "Noooo, Poppie isn't a doctor - he's a Poppie!" She'd know!) She did get that he had students that were relying on him to work there - so beware of sudden questions about the names of your students Poppie!

We then headed to Yerabi/Gungahlin Park to meet the other half of our extended family. It was a kind of combined birthday celebration for Uncle Craig and cousin Tristan and the park had some fabulous play areas. Sebastien really likes water - as was very evident from him trying to throw himself in with the water birds! Those swans really enjoyed the bread we were offering!
We all gathered around a special birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday" before blowing out some candles. Sebastien and Alex really enjoyed the sausage sandwiches - with plenty of tomato sauce/ketchup! Uncle Tim was disappointed that he wasn't so recognisable to Alex and Sebastien - who had pretty readily recognised the other uncles - so we took a more updated photo for them to see. Then it was time to say goodbye to everyone and head for home. It was going to be a very early rising day the next day - we were driving to Sydney to see the Disney Princesses on Ice show with Aunty Annie, Chelsea and Kalan!