We’ve been on the bullocks hut track a couple of times, but yesterday we made it the whole way to the hut. It’s amazing how slow we can be when the kids are on bikes. Toby doesn’t like pedaling uphill and makes me push him, there were a couple of crashes on the loose gravel, it was hot and we had to stop every few minutes for rests and drinks, Toby was constantly “a bit hungry”, and generally it was a frustrating experience for Andrew and me. Still, it was a nice walk.
Today my baby turned 4 years old. It was a hot day and we wanted to go for a swim later in the day, so we decided to start making the birthday cake when breakfast was finished. It was an easy job to mix the ingredients and put them into the cake pan, but for some reason I put the foil on top of the wire rack in the Weber instead of underneath it, and the bottom of the cake burned. So we cut the bottom of the cake off and iced the cake.
We had been told yesterday afternoon that the cake had to be a volcano cake. I was kind of hoping that the cake would rise in the centre when it cooked, but it was pretty flat when I took it out of the Weber. So we made a volcano-like mound in the middle of the cake with marshmellows and put brown icing all over it (because volcanos have to be brown). The cocoa to make the icing brown was provided by a fellow camper. Then I made some royal icing with icing sugar and egg white, and coloured it red, orange and green. The red and orange were to be the lava flowing down the side of the volcano, and the green to write Toby’s name on the cake.
Well, the final thing looked a bit of a mess, but the kids were ecstatic with the volcano cake. Because the day was so warm we decided to have the cake straight after lunch, and gave Toby his presents as well. Afterwards we went to the Thredbo pool and Nathan spent more than an hour going down the water slide while Toby spent nearly the same amount of time refusing to go down (after going twice with me at the start and he went under water so refused any more rides down the slide). Andrew finally talked Toby into going down with him and he held Toby out of the water at the end, and after that you couldn’t stop Toby….as long as he went down with Daddy.
Back at the tent site we had a fire to cook our dinner over, as requested by Toby, and marshmellows afterwards. Toby doesn’t like the marshmellows toasted, but he takes the opportunity of a fire to eat them uncooked.
Nathan writing a sign for the back of the camper advising people it’s Toby’s birthday today
Oohhh, a watch!
Nathan drying dishes
We decided to go camping for the weekend at a free campground called Aysons Reserve Camping Area on the bank of the Campaspe River. The weather forecast was for fine weather and it isn’t very far from Echuca where there is a Steam Rally on this weekend which we thought the kids would enjoy.
The campsite is relatively busy, particularly compared to last time we visited when there were very few campers. But there is a big area and it doesn’t feel too crowded. We first pulled up at the same spot where we camped last time, but a ranger came to talk to us and we were told that you have to camp further than 20 metres from the river (and if we were camped there when he got back we would receive a fine). There are no signs up, however, advising of this rule.
There has been quite a bit of work done to the camping area since our last visit. There is a long row of bollards along the edge of the road stopping people from camping too close to the river (they didn’t go as far as we were going to camp), the toilets have been upgraded (byo toilet paper) and there is a dump site for black water.
We set up the tent and Nathan started his regular trek around the neighbouring campers to chat to them, and he discovered that we were camped next to some people who had taken their 5-year-old granddaughter, Isobelle, camping for the weekend. Isabelle was taking a couple of small dogs for a walk and Nathan rode his bike beside her and chatted, and by the end of the day they were practically inseparable.
It was quite a chilly night, getting down to around 2 degrees overnight. Nathan sat on his bike for ages this morning waiting for Isabelle to come out of the caravan and ended up deciding to write her a note…there is a photo of it below. Originally he was going to sign it ‘Love from Nathan’ but in the end he left it unsigned.
Nathan and Isabelle
Morning mist on the river
Andrew and Toby with their warm morning drinks
March 22 was the national Ride To School day. Andrew and I found it surprising that Nathan’s school was actively involved in Harmony Day, Earth Hour and Clean Up Australia, there was a lot of discussion about exercise and healthy eating in Nathan’s class, and yet there wasn’t even a whisper of any promotion of Ride To School day by the school.
Nathan rode to school nearly every day of term 1. We walked a few times and drove once to school (when we had to take Andrew to his work before dropping the kids off at kinder and school) and we drove every Tuesday afternoon because we only had half an hour between finishing school and getting to swimming lessons. I’m quite proud of our effort at riding to school and I hope that the good start will mean that the kids consider riding to school the norm rather than something you only do when the weather is perfect….if then.
Technically the school doesn’t want Nathan to ride to school yet. Until this year the youngest kids they allowed to ride to school were those in grade 4, but it was reduced to grade 1 after Bicycle Victoria had a chat with the principal (after Andrew tweeted a photo of the school policy to Bicycle Victoria last year). We did sign the bicycle form which says that the kids have to wear and approved helmet and aren’t allowed to ride in the school grounds, and we figured that because Nathan is supervised to school it would be ok. I’m so confident of his road skills that I have thought more than once he could probably ride to school by himself and have wondered how old is appropriate to let him ride unchaperoned. It’s just the chance that he could meet a car coming out of a driveway and be unable to stop in time that has me riding beside (or a long way behind when Toby rides with us) him. I may not be able to stop anything bad happening, but at least I’d be there to pick up the pieces….and constantly remind him to look and listen for cars going in and out of driveways.
Anyway, because the school makes you sign a form before you can actually ride to school I guess it all becomes too hard to promote ride to school day, even though the day is more about leaving the car at home than being specifically about bikes. Riding, scooting, walking and skating to school are all suggested in the information about the day on the bicycle network homepage. Still, I was disappointed to see no more bicycles than normal in the bike rack. The most I have seen is 6 bikes and 3 scooters, though generally Nathan’s bike is one of 3 or 4 in the rack. In a school of around 700 kids I think it’s a bit of a poor effort. I wonder if more would ride if the school promoted it as a great, healthy and environmentally friendly way of getting to school.
My seat needs to be put up!
Up the hill in the park
Made it!
That was hard, now I need a drink
Crossing the road to the school
The nearly-empty bike rack on Ride To School day
A couple of weeks ago Nathan had a day off school for a curriculum day and I took the kids to the Eastern Hill Fire Station. Every week on Friday at 10:30 am they have a display for kids, and it was a fabulous hour…highly recommended for anyone in Melbourne with small kids.
At the fire station the kids were given plastic firemen hats and we sat down on the ground to wait. The first thing the firemen did was put out two fires. On one they used a fire extinguisher and the other was put out with a fire blanket. They talked about house fires and what to do if you were in one. They got some kids up to practice ‘crawl down low and go go go’ and Nathan was a willing participant. Next they talked about if your clothes were on fire what to do. Another little saying was demonstrated and some other kids went up to practice ‘Stop Drop Cover Roll’. Toby wasn’t interested in volunteering.
Next they talked about the clothes that they wore, both the ones they wore around the station and those they wore to emergencies. We were told that once the bell in the station rang they had 90 seconds to get into their gear and to the truck. Then a few little volunteers got to race a fireman getting dressed. They beat the fireman who had a lot of interference while getting into his gear.
A heavy rescue truck from the Carlton fire station then arrived with lights and sirens going. The firemen in that truck got out the jaws of life (called spreaders and cutters) and opened and then cut off a car door that was ‘stuck’. After that truck left another fire truck arrived to put out a ‘fire’ and rescue someone from the top of a two-storey house. This job required a ladder to be taken out of the truck and put up against the house while other firemen got the hose and directed water onto the fire in a well-rehearsed and smooth operation.
When all the displays were over the kids got to turn on a fire hose and sit in the fire engine. Nathan and Toby had a fantastic time, and I got some reminders of things we needed to remember to talk to the kids about.
My little firemen
Fire engine just arrived to an emergency
Jaws of life opened and then cut off a car door
The only working firemans’s pole in Victoria
The kids and I made the trek to South Australia to visit my aunt and her partner for the first part of their grape harvest. I had never been there at harvest time before, and Andrew and I thought the boys would enjoy the experience. So Thursday night after school the three of us set off in the car and drove to Horsham, leaving a recovering Andrew (he has pneumonia) with a stocked fridge and enough food and milk for the next few days. Friday we traveled for 6 hours to reach the farm and today was the big day. Harvest day!
Actually, the grapes are being harvested in two lots. Today we did some hand picking for some boutique wine and later in the week the big harvester machine will be used to grab the rest of the grapes.
The day started with us letting the chickens out of the coop and checking on the sheep. They are lambing and there was another new lamb this morning. Then it was down to the vinyard for some instruction on what to pick and then it was a simple matter of filling the black buckets. Simple but tiring and exhausting too.
The boys had a ball for the first couple of hours. They spent ages on the back of the ute asking people to hand them the full buckets to tip into the crates, and Toby also took delight in using the snips to cut off bunches of grapes.
When the crates were full they were loaded onto another ute and trailer to be transported to the winery. The wine maker, Vanessa, was there and she took the first four crates that were filled to the winery, and then we moved from the Tempranillo to the Shiraz grapes and started filling two more crates. By this time the boys were getting a little tired and hungry and then it started to rain and all they wanted to do was go back to the house. So took them back and we had a very yummy roast lamb lunch while waiting for the others to arrive.
It took a lot longer for the pickers to finish than anticipated, and it was mid afternoon before they were back in the house for their lunch! Then Shirley took the Shiraz grapes to the winery while Silver came with us in the car. We got a little lost, but eventually made it to the winery where we saw the Shiraz grapes being separated from their stems and squashed. Vanessa showed Nathan what was going on, and then she put in the yeast and we went back to the farm. We had a great day!
Letting out the chickens…we didn’t get them all inside last night, oops!
Moving the sheep to the next paddock
The quad bike is a favourite with the boys
The vinyard
Tempranillo grapes
Mack the dog got a lot of attention from the kids
The machine that separates grapes from stems and juices the grapes
Vanessa, the wine maker, showing Nathan the grape juice
Grape juice
Vanessa adding the yeast
Our day started with a very excited boy eating barely any breakfast and then getting dressed into his uniform. We all walked Nathan to school and because we left early there was time to play on the playground in the park that we walk past. Nathan was pretty quiet on the walk and I suspect he was a little nervous about school.
We got to Nathan’s classroom just a few minutes before his teacher arrived. He was the first one in the door and we found where he bag went, put has hat in a big box and he started drawing and playing with things in the classroom.
The bell rang so we said goodbye and left. Andrew watched Toby play in the playground while I went to the staff room where the principal told us a few things about the school and what to expect from our kids in the next few days.
After getting home Andrew took Toby to the shops to get a new helmet, new horn for his bike (and Nathan’s bike) because the plastic on their old horns had perished. I had a very quiet day on my own at home.
Andrew and Toby made it home in time to walk back to the school to pick up Nathan. Toby rode his balance bike and wanted to have another play in the playground. I had to pick him up, bike and all to get him past the playground.
When Nathan left his classroom and saw us he ran to us with a big smile on his face. He said he had a good day. We did stop at the playground on the way home where Nathan showed us the hat he had made today and told us about going to the library. He was even excited that he had notices and forms to give us. I think day 1 went very well. 🙂
Ready to walk to school
It didn’t occur to Nathan that he could take off his backpack at the playground
Cheeky little boy
Outside Nathan’s classroom
Toby at the school playground 🙂
No playing at the playground Toby, there’s no time
Nathan running to us after school
Mummy snuggles after day 1 of school
Walking home
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