Monday, September 30, 2013

The Queen's "Birthday" and Gia as the Little Girl in Charge

Corey left for Broome early in the morning.  He will be without technology until Saturday when he returns home!  I think he would rather go without food and water.  While we send good thoughts daily for him to master yogi poses and reach a level of relaxation surely not felt before kids, Randy and I continue to tackle the must-do's of Fremantle.

Lily and Caden are doing a tennis camp this week from 9-11a with TopSpin, the same outfit that they took lessons from before school, but this time down the hill at the TopSpin courts -
The line-up
Socializing at the break for cordial

Caden hanging with his buddies as they enjoy the Popsicle break (tennis fits in somewhere...)

Cooper and Dara

Caden and Oli


Gia hanging with her gal pals Charlotte and Ella

There's the tennis!

Seeing as how we are on school holiday, each of the kids gets a day to be in charge and plan the day.  Embracing the birthday holiday sham, we headed into Freo right afterwards to visit the Fremantle Markets (which are usually not open on Mondays).  And Monday is Gia's day to be the "Little Girl In Charge" :)  Her plan with the markets was to get a picnic lunch to take to the Esplanade play set.  So we did just that, stopping to enjoy street performers on the way.

The markets

Check out the color of that sky!  No adjustments made to the photo.

Lily and Caden are right in front
Gia watched from the comforts of her stroller :)


She really wanted to ride this riveting ride, as did her brother and sister, which was $5pp - seriously!  Aside from the merry-go-round, there was a goofy little clown game where you threw ping-pong balls into the clown's mouth and they would chorale into different number shoots, and a bouncy castle.  The genius businessman working the merry-go-round offered to let all kids do two of the three for $20.  Deal.

Woohoo!  

Cute hair caused by the wind, not the speed of the ride, which I could lap hopping on one foot.

Next up they decided to play the clown game.  Each clown was named after one of the seven dwarfs?!?  Go figure.  Gia and Lily each 'won' a doll and Caden a little skate board.  Gia's doll was comically junky.  Within a few steps from the booth, I had to reattach a leg.  No matter, she still carried it everywhere.  Here is the doll at the end of the day.  All legs and arms have been lost at various unknown points around Fremantle.  Sigh.



After a bit of a play...





...Gia convinced her Uncle Randy to take her on the long coveted Ferris-wheel.  With those crazy curls and big blue eyes, she takes makes her day to be in charge look effortless - especially where Uncle Randy is involved :)  It was a perfect day for the Ferris-wheel.  A clear day with the beautiful Perth-blue sky.  The views were incredible.








Little Creatures down below

Next stop was out for a coffee at Moore & Moore... Randy and I enjoyed a cuppa while the kids played in the little kiddie area.

The infamous door that opened when Gia was playing here last week.  And yes, I am yelling at the kids in the background '_'

Then our route home took us back by the markets, and there was another street performer out, so we decided to sit for a bit...

Great shot of the kid's faces watching the performance.

More fire juggling.  I think I'll keep my day job.  Wait - I don't have one right now!  Even better.

 The kids were getting a bit hungry, so we decided to head back into the markets to try out the creperie.  The kids have been in a bit of withdrawal with their daddy/crepe maker traveling.  We were not disappointed.  A big hit by all!  Lily says she will make crepes too when she is big :)



I am laughing hysterically, as were all passersby, because when Gia turned around she had a big chunk of crepe hanging from her mouth!  
Gia's day was a BIG success.  Once home, the kids put on their jammies and watched some cartoons, falling asleep in the chairs.  Caden up for tomorrow...

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Sunday in Margaret River

Sunday morning we all met for breakfast at Garanup over by Margaret's Beach Resort where we stayed a few weeks back.  After a great breakfast, we headed down to the beach for a coffee from Morries Anytime, which has the great location of being right there overlooking the surf.  Our barrista was from Georgia on a one-year assignment with Morries after just graduating from culinary school.  I have added this to my Life Chart :)
The view of paddle boarders - they use the paddle to surf down the swells.

The game - Run from the waves :)


After playing around for a bit, and losing Uncle Randy on a straight trek along the ocean "we" sent hin off on that ended at the ONLY cross road where we were to pick him up (no worries, he was eventually found back at Morries - go figure?!?), we said goodbye our little Dream Cottage and went to the dreamy Leuwin Estates winery.  Corey took one for the team as Randy and I tasted 20 different wines and he played with the kiddos on the grounds.  They hold concerts here in the summer months.





The tasting room

The restaurant

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Saturday in Margaret River - leading up to the Dockers Grand Final

Randy and I made the run into M. River and came back with more chocolate croissants.  The 'Gang of Angsts' then packed up and headed to the A'Mazen maze of Margaret River, giving Randy a brief interlude of peace.

The maze was truly A-Mazing!  The walls of the maze are a good 12+ feet tall, sculpted out of evergreen.  The two dogs that lived there, Max and Frank, kept us company throughout.
See Lily peeking around the corner?
We spent a good 90-minutes searching for our exit before the kids could no longer tolerate it.  We were sooooo close!  We were convinced that Max and Frank were talking in dog language about how ridiculous we were in our attempts at the maze.  They would bark, and we would follow, until they cut through the walls - which mind you we were not above doing at some points, but we couldn't fit!


We made it to the middle...
We were intending to have lunch at Leuwin Estate, but decided to cancel once we confirmed there was no TV on premise.  We headed to Olio Bella instead, and then on to Cheeky Monkey (the brewery where Gia has been known to eat sand) to watch the game.  The kids totally ran amok, playing in the stream and running around, getting completely covered in mud.



Unfortunately despite repeating, 'Go - The Dockers' continuously and having purple painted toenails, they did not win.

Afterwards we stopped for some cheeses to complement our wines.  If someone ever offers you a large sum to eat Margaret River Blue Cheese - don't do it.  Just walk away.

We made a visit to Cape Mentel, another stunning property.  The young lady pouring wine was about to leave for Hawaii to watch her mother compete in the Iron Man.  Her mother 'got into running' at the age of 47, and is now the world champ for the iron man for her 62-year-old age group.  There is hope for me yet!






We sat by the fire at Bushy's sipping our wines, listening to the frogs, and eating the edible cheeses we procured.  Ahhhh...

Friday, September 27, 2013

Friday Afternoon in Margaret River

We had lunch reservations at Vasse Felix.  So after a bit of wine tasting, we settled in to a long lunch complemented with some of our favorite wines.



After lunch we headed to Millers for their homemade ice cream and a bit of a play.  
Lily was leading the obstacle course :)