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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Watching TV

When watching tv, Elyssa and Erin likes to snuggle up close to us during the scary bits.   Last week, hubby and I were busy but they wanted to watch their current favourite show (“Into the Woods”).

During the scary part -

"Daddy and mummy not here, but luckily we have each other"
 
 
I thought their position was super cute :-)

Monday, April 13, 2015

Adelaide Holiday -Day 6

Good Morning Day 6!  As usual, made breakfast, packed lunch, got the girls and ourselves ready and out we went....

First stop was a Second Hand Shop at Yankalilla town. We passed by this shop every morning and hubby had been eager to check it out.

Buy-Sell-Exchange Shop @ Yankalilla 
He ended up spending approx 1.5 hours at the shop! Got some vintage plates and some other knick knacks at really good rates. 


We went to a second hand furniture shop after that. They had some lovely furniture (and cheap too!) but too bad we can't bring it home with us.

Posing with a chicken mascot @ the furniture shop :-)


On the road again..

I just can't get enough of the lovely scenery


Spotted and stopped at a Cherry Farm by the roadside :

Fleurieu Cherries
We peeped around but there didn't seem to be anything for visitors. There was a small unmanned stall near the entrance tho. Cherries were not in season but there were apples, pears and plums. We already bought apples from the apple farm the day before so we got pears and plums this time. (AUD 3 per pack, which we dropped into the coin box)
I wished we bought more!  The plums were a slightly better than normal but the pears were absolutely amazing. Super, super juicy and sweet!  Best pears I've ever eaten.

Our planned destination - Wirra Wirra vineyard, for the wine crazed hubs.

Wirra Wirra


Inside
There was a group there doing wine tasting, so hubby decided to skip it.

Wooden Barrels

Erin posing with Daddy

Next vineyard - Woodstock

Grinning like a little boy
 So happy to be in vineyards that produces the wine he drinks and occasionally sells.  ;-)


At Woodstock, hubby happily sat at the counter for wine tasting and light conversation with a couple of other guys there. (this fella can talk to anyone!)


While waiting for daddy, the girls had a gala time at this playground. They didn't want to leave even when daddy was done.


Hubby bought a small bottle of "Little Miss Collett" from Woodstock
This is the type I like to drink - light and a little sweet. Loved it!

Hubby got his vineyard fix and so it was time for our late lunch. Drove around a bit and then found a nice spot at a memorial park.

Picnic hut next to a playground


Our late lunch - bacon n egg sandwiches, apple cider, grapes and chips. Oh and the lovely pears and plums from the farm earlier.


More playground fun for the girls
It was a HOT day. Had to slather sunblock on them.  
We did grocery shopping at Coles after that. (we loved grocery shopping so much that we went to either Coles/Woolsworth/Foodlands almost every day. Some items were so cheap like seedless grapes for AUD3 per kg - only RM 9!)  
Then headed back to the apartment. Stopped by a couple of beaches. By this time, both girls were fast asleep in their carseats, so we just got down to take some photos.  
So beautiful!








Back at the apartment, we started packing our stuff since it was our last night at the apartment. Or I should say hubby packed.  After a while, I just took a nice nap  :-)

We all wanted to go to Normanville beach for one last time before leaving. We planned for a nice little picnic by the beach. Hubby even packed along a bottle of wine and wine glasses.

BUT surprisingly it was very cold and windy by the beach. Brrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!  For this trip, we had quite a few of the "expect it to be hot, but it was cold" and "expect it to be cold, but it was hot" moments! 

It was far too windy to even lay out our pinic blanket. Didn't dampen the girls spirits though.

Wheeeeee..........!


Building Sandcastles
The sand was so fine that it felt like playing with flour


I wasn't expecting the cold, so I was wearing shorts

Love this photo

Just chillin



Goodbye Normanville beach! Our 3rd and final visit for this trip.

Cleaning off sand from our shoes

Back the apartment, we quickly whipped out dinner -

Minced beef, onions, carrots and fresh mushrooms for our pasta

Our last dinner at Links Lady Bay


Some colouring before bedtime

Goodnight!

---- End of Day 6 ---

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Adelaide Holiday - Day 5 (Part 2)

 - continuation from Day 5 -

After Hahndorf Family Barn, we made a quick stop at Beerenberg Strawberry Farm

Entrance of Strawberry Farm
We didn't bother with strawberry picking since kids did it recently at Cameron Highlands.  


So we just went to the shop
Bought some jam and burger relish. (small bottle bought from Goolwa the previous day)

Next stop : The Cedars, the historic home of a noted Australian landscape artist -Sir Hans Heyson.

Artist Studio
The studio (within the house grounds) where he did his painting.  No photos allowed inside

The beautiful garden @ Cedars
We had our picnic lunch at one of the garden bench

House Entrance

House Interior

If only we have a garden like that for the kids to run around!


Back on the road again...

Something we haven't seen for some time : railway crossing on the road! The red signal went on just as we approached and the barrier automatically went down.

It was a reallly long train


Our next stop was Melba's Chocolate Factory

Interior of Melba's
I was a tad dissapointed cos there were just a couple of viewing spots of the actual factory (instead of a factory tour). Forgot to take photo of that, but here's a photo of the chocolate shop.


Ah well, since we were already there, might as well enjoy some drinks at their little cafe. Girls were so happy cos they got to pick a small pack of chocolates each.

Hot Chocolate and Chai Latte  

We then took a drive to Gumeracha, to see the Giant Rocking Horse

The World's Biggest Rocking Horse
Stands over 18 meters tall

Tickets were AUD 2 per person to climb to the top.  Hubby (who's scared of heights) said NO. I was contemplating hard whether to bring the girls up by myself. Elyssa kept saying please, please, please so I relented.

Brought the kids and had a "what the heck have I gotten myself into" moment shortly after.....

Here's the ladder we had to climb

Looks ok? But that's only the bottom of the ladder.

Looking up the ladder
*gulp*. I panicked a little cos it was only me managing both girls, and the ladder was just wide enough for one person. Just a simple ladder - No safety features.
Elyssa went up first then Erin (I followed Erin really closely behind). I kept telling them over and over again "Slowly, slowly....one at a time".  I tried hard to brush away the thoughts at the back of my mind : "What if they slip??" Also, "how on earth are we going to come down??". 
But we slowly and surely, we made it ALL the way to the top of the horse. Elyssa was absolutely ecstatic! We happily waved and waved to daddy from the top of the horse.


Then came the task to come DOWN from the ladder.

Scary!!
Elyssa bravely went down first, with me saying "slowly....slowly" all the way.   
Then I went on the ladder and got Erin to go to the rung just above me. (gosh, it was actually quite scary. From the pic below, can see need to move from the little platform to the ladder itself. We were the only ones there so once I got to the ladder and moved one rung down, there was no one to help Erin to get to the ladder). Once we were both on the ladder, it was little easier. We went down slowly rung,by rung.

Slowly and surely, we reached the bottom.  Phew!  Double Phew!!!  My legs were starting to shake a little!  Gosh! Both girls were super happy and proud of their achievement. Especially Elyssa since she was the brave one who was the first to go up and the first to go down and she did it all by herself!

Perspective of how high the rocking horse was
There were 3 sets of ladders in total. 1st ladder was inside one of the hind legs to the body. 2nd ladder was up the same hind leg to the external viewing deck. 3rd ladder was via the "horse mane" all the way to the second viewing deck at the head of the horse.  

Elyssa LOVED the climb so much that she she requested to go a second time. But no, no, no.... my heart can't take a second round!!  I've done adventurous stuff on my own, but bringing a 3.5 yo and a 6.5yo on something like this was s-c-a-r-y.

Up to today (3 weeks after the holiday), Elyssa still declares climbing up the rocking horse as her favourite part of the Adelaide holiday!  She keeps saying she wants to go back and climb the rocking horse again.

If up to scary-cat mummy, they should just stick to a rocking horse of this size  :-)

Rocking Horse Signage

Then we headed back to our apartment

Scenic drive back


Spotted a small apple orchard by the side of the road.

Apple trees!

My new thing for Day 5 - Apples on an apple tree  :-)
Never seen one b4!

Apples for sale
We asked which were freshly picked and bought some to try. They were super juicy! 
The friendly guy there also gave Elyssa and Erin an apple each



Girls had some playground fun at the apartment

They call this the "curly-wurly slide"

Our Dinner for Day 5
Instant noodles with added vegetables n eggs, leftover fries, fried bacon, strawberries, orange juice and wine


--End of Day 5--