Toddler Tuesday at Werribee Zoo

We organised a trip to Werribee Zoo today with six girls from mothers group for "Toddler Tuesdays". They do a bunch of kid geared activities like a "junior safari". We had never been for this specific event so I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, it was A LOT of fun!

We all met around 10am with hopes to get on the 10:15 safari but we missed out so we all went on the 11:15 one (thankfully we waited to go in otherwise we all wouldn't have been able to get on the same tour). Before our tour we went into the Aussie animal section and checked out the emus (the kangaroos were hiding again), after that we went and got a snack and some drinks and sat and ate to kill some time before our tour. They have a meerkat enclosure right at the cafe which was great for the kids.
The tour bus we went on was decorated with vines and stuffed animals and each seat had two animal hand puppets to play with. We sang songs and played with puppets during the ride. Aurora wasn't too into the animals out the window this time as there was so much going on in the bus but that was fine, you could tell she was having a lot of fun! I think some animal hand puppets are going on her Christmas list!

This photo doesn't do it justice, it was seriously cool in there!

After the safari we put down a couple picnic blankets and all sat to eat. By that time a lot of the babies were getting cranky so after we ate and let them crawl around a bit we buckled them into the prams and off we went. Aurora was asleep within 5 minutes and missed the rest of the zoo!

These signs crack me up! I didn't notice this one last time!

Thankfully the rest of the zoo isn't that big so we went and saw the last few animals and then left, we were home at 1:30. They have a stage with music and stuff set up and we might've stayed to take part in that if the babies were in a better mood.

I think if we ever find ourselves without anything to do on a Tuesday we'll head over to Werribee Zoo and jump on a safari tour!

Lions and Tigers and Bears!

I don't even know where to start with talking about our trip to Melbourne Zoo. We had such a fantastic time!
There were so many areas that Aurora could get a good look at the animals, not a lot were pram level so we did have to carry her a fair bit but it was definitely worth it for the look on her face. Our first stop was the meerkat exhibit and Aurora got the biggest kick out of them! They were running around and wrestling and they were even interested in us and would come up to the glass to check us out.
Aurora also got a great view of the gorillas, two of them were fighting over a couple of burlap sacks and were running back and forth in front of the glass (she actually seemed a bit concerned when they'd roll on the ground together).

The Gorillas and their burlap sacks.

There were some other monkeys that we got a good view of too, one came and hung on the glass right in front of us (this particular monkey seemed really interested in babies, as soon as one baby left it came right up to us). I won't however talk about the disgusting thing was doing as it was hanging on the glass in front of us (it was funny but still pretty gross!).

Getting up close and personal with a monkey.

We spent a bit of time in the butterfly house too, Aurora could see the butterflies when they flew by and then wanted to grab them when they were sitting in front of her - whoops! Luckily we were sort of expecting that to be her reaction so we held her hands when we got close.

Butterfly House

We decided not to take part in any of the meet the keeper activities on this trip since we wanted to focus on seeing as much as we could, we weren't too familiar with where everything was and didn't want to run back and forth between things.

Going to Melbourne Zoo is definitely a whole day thing (we were there about four hours where as Werribee Zoo took us only an hour and a half) and we probably won't make too many spur of the moment decisions to go but I'm hoping we can get there at least once a month (maybe alternate between Healsville - which is also a whole day sort of activity). If we pack a lunch and don't have to pay for expensive zoo food, the trip only costs us parking ($2), the tolls on the freeway and petrol to get there. I also have to resist the urge to buy all the things in the gift shop (I love gift shops!).

Knowing that we had the membership and could go back whenever we wanted seemed to make the whole trip more relaxed, if we didn't get a good view of a certain animal or if they were asleep/hiding we didn't worry too much and moved on. We were also able to hang out at the exhibits the Aurora took particular interest in without thinking "Quick! We have to see everything!".

As far as having the most things Aurora is interested in, Melbourne Zoo wins hands down. We're planning a trip to Werribee Zoo for "Toddler Tuesdays" so we'll see what sorts of things they have.

(I'm going to save my rant of people not following rules/being rude/stupid but suffice to say it makes me extremely angry when people blatantly flaunt the rules - like no flash photography or using the flashlights on their phones to see animals in purposely darkened exhibits.)

Starting Again

I sort of felt like I painted myself into a corner with my last blog, both with the title (I've been in Australia for three years now and definitely feel settled) and with my serious lack of posting. It's not that I don't have time to update or don't get a chance to sit at the computer, I felt like I didn't have a whole lot to talk about and didn't want all my updates to be baby updates. I haven't had a whole lot of time to knit or do other crafts (though I seem to be able to find some time here and there to get some sewing done) and started to feel like if I didn't have crafty things to talk about that no one would be interested.
I really struggled to come up with a new name that would offer flexibility for the future, I didn't want anything that talked specifically of being crafty or of only having one kid (we plan on having more) or even specifically our location (we do plan to stay in Oz but y'never know!). I was having some serious thinkers block when it came to picking something (and of course a lot of good names were taken!).

Anyway, so what have we been up to? In January we moved from our tiny cold flat to a beautiful, double-story townhouse with a yard and small garden. It's so much closer to Glen's work which is awesome for having him home at a decent time every day and it's close enough that I can drive him to work and use the car for the day if I need to. So, that also means I've been doing a lot of driving. I can still only drive to the same half a dozen places but Aurora and I get out a few times a week and do stuff. We drive out to where we used to live to go to mothers group (known here on out at MG) once a week, we sometimes drive out to Glen's sister's for the afternoon and we're a short walk from the shops and library so we're there a few times a week too.
We took a trip back home in June and July to see (almost) everyone and have Aurora meet (most of) her Canadian family and as many friends as we could fit in to the trip. We did A LOT of driving (over 5,000km) and only saw part of two provinces. Aurora was a superstar on the plane and while it's not something I'd like to do often, it wasn't torture like a lot of people said it would be (I flew there by myself and Glen joined us and flew home with us).
We've been sick on and off since we got back from holidays (that's what we get for missing all the winter bugs by being overseas!) but still managed to have Aurora's birthday party a few weeks ago. Can you believe she's one already?!

Aurora painting at my mum's in July

And that's kind of where we're at right now.  We got up to some exciting things last week but I'm going to blog about that separately.

Sorry for my ridiculously long absence! I hope to start blogging again on a regular basis!

Lake Eildon National Park - Wombat!