Pop Swimming

During the 2nd term of swimming i got the dreaded cold. I quickly rang dad and asked if he would like to do the lesson for me. Since then, he has done all the classes and had one happy little girl tagging along with him.

I think dad was unsure about taking Kirrily in the pool at first as one of the other children's grandma's took them in the pool and all she did was cry, scream and want to get out, but not my little monkey. She can't stop smiling for the whole lesson.

She walks to the pool from the car yelling "Pop swimming, Splash Nan".

With only a few lessons to go, i thought i'd take some photo's. Well that sounds easier than it actually is. They have a no photo policy just in case your a pedophile, a ferral that takes photo's for no good reason or today i got told, some bizaare custody battle that the parent doesn't want anyone taking photo's of her child as you could be taking photo's for the other parent? What is the world coming too. So 1 A4 page of questions and signatures later, i took some photo's. (note the lack of other children in the photo's. if i was to have them in the photo, i would have needed further permission and more paperwork).

She's come along way since the very first lesson where she was determined to run off and never get in the pool.

The do a circuit in the pool. Running along a mat, 'spider wall' which helps them to do hand over hand along the wall to safety if they need, watering the dolls hair with the watering can which will help them put water on their hair (which we are still working on) and swimming through a hoop under the water. I'm not going to break the news to her that lessons are almost done for this term. but i guess we are pretty lucky with beaches and ocean pools up here that it won't be long before we can get back in there.

Busy few weeks!!!

So far late August and September are turning out to be a quite busy. We've had many Novocastrians make the journey up to Qld.

'Grandma and Grandad' went on a bus trip to Cairns from Newcastle, which stopped at the Ginger Factory on the way through the Sunshine Coast. That gave us 2 1/2 hrs for Kirrily to show everyone around. This is Kirrily's favourite spots to visit. What more could a little girl want - The Ginger Man and The Ginger Train, all packed into one place (and then there's the coffee shop across the road which i like to visit to so it's not all kiddie stuff). We had some yummy lunch then Kirrily went on a ride on the train with Grandad. She came home proudly telling David how she had been on the train with 'dad-dad'.

Aunty Megan has also made her way North to warmer weather and stayed for 4 days. All Kirrily wanted to do with Megan was "Megan - Swings". She said this for weeks leading up to the big day. And to say she was excited when somebody else was on the swings with her other than me was an understatement. We parked on the Mooloolaba Spit and headed back to Mooloolaba, via the bush walkway near the beach. There are millions of bush turkeys wandering through this bit of walkway and this definately slows the walking down when EVERY turkey has to be pointed out.

THE SWINGS AT MOOLOOLABA BEACH

And then there's - THE STRAWBERRY FARM!!!!!!

My brain was beyond thinking where to go on Sunday, the last day of winter. With temps in the high 20's (got to love Qld), David headed up the M1 towards Noosa, stopping at the Eumundi Strawberry Farm, "Strawberry Lane". For $12/kg, it's $2 more than most farms around but when the man at the desk says "have a feed while your down there" to a pregnant lady, a massive strawberry lover and a 2 year old who's favourite food is strawberry's, they weren't going to make much money out of us. I picked a strawberry double the size of the palm of my hand for kirrily to eat first. Silly me thought this would keep her busy for a while but she chomped into them very fast and who wouldn't when they are warm off the plant, red through like red paint and sweeter than sugar. David said he probably ate more than 1kg, me pretty close and Kirrily only a tiny bit behind. If your every visiting the Sunshine Coast during June-November, you have to visit this farm. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

if you look carefully, kirrily has both hands filled with berry's. She insisted on having both hands filled so she didn't waste time in gobbling all she could.

Needless to say, we didn't need or want much lunch.