We started the day with present unwrapping while the adults had their coffee. Anto had asked for money towards his new bike. As that is no fun for the kids, we had also bought him a few bits and pieces of warm clothing for our upcoming trip. None of them were a surprise, but the kids had helped me wrap them, solely for the purpose of helping Anto unwrap them. At least this year, Anto didn't have any surprises ruined by blabber-mouth Astrid. She had also made her own card for him, that she was very proud of......
Once the 5 minutes of present unwrapping fun was over, it was time for breakfast. I had prepared buttermilk pancakes, with chocolate and cinnamon butter, fresh strawberries & bananas, honeycomb and maple syrup. It was carb-a-licious, and the kids didn't seem to complain! They don't usually get quite so much sugar at breakfast time and they thought it was awesome.....
We managed to work off some of the sugar overload with a swimming lesson and gymnastics lesson. Anto had the day off work, so Astrid and Soren enjoyed having both parents chase them around at gym. Between lessons we had snuck in time to make and ice the cake. As if there hadn't been enough breakfast sugar, morning tea consisted almost entirely of cream-cheese icing!
Anto had requested a buttermilk layer cake with chocolate cream-cheese icing. It was looking beautiful until the icing went on and it all went a bit lopsided. Not my finest effort but the taste-testers approved!
After a couple of weeks of weather that was approaching Spring-like, Canberra had put on one last icy blast of Winter for us. It was a whole 8 degrees, with gale force winds and raining. With everyone a bit tired from the mornings activities, it was afternoon nap time. Even the cats and alpacas were having a lazy day......
Once everyone was up and feeling a bit more chipper, Anto suggested we head to Questacon for a quick visit. We have annual passes, and given the inclement weather an indoor activity was needed. We hadn't visited Questacon in a few weeks so it seemed like a good plan. It was almost 4pm by the time we arrived, and aside from a couple of interstate school groups the place was deserted (even Canberrans thought it was a bit too cold and wet to venture out). We had a play at mini-Q, where the rocket was as fascinating as ever for Soren, who launched it several times. Astrid had several of the staff helping her set up experiments with magnets, which she loved.
We then headed up to gallery 4 to see the new kinetic sand display, which was very impressive. We had the place to ourselves so again a staff member was showing us how to interact with the computer program for the sand, and then showed Astrid and Soren lots of bones and did some experiments with UV light to keep them amused. I hadn't bothered taking the camera with me, so no pictures this time!
Questacon shuts at 5pm, so it was only a short visit, but we will be back again soon. We had to head home to get organised for our dinner out. Anto had decided we should try 'The Meating Room', a new gastro pub in Weston. There was a kids play area that kept Astrid and Soren occupied until food arrived, and both of them wasted no time in demolishing their dinners.
Apparently they thought the cake tasted pretty good too..... we agreed that it was a great cake and tasted significantly better than it looked. Which was lucky since there was a lot of cake left to eat over the week.
Every year Anto requests a chocolate cake for his birthday. Every year I attempt a different one, and every year it turns into a disaster. Not much changes........ except the kids, they get bigger so quickly. Look at how they have grown since Anto's birthday last year!
