The life and times of Libby Withnall

NOTE: I hope you can see the photos – Kevin said they didn’t show up for him but I could see them . They are visable on flickr if you’re having trouble.

Today we went on a Foodpath Family Friendly Food Tour of the Southern Highlands. It proved to be a fantastic day, which we all loved. We drove our own car in conv0y from farm to farm (and were provided with maps in case we got lost).

First stop was a free range chicken farm, where we had to don protective foot covers.

It was lovely seeing all the chooks running around. They had the greatest house (this is one of five).

Don’t they have the cutest nesting boxes?

This farm not only has chickens, but also Mareema dogs – which are used to guard the chickens. Here’s Amy and Amy .

They were so cute. A bit like a giant Golden.

We also saw where they clean and sort the eggs.

Then it was on to our lunch stop at a Winery.

Such a beautiful setting. And I just loved this flower.

We had a talk from the restaurant owner and chef…

then enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch.

Our next stop was supposed to see some new born goats, but unfortunately poor Mum was still extreamely pregnant (she was as wide as she was tall). But we got to see the truffle orchid.

And meet Bob…

to whom Christy got feed some apple.

We then visited the pregnant goats.

They also had geese…

and yabbies…

Then our last stop for the day…

I loved how the cows waited for their turn to be milked, then walked in and went into the right stalls.

1 day old baby calves … how cute are they?

This little girl kept trying to eat (drink) my clothes and I came away rather wet .

These babes were very keen to get their milk.

And when it was gone they tried to get milk from the other calves ears…. too funny…

That was the end of our fantastic tour. Really well worth doing if you like to see where your food comes from. We loved it and would love to do similar tours. We saw so many different animals and it was very hands on for the girls. Christy even got to help attached the suckers to the cows udders and Amy got to hold a yabbie.

We had one more stop on the way home…. Robertson Cheese Factory – where we bought some cheese….and gelato…

The perfect end to a perfect day.

We had a great afternoon – just the four of us. What did we do you ask? I’ll give you a hint…. we got to sport these gorgeous shoes…

I’m sure you guess bowling – the shoes are a dead giveaway .

The girls have improved lots since the last time I saw them play and today Christy progressed from using the ramp…

to throwing it on her own, after a few pointers from Amy and Kevin…

Amy did great too, though I wouldn’t want to stand to close her when she’s bowling .

Kevin was the champion, and way more competitive than I remember him being.

First game scores…

Some cuddling amongst the sisters…

and the second game scores…

Okay, so I improved my game but still managed to LOSE!!! I seem to be very hot and cold with my bowling . But just to be clear both girls used the bumpers .

After the game the kids (including the big one) had to play the arcade games.

While I relaxed with a tea and chocolate (to chase away my headache of course )

Then the highlight for the girls…choosing some  junk prizes.

Yes, I know it would have been a MUCH cheaper afternoon if we’d given them $5 and let them buy stuff at the cheapy shop . But not as much fun…

We had a lovely family day out to Sydney and the theatre. First stop was lunch. There were a few Asian places to choose from – we chose Korean.

For lunch I had cheese dolsot – which was delicous.

Amy and Kevin really enjoyed their meals too, and Christy her bowl of rice.

It was a fun lunch, esp. since we don’t eat out that often as a family. And  we even got to watch Korean music videos as we ate!

Then it was time to walk next door to the Capitol Theatre to see the musical FAME.

It was pretty good, though not as good as other musicals we have seen. The dancing was fantastic and the girls really enjoyed it. We thought Christy might have been bored in parts but “it was perfect” according to her and she wants to go see it again. I think a lot of the adult stuff just went over her head. It was worth the price we paid as we got a special deal on the tickets (which was why we took the girls).

It’s been 10 years since I been to the Bowral Tulip Festival, and Christy and Kevin have never been. So today was the day. But before we move along here’s a photo of Amy the last time she was here – at just 18 months.

The only downside to going on a Sunday was that it was quite busy and somewhat hard to take photos without anyone else in them. But it was a beautiful sunny day – a great day for a family day out.

After checking out all the tulips and other flowers (close up photos to follow in another post) we watched some highland dancing. And Amy even joined in.

Then it was time to view some of the market stalls and get some lunch.

We then moved on to Moridart Gardens. These are private gardens that are only opened for 2 months a year. It was lovely to wonder around and check out all the beautiful flowers and plants. It’s not really Kev’s thing but he was a good sport and the girls and I really enjoyed it.

It was my first outing with the epiphany bag and it was great.

As you can see I’m not the only photographer in the family…

Lastly we stopped at a nursery and bought some more plants for the back yard. The girls both got a cactus.

More tulip and flower photos to come later. For now we’re off to dinner with friends.

Since we were already in Sydney for the Organic Expo we decided to use some vochures Amy had recieved for her birthday to visit Luna Park. This was THE theme park when Kevin and I were teenagers. It has been closed down and reopened a number of times, reopening in 2004. But I don’t think I’ve been since I was about 15.

With the car parked at Darling Harbour we decided to get a water taxi (a first for us) over to Luna Park.

As you can see it was a perfect day for a trip on the harbour.

Luna Park is to the left hand (or North) of the Harbour Bridge (which Kevin & I will be climbing in just 2 weeks , so it’s in a magic location.

It’s free to walk around but you have to pay to go on the rides. The girls already had tickets but it was $40 each for Kevin and I. I only went on two rides so did NOT get my money’s worth. You can buy single tickets ($10 each). First up was Coney Island which was exactly as I remembered.

Gotta love the funny mirrors .

I took a lot more video than photos (to show the rides in action) and put together a video but am having trouble uploading it to YouTube.

Just love this photo of Amy on the wild mouse .

Sydney Harbour really is a magical place. We are so lucky to live close-by and even luckier that we don’t have to deal with traffic everyday .

When I woke up this morning I was instructed to stay in bed. I did but requested my laptop.

A short while later I was presented with tea and freshly made cookies….

What a great way to start the day. I was also given a fabulous cap from Amy (which I wore today) and this lovely chalkboard heart from Christy.

Amy made breakfast….

And around 9am we headed off to Belgenny Farm. We had a fabulous day and I had lots of fun taking photos with the DSLR.

There was sheep shearing…

cow milking…

And horse demonstrations…

and working dogs…

Rides..

and most importantly pony rides…

and lots and lots of photos ops.

It’s been awhile since we had a family fun day and with the kids behaviour being as bad as it’s been we thought it might help if we spent more time together. Since the weather has been so warm we decided to go the Jamberoo Action Park using the tickets Christy got for her birthday (last Sept). It was a great day for it – nice and warm, the water the perfect temperature and the crowds pretty low.

The girls and Kevin had some fun with blue zinc.

I didn’t take a lot of photos today but I did catch Christy and Kevin trying to have a snooze…

while I read and relaxed…

Today we took the girls to see the Irish dance show Dance of Desire. We went with Mum & Dad (though had to take seperate cars). Before the show we managed to get lunch out.

We had debated doing some touristy thing in Sydney but Amy was in another of her “puberty” moods so we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.

The show was very good. Not quite the cailbre of Riverdance – but that was more the choreography rather than the dancing. It was definitely an enjoyable couple of hours.

After the show the girls were excited to be able to meet some of the cast.

As you can probably tell we’ve been making a real effort to get out there on Sundays and spend it together. This week was no exception. The weather was glorious – definitely more Spring like than Winter like.

We decided to take the dogs to the local dog beach. They had a ball. The girls did too. Rosie had fun swimming out to fetch her ball, until it got lost. Bailey had fun following her, exploring and trying to eat the sand that Rosie & Christy were digging up. He’s such a crazy dog.

Don’t you just love the heart that Christy made on the sand – how cute!!!

We then drove by the dog wash to get the sand out of their coats and then dropped them at home. The girls had a quick shower and got changed (crazy girls actually went in the water). We then headed back out to the local airport. We had lunch at the restaurant and watched planes taking off and landing.

Unfortunatley my veggie burger was like nothing I have ever had before, and I obviously didn’t read the menu properly. I did order it without the bun (in case you were wondering). I didn’t really like the veggies so I ended up with Christy’s bread (which she didn’t like) and had a chip and beetroot sandwich – with suprisingly VERY good.

Kevin did enjoy his pie and Amy said her steak sandwich was okay. So I’m not sure if we’d come back here again. Maybe, it certainly was nice sitting outside.

After lunch we headed to the HARS museum. I had read good things about it recently on Tina’s blog and, like her, we were very impressed. We did get a VERY talkative guide so our tour was perhaps a little long (the next tour which started half-way through ours caught up to us at the end).  Amy really enjoyed it and so did Christy, but she got a little bored towards the end. And it was cool in the big hangers and none of us had jackets. Definitely a well worth visit for local and tourists alike.

Our last stop for the day was another visit to see Granny in hospital. She was asleep when we arrived but we knew we’d be in trouble if we didn’t wake her. We had a short visit and I believe she was asleep again before we left the ward .

Home to see our tired puppies and enjoy a family movie.

Today we headed out on a forest walk with the dog club where we do training. The dogs had the best time – they got to run free with all their doggy friends.

We went for a 45min walk through the forest, had a picnic lunch (next time we’ll come prepared for a BBQ), chatted, sat around the fire and watched the dogs played.

We all had a fun time and look forward to other such outings. The dogs slept the whole way home (1 1/2 hours) and are still sleeping.