The Birthday Boy turns 5

Our little man turned five!!! We woke up in the morning for presents in bed, followed by a trip to the post office to pick up a bunch of birthday parcels - thanks so much for sending parcels, that was such a great surprise for Leo (and everyone else who was in the post office at that time).

Mumma with her big five year old boy!

The party was fun, we had met a great family with five children (the Hortons) so mixed with our three, we had a lot of laughs... We set up the campers kitchen with colorful cloth and bird balloons, did a treasure hunt for gold choccie coins, apple bobbing, played musical statues, Simon says and rosso's crazy act-like-an-animal game...



The gold coin treasure hunt



Apple bobbing

Then we had some food and a submarine cake with smartie windows and a marshmallow periscope (as requested by the birthday boy).



The submarine birthday cake - little brother is having a piece of this cake too!


The party then all headed off for an afternoon walk around the coast of Bicheno - rock hopping and skimming shoes in puddles, then it was back to camp for a carbonara dinner.

birthday gang

playing on the wharf

At 8pm we drove back to the headland to see penguins, then  back to camp for some sparkler-action and collapse into bed at about 9pm.  What a party day. Our big five year old boy went to bed super-stoked!!

Bay of Fires - Tasmania

We landed in Tasmania, first thing in the morning and were at the Marakoopa Caves, Mole Creek for the 10am guided tour of caves and glow worms, the boys loved it and the guide was great with the boys too.

Next we headed towards the Bay of Fires which is the North East coastline and it is stunningly beautiful, the beaches are beautiful, mostly empty and the camping is free. The nearest town is St Helens so we stocked up on gas, fuel, food and drinks and headed for the coast. We found a perfect spot at Cosy Corner (North), where we bunkered down for a week of go-slow mode.... check out the colour of the water.

Cosy Corner (North)

exploring the beach - in our warm clothes!!

Roast spuds on the campoven - perfect

yep.... the boys are up on those rocks

We visited the Eddystone lighthouse, beautiful.

Eddystone lighthouse

Whilst we were there Lucas got bitten by a scorpion... he's fine.



Ross went diving and caught a big crayfish (aka lobster - very large). We managed to find someone in the campground with a pot big enough to cook it in and it was too much for Ross to even eat.

Rosso's catch of the day

not so sure about Dad's catch

The boys spent their week milling around the campsite, swimming (it is too cold for me), snorkelling, playing cricket, soccor, homeschool, chatting to the grey nomads (for anyone who doesn't know these are the grandparents who spend their retirement travelling the country), playing in the sand/dirt, climbing all sorts of rocks and boulders and a lot of bicycle riding....

getting grubby around camp

Boys getting ready for a snorkel

cheeky monkeys

lounging on the boulders

climbing the boulders

... and for those of you who are missing our little man.... he is growing up so fast and chatting away (ball, car, cow, koo-weeeee, bird...)

We're in Tasmania

We crossed on the Spirit of Tasmania on a night sail......  wow how exciting to sleep on a huge ferry for the night.

We'll be in touch soon.... hey we are loving the comments back I'm going to try and work out how to share them, so please keep up the comments xxx

For the love love love of craft....

Fellow crafters out there.... ooooooh yehhhhhh we've been crafting on the road.

For those of you who are missing our crafting days and evenings (xxxooo) here are some of our crafty creations... hope you enjoy them.


Felted dolphin for Class 1



Well... we are in penguin country

Crochet granny squares... of course.... 

........ I can never can get enough of these in my life - Joey I found a use for that scrap coloured wool from Mullum xx

Tik has crafted the Akubra....

It was just too brown .... I feel I may have gone too far here

Mini Toadstool - version II - this one is much smaller than our last effort, great for the caravan.

Toadstool on the coast - arial view

Toadstool on the coast - ground view

Mornington Peninsula - 1.5 hrs South of Melbourne

We arrived at the Mornington Peninsula - Rosebud Foreshore Camping ground, to find that it is pretty much on the main road, along with all the supermarket chains and fast food giants, not quite what we were expecting after Wilsons Promontory... but lots to see around the area.

The following day we headed for Point Leo which was great, the tide was out and dozens of rock pools remain with luke warm water, perfect for hanging out in for hours on end, which is exactly what we did. We then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Sorrento on the beach swimming and playing with other families, it was lovely and relaxing... just like one of those Little Manly balmy Friday nights, that goes on way beyond bedtime.

We came to Mornington Pensinsula to find the thermal springs on a recommendation from Ben (aka Ben the Healer). The thermal mineral water contains a range of naturally ocuurring minerals including sulphur, calcium, magnesium, potassium, etc... We found the thermal springs and there were a dozen pools ranging between 37 - 43 degrees and you kind of just mill around checking them all out, as well as the plunge pools, sauna, reflexology walk, and a whole range of luxury massages, yoga, etc... It was just beautiful, five hours later.... we dragged the boys out of the water and the shrivelled up family decided it may be time to move on. This is one of my favourites so far. If anyone is coming down this way, its definitely worth a visit ($30 for the day per adult) http://www.peninsulahotsprings.com/.

oh yeh.... good day all round



Wilson's Promontory - Victoria

Wow 'The Prom' is stunningly beautiful! Camping at Tidal River is where the road ends, there is a feast of bush camping and hiking tracks, mostly accessible only by foot.

Norman Bay

Kayakers at The Prom

This is the camp ground at Tidal River

We only managed to cover a smidge of what was on offer here on our three-day stay, but we did do:

• Lilly Pilly Gully Nature Walk (bout 5kms return)
• Squeaky Beach - this beach is renowned for its 'singing sands' and has huge boulders on the beach which was great for exploring and climbing up and crawling between, even for us big kids.
• Point Pillar
• Tidal Lookout

boulders on squeaky beach

Walkin the walk....

Tidal Lookout

We saw heaps of parrots, kangaroos and wombats around camp. We were a bit rushed to leave but its a long weekend in Victoria, but we didn't book in advance and all sites where pre-booked so we had to move on.

Wombats about 30 cms away on the track

But before we left... we did some art...

Yanko living in his tree house at the Prom

what we collected on the way

Crossed the VIC border - Cape Conran

Next stop was going to be Malacoota, but it was just too busy for us, so we headed out to Cape Conran, part of Victoria's Gippsland Coast, another gem of a spot. We went bushwalking along East Cape (found gnome homes along the way), swimming, boogie boarding, hanging out on the beach. There are lots of birds, goannas, wombats and apparently even the Fiorland Penguins at times, good-sized bush camp sites, bore water, cold showers, flushing loos. Its very basic, but camp is stones throw from the beach and rugged coastline.

We did lots of adventuring....


going exploring



wooohoooo we found a wombat hole

a regular sight around bush camp

East Cape nature walk

our first meal with new camp oven... was yum

magic light coming thru the trees

We took a day trip into Marlo and to our surprise there was a paddle boat ride (The Curlip) going up Snowy River, so we hopped on that. The boys took turns in steering the boat up the river and pulling on the steam boat whistle.

 

everyone had a go at steering!!!