One year old!

On Monday Louka was one year old. We didn't do anything special, since we'd had the party yesterday. We just did the regular Monday things ― swimming lesson and visit to Trish and John.

But one special thing did happen. A parcel arrived from Bruce, Josie, Dylan, Thomas and Kofi, containing a birthday present for Louka. Kofi had even drawn a picture of spiders and caterpillars for her.

In the parcel were a blue bunny and a beautiful pair of fur-lined boots. Now she's set for winter.

Birthday party

It was going to be a birthday barbecue, and we drove through drizzle to my parents' place where dad was actually lighting a fire when we arrived, but then the rain really came on.


I'd baked her a pineapple upside down cake for a birthday cake (practice run at the mothers' group birthday bash). While we sang Happy Birthday, she grabbed and ate the glacé cherry from the centre.


Her biggest present was taller than her! It turned out to be a robot dinosaur, with advanced futuristic body armour. She wasn't scared of it one bit.


Earlier she'd received a very cute pair of jeans and top from Aunt Clara. They make her look so grown-up!



Later the rain stopped, and though it wasn't sunny, it was good enough to draw on the blackboard and play on tricycles. Max helped Louka do a wheelie!


After partying long and hard, Louka had to sleep it off.

Mothers group Tuesday

For the last few weeks the mothers group has been meeting at Kids Central, where they have a giant playpen full of toys, and a small café where the mothers can get a coffee and cake or sandwiches and eat them in peace while the kids play.

This week I actually made it there for the first time. It was great! Even though Louka didn't stay in the playpen the whole time, it did keep her amused for a good while. And it was wonderful to see Lucas pushing Jake around in the toy car ☺.

Orange

Since John and Meagan have visited us a couple of times, it seemed a good idea to visit them in Orange. We set off as soon as we were ready, just after 7:30, and stopped at the bakery in Springwood for breakfast. They didn't have any croissants or danishes, and when we asked they explained they'd come out so bad that day they'd had to throw them all away. So I had a french pudding and Graham had a berry frangipan tart.

We arrived at Orange around noon, and found our way easily to John's and Meagan's place using the GPS. After a light lunch they took us to the park at Lake Canobolas, where Louka chased ducks and wandered off to look at a family hitting a tennis ball with a cricket bat.








Then we went to Orange Mountain winery for some wine tasting. They had a huge range of wines, from shiraz to viognier to cherry brandy. They also had a little girl called Hayley, who was 10 days younger than Louka. She could walk nearly as well as Louka, but she was smaller and looked younger. She went and brought some of her toys to show Louka, and didn't complain when Louka took them from her. We bought a bottle of viognier and one of shiraz-viognier blend.

For dinner we went to another winery, La Colline. We ate outside beside a small lawn where Louka played when she'd had enough food. She charmed the woman serving us so much that she gave us a toy turtle that another baby had left behind.

Next day John cooked up a huge breakfast of sausages, eggs, tomatoes, capsicums, mushrooms and toast. We didn't feel like much lunch, but we found a pleasant café at the Botanical Gardens where we had a mezze plate to share. There were lots of toys there for Louka to play with, and she had great fun with the soccer ball.


Back at John's and Meagan's place we grabbed all our stuff and headed off so as to get home fairly early. The GPS took us by Bells Line of Road this time, and Louka slept till Bilpin. When she woke up we stopped for a comfort stop and for some apple pie.

Louka's first artwork

On the plane back from Perth, Louka was given a children's activity bag containing a drawing tool. It contains iron filings and has a magnetic pencil for drawing with. Louka's just starting to figure it out, and today created her first artwork.

Babies' birthday bash

None of the babies of the mothers' group is quite one year old yet, but we had a party for them all anyway. Like at Christmas, we each bought a gift for another babe. Louka received a beautiful embroidered top. There were cake, balloons and party hats too.