Bushwalk

Recently Louka's been enjoying bushwalks. We passed Cumberland State Forest on our way to the Boral display centre (to check out concrete blocks) and thought it would be a good opportunity for another bushwalk.

We had lunch at Café Saligna: on such a hot and windy day it was very pleasant sitting outside in the sheltered and shady courtyard. Then we did a one kilometre walk that was said to take an hour despite being an easy grade. Well with Louka I think it actually did take that long! She finds so many things to interest her in the bush - leaves with holes in them, strips of bark, sticks, big trees, logs...

Oh yes, she has lovely new sandals.

At the beach

Graham is doing a welding course at Northern Beaches TAFE on Saturday mornings. I drove him there, then Louka and I headed for Curl Curl Beach, because it was a warm sunny morning.

Perhaps fortunately, the sky clouded over as we drove there. When we got out, it was pretty cool on the beach. After building a castle and running away from the waves, Louka felt a little cold and had had enough of the beach. But she was happy to have a babycino at the beachside café, then head back to the sand.


After that, we spent a couple of hours digging pools in the sand, stirring little rock-pools, washing a cuttle-fish shell then getting it all sandy again, and running away from waves. Then we did the shopping at Warringah Mall, which took us nicely to the time Graham's course finished.

Big day at the museum

I thought Louka quite enjoyed the museum last time we visited. But that was nothing to today.

She had been talking about seeing the dinosaurs in the museum over the last couple of days, so this morning I suggested it and she said yes. After the usual slow start (cleaning teeth, getting out of the bath, getting dressed etc) we headed to the station. When we reached the city I asked if she wanted to see Dad before going to the museum, but no, she wanted the museum first.

At the museum the ticket seller suggested looking at the skeleton exhibition. There were lots of young schoolkids there who seemed to enjoy it, but Louka soon tired of it. So we headed upstairs where I knew the dinosaurs were. But on the way we found Kidspace, the museum's play area for under-fives. They had some great stuff to play with, especially a sort of doll-house made from a hollowed-out branch, with working doors, staircases and little wooden people to inhabit it.


I eventually dragged Louka away for lunch at the museum café (we shared a quite reasonable plate of fish and chips) after which she became keen again to see the dinosaurs. And this time I think she would have stayed till museum closing time, checking out the model dinosaurs, the skeletons, the eggs, and playing with the create-your-own-dinosaur touch-screen computer and the sandbox of bones to "unearth". And she watched the Lark Quarry movie at least three times.

Fathers Day

Louka had made Daddy a pretty bookmark/gift tag at Art & Move on Friday, and today she got to give it to him. She had also chosen him a card with a badge saying "I am the boss", which he wore all afternoon. When he asked her what the badge said, she said "Bossy"!

As usual, we had lunch at my parents' place and my sister and family were also there. It would have been a barbecue, but the pouring rain of the last two days wet all the firewood, so instead Mum spent the miserable weather cooking delicious Indonesian food - opor ayam, rempah rempah and I forget the name of the beef dish. And then today was a lovely sunny Spring day, so we ate outside anyway.

As usual, Louka loved playing with her cousins, especially Max. She demanded he play "soccer" with her, but it seems soccer is her name for any ball game, and it turned out she really wanted to play ping pong. She was totally hopeless at ping pong, and mostly just tried to balance the ball on the bat, with no success. Hey, she enjoyed it so what else matters?

Movement on the house front

Graham spent long hours tidying up the plans and filling in forms to submit the Development Application for our house. (I did my little bit by preparing shadow diagrams.) Well he must have done a good job, because the DA is approved, after five weeks, with only one minor change required (the roof colour). Now we can give the tenants notice, then start building. Louka has already picked out the colour she wants her room painted - black! Don't know if she'll get her wish there.