Bundanoon is Brigadoon

Okay, I've never seen the play/movie, but now I've got to. We heard about this crazy festival out in a little town 2 hours northeast from us and D felt up for an adventure... so we set out to experience "Brigadoon" for the day. The tiny town of Bundanoon puts on this impressive annual event to which thousands of Scottish descendants flock to celebrate and participate in the games and traditions of "the good old days."

I've never seen so many kilts, plaid, or scotty dogs in one place before. It was an awesome spectacle - the kids didn't know quite what to think. But we rolled up to this one road town, found a side spot to ditch the car, followed the throngs and parked our blanket on the hill just as the myriad bagpipers were marching across the field by clan. 

It was crazy - there were strongmen hefting atlas stones and doing caber tosses, re-enactments of famous battles with clashing swords and flying arrows, shot putt / log throwing / hay tossing competitions, and jousting training to name a few. Total blast.

Claim to fame of "the Ultimate Scottish Experience" they've been doing this Scottish Highland Gathering the last 35 years. I loved that they provided relatively free kid-friendly games like egg toss, water balloon toss, haggis hurling, kilted races and more. But really a highlight was just seeing the confident young bucks line up to heave those cabers (basically telephone poles), only to have their egos promptly crushed when they could hardly carry the things (despite 5 fire fighters helping them lift and balance it), let alone toss them any distance at all. And man, those beefy strongmen racing to lift the enormous "Bundanoon Stones of Manhood" onto barrels. Now that was entertainment!

I wasn't doing any heaving that day, but I did join in the Scottish Country dancing demonstration out on the field with the girls. They thought it was the best thing since sliced bread as we weaved in and out in groups of three. Darren showed some people up on shot-putt and Will got two eggs in the face when he amazingly caught Dad's lengthy throws.

Worth a trip for a fun family Saturday and definitely a way to make some memories - more especially if ye've got any Scottish blood in ye!

the old "on the barrel backwards through the legs" stone throw

Kenna mostly spent her day avoiding all the mud and Sums was completely enamored with all the dogs :)

Annie Bananie

The big SIX. 

This girl is such a joy to live with. She's totally easy going, silly, tough, and tender. She's smart as a whip and either completely focused on task or 100% distracted. You never know which way she's gonna roll, but she sure is the one who keeps us laughing the most. We love you Annie Belles!

The day started out with the well-loved breakfast in bed routine. After school was her first violin recital solo, then we rushed right home to greet her party guests! Whew, what a day~

 Her only requests this year were a sleepover and "pass the parcel." Easy enough. I wrapped up a bunch of little prizes in layers of newspaper that they passed around until each had unwrapped something - great little tradition here. Then we went crazy with Easter themed games (leftover from the church party I was in charge of earlier that week) and finally got crafty with this adorable doll clipboard & pencil.

Incredibly random party, but she loved it.

 Admittedly the world's lamest birthday cake but when she requested a blueberry icecream cake with a chocolate bunny on top, what else could I do but honor such bold specifications??


Not all the gals slept over and one went to the emergency room with a split toe (exciting party, right?) but it was a surprising manageable night and total dream come true for her (since we don't do sleepovers.)

Fun thing is, she shares a birthday with her best friend from church so right into more festivities the next day, including pet rocks, stringed donuts and this cute game where you try to suck up as many Smarties (like M&Ms) with your straw into your cup. Clever, eh?

Happy Birthday, my beautiful girl. I wouldn't change one thing about you!

A Day In Autumn

Man, I keep thinking it's spring. Easter season has just always been SPRING me to me!

We've had a few days that sure have felt like it though, and that's when I just steal the kids right after school and drive the opposite direction of home, looking for adventure. We found it downtown one afternoon and I could hardly drag them home afterwards.

Canberra's set up in such a way that there are lengthy views of the major monuments across town from one another, much like the Mall in Washington D.C. Here's the War Memorial on one end and the Parliament House on the other.

(And Summer's thinking, "how the heck did they get up there?)

 Of course, any type of "secret panel" or rock monument to explore, crawl in or climb on is fair game for these guys.

As are fountains.

Naturally, if mom feels the need to lay down for a snooze, it's too good an opportunity to pass up...

Now it's back to hats and jumpers and chilly mornings, but hey, at least I'm not preggers in the heat of July with this babe like I would be on the other side of the world :)

All about the silver linings.

Vege-love

I've admitted my newfound pregnant love of Vegemite. 

Well, just over a year in, we finally made it through our first jar. Add in Will's appetite for it and I'm guessing the second batch, despite its enormous-Costco-induced size, won't fair as well...

April Fools & Easter Week

Kinda funny to start off Easter Week with a simultaneous April Fool's Day/Palm Sunday. But we went for it. Australians get Good Friday and "Easter Monday" off so last year we spent Easter in Brisbane on the way to Fraser Island, but it was nice to get back to our week long celebrations.

Perhaps Palm Sunday started out a bit irreverently as the kids tried to feed dad a "special cake" for breakfast (mayonnaise/butter icing topped with salted kiwis), proceeded to church with bandages wrapped on their appendages (how was I to know April Fool's officially ends at 12 noon in Australia?), and my extremely successful trick of mustard in their toothpaste tubes. But we ended with a nice re-enactment of Christ's triumphal entry, (complete with palm leaves and fights over the donkey rides, of course) and enjoyed a few of the church's new Bible story videos. Really well done, brief video clips - check them out to give a nice boost to your Easter week HERE.

Each year we use a special book I previously posted about to build our Easter Week celebrations. And while I didn't go full force with homemade oil lamps again, it has been a delightful week so far. Here are some things we've done and are planning:

Palm Sunday: read, discuss and act out Jesus's triumphal entry and start our Love One Another poster (nice notes to each other all week), pick Secret Pals to serve, and choose an Easter hymn to learn

Monday: discuss why Jesus cleansed the temple, how we can cleanse our "temples" and build our own (obviously much cooler with sugar cubes, but my brain shut off when I went to the store)

Tuesday: read and discuss a few parables then play parable charades 

Wednesday: read, discuss & reenact the Parable of the 10 Virgins (make oil lamps)

Thursday: (always the kids' favorite) read and discuss the Last Supper, significance of the Sacrament, Judas' and Peter's betrayal/denial and how we sometimes do the same, and of course the Atonement. Then we discuss what Passover was and have our "Jerusalem dinner" with foods of Jesus's time: broiled fish (Mom's fave), goat cheese (Dad's), honeyed yogurt (Will's), honeycomb (Annie's), lentil soup (Kenna's), dates (Summer's), eggs, nuts, cheeses, olives, cucumbers, flatbread, raisins, figs, etc.

 Of course, eating on the floor and the grape juice toast are always exciting. Such a nice, special way to get us all thinking of how things were when Jesus walked the earth.

 Friday: Read and discuss Jesus's trial and crucifixion, review his last week through the 12 Days of Easter eggs (little visual and scripture in each one) and make Easter Story Cookies (meringues found in that book - each ingredient signifies something.)

Saturday: Discuss the Jewish Sabbath, and what happened in the Americas after Jesus' death then make Easter Breakfast Rolls for the morning (marshmallows in bread dough to signify the empty tomb)

Easter Sunday: Sing, testimonies, discuss Jesus' appearances, read Love One Another poster, etc.

And lest you think they miss out on all that traditional fun - not to worry. Between the U.S. Embassy party, neighborhood party, 3 class parties and the ward party, I think they got their fill of bunnies, baskets and chocolate!




(Despite Summer's "I'm not so sure about that giant bunny guy" she had no trouble getting into the egg-collecting...)

Incidentally, I'll end with an Australianism fun fact: easter "egg hunts" here consist of foil wrapped chocolate eggs (mini solid and larger hollow ones, too) tossed about the grass and gardens rather than colorful plastic ones stuffed with goodies.

Annie's Easter Hat Parade

HAPPY EASTER, FRIENDS! May you and your families enjoy meaningful celebrations this weekend as well :)