Lego Exhibition

Yesterday we went to see the Brickman Wonders of the World Lego Exhibition at Melbourne Museum. I'd been planning to take the kids since I first heard about it sometime in March, though I kept putting off buying tickets because I couldn't figure out a good time to go. The exhibit finishes this Sunday so yesterday turned out to be the only remaining day that we could make it - I've done the same with many of the visiting exhibitions (and other activities) - either scraped in during the last week, or missed it altogether. I don't like to book things in too far ahead in case our plans change, which does sometimes mean missing out. I might try to book a few things and work around them and see how that works.

Anyway - I'd seen a similar exhibition at CentrePoint Tower in Sydney, many many years ago (when I was perhaps 10 or 12, with Mum and my siblings) and I LOVED it and have always wanted to go again. I didn't know if the kids would be as excited as I was - from the first moment they saw the Empire State Building in the foyer of the museum, they were bouncing with excitement and so keen to see more.

We all loved the exhibition and were amazed at the skill of the builders involved and detail of every sculpture. The sculptures themselves were incredibly true to the original, and many of them had little scenes set up around them of people enjoying the site - some of those details were hilarious, and it was all interesting. I spent most of the 2 hours saying to the kids 'hey, did you see the guy over here who is doing ...' and we all pointed out lots of fun and interesting details to each other.

There were buildings (ancient and modern) and paintings, sculptures, natural formations, vehicles, metro maps, jewels and crowns - all magnificent. It was also fun to count how many of them we'd actually been to or seen in real life (12 for me, 5 for Liam and Caitlin. None for Millie which has added to her desire to go somewhere overseas). My favourite was definitely the Titanic, there was so much going on in the set up and the boat design was so intricate and realistic.

Many of the sculptures were surrounded by a moat of lego which we were able to use to build our own designs. These were a lot of fun, we made cars and pyramids and statues and towers. We raced our cars down a ramp put there for that purpose - Liam spent a lot of time engineering his car to make it structurally robust - lots of trial and error and then thinking about how to counteract each new problem. He was pretty impressed with his final product, and amusedly annoyed when Caitlin's vehicle of 2 big wheels on an axle was faster than his car.

As we made our way around we were looking for a particular lego figurine - there was a competition to count how many times he appeared throughout the exhibit, then you can enter your answer online and potentially win a prize. This added another whole level of interest to each sculpture and helped us really look at every aspect of the scene.

There were also tables set up with white flat squares of lego, and lots of coloured one by one blocks, where everyone could make their own design and put it on display on the wall. I tried to make a star and didn't get anywhere (although my statue of David was quite cool), the kids had a lot more success at designing something they were happy with.

Millie's, Liam's and Caitlin's designs

The Flying Scotsman, made from lego. Steam engines and lego combined - super exciting for me!

We explored for 2 hours (although it was hot in there and Caitlin and I started to feel a bit overwhelmed) and loved it all, we could have stayed longer. We made our way out through the shop and bought some road bases to use with our own lego, as we don't have any and this was something that all 3 kids were happy to get.

Upstairs we met up with my Mum and Dad, and my sister's son who they were looking after for the day. We all went in to the new Children's Gallery in the museum - we hadn't seen it before and the kids all loved it. Mum and Dad and I had a coffee while the 4 kids explored, then the kids joined us for something to eat and then we all had a bit more of a play and headed home. It was very cool to be able to combine our trip in to the museum with the kids seeing their cousin and grandparents.

The traffic was heavy though flowing on the way home (leaving just before 5pm was always risky) - we got home in about an hour 20 which wasn't too bad. We grabbed a hot chicken and bread from the IGA and ate that at the hall before going in to karate - Tony came and picked Millie up as she didn't want to do karate that night. Karate was fun and challenging as usual, afterwards we chatted to one of the Sempeis about his recent trip to Europe and then came home to finish our dinner and put the animals to bed and get to bed as quickly as possible ourselves - it was a cold night and we were very grateful for our fire!

Going away and feeling better

My energy returned slowly after my day of rest, and 5 days up at Mum and Dad's helped me restore my emotional energy a little. They were away, so we had the house to ourselves and shared with our friends who brought their caravan up and spent the days with us. The kids had a wonderful time, playing iPads, lego, zoo animals, the piano, swimming, watching movies, playing hide and seek and other games they made up that involved toys and stairs and upstairs and downstairs, bike and scooter riding, card games, talking and thinking and learning and laughing. The adults also had a great time, helping with all of the above, and doing puzzles and reading and chatting and relaxing. It was perfect timing for a low key trip away, and I felt much better once we got back.

Since then we've had a few quiet days at home, one of them with Tony here all day which was wonderful (he's still been working long hours, nearly every day). We had a really busy day yesterday, with all 3 kids visiting the dentist (teeth all doing well), then meeting friends at the museum for a very fun afternoon, then visiting my sister and her family before they go to England next Monday. The kids had a great time playing with their cousin - who calls Caitlin 'Cake', and the other 2 'more Cake' (possibly some combination of Caitlin and cousin?) - they love playing duplo and cars and trains with him, and being bossed around by a 2 year old. He is pretty cute. Once we left the kids all voted for Subway for dinner (I had been thinking we'd go to McDonalds, but without hesitation they all asked for Subway) - it takes us ages to order by the time 4 of us decided what we want and how many drinks etc, but it was tasty and fun and everyone was happy with their order.

Other things we've got up to in the last several days
- LiAM and I have played cards a lot - it was funny, a few times I started to suggest that he play a different card to the one he chose - then remembered that his strategic understanding of the game is as good (or probably better) than mine, so I kept quiet, and sure enough, he ended up winning doing things his way. He can think a long way ahead in a game and really understands what all the moves mean
-Tony took Amelie to McDonalds on his day off, she was so thrilled to have some time alone with him
-LiAM and I went for a walk around the dam and explored plants and animals and mud and animal tracks, and talked about all sorts of things
- we've watched lots of Heartland, which has sparked discussion about childcare, parenting practices, relationships, horses, jobs, responsibility, friendship, trust, script writing, decision making
- LiAM has played a lot with his Skylander figures, making up a game for them to play with each other and creating a score sheet for them
- More and more often LiAM is saying 'does this say '....'?' instead of asking 'what does this say?' when he sees text on screen or on a sign
- Caitlin has been helping Tony make some wine with some of the local grapes that weren't picked for use this year
- We've been reading random fact books and learning all sorts of interesting trivia
- lots of talk still about planets, dwarf planets and star constellation
- Caitlin had a sleepover with a friend, and the rest of us visited other friends for the afternoon, the girls played dress ups and did puzzles, the boys played playstation games, and the adults chatted
- we're going lots of planning for our big trip which is coming up rather fast

Out and about

Last week we had lots of impromptu outings, the kind of days that I really like best. It was odd to have a few within the space of a couple of days, and it was lots of fun. This week we've been more back to our usual routine - and I definitely feel much less calm at the end of this week than I did last week...

Monday of last week was a public holiday here in Victoria - Tony was at work because it's Vintage (harvest) time and he's at work all the time basically at the moment - but there was no school, so some of our friends who would normally be at school were available to play with. We took up an invitation to go to the Redwood Forest near East Warburton - a place I didn't even know existed (the Redwood Forest that is, I did know about East Warburton) with a friend and a few of her friends for a picnic and a swim in the creek. We got there later than the others and wandered into the forest by ourselves - it was incredibly peaceful and quiet and amazing - tall redwoods planted in symmetrical rows, with the floor of the forest covered in leaf litter which quietened our footsteps - it was a really magical place. We walked through the forest then followed the path towards the creek and after a while found our friends in a lovely secluded little spot off the main path, just where Cement Creek joins the Yarra River. It was great to see S and her kids, especially since the eldest has started school this year and we haven't seen him since then. We had our picnic and the kids played in the creek and in the river - LiAM and Caitlin and J walked a long way up the creek and explored lots of new areas, I played in the shallow water near the junction with Millie. We all then moved a bit further down the river where it was deeper and a better place for swimming - and with a fallen tree right across the river which was big enough for the kids to run back and forwards across. I'd been a bit dizzy so found the tree bridge quite challenging, but did walk on it a bit with Millie and it was fun. I didn't get to have a swim but did manage to wade in to the water up to my waist which was quite refreshing.

On Tuesday last week we had nothing much planned. A friend called in for a cuppa then took Caitlin with her to music in Yarra Glen, then came back and had lunch. We hung out at home playing games in the afternoon, and I didn't really want to go anywhere, although I knew that I had DVDs due back at the library that day... Late in the afternoon I suggested we run into Healesville to drop the DVDs off, grab some takeaway dinner, and go and eat it by the creek near Donnelly's Weir (the road in to the weir closes at 7pm, however just before the gate, the creek crosses the road and there is room to park there and its a fantastic shallow pool to play in). So we dropped the DVDs in to the library, bought some fish and chips, and went to play in the creek. It had been a hot and humid day so playing near the water was lovely and refreshing. We ate our dinner then I read my book while the kids played an elaborate game in and around the water until it was almost too dark to see anymore. A very lovely end to a relaxing day   - I hope we'll remember to go there more often.

Wednesday we went to Chirnside Park shops to get a skirt for Caitlin to wear to school (she's going to a local school one day a week at the moment) and for LiAM to find out when a game he wants is going to be released on PlayStation 3. We also stocked up on some clothes that were on special, then called in to play with some friends for a couple of hours before Caitlin went to Guides and the rest of us went to the library and the park.

Thursday we went to see my sister and her new baby, T. The kids hadn't met him yet so it was a very exciting day for everyone! We hung out there for a few hours, then I felt we needed to give F and T a break, but I didn't feel ready to head home yet. So we jumped on a tram and went down to the Melbourne Museum - we got there at 3.30 and there were hardly any people there. We explored the First Peoples exhibit and the Melbourne exhibit - not the places we usually go to when we are there - and they were both fascinating and interactive and extremely engaging. Afterwards we went and played in the fig trees near the Exhibition Centre, walked over to Lygon Street to buy some kebabs, then came back to eat them in the fig trees. We caught the tram back to F's, played with the baby a bit more and then headed home.

Friday Caitlin went to school and the rest of us went to a friend's place. After school the girls and I went and played at the water play park in Seville while LiAM stayed at his friend's place. It had been a hot day but the wind was a bit cold so I didn't go in the water much - but it was a very pleasant way to spend an hour or 2.