Really, we didn't vanish off the face of the earth... honest!   More in just a moment!

 
Well the hobbits & I have been busy busy the last few weeks... and obviously mama hobbit fell off the blogging bandwagon lol.  I did TRY to come post a few times, only to get interrupted or distracted, so I gave up *sheepish*    

The Uncles were over from New Zealand for a few weeks, and we spent a fair bit of time hanging out with them.  The boys dragged them along to swim class, played mah jong on the ipad with them, (Uncle M and Sam were on the ipad... Uncle N and Frodo were relegated to the 'old' laptop lol.  Old being 6mos old... but not new & sexy like the ipad)  and bubbles were blown & paper airplanes made.  They're back in NZ now, so hopefully they are enjoying some peace & quiet... cause they didn't get a whole lot of that when the boys were around!

This week we headed out on an epic journey, 1.5hours each way!, to the Abbey Medieval Faire Kids Day.   It was just me & the boys and I was a bit concerned, but in the end we had a fabulous day!  Mother Nature cooperated nicely with the weather... last year it was dreary & drizzly off & on all day.  This year, mostly sunny with a cool breeze... perfect!  Prepare for pics!

The boys had a ball!  There was junior jousting (sans horse, of course!), sword fighting, shield painting, cardboard sword making, animal petting and archery... among other things.   They got a kick out of all the people in costume and the 'funny' speech they used.  

  There WOULD have been a pony ride, and the boys were very disappointed that didn't happen.  That's the only thing I would say really needs improvement ... the company hired to provide pony rides was WOEFULLY ill equipped.   They had 2 ponies for 1000 or so kids!  I sincerely hope that those poor ponies got to take good breaks during the day... but with 60odd families in line at a time?  I'm kinda doubting it  :(   I've already made a 'suggestion that they plan for that more next year so children aren't disappointed, and more importantly, the animals aren't mistreated! 

There was no doubt they enjoyed the day, especially when the next morning I woke up to a mini tournament in my family room lol!

This is gonna be a photo heavy post,  (but I'll keep them small) be warned ;)  We met up with the kids Uncles (who are visiting from New Zealand) and MaMa (great grandmother) at the local Botanical Gardens today for a wander around.  Uncle Nigel arrived before us and had maps in hand for the childrens 'Hide & seek trail' and the boys were stoked.   Basically it's a marked trail through part of the gardens with numbered things for children to discover as they walk.  I think there were 17 items in all, sculptures and various neat peices of art, and the boys found them all.  Without further adieu.. pictures!  

Blogger isn't wanting to cooperate with formatting here, so we'll see what comes up where LOL.    Pics are in no real order, as that's where blogger & I did not see eye to eye and I can't strongarm it much!  But they show a (mostly) lovely day. 

The boys got to see a real sundial.. and as the winter solstice was yesterday, it was right on time, showing a perfect 11am to match my phone.   The boys enjoyed hanging out with the uncles, and MaMa (they just dote on her.. up above is a shot of Merry and her, hand in hand, marching up a path :)    The funky fruit bats hanging on the tree,  panda  sculpture and the koala were items the kids had to 'find' on the trail.  I loved it.. the pandas were in the bamboo garden, the koala near the eucalypts etc.  

The first two pics are the kids in the Japanese garden.. they all loved the stepping stones across the water and went on about how 'treacherous' it was hehehe.  

The BEST item in the whole garden (aside from the natural items of course;)  was the Xylophone.  It was near the fern house, and was a fern shaped bench.  It had an assortment of mallets and the boys (and uncles) had a great time making music with it.  It had a lovely, deep sound.. not the obnoxious tinny clang of some.  

The kids have not stopped talking about it and have ticked off all the great things they 'found' during our trek.    It would have been a little bit nicer had Merry not had several meltdowns over not being allowed to run wild *insert eye roll here*  but ah well, such is life I guess??