Happy Birthday Monkey

Waaaay back on August 31st Monkey celebrated his 2nd birthday.  It was a rather confusing day for all of us... not your run of the mill birthday.  Daddy had to leave for work at 6am so we decided to leave the normal morning stuff of presents and chaos until later when daddy was able to be there and we were all awake for it.  So our day started off with a school and kindy drop off like any other Wednesday then heading to the city for morning tea at one of our favourite cafes.

 They only had pink cupcakes, he didn't seem to mind

We love this cafe.  It's a lot bit out of our way and is a lot bit more expensive than other places but it has tables that the kids can draw on, a wonderful kids menu and toys and books and really good coffee.  That wasn't why we picked it though, Monkey's great Nanny had come for a visit and she was leaving later that day from the city train station and Aunty Chimera works just down the road so she could get an hour or so off work and join us.  So we had a special birthday morning tea with Great Nanny, Grannysaurus, Aunty Chimera, Aunty Juliette and our favourite Ladybug.

"It's just what I've always wanted"

Later that evening once everyone was home from work, school and kindy we FINALLY got to the presents!  Two small gifts that his brothers picked for him while we were on our camping trip in Winton (post to follow on that trip) and some more gifts and cards from family and friends and the gift to end all gifts... the Lego Duplo fire truck he has longed for and dreamed of for what seems like forever (to a two year old).

 CANDLES!!!

That evening we had a special birthday dinner.  His only request was that he had GRABY!  He has come to love gravy, it's amazing what he'll suddenly eat if it it's smothered in gravy.  So, with his only request being "GRABY!" (yes, it's always yelled, he loves it that much) I decided that a lovely lamb roast was in order... and a store bought cake since I was making cakes for his birthday party the following day.  So, decorated with only sprinkles and his little Muttaburrasaurus figurine he bought in Winton he had cake and candles... and he was beyond thrilled!

 "Who are these people and why are they in MY photo?"

We had a small gathering the following afternoon for his birthday.  His request was for "RAAAAA caycakes" which with my mummy interpretation skills I figured out was dinosaur cupcakes.  Still, our small gathering cleared up 45 dinosaur cupcakes!

"Mummy, someone has left footprints in my cupcakes"

It was a wonderful fun filled couple of days for my little two year old... as you can tell, he had fallen in love with dinosaurs after our dinosaur hunting adventure the weekend before his birthday.  Having a birthday 24 hours after returning from camping isn't ideal... but he had a blast and I'd do it again tomorrow for him if I had to.  I love little kid birthdays, they really do seem to be magical for them.

MTQ

This was weeks ago (16/4/08) but the silly computer lost it, it's formatting was all silly, and it just was annoying me. It is now found, sort of fixed and ready to read!

Off we strolled to MTQ today. We had built it up for Lion that we were going to see the spider exhibit that we thought was running. We got there and I asked the girl at the counter and it was only for the week of the school holidays. What about the southerners that come up north for their holidays??? I am sure they want to know what sort of creepy crawlies are under their motel room beds. Oh well, we had also promised dinosaurs and mummy McT knew that there would always be dinosaurs. (They are the same dinosaurs that were there when she was little)


















First thing we did was put the kids in shackles. That kept them out of trouble and we quite enjoyed our quiet stroll around the museum.

Unfortunately that isn’t how it works and they just pulled their heads out of the holes and followed us ran off. Although they do have two places where you can try out the realistic leg irons and neither of them would be in that. Perhaps they really did think that we would just leave them there.























Lion was a little nervous pretending to feed the hypsolophodontid dinosaur, just wait lion, they get bigger…


















He was willing to give this one a hug.



















Dragon would give it a quick pat on the head and then run off again, it was bigger than him after all.



















Then they got even bigger…



















Lion didn’t want to go anywhere near this one for the photo, it is suspended over one section of the museum with a viewing platform on the next level. Wolf told Lion to say “No dino, you can’t eat me!” Dragon started waggling his chubby little finger at the dinosaur saying “No, no, no, no” Lion could only point, and he didn’t want to stick his finger out too far just in case the dinosaur didn’t listen to him.

Then we went and watched the demonstration of one of the Bounty guns being fired. Wolf got to help, he was the guy that packed everything down tight. He got to wear a fetching red tie around his head and received a certificate. Lion was a little wary of the cannon and wouldn’t sit in the front row even though we were the first there and refused to get up with the cannon for a photo so mummy had to hold him while one of the lovely volunteers took a photo of all of us. Dragon spent the whole performance desperate to get up on the stage to help Wolf.











































As with all the best museums there is heaps of stuff for the kids to touch and feel and destroy play with so they found Wolf’s likeness immortalized forever,
























Lion held the world in the palms of his hands (we got a photo with him looking at the camera and pointing to Australia but I thought this one was more interesting)






















We put their heads on a platter, we tested how fast we can all throw balls, mummy and Lion did some harmonograph drawings, we explored the rainforest up close, we went through a suburban scene and found snakes and spiders and bugs and butterflies and birds and frogs. We had a great time, we left feeling VERY tired and we don’t have to have nightmares from seeing too many great big horrible spiders.

What a day!