My favourite flower has always been the tulips. And I know there is a Tulip Festival here every year. But I never thought of going... I didn't believe in paying to see flowers...

But our day ended very early, had a nice picnic of packed sandwiches from the deli. We had to think of a nice place to go and The Tesselar Festival was having their Children's Day that day. So we decided to go anyway.

Mum was very excited with the rows and rows of beautiful colourful tulips. They were indeed a delight to look at.



Meredith had her fun at the activities organised for the kids....she was at the storytelling with Fairy Monica and got a fairy dust on her forehead. She also did some craft...making a little purse which is now in the dump and which I paid $5 for.

But we enjoyed the day....very much....a day with the flowers....who wouldn't?

The next day, we headed down to Katandra Gardens...a garden managed only by an elderly couple. They started in 1974, builded a little shed as their house, they said they had no money then. Now, it has expanded to an 8 acre Australian wild flowers garden, including a little lake they dug up themselves. The host, Bob also told us how he would want to get as many planst from all over Australia as possible, even travelling to the dessert! That was some inspiration!

I am not into wild plants and never thought much about them. But this trip has made me changed my viewpoint... there's so much in nature's wonder!!

This is the first interesting plant we saw....called a Grass Tree...get it, its like grass growing on a tree. Did you see its flower in the middle hidden among the leaves? Meredith was the first to spot the flower.



The Thomasia... it gives off a delightful scent....we smelled it first and then went sniffing for the plant. Where did the smell come from??

This is the lake they dug up which now houses some grebes. Grebes can dive underwater and resurface again some distance away! And they do make a loud noise! The brown patch in front of the lake is a new bed ready for low-lying plants...

This is an example of low-lying plants... they need something like this so that the view of the lake would not be blocked...

The grass....soft and dry...we just sat there forever...enjoying the lake and taking in the beauty of the surroundings...

This flower has so many shades of orange and pink... very pretty!


This is the Lime Majik... so soft-looking...

And this was interesting...the nature of which plants grows first...When I saw this, I understand why some of the trees in the streets are already blooming while others are still bald since winter!

I didn't get the name for this...but it looks like purple tissue paper growing on the tree!

Just so neat the way the leaves grow...and an occasional flower in the middle of nowhere!

This is a little lily...looking frus but definitely not! Just the way the photo turned out...

It was one of our best days! What an amazing garden!

Took everyone to Puffing Billy... the old fashioned train still using charcoal to run... I was impressed everyone working at Puffing Billy are volunteers! and they all worked with such passion!

Here the steam engine... getting ready to go!

We took the earliest train possible to Lakeside, which again, wasn't a pretty lake, just a really normal looking one... and people can have BBQ or picnic around it, or fishing or paddling... but it was freezing when we were there!


Here, the charcoal for the engine...


The kids sat very still for the first 10 minutes of the one-hour ride...

And then Meredith decided she had the courage to sit by the window ledge, just like all the other kids...


Some of the views were great, we were indeed high up in the mountain...


Meredith was lucky enough to take a photo with Mr Conductor, who was operating the engine...

And then we saw this cute old fashioned post-box...check out the hand below jutting out...


Puffing Billy was right there by Mt Dandenong, so I had planned to take everyone to spend a night at the mountain, so that we could wake up to a chorus of birds and fresh air...

There were some activities for children at Skyhigh, a place you can go to look at awesome view of Melbourne...

We were too late for stories by Fairy Sarah, but were lucky to be in time for the face painting...


Even Reegan had a go! I wasn't too sure if he would take it... but look at him sitting nicely for his little face to be painted!


Here they are.... a butterfly and a star!!


Before dinner, we walked around at the 'Secret Garden' and 'English Garden'.... this plant is so special... the way the flowers look... I've never seen anything like it yet...


I am not sure if Reegan knows what to look at, but he was certainly having fun following what Big Sister was doing...


And this is the view at Skyhigh, sunset, after dinner, and drizzling...

The first place we took Popo was Ruffey Lake Park....after yum cha at Tai Pan. As usual, we couldn't eat much... but Reegan did enjoyed his glutinous rice .

This time at Ruffey Lake Park, we were determined to find the lake...and we did! Not a pretty lake, but there were still birds and ducks. Meredith made a very clever discovery... she noticed that birds have sharp pointed beaks and ducks have rounded ones!

Loved the vast green pastures and rolling hills...

After walking downhill to the lake, we all trod uphill...

even our little hero...

At the hairdresser's, Reegan was rather co-operative. But maybe because I had a bag full of tricks. He was pretty much curious about what was going on and why he had on him a colourful piece of cloth. He spent half the time looking for his covered shoes, fingers, feet...etc and I had that half of the time convincing him that yes, they were all still there!

But it was a sucessful cut, he is looking so handsome now!

Meredith has had a busy week. First was Grandparents' Day, and the following week, it was Musical Mosaic and this Friday, she is having a Prep Swim Show for the parents.

Last weekend, she attended Roy's Taekwondo birthday party. Roy had a late birthday party. His birthday was actually in March.

Meredith always loves birthday parties, and she attends every one she got invited to. And after every party, she would say THAT was the BEST party...

Roy's party was a little bit more special... she got a TROPHY! The only girl....yay! And of course I had to spent the rest of the night watching her demonstrating her very good and very powerful taekwondo kicks...


And then another thing that she has been waiting for happened!

Yep! She lost her wobbly tooth, in music at school. Her teacher stuck her tiny tooth onto a cardboard so she wouldn't lose it.

And she got all excited over the possible visit of the Tooth Fairy....poor kid, she thought this was quite the only way she could ever get some money....

But the Tooth Fairy DID visit! And gave her 4 gold coins and a very special fairy letter...