The rest of the long weekend...

We have been busy having lots of fun together as a family these last few days... Makes me wish that the long weekends would never end...

Sunday we had a slow paced morning doing absolutely nothing. We had planned to go to Easter Sunday mass... however, Beth was still really, really tired from the excitement of going to the beach the day before, so Phan went and Beth and I stayed home and she ended up having an early morning nap from 10am-12pm!

We went to Bac Chinh's place for a bbq in the afternoon... they live on a huge property (acres of land!), with chickens and stuff. Beth turned into a somewhat "cling-on" baby the moment from the moment we arrived. We think she doesn't like crowds of Vietnamese people that she doesn't know! She did enjoy the food which was really yummy (bbq beef, sausages, fried rice, thit bo xao, che...) she ate everything... and she really enjoyed walking along their really long driveway (chasing her shadow) and looking at the flowers... She was also fascinated by the budgie that they had (a very friendly, smart bird who can say "hello" and sings songs... it's really cute!) Beth was so enchanted by the bird that she tried to put her fingers in the cage! Some 4 day old chicks had also hatched, so Beth got to pat a chick for the first time. It was a bit of a freaky looking chick though because it was black and white and had no feathers around it's neck... but Beth did seem to enjoy the feeling of patting it.

On Monday, Beth slept in until 8am. All the excitement of the previous days must have caught up with her... not that Phan and I were complaining... It was wonderful to have a lie in until 8am... . We went to New Farm Park for an impromptu bbq/picnic with Collin, Sharon and Em at 10:30am... It's a *HUGE* park... right on the river front, lots of grasslands and lots of families out and about enjoying the outdoors. It was very overcast though... and at one point started spitting with rain and there was quite a strong cool breeze blowing about... but we managed to survive that little hiccup in the weather... After lunch, we found the playground which was awesome... probably one of the best playgrounds I've ever seen... They had this huge rope climbing structure thing and then wooden walkways interweaved between these huge mangrove trees... There was also a toddler playground section with a slippery dip and some spring bouncing horses/motorbike things... The playground was packed with familes and kids - a true indication of how popular it is... There is also beautiful lush greenery and palm trees around the playground which gives it a tropical oasis type feel and there were lots of interesting ibis type birds walking around. It's a great spot... We had to head home about 1pm because Beth was getting a bit cranky and tired... and as soon as we got to the car and I strapped her in, she was out like a light! (We hadn't even started the car and she had fallen asleep). Poor little lady was exhausted. We got home and I transferred her to her cot and she proceeded to have a 2 hour nap... so Phan and I just spent a slow relaxing afternoon at home.

This morning, Beth slept in until 7am... I took her out Kalinga Park in Clayfield to see what that was like... it's a pretty cool park (not as cool as New Farm Park though) it has a big sandpit thing... little slippery dips... lots climbing things and a big fort type thing. There also looks like there are these large ceramic ducks that spout water.. although that wasn't in operation today, but that would be cool to see. We spent an hour there and had some morning tea before we headed home... and then Beth crashed in the car even though it was only 10:30am... I tried to wake her up when we got home to give her some lunch ... but nope... she was really tired and got annoyed at me for waking her!

Here are some photos from the New Farm Park we went to yesterday...

And here's a photo from going to the park on Good Friday - note the "pigtails".