Tuesday, January 30, 2007

December, 2006

The first post of Daddy Day Care in OZ.....



December was a very busy month. There were all sorts of events and parties going on around Melbourne to bring in the holidays. Our first event was a picnic for all the employees and their families that are on international assignments at Holden. It was very nice to talk to other people in our situations. Some of them had been here for 4-5 years and others were almost as fresh as us. The kids met Santa at the picnic for the first time really. Both of them asked for scooters, pink and blue. Haley and Robbie both got their faces painted, which is a very common party activity. We went to a couple other festivals for xmas and hanukkah that always end in fireworks. The month felt like one big show!

Kevin and the kids fell in love with the ScienceWorks museum. That is where a lot of the indoor pictures are from. I think Kevin explained the tinker toys and building a brick wall in his last email.

We also joined a Toy Library - a place where you can rent out toys - the greatest invention ever. So, Haley had a pink bicycle and Robbie had a motorcycle (no power though). They loved touring around town in them. Mommy and Daddy did end up carrying the motorcycle on many journeys though. We also rented a car as seen by the typical couple photo in the album.


The highlight in December was going to Philip Island. It is an island about a 2 hour drive from Melbourne.

The island is best known for their colony of penguins that parade on to the beach every night. It was quite amazing. The penguin's eyes are very sensitive to bright lights so no photos are allowed. This is from their website

We went with a group of our American friends: Adam, Paul, Melanie, and Digvijay. The other thing some of us did on the island was a wildlife park. At the park, we were able to feed kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats. Haley loved it. Robbie was a little nervous. he liked watching other people feed the animals and he preferred to just throw food on the floor. He did, however, feed a joey several times. I guess he likes the one the same size as him ;-) We got quite a few great pictures. Be sure to check out the album below.

Kevin spent a lot of time photographing all the wildlife there (and everywhere else we have been). We will set up a separate album for all the animals that we encounter over our journey. I hope to post that soon.

Here are the pictures from December in Melbourne:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=6yrt5im.4o8dutty&Uy=-dfnb1u&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0