Saturday, May 2, 2009

Easter @ Mashado

We finally got back up to the farm for the first time in far too long! Such blissful peace and quiet. We were going to take one lot of family, then one lot of friends, then another and with only a few days to go we decided to stop trying to find someone else to share the beautiful countryside with and just go up by ourselves. Best decision ever! :)
Lots of quad biking (Angus really doesn't like sharing the front seat with Lexie...), lots of roos, lots of swinging on Pop's swing, lots of gorgeous views!

I had to dye some T-Shirts for work and had intended to do them in the washing machine. But then I thought, with 4 days to ourselves up there, what better place to play with dyes? Who needs electricity when you have a nappy bucket, wooden spoon and 3 huge tanks of water? Builder's line and 4 posts destined for a carport make a very good washing line too!
Of course we had our annual visit fromt he Easter Bunny as well. The children had made him a lovely and comfortable nest to have a little rest in (its a long way to Mashado) and he left behind some yummy chocolate eggs. He must have heard us when we told him that we really didn't need any more bowls (as that's what he has bought every year) and this year he left some gorgeous egg cups for all the yummy eggs that Mia and Lemon give us.
The children enjoyed their chocolate eggs. Well, OK. We enjoyed ours too!For the last 4 or 5 years, we've been going to the Moonambel Easter Arts Festival. It just seems to get bigger and better each year. This year we went to the local primary school so the children could do the Art activities. Great fun! Dunc got roped in to washing line duty and I became official photographer. A delicious meal at the re-vamped local pub was wonderfully followed by world premiere of 'Foule's Gold', a musical written, directed and performed by locals. It was a great night with more than a few good laughs. See some other pics from the Art Festival here:
Moonambel Arts Festival on the Avoca community website.
Our last night was capped off witha walk around the property after dinner. We took our dessert with us (yoghurt) and enjoyed it while we watched the sun set. We will not leave it so long between visits next time!

water water everywhere...

I've always been a bit of a waterbabe, and it seems our 2 darlings are taking after me! Angus started "big boy swimming lessons" this year, and in an effort to get him used to wearing goggles, the children wore them in the shower:


Fun stuff!
Had I only seen the weather forecast, I could have waited and sent them outside instead. We got rain! Real rain - the pouring, puddling, extremely-loud-on-the-roof kind! It was such a novelty that the children took their chairs out to the porch to watch! Oh for the days of my youth when we could run through sprinklers and use the slip-and-slide...