A Girls' Night Out with Absolutely Fabulous

This post is made possible by support from Fox Searchlight Pictures. All opinions are my own.

As most of my mum friends know, trying to get a little "me time" without the kids around seems almost impossible. This is only amplified when you're a stay at home mum. Especially over Summer break with three kids home full time. At least one of my kids is with me literally 24 hours a day - and by literally, I mean literally, not figuratively! I've got to tell you, it's making me pretty crazy. Well, crazier.

With all of my family living on the opposite side of the world this only makes things trickier. Back when we lived in Australia, in the same city as both sets of Grandparents, going out was easy. We had two sets of (free!) babysitters who actually wanted to babysit as often as possible. I kind of took it for granted at the time but now that we don't have this luxury it's definitely something I miss.

Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my kids, but it can be pretty draining to hear "Mum, Mum, Muuuuum..." all day - and several times in the middle of the night from Mathilde. Sometimes we mums need a break to recharge. A break to do grown up things that don't revolve around our kids. The things that we took for granted before kids came along, or in my case, when I had access to free childcare at a moment's notice! Going to a non-animated movie with grown up friends, going out for dinner at a restaurant that doesn't have chicken strips or plain noodles on the menu, or even just a coffee date with someone who doesn't ask for a chocolate milk and a cake pop!

I've decided that I need to start making time to do things for myself every now and then a priority. Especially with my other mum friends who are in the same boat as me. When the opportunity to go to a preview screening of the new Absolutely Fabulous movie came up, I knew it was the perfect time to start. A girls' night out with Patsy and Eddie - and a little champagne? Perfect!

Tim Burton: The Exhibition

My last post about The Art of the Brick exhibition has reminded me about another wonderful exhibition that we went to last year at Federation Square.

Last June we stopped by Melbourne for a day on our way to the snowfields. Our trip happened to coincide with one of the most popular exhibitions ever held at Federation Square; Tim Burton: The Exhibition.

Ava and I outside ACMI, Federation Square

Kim and I are both big fans of Tim Burton's movies so we were pretty excited to see his artworks in real life. We were amazed at the sheer number of works on display. Every time we thought we'd come to the end of the exhibition we'd turn a corner and a new wing of the gallery would open up in front of us full of drawings, paintings, sculptures and movie paraphernalia.

Assorted Artworks

As well as  artworks the exhibition included a large range of props and costumes from movies such as Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Alice in Wonderland... pretty much anything you've seen Johnny Depp in! Ava was pretty intrigued by the Edward Scissorhands costume on display. I had thought that she may be scared by the long shears but this was one particular item that she kept going back to see.

Original models used for the animated movies Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride were also on display and a delight to see. These were another item that Ava loved and on returning home from our trip she watched these two movies repeatedly for the next few weeks.

Models from Nightmare Before Christmas

I think that Ava's favourite part of the exhibition was a dark tunnel with walls painted black featuring paintings that glow in the dark. Towards the end of this tunnel was a round chamber featuring a glow-in-the-dark carousel. I was so sure that the monsters featured in this part of the exhibition, along with the darkness, would have scared Ava but the bright colours seemed to trump the darkness and subject matter and she did not want to leave!

Monsters glow along the walls of the dark tunnel

Glowing carousel

Ava was also pretty excited to discover a room full of paper, crayons and pencils where she could create her own masterpiece to hang on a wall full of fan art. Here she is with her drawing of dinosaurs.

Ava with her masterpiece

What a wonderful exhibition this was. If only it was still on now I'd recommend that you all go out and get yourselves tickets!

Here are a few more shots of us outside the exhibition.

Aarrghh!

It's going to get us!

Ava and Kim at the entrance to the exhibition

Ava at the entrance to the exhibition

Ava and I in Federation Square after the exhibition.
Lola's there too, tucked away in that big belly!

Please note that as photography was not allowed inside the exhibition I have borrowed exhibition photos from zimbio.com to use above. You can view the rest of the Zimbio album here.