Flashback Fridays: Flinders Ranges, South Australia

This one's going back a fair way. All the way back to 2003...

Back then Kim and I were living in Adelaide in South Australia. Adelaide is our home city but over the past 14 years we've moved backwards and forwards quite a bit: Adelaide, Zurich, Sydney, Adelaide, Sydney, Adelaide (again!) and now the San Francisco Bay Area. Plus multiple moves within each city. Whew, that's a lot of moving!

After living in Sydney (the first time) with all the hustle and bustle of a big city we were keen to get out and see as much of the countryside as possible while back in Adelaide. Being Australian, and therefore used to incredibly long drives to get anywhere, we found ourselves taking quite a few long distance day trips on weekends. After an impromptu drive five hours north to the southern Flinders Ranges (and back again) one Saturday we decided that a proper visit was in order. So a few weeks later we headed to Wilpena Pound in the spectacular Flinders Ranges for a weekend away.

Preschool Easter Party

Today Lola's preschool class had an Easter Party.

Her class sang songs that they've been learning, we shared a potluck lunch and, everyone's favourite part, the kids took part in an Easter egg hunt.

I love Easter parties

Fun in Crissy Field

A few weeks back we spent a day in the city playing tourist. We caught a cable car, visited San Francisco Cable Car Museum and then headed to Crissy Field to see the SFMOMA On the Go exhibit featuring sculptures by Mark di Suvero. 

While we were out and about the girls had lots of fun running about through Fort Mason, Marina Green and Crissy Field, taking in the sights of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city skyline, and were excited to see sealions swimming in the bay. I've already shared posts about our visits to the Cable Car Museum and SFMOMA On the Go but today I thought I'd share some of the extra photos that were taken of the girls having fun - and mostly goofing about!

Fun in Crissy Field

Portraits of a Baby Sister

That big fat belly of mine is the perfect blank canvas for a little artwork and that's exactly what it became yesterday! It's so pasty white a little colour couldn't hurt. Prepare to blinded!

The girls took it in turns drawing pictures of what they think their little sister will look like on my belly. 

Baby belly portraits and my little artists

Macy's Flower Show

Yesterday the girls and I visited Macy's in San Francisco to see the annual Macy's Flower Show.

Each Spring the ground floor of Macy's on Union Square is decorated with a mass of blooms above the make up, jewellery and accessories counters. Each year the show features a different theme. This year's theme was The Secret Garden; hidden gardens in an urban environment.  

Here's a look at the floral displays throughout the store...

An American Girl Day Out

Today we finally got around to taking the girls out for lunch at the American Girl doll store. "Lunch in doll store?" I hear you say. Well, this isn't any ordinary doll store. This is the American Girl store and the American girl store has EVERYTHING! There's a bistro, a party space, a doll hair salon, a huge selection of accessories for dolls, and of course, the American Girl dolls themselves. 

Lola in the American Girl store

April Fool's Day 2014

Happy April Fool's Day!

We've had a gloomy, rainy day here today but we brightened it up with lots of fun little pranks against each other. Even Lola got in on the prank action!

The day started off with a prank against Kim. Overnight I switched the background on his phone to a picture of Sam, three time champ in the World's Ugliest Dog competition. I think he'd definitely still hold the title if he hadn't died back in 2005. Back when Sam was the champ this particularly horrible picture of him would randomly appear as the background on either mine or Kim's phone or computer. He hadn't made an appearance for a while so it was time to bring him back! Kim didn't notice the new background on his phone until he was on Bart heading to work.

World Champion Ugly Dog!

Kim's new phone background!