Easter Sunday

Queen Victoria Markets

Saturday morning we visited the Queen Victoria markets in Melbourne. Donald and I haven't been here since we lived in Melbourne in 1997, we remember buying a big box of navel oranges that were so sweet and lasted forever.   I think Donald had a few places in mind to visit at the markets this morning. The boys were amazed by the many aisles of fresh produce, the smells of cooking food and the calls of the stall owners selling their wares.

Our main purpose in visiting the Queen Victoria Markets was to satisfy Donald's appetite.  Yes, his main agenda was food.  Apart from admiring the wonderfully laid out boxes of fruit and vegetables and various other stalls, Donald's first stop was the doughnut van. 

Here they freshly make the doughnuts, popping them from the the dough cutter onto trays to rise and then stuff with jam.

They were so fresh, warm and sugary, Donald wasn't prepared to share them.....at first!

I have not seen him smile like this in a while.

Then it was on to the food hall where Donald had his nose to the ground in the search for another of his hearts (or stomachs) desires.......Polish sausage.

I found some lovely French Brie cheese, a huge container of fresh pesto and a long baguette as well as some fresh strawberries, grapes and mandarins.  Seeing Gabby and Neil's yummy French cuisine whilst cycling France put me in the mood for a little myself.

After munching on fresh doughnuts at the markets, we took our goodies home and ate our market lunch....... it was absolutely scrumptious!!  If only we had lashings of ginger beer to go with it!!

A Good Friday Wedding

We had a brief stop in Myrtleford Thursday night, it was so pretty with Autumn colours everywhere and the early morning mist.

We arrived in Melbourne at my Aunt Desley's by 1pm. We were invited to celebrate the marriage of Tom (Donald's cousin's son) and Kathleen.  For some reason I thought it started at 4pm and wasn't in any hurry until Donald pointed out that we needed to be at the chapel at 2pm.  It was a mad rush to get the three boys, ourselves ready and to find some wrapping paper to wrap the wedding present in (thanks Desley) but we managed it all and arrived with 15 minutes to spare. 

We spent a lovely afternoon with Donald's family, eating, dancing with my boys and catching up with Kim (Tom's mum) and the Fulcher family.  Sam, Ethan and Toby had a blast eating and collecting diamonds.  The dining tables were decorated with little silver hearts and diamonds.  They went from table to table "collecting" diamonds until their pockets were full and they felt very rich.

I felt very rich myself, spending time with my favourite Autumn colours, time with family, seeing the look of love in Tom and Kathleen's eyes and the pride in their parents faces, a truly beautiful day.

Autumnal Heaven

An early walk in Myrtleford, Victoria

Haircuts

It was haircut day last Friday.  I actually took the boys to a Man's Hair Spa (or something like that) where the stylists all had tattoos and funky hair cuts (all except one of them) and wore black t-shirts with "Staff" written on their backs.   Usually I cut their hair, but it was all getting a bit too long and out of control so I paid someone else to do it.  Two boys were happy, one was not so happy with prickly hair down his back.  It was the first time somebody else had cut Toby's hair too and it didn't worry me one bit.

Birthday Boy

Today is Ethan's 9th Birthday.  Oh what a beautiful boy he is, nine already!!  We made his ice cream birthday cake yesterday with lashings of blueberries, raspberries and maltesers.  This evening we celebrated with Indian for dinner, some bubbly drink in our goblets followed by the cake.