Little and Hip

Happy 4 to Agnes & Elliot!

This morning, four years ago, Agnes and Elliot was born. We felt so lucky - not just one beautiful baby, but we had two gorgeous little girls! One dark with brown eyes, and one fair with blue eyes.

They both came jumping into our bed five minutes past seven.....'mamma, is today our birthday?'... So today we had home-made pear, banana & oatmeal cake and 'liquid gold' pear juice from the markets for breakfast, with presents on the side:)

First we all sang Happy Birthday... and it was time to blow out candles...

And then it was time for pressies! Yay! Pillowpets from Besta! And she also sent us so much new clothes, long socks and stuff we can't wait to wear over winter - very exciting! Thank you, Besta and Besten! Mwahh!

Look at all the nice stuff and beautiful birthday cards, guys! Craft stuff from besta Grete & besten Torfinn, and polar dogs from Marte & Andreas, Walnut shoes, boxer shorts and Hello Kitty hair clips from Kjetil & Julija, merino long johns from tante Randi & Petter Edderkopp, beautiful cards from Ava and Lola in San Fransisco, crocheted headphones from mamma & pappa and a Rapunzel/Tangled lantern from Milla!

Thank you so much everyone! You have made two little girls very happy today!

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday morning we woke up and realised that we'd had a visit from the Easter Bunny overnight! Look, there is something in the garden! Quick....on with the raincoats, grab the baskets....we're going on an egg hunt....hoooray!!!

Please, no more chocolate for a while now.......!

Easter Saturday at Willunga Farmers Market

Willunga Farmers Market was the first farmers market to be established in South Australia, and is now considered one of the best. All local produce, fresh and seasonal! Easter Saturday morning we headed down the coast to shop for delicious treats.

One of our favourites is the 'Liquid Gold'...freshly squeezed pear juice, and we brought back home 4 litres! Mmmmmmm!

So many lovely spices... MrC shopped various savoury ones for his smoking and cooking. And I got a bag of Palm Sugar & Coconut mix. Perfect on top of the morning oatmeal porridge!

The girls had a rest on a park bench, licking their hands containing 'smaksproever', spice-samples, from the spice stall.

The girls bought pappa a purple Tiger Chilli bush for our veggie garden, and MrC shopped venison steaks and goat meat for Easter dinner.

A little rest and a cafe visit before heading home.

Milla had her own money and purse, and bought some Babycinos and cupcakes for the girls....mmmmmm!

Another lovely day of Easter holiday!

Good Friday at Di's

On our way home from our penguin excursion in Victor Harbour, we stopped by at Di's house. I met Di at the research centre where I work, where she runs the administrative side of things. She adores the girls, and her daughter, Daisy, is a good friend of mine. We've got so much in common...Daisy is half Finnish, so she is almost scandinavian although she moved to Australia when she was three. She's also an only child and very close to her mum, just like me. They are sort of my 'adopted' family here in Adelaide, and they had invited us over to celebrate Good Friday. Lots of good foods and drinks, and then they had organised an egg hunt for the girls!

After the chocolate egg hunt, Di took the girls out to see if they could find any ducks. Her back yard is a giant golf course, literally, and the ducks loves swimming in the ponds.

Nope, no ducks, but Elliot found a Ladybug, yay!

What a nice afternoon at Di's house!

Victor Harbour on Good Friday

My oh my, Good Friday was a windy day! But we packed our fleece jackets and our rain gear and off we went. Victor Harbour on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia is a seaside resort township about one hour from Adelaide. There, it is all about the sun, surf, sand, stunning views and intimate wildlife encounters. This is where we went on Good Friday and here we found the little penguins of Granite Island. Victor Harbour is home to several colonies of the world's smallest penguins; it stands just 35cm and weighs about 1.2kg.

Before we went for a visit we read about the penguins online and found that we could actually adopt a penguin and in that way help out the penguin centre. After reading about the different penguins, the girls decided that they wanted to adopt Nellie. She had been at the penguin centre for about 4 years (just as old as Agnes and Elliot is now!) and when she arrived they all thought she was a Nelson, only later to discover that she was a girl, so they changed her name to Nellie! They found her in a pretty rough condition with one eye pecked out, and the girls thought she needed a little extra tender, love and care, hence chose to adopt Nellie, which they vehemently still calls Nelson.

This is Keith, the man who found Nelson and rescued her back to the centre. Keith also has got a Bearded Dragon lizard named Lucy:

Keith had made a 'touch table' for kids visiting the centre, so they could explore the different things that can be found on Granite Island. In the jar there is even a baby shark! And here is a lizard skeleton.

It is feeding time for the penguins and the girls are very excited. Nelson is the little penguin to the left with her back to us. Dorothy is Keith's wife, and she knew the name of each and every penguin at the centre, and she told us lots of funny stories about all of them.