Chinese Water Park & Australia Day Brunch

Gabby getting ready to swim... My lens was a little steamy, so that's why it's fuzzy.

As always, we had a packed weekend... we did the usual, play dates, Gymnees, a dinner and game night with the Snells, and this weekend... a day at a Chinese Water Park and an Australia Day Brunch.

Not surprisingly, "Merry Tulip Water Park," was Chinese-Ghetto-Fab. It looked like it was built in the 70's but wasn't... It was sort of clean, but not. Travis found a cigarette floating around in the adult area. Weird. I loved it, though. Travis said he'll never go back. We went with about 34 adults and 39 kids. One of the rules is that everybody has to wear a swim cap, so we all looked like crazy bald people. They had an area that was perfect for Gabby's age. There were about 5 slides and a climbing area that was surrounded by warm water about 2 meters deep. I thought it was great... I laid around in the warm water and visited with people... I completely forgot it was winter outside. I have to say, our daughter is turning into a little fish. She seriously had a blast! She was climbing all over the structure and going down on all the slides... she was quite adventurous... no fear. Today she told me, "I love swimming!" I'm now looking into getting her some swim lessons.

Australia Day is this Tuesday, which is the equivalent to the American Fourth of July. One of the many Aussie families host an annual brunch and it's always a good time. People bring Aussie type dishes (I just brought good ole' American chocolate chip cookies) and dress-up in Aussie gear. (I did wear my Uggs). Although the people our awesome, I'm not a big fan of Aussie food. I've tried it all- lemmingtons, trifle, amzec cookies (AKA oatmeal cookies but not as good), and this stuff that looks like divinity (nasty) and it's just all right. Instead of "hotdogs" they roll-up sausages in bread and put ketchup on it. That's actually not bad. There's also something called fairy bread, which is buttered white bread with sprinkles.  Isn't that weird? Anyway, we had a good time but had to leave early because it was getting really crowded. Yay for Australia, though!