Saturday around Melbourne

On Saturday, we took advantage of the cheaper weekend bus/train/tram tickets to get around town. The day started by catching the 9am bus #201 right from our doorstep, to Collingwood Children's Farm.

Every second Saturday of the month is Farmer's Market. Adults enter for only $2 (instead of the regular $8) and children get in free (usually $4).

Joe milked a cow! At first he was quite hesitant. He just wanted to watch when Edwin tried milking Heather. Then Joe wanted me to do the milking. And I suggested he try while I held his hand. Reluctantly, he said, "okayyyy".

After that we walked around and looked at the other animals.

Joy-Anne was quite fascinated with the chickens and ducks. And Joseph imitated their sounds.

After the farm, we made our way by bus and tram to the Melbourne Zoo.

As soon as we entered the zoo, we were greeted with an expanse of green with lots of birds. Joe went wild running around trying to chase the birds.

We had our picnic lunch and then walked around looking at the animals.

Joe was very interested in the zoo map for visitors. He would study it and then tell us which way to go to get to the kangaroos.

Joy-Anne finally woke up from her 1.5-hour nap in the stroller, when we got to the kangaroos and emus.

Most of the kangaroos were pretty lazy actually. Maybe it was because of the sunny weather.

After her milk, Joy was more alert and also busied herself with the map.

We found the children's playground at the zoo and Joe had a blast!

Joy-Anne was not to be left out, although she was a lot more gentle.

Since 1January2009, the Melbourne Zoo has been declared a smoke-free zone. That means smokers have to go outside the zoo to have a puff before coming back in. Still there were quite many idiots puffing away. Even mothers with small children were puffing away right in front of their kids, sharing all that poison. When Joe overheard me, he said, "It's not so good to call people idiot."

Such a smart kid! Which reminds me again why we should set good examples so that they grow up to be good citizens.

Joe seems to have grown up a lot. He's a lot more brave now and willing to try new things. I'm pretty sure that 6 months ago, he would not dare to do this....

Now he understands that it is not a real crocodile and will not bite his head off.

We had a really good day out! Looking forward to next weekend....