our last busy weekend

After 2 full days of touring Dandenong and Mornington, we continued our marathon-kai kai with a full day out in the city on Saturday.

ready and waiting for the adults

We took the train to Melbourne Central and intended to visit the Old Melbourne Gaol. But we changed our minds at the last minute.

We went to Koorong instead. It's a christian bookshop. Joe and Joy were entertained in the play area and watching Veggietales so we could look around in peace.


For lunch, we went to PapaGino's on Lygon St.

Joe was so fascinated with the chef that he obliged Joe with some fancy pizza-twirling and Joy wanted to mess the pizza.

We had lunch with Uncle K a.k.a Joy's Godfather. :-)

After lunch, Edwin took Joe to the playground while we went to Queen Victoria Market. The fruits and vege are really cheap if you go at closing time which is about 3pm. We bought plums at $1/kg, avocados at 50cents each and apples at 50cents/kg.

Joy-Anne was happily in Uncle K's arms the whole time we were in QVM. In fact she was out of our sight and happy. When we finally saw her again, she had a new toy in her hand.

When she was settled into her stroller for her nap (at a record late time of 4pm!!!), we walked back to Lygon St to look for the famous gelato shop. I couldn't quite remember which one so I picked the shop that had a lot of customers.

Il Docce Freddo. It was good. The gelato was very smooth and creamy.

Joe enjoyed his strawberry gelato while I had tiramisu, nutella and roche.

By then, it was about 5pm and the sun was setting. We made our way through the city....

...down Swanston St...

....and took a walk along the Yarra River ...

...to see the fire at Crown Casino. It comes on every hour, on the hour.

Watching it from the north bank of the river is certainly a better view. You can see the whole stretch of pillars without feeling the heat (which kind scared the kids).


On Sunday, we went to church at Crossway Baptist Church. It was really cool to bump into a friend whom I've not met for at least 10 years.

After church, we drove down to Kingston Heath Reserve on Centre Dandenong Road. I found this playground googling.

The kids loved it!

Joe was so happy to find this digger which was also at the Frankston playground (but that's so far away).

And he was very happy with this fire engine.

Joy said, "wah...!!!" the moment we got out of the car.

The men walked across the road to the huge DFO mall to buy Subway sandwiches and we had a picnic lunch in the park.

the last picnic

It's a really nice playground. The toilets are clean and strategically placed (that green structure in the background).

We took some family photos, wearing our new 'Australia' t-shirts.

I bought the same design in 4 sizes from Queen Victoria Market. AUD5 each.

hello hello.... (Joy's new toy from Uncle K)

The kids loved this merry-go-round.

After that Edwin stayed with Joe for more fun in the playground while we took Joy to the DFO mall across the road. She napped in her stroller while we shopped.

We got back to the playground at about 3pm to find Joe's battery drained.

Joy woke up by then and said, "wahh!!!" when she saw the playground. She refused to get into the car so we let her have a spin while waiting for Joe to wake up.

It was a long tiring weekend. Joe was really tired when he got back. He went to bed by 6.30pm and slept till the next morning.

We have only a few more days till we have to go home. I'm gonna miss the beautiful parks and the lovely weather.