Zoe

Ziggy is quite comfortable with a new bird just like him, he does try to intimidate her at times, but Zoe seems to stand up for herself, she was brought up with 3 other siblings so knows how to stand up for herself. She is learning new skills every day and getting more and more confident with her flying around. Bill and Amy just love her, I have even seen Lachlan pop her on his shoulder and walk around with her, so I think we have all been smitten by her cuteness and her little croaks and wing lifts!

Ziggy and Zoe

Not quite sure how it all came about but we now are a two macaw family! Bill wanted his own macaw and so now we have Zoe! We have talked about it for quite a while, wondering if getting a second macaw would be double trouble or if it would calm Ziggy down as he really is into everything and so curious- so now we are about to find out! Bill just loves Ziggy but he belongs to Amy so he really didn't need any persuading! So Bill and Amy went across to Yass on Friday and picked up Zoe from the lady who raised her in Temora. So far Zoe is very friendly and cute, she is 5 months old and has settled in very well and seems to get on with everyone in the family. Ziggy is very interested, they are side by side in the cage but it is divided and will remain so for a little while. We really are a "Crazy Bird Household' I cannot believe it

Has been a bit hard to get a good photo of them as they keep moving around a lot- no doubt we will have plenty of opportunities for photos as they live for 70 years. Zoe will be passed down to Amy- he has an inheritance plan in place!

Splatter Party in Sydney

Amy and I headed up to Sydney for Jocelyn's (Bill's cousin) Splatter Party. It was at and art studio in North Sydney. There were about 12 of us and we had to wear old clothes and  we got to create our own paintings using the splatter technique- that is put paint on your brush and flick! We also helped create a masterpiece for the birthday girl, using syringes, paint brushes and water bombs filled with paint. There were a few other activities, including doing helicopters with our paintbrushes around the birthday girl. Lots of mess and lots of laughs and lots of fun! Amy's painting is the yellow one and mine is the one next to it. Afterwards when we had cleaned up a bit we went over the road to a Thai restaurant and had a very yummy dinner. We had a great time!

The shower cap look! Not the most glamourous but kept paint out of the hair but not the face! 

Below is the art work we created for Jos.

Chris wore an old suit, he added a bit of dignity to the the occasion- however it didn't take long to add some chalk artwork to it- started by his cousin Amy!

The splatter room!

Bush walk to Mt McDonald and Cotter Dam Lookout

Late Saturday morning Bill and I went for a walk on Mt McDonald. I ride past the start of the walk once a week and have wanted to check out the lookout at the dam so we finally got around to it. It was a lovely day for a walk, checked out the Cotter Dam Lookout and got lovely views across the valley back towards Canberra as well. We then hiked up the hill and got to the top of Mt McDonald which gave good views in all directions. Bit of climbing but certainly worth the walk.

Taking the Creatures for a Walk

We have had wonderful weather over the Easter break. Late in the afternoon on Good Friday Bill and I took Luna, Lyra and Jack for a walk- I must admit we are a bit of a crazy sight!

Good Friday Easter Picnic

 We had our annual Good Friday Easter Picnic again this year, it was a beautiful autumn day down at Lennox Gardens. We missed Simon, Bindi, Mia, and Charlie as they are in Dublin for the next three years! We seemed to cope okay, had to recruit our neighbours to come this year, they had a a 7 year old, 12 year old and 14 year old- we needed some kids for the Easter Egg hunt!

Everyone had fun looking for the eggs, probably not as well hidden this year without Simon to find the tricky spots to put them.

This is Mya, she was the youngest so got a head start in the Easter Egg hunt, she wants to come back next year but is not going to invite anyone that is younger than her as she wants to be first to start!

We had the egg throwing competition again, I must work on a recipe to make my hard boiled eggs more fragile than they seem to be- takes a lot to crack them!

Team Building- Cooking Class

A couple of weeks ago at work we had a Team Meeting and then headed out to Three Seeds Cooking School at Fyshwick for a team building exercise- we had to cook our own dinner. We were divided into 4 groups. One group did chicken and chorizo paella, one group did rib eye fillet on the Weber BBQ with asparagus, mushroom and a sweet potato puree. I was in the group did the herb macadamia crusted salmon and the desert group which did orange almond cake with roasted rhubarb. It was a great afternoon, learnt quite a bit and then got to sit down and have a very delicious dinner. Lots of fun.