Busy Saturday - and a cool place to toast Marshmallows

On Saturday the big girls both have Ballet and Tap lessons,  This year the classes only partially overlap (Grrr). I had to check a pacemaker patient pre-discharge, and purchase yet more dancing shoes, so there was a bit of racing around to coordinate things and help both Beth and Leila get to their classes.  Damien escaped after dropping Leila in, but I had to try and get them changed and toileted after dancing in a reasonable time frame.  Can't say I succeeded this time.  One kid will go upstairs, and the other downstairs, and it all gets a bit frustrating with Hannah in tow.  I'll have to think up some tricks...

We eventually made it to the afternoon's activities: Damien has an old College friend Tim who was visiting from interstate, and a BBQ had been organised at Fern Tree so that the old "group" could reunite.  There are now a few kids and spouses attached, so it was a nice social event for everybody.  It was good slightly misty mountain weather, only a little bit cold, and our girls enjoyed the play equipment.  Even little Hannah played on the Monkey bars - she can get up the ladder and swing by her hands, and after a few rescues even figured out how to get her feet back onto the rungs.  They also went for a short bush walk - which we parents didn't realise they had started.  It could have ended badly if Damien hadn't gone looking.  Not great on Damien's ankle of course, but he got plenty of husband points.

The other highlight was toasting marshmallows.  Hannah didn't like them toasted, but she loved threading them onto a twig.  Bethany enjoyed waving around a red hot stick and making smoke trails in the air.  

We brought along a couple of balls and some rackets and had fun losing and retrieving the balls amongst the ferns.  It was quite lovely. We're thinking we should go up the mountain more often, and maybe go further on up to the springs cabin too.  It would be great to visit an open fire in a stone hut on a cold Sunday afternoon...