Cup Weekend

We’ve just come off a four day long weekend for “the race that stops the nation”: Melbourne Cup. Melbourne Cup is on the first Tuesday of November and is only a public holiday in Victoria. And yes, it is for a horse race. Monday is a regular work day but a lot of schools are closed, hence the long weekend for us.

On Saturday we went to the country races in Healesville. We’ve done this a few times on the Saturday of Cup weekend, and it’s always a really fun day out. It’s much less fancy than some of the bigger horse races, and you can bring your own food and drink and have a picnic. It’s perfect for kids, as there is lots of room to run around, and they also had pony rides, some farm animals to pet, and a bouncy castle. Ella loved it - she was able to watch the horses race past up close, and in between races we did some pony rides and spent time with the farm animals.

We spent Sunday doing a few “jobs” after Ella’s swimming lesson, which included a trip to Bunnings. How good are these little shopping carts for kids?!

On Monday Ella spent the day at daycare, and Andy I did some super boring jobs in the morning, like getting the car serviced and picking up a new dining table and chairs I bought on Gumtree. We finally replaced our little IKEA table (which was initially bought for our first teeny tiny apartment in South Yarra) with a bigger table that seats SIX people. The less IKEA furniture I have, the more I feel like a real adult.

That afternoon I met some of my friends for a lush afternoon tea at The Langham in Southbank. One of the girls is having her second baby in a few weeks so it was in celebration of that. It was such a treat to have a few hours to just relax, drink tea, eat tiny sandwiches and desserts, and of course catch up on all of our gossip!

On Tuesday morning we met up with Dan, Laura, and their little boy Charlie (who Ella called “Charlie boy” all day) at Myuna Farm in the Dandenongs. Toddlers and farms are such a good mix, and this one was huge with a range of things to do. Of course the first thing Ella and Charlie spotted was the playground, so we spent the first half hour or so there. Luckily it was located right beside the café, so the adults could enjoy a cup of coffee before exploring the rest of the farm.

There was a building with animals that you could get in the pens with and pet, such as rabbits, sheep and guinea pigs. Outside there were a wide range of animals that you could feed through the fences, such as kangaroos, sheep, alpachas, emus and even a camel. Ella loved feeding them, and I was surprised that she was not scared about letting them eat out of her hand. There were also horses, pigs, chickens and donkeys but you were not allowed to feed them. The farm also had a train ride (which we didn’t do) and pony rides (which we did do).

After having some lunch we headed back home and Ella passed out in the car, exhausted from another day with animals. When we got home we used her afternoon nap time to do some chores around the house - gardening, cleaning, laundry etc. All the fun things. At least we now only have three days at work until the weekend!