Playing Hairdressers

Now normally when I play hairdressers, I am only allowed to create interesting hair styles but not actually be a real hairdresser and cut hair.  Well all that changed today, mum let me cut her hair!

Now despite mum’s expression, she really is happy for me to be cutting her hair!  I think it is more about me playing with her hair and imagining that she is getting a relaxing massage.

 Look at how much hair I cut!

Note to self - next time take a set of before and after photos to show the world.  
Love Princess George, the hairdresser

With Dad and Dave

I went for a lovely relaxing 'walk' with Dad and Dave this morning as we hit some golf balls around the golf course.  I wasn't hoping to have a hit or 2 as we walked around but there weren't many other people playing so I got to play most holes.  It was a pretty great way to spend the morning.

We really didn't do too much walking, Dad and Dave hired a golf cart to get us around the course.
Shhh, don't tell mum but I also got to drive the cart too!
Love AJ Pickle

Christmas Eve Craziness

We decided to start Christmas early this year and my cousins all came over to our house to begin the celebrations on Christmas Eve.


Naturally with the cousins there, we would have to share presents and of course there were far too many presents under the Christmas tree.  We had a simple solution to that problem...  hand out the presents and start ripping.



Before we knew it, there was ripped up wrapping paper everywhere and little kids playing with their presents.


Of course there were big kids who had about a billion presents too but they were too clever to open all of their presents and play with them, they hid them from the little kids and played with their toys instead!

Unwrapping so much food made us work up  an appetite.  Naturally there was way too much food to keep us going and give us the energy to keep running and playing.


Eventually the early start to Christmas was over, the cousins headed home and it was time for us to get ready for bed.

Of course we have left out some snacks for Santa, just in case he has the munchies when he arrives here.

  

Time for us to go to bed now, Santa is on the way.

Merry Christmas,
Love AJ and Milla

A spot of tidying

Did you know that parents nag, a LOT?  Well if you didn't know that, I can tell you that they do, particularly when you make a mess and don't ever clean it up.  I am pretty good at making a mess and I don't like cleaning it up but some times it is easier to just clean up rather than listen to the nagging.  Today was one of those days.

Instead of listening to the complaining about the mess, I decided to get to work and start to clean my room.  I picked up all the treasures that were stored safely all over my bedroom floor and stacked them on the shelves.  The paper planes that I didn't need any more made there way to the recycling bin and the clothes that were strategically shoved into any corner of my cupboard were all sorted.

I think I made mum proud because when she came to see what I was doing she was so excited she took photos.

She may have been disappointed that she didn't get 'before' photos to show just how much work I had done but she was pretty happy with the end result of my cupboard clean out.  It wasn't just the hanging space that I cleaned out, I cleaned out the storage baskets too.  I folded all my jocks and sorted my socks too!

Folded jocks!

Sorted socks!

Isn't it is strange that a clean cupboard and bedroom can make parents happy!

Love AJ Pickle


 

The Cub Princess

Today was the day, the day that I have been practicing so hard for, it was the day that I was invested into my Cub Scout group.

I joined as a new chum a while back with my friends and we were all going to be invested together but then I went away on holidays.  My friends were invested when I was away and I had to be invested all on my own.

I was so nervous.  Can you tell?

Now that I am a real cub I am not so nervous.  I am looking forward to earning millions of badges to cover my entire uniform!

Love Princess George the Grey Six Cub

Another Mini Adventure

I was starting to worry that being back home in Melbourne that we wouldn't have time to go on adventures any more.

Luckily we found time to go on a geocaching adventure today, on our way to a barbecue.  OK, it may not have been a successful geocaching adventure, we didn't actually find the cache, but we did have a great time exploring this cool park.

Can you believe that this park is actually in suburbia?  It was so quiet and relaxing to explore that it was easy enough to imagine that we were far away from suburbia and relaxing in the middle of the bush.

I hope that some day we get to come back here and find the cache!
Love AJ Pickle

All Things American

Taxi!

Our quest to do All Things American continued.  Our bus was a little late arriving in at Penn Station because we had to drive through the New York Marathon.  (If only we had arrived earlier, we could have run the marathon too!)

We had too much luggage to take on the subway so we had to catch a cab to our hotel.
Once we had checked in, we headed out to explore the neighbourhood that would be our home for the next few days.

The next typically American thing we did was buy homemade brownies from a sidewalk bake-sale in the Bowery.  The kids had just made the brownies and wandered out to sell them.

Beautiful Brownies

I wonder if we will stumble upon a lemonade stand like we did last time we were in America?

Either way, what a great start to our stay in New York.  I think we are really going to love this city!
Love AJ and Milla

Bring it on!

We have been trying to do as many American things as we can during our holiday here.  Trick or Treating last week was awesome and very American; it was just like we have seen on TV.  Today we tried another typically American thing - we went to the football to see the Brookline Warriors play the Milton Wildcats.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of football and I had never even heard of American Football before but since the rest of the family were going on an adventure I figured that I had better go along too.  I am really glad that I did, not because of the football but because of the cheerleaders.

In Action

The cheerleaders were way more interesting to watch than the football.  They were really friendly too, they lifted me over the fence onto the playing field so that I could have my photo taken with them.

Milla is a Wildcat :-)

It was like being a part of Bring It On.
Maybe if AJ moves to America to be an ice hockey player, I can be a cheerleader.
Love Princess George

Treasure Hunting in Boston

After the Duck Tour we had seen some pretty cool places that we wanted to visit properly but since we had 'seen' heaps of the typical touristy places we decided to explore and geocache at the same time.

Armed with the iPad for directions and co-ordinates, we head out on our treasure hunt.


There were muggles everywhere so we had to be pretty careful to find treasures without everyone else finding them.  Some we sat by for ages and ages before we had a chance to sneak in and grab the cache.

We managed to find a cache hidden in a church...

There was another one in the middle of Boston Common, right near this big monument...





But by far the nicest location for cache we found was by the banks of the Charles River...

If you haven't tried geocaching, you really should, it is the perfect way to explore a city!
Love AJ and Milla

Not-Quite-Normal in Boston

After a late night out at the ice hockey, we decided to take easy this morning.  Instead of getting up early and heading out, we decided to head downstairs to the pool.  We were only planning of spending a few minutes in the pool we ended up spending a few hours swimming in the pool.

 It was great fun but it turns out that I may have spent a few too many hours in the pool.  By the time we got out of the pool my eyes were hurting.  By the time we headed out into the sunshine my eyes were watering.  We were on our way to lunch but had to stop because I couldn't see.

Instead of going straight to lunch we had find a pharmacy to get some drops for my eyes so that I could see again.  Hooray for the iPad and being able to find a pharmacy without having to walk all over Beacon Hill for hours on end!

Finally I was able to see again and we headed out for lunch.  The place we went to for lunch is apparently pretty famous, but I have never heard of it before, have you?

Anyway, I haven't heard of the place before but the food was pretty good.

  

We thought that when we were in the mood for famous things we should try some food that was famous in Boston - Boston Cream Pie.  Well it turns out that Boston Cream Pie is really only cake with lots of cream in it and some pretend chocolate stuff on top.  It was OK but I don't think it was so great that is should be famous.  I think I would prefer to eat a piece of chocolate cake instead.  Either way, at least now I am feeling better and have had a big lunch, I am ready to get back out there and explore Boston for one more afternoon.

Love Princess George

Boston College Eagles

I know that it was only last week that I said I wanted to be a pilot but I think I may have changed my mind.  Before I become a pilot, I will go to college and play ice hockey.

It was so cool to go to a game.  Not only was the game awesome, but just sitting in the crowd was so much fun.  There was a band that played and  the crowd cheered and chanted constantly...





Oh and there was a giant eagle wandering around the stadium.








Dad gave in and bought us merchandise when mum wasn't looking!

Best of all, there were awesome hockey players out on the ice!

After watching the Boston College Eagles play, I might even go to college in Boston and play hockey for them.


Check us out, we look like we belong here!

Love AJ Pickle

Boston Ducks

So after the saga of finding a place to stay in Boston, we decided to sleep in a little before heading out to explore yet another new city.

When we did go out exploring we realised just how cold it was.  You can bet that mum reminded us a million times that 'it was a good thing we went shopping in Niagara!'

Yep, it's as cold as it looks!

OK, so she was right but that is not the point.  We were glad that we were rugged up and we continued our time exploring Boston, looking for some ducks.  Just up the road from where we were staying was Boston Public Garden.  It was a great place to wander but a few too many signs telling you too keep off the grass!  Luckily there were plenty of paths to follow.

Chilling with the Mallards!

Eventually we saw some ducks.  They weren't the kind of ducks we were expecting but they were pretty cute - statues of Mrs Mallard and their ducklings Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack.  They were the characters from the book Make Way for Ducklings that was apparently written about a family of ducklings who lived in Boston.  We haven't read the book yet.  In fact we hadn't heard about it until now but having seen the statues, finding the book is something we need to do.

Once we said goodbye to the ducklings we kept on exploring, looking for more ducks.  Finally we found the ducks we were actually looking for - the Boston Ducks.  We had read about the Boston Ducks on the internet and it sounded like a fun way to see a new city without having to walk everywhere for a change.

Look, it is our Duck :-)

The Ducks were funny little amphibious vehicles that drove us around the city streets to see the sights and then, can you believe it, straight into the river!

Once we were in the river, the driver decided that he needed a break so he let me drive.  It was pretty cool driving down the Duck down the river.  Eventually we convinced Milla to take the Duck for a drive too.

Duck Driver AJ

Duck Driver Milla

Us and our duck

  
The Boston Duck Tour was a great way to get around.  It showed us some pretty cool places that we can wander back to and explore some more.

It looks like Boston will be a great place to stay.
Love AJ Pickle

Dramas

We have been in the States for more than a week and have had an awesome time.  Everything we have done has been so much fun and surprisingly hassle free, even the delays, the really long flights, transit times and overnight train rides (well except for losing a diary on the Amtrak!) that it was inevitable that something would go wrong.  Well go wrong it did.  First there was the arrival at Buffalo airport only to find that our flight had been delayed for a billion hours.  OK, so it was probably only 3 hours, but 3 hours feels like forever when you are in a tiny little airport and there isn't much to do.  The best part of being trapped in Buffalo was eating Buffalo Wings - who knew buffalo had wings?

Anyway, eventually our flight was scheduled, the very last flight of the night in the airport, so it was already way past our bedtime and we were starting to get really tired.  Luckily the flight to Boston was short, it took as long to get our stuff from baggage collection at the airport to the hotel as it did to fly from Buffalo!

When we got to the hotel was when the next catastrophe occurred.  We found out that somehow when we cancelled one of the nights at the hotel they cancelled the entire booking!  So here we are, stuck in a fancy-schmancy hotel in Boston with no booking and no rooms available.  Luckily the concierge was really nice and he called another hotel just up the road, found us a vacancy (in a place that was really nice and had a swimming pool) and then helped to take all our bags over there.

So there you go, a few minor dramas but now we get to sleep in a great hotel and wake up ready to explore another new city.
Love AJ and Milla

Goodbye Niagara

there is always something to climb!

Well it is time for us to say goodbye to Niagara, but not without one last chance to explore and have some fun.  We had spent a fair bit of time at the falls themselves and also downstream from the falls so we decided to see what adventures we could find in the upstream area.

Normally when there are fun places like islands to explore we are allowed to just run off and explore but for some reason mum and dad didn't really want us wandering off on our own.  Perhaps it was because we were at Niagara and the river there is a little more dangerous than the Maribyrnong!  Either way, it was way too cold to go too close to the water.  We still had a great time exploring 3 Sisters Islands.

Love AJ and Milla

mini falls above the falls

relaxing in the forest

mist rising from Niagara Falls

upstream from the falls

Slipping

Everyone knows that we like to follow the signs that give us advice about what is happening around us.  I didn't think that meant that AJ would follow all of the signs that he saw!

AJ is Slippery on the walkway

In fact, it looked like AJ was having so much fun slipping just like the stick figure on the sign that we decided to join him.

Look we are ALL slipping!

There are fun things to do everywhere we go!
Love Princess George

A family in shadows

Who knew that we could have a family photo taken in Niagara.

Look, there we are!

This is one of my favourite photos from Canada!
Love Princess George

A Day for a Stroll... To Canada

Yep that's right, we went for a walk today TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!  I never really thought that you could just walk over a bridge and be in another country.  Sure it was a pretty huge bridge to cross the Niagara River from the United States to Canada.  I don't really know if the river is in Canada or the United States, if they share it or if it is no-man's land but we did stop to get a photo taken half way across.

Where are we? USA or Canada, or somewhere in between!

We had to stop at the other side of the bridge and answer questions about why we were going there before they would stamp our passports for us.  Once the passport was stamped and we walked out the door we were in Canada.

Now I guess when you go to another country there are all sorts of things that you can do, but do you know what we decided to do?  Find somewhere to rest!

Resting and trying to work out what to do next!

Mum and dad surprised us and we bought a pass for us all to visit some of the crazy fun things that were around...  First stop was to play mini-golf with some dinosaurs.

After my first hole-in-one in Canada!

Next we wandered through a wax museum.  It was terrifying but exciting.  Luckily it was too dark to get photos of us screaming!  Then we went for a ride on a giant ferris wheel to get a good view of the falls and all that was around it.

Riding high

Oh and of course we went treasure hunting (geocaching) and our treasure hunt took us to a cemetery!

Found the spooky treasure!

We wandered around until it got dark so that we could see the coloured lights of Niagara Falls.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for dark

Red mist over Niagara

After walking all day long we were pretty tired but we had to walk all the way back to the United States!  Of course that meant stopping for photos on the way back, half way across the bridge.

Back in the middle of no-where on the bridge

The view of Canada from the bridge

It was pretty amazing spending a day in Canada and doing all the fun things there but I am really looking forward to wandering around the forest areas of New York state as we keep exploring around Niagara.

Oh and it was pretty cold today so I was really glad that we went shopping yesterday and I had a new warm winter jacket to wear.  Don't tell mum and dad, we are still pretending to be annoyed about being tricked into going shopping!
Love AJ Pickle