Beach-Park - school holidays

Giggle Bear's very favourite things are the beach and playgrounds, so a playground beside the sea is her idea of paradise. I don't find it such a hardship myself.

While the weather is not precisely Spring Like (it lacks a certain crispness) it does not yet have the I-can-feel-the-sweat-catching-in-my-bra-horror that is Queensland's (extended) summer. In other words it was balmy and pleasant and the lap of the sea and the play of the breeze almost made me forget that we're not yet halfway through the school holidays. (And all three children on the outside are still intact and alive! Score! And the one on the inside is busily head-butting away and being large.)

The kids' latest craze is parachutes - to which end they brought several large plastic bags to the beach and proceeded to jump off the walkway railings repeatedly. (With many warnings not to let the bags go as they'd be dangerous to sea creatures.) They assure me the parachutes really work and I'm just grateful they haven't tried to jump more than a couple of metres onto soft sand.

I've been getting out my camera more and more recently - getting back in the swing of it. I've missed it so. And I've missed having the photos to look back on. Especially with Giggle Bear changing so much and being almost unbearably cute (and incredibly cheeky). I've almost worked out the light again - now I'm working on sorting out the focus.

 (That black bag she's holding? - obviously a parachute!)

 Why don't I just plunge into the water in my clothes? (Cold, mama! Wet, mama! - Well dear, if you do jump in the sea that does happen. How heartless I've become!)

 The age of drool and wonder...

 Parachutes ahoy!