I said I was being spoilt on this trip and today it continued at Juanita’s house where she cooked me up a four-course feast. Any excuse to pull out that deep fat fryer for spring rolls and dim sum and to eat spaghetti pizza is a good excuse I reckon. I last saw Juanita in Feb in early 2007 when she’d just had little Ryan (her second) so it was good to check in with her and see how the boys were going and to just generally catch up. Both Hayden and Ryan are growing so quickly. Hayden is just reaching that age when kids are just so much fun to be with – they suddenly have this awareness of what is going on, they can communicate with you and they are just so engaging and charming. Ryan is just about to have his first birthday and even at this age he just wouldn’t be put down for his afternoon nap when he realised how much fun we were having!

After having the yummy lunch that Juanita cooked up for me as pictured below (try and contain your jealousy and your appetites! heh heh) we settled down to having a bit of a play.

Spring Rolls and Dim Sum Starters	The infamous Spaghetti Pizza	Caramel Mudcakes	Macademia Tarts

One of the best things about having kids is that you get to play with their toys. I don’t know about all the other supposed “grown-ups” out there but Juanita and I are just big kids at heart I reckon so we wouldn’t think twice about picking up any of Ryan’s or Hayden’s toys to muck around with. Even sitting there with the kids as they colour in or do their puzzles is okay. Juanita’s latest, I don’t want to say obsession cause it sounds a bit extreme, interest is in the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friend’s wooden train tracks. The good thing about this train track is you can buy the tracks, trains, trees, decorations etc. in individual pieces or packs of x amounts to build your own train track and it can be as big and complicated as you want it to be. The only problem is that to buy original Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends branded items is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. For example, this roller coaster-type track which takes the track up and around a couple of times was something like $230 which is crazy money. So Juanita thought she could try and build something similar. It started off with a cardboard model and moved on to balsa wood:

If there is anyone who can build this type of thing its Juanita. I can’t wait to see the finished product!