Finally a Trip to a Bookstore April 19, 2011

Those of you who know me well probably are surprised that it took me almost two weeks to visit a bookstore. Well, today was the day. We went to the big bookstore here in Sydney called, Dymocks. Many of the books are the same as we have in the US, but there was a wonderful Australian author section. I skipped right over the books you can find anywhere and dove right into the Australian authors' books.  I did not have nearly enough time to read as many books as I would have liked (both boys were pretending to be trains and loud trains at that),  but, I did manage to find a new books.  I have vowed that the only books I will buy while here will be unique books that (hopefully) will not be easy to come by back home.  The Cocky Who Cried Dingo is a hilarious version of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.  The illustrations are colorful and slightly cartoon-like. The rhyming verse makes it fun to read.  Bip the Snapping Bungaroo and A Home for Bilby are both written by the same author and are wonderful stories whose characters are all animals native to Australia. The illustrator combines traditional dot art with more contemporary drawings.  Gorgeous illustrations.  Oh, by the way, a bungaroo is essentially a snapping turtle and a bilby is a small marsupial who is part of the bandicoot family. Okay, enough book talk.

After a stop for lunch we once again hit the gelato shop.  It is so good!  Coop and I had the coconut, Tuck the mango and my mom had her favorite, lemon.  I snapped a few pictures of the boys eating their treat.  The picture of Coop that is sort of green is actually shot through his gelato spoon! We thought it is kind of cool.

Tonight we took out the playdough which, by the way, is super cheap here!  My mom found some Australian animal cookies cutters in a nearby market. We had a lot of fun creating a platypus, kookaburra, kangaroo, koala, echidna and a frilled lizard out of playdough.

Another amazing evening.  The moon was just beginning to wane and was a yellow-ish color. Tucker looked at it and called it a ball.  I hope this picture captures a little of its beauty.