Getting my Sydney Legs

Cheap frames w/ pics from
home cheered the place up.

Now that I’ve been here a week, I’m happy to report that I’m starting to get my Sydney legs.  I’ve comfortably moved into our apartment, found places for everything, collected a base minimum number of toys to entertain the kids, and I've been able to stock my kitchen with reasonable food substitutes the kids consider edible to cover any meal and snack.  After a trip to Sydney’s Target and Kmart (seriously, Australians told me to go there) I’ve made the place more kid friendly with things like a stepping stool for the bathroom sink, and more mom friendly, with things like a coffee pot (I have my mornings back!) and cloth placemats and napkins to make it more homey. 

I’m beginning to get a sense of the neighborhood, the weather, activities for kids, and the locals.  And now, I’m getting a little lonely.  Julia and Graham have thankfully reached an age where they enjoy playing with each other, but they also regularly try to kill each other.  We all have cabin fever with so much rain, so lately this ratio is leaning heavily toward the latter.  We all need friends!!  It’s time to reach out to my many Australian contacts and see who bites…

This morning I try bringing the kids to the pool by myself.  It goes over well, yay!, so I can add this to my list of how-the-hell-to-fill-their-day-every-day-for-three-months.  Thank God for the randomness of dollar stores, where I found:

One butterfly floatie toy = $5

Two water guns = $6

Amount of waterside entertainment = Endless

Powerhouse Museum

After lunch we head to the Powerhouse Museum.  It's Sydney's museum of science and technology, so...

...yeah, an ABBA World exhibit makes perfect sense (?!?!).
(Not that I'm complaining.)

The kids might not have been too into it, 

but Mommy was loving it!

Luckily they also had more kiddy-friendly exhibits. 

Like a cool transportation exhibit... 

I'm kind of a museum geek.  Am loving Sydney's museums so far!  And so many within walking distance.  At least walking distance to me -- when I asked the concierge the best way to get to the museum she said either the monorail or metroline, for what turned out to be about a ten minute walk!  I'm snapping up family memberships left and right as am quickly sizing up that these will be our winter playgrounds.