Not such a good idea after all.

Hayley has been begging for 2 weeks now for us to take her to feed the ducks. Tyran really didn't want to go last weekend, so we distracted Hayley, but it seemed unfair to do the same this weekend, so we managed a compromise and off we all went. Much excitement from Hayley until she got out of the car and saw the swans!

Just before Christmas 2007 we went to feed the ducks with Nana and Granddad and Hayley got bitten by a swan (or "picked" by a swan as she says). I thought she'd have forgotten by now, but clearly not so. To be fair, the swans saw the car coming and paddled furiously to get to the place where we park and then advanced on the car determinedly, driven either by hunger or greed, possibly both.

They're the same height as Hayley and it has to be pretty terrifying to see a swan coming at you like that! So huge freak out and many tears. We tried to get her past it by shooing and distracting the swans while Anthony took her to feed the ducks, but she was so caught up in her emotions by that stage that there was no getting past it. Tyran was ok as long as he knew he was being protected by me, but eventually Hayley's fear got to him too and the two of them ended up sitting in the boot while Anthony gallantly fed all the hungry birds!


Meanwhile I did what I enjoy and took lots of photos!




We went to soft play afterwards (part of the compromise agreement) and by the time we left there it had started to snow. There was a lovely dusting of snow when we got home and the kids had a great time playing in it until their fingers started to hurt.


In they came to open Tyran's present from Merran and then spent a joyous hour or so playing Peter Pan and "Windy".

Then it was back out in the snow, which by that time was much heavier and far more fun to play in.



Phew! Long post with far too many photos I'm sure. More photos on Flikr.