Oscar and I spent the week together for Easter holidays. This week I introduced Oscar to photography, lending him one of my less complex cameras. Sometimes kids can be funny, and a mirror... Oscar spent some considerable time asking for accessories to go with his camera, like a tripod, flash, and bag... just like Dad! Oscar seems to have picked up the basics quickly and has a natural flare (although I biased obviously!)
For instance, we met this character (left) in Woodford after a brunch-break at "Jalla's" (yummy pancakes with bacon and eggs on top - my favourite!), Oscar went straight up to the owner and asked if he might take a photo! He took this one, then proceeded to take photo's of the owner, her friend, and the surrounding area! Gotta love digital photography!
We also got some wooden models and spent an afternoon gluing them together - I got a jet fighter and Oscar got a gorilla. We spent an afternoon putting them together, then painted them and put stickers on. Then I spent the evening re-gluing them as it turns out they're not "Oscar-proof"!
On Wednesday Oscars friend Liam came over for a sleep-over, which was great fun for both kids. On Thursday I took the boys down to New Farm park (nr the city, photo left is the view) which has a great adventure playground. We met some charming children that thought that climbing to the top of the climbing net then spitting on the other kids was great fun! I had a good go at the nasty little grots and took the boys away "tutting" madly at the kids' parents...
On Friday Row's parents came down from Childers for a couple of days. They brought the 'van but didn't stay with us, instead they made it a "mini-break" and travelled down the in-land route.
We met up with them at Somerset Dam which also happens to be one of my favourite places, mostly because it's right at the end of a long twisty run of some of the best roads in Queensland... my bike needed a new chain so I took her down to have it fitted, then took the long way round to meet up with Rowie and Oscar later in the day. Needless to say it was a good day all round! We met up with "the gramps" and had a great woodfire bbq - nice way to spend the afternoon. Summer has finally gone and the temperature is starting to settle down - at last!
Having now completed my new camera upgrade with the addition of a Nikon 50mm Lens, I shot this photo of Oscar on Thursday night, then converted to black and white. I'm now really happy with my camera kit, and snapping away like crazy. Saturday 26th April was ANZAC day, falling this year on a weekend and so no long weekend... in Queensland at least, NSW/Victoria get one... 
Anyway, Oscar's school had a number of pupils attending the march and Oscar was adamant that he wanted to march to remember our fallen. We of course had to support this, so we all went off to Sandgate Saturday morning and Oscar proudly marched along.
After the march, we decided to do something I at least consider to be very "Aussie", and went to the beach for the day. We invited our friends Christopher and Caroline along for the day, and had a great time. Although we are approaching Autumn, the weather has been wonderful recently so Oscar was able to splash around in the ocean and had a great time chasing up and down the beach. We had a bbq under a tree and spent the afternoon playing beach Cricket. 
All in all a fantastic day and really a reminder that those young soldiers fighting for our freedom, didn't lose their lives in vane. It's an extraordinary thing our freedom, to us it seems almost trivial but its easy to forget the costs of keeping it. 
