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Halloween in Sydney 2015

October 31, 2015 / Cheese, Outdoor Play, Sydney, Sydney Life / 4 Comments

Yay, Halloween! I didn’t get into it until we moved to the US, and now we’re all hooked, little Cheese in particular.

This year, we were invited to spend Halloween afternoon with our dear Canadian friends who also love the day. They went all out as you can see from the photos below.

After the wonderful party, we head on our for trick or treating. This year, Cheese decided she wanted to go as Elsa, and wanted me to be Ana, so I obliged. We tried to find a Kristoff costume for Alec, but sadly we couldn’t get one.

Halloween didn’t used to be a big deal at all in Australia until a few years ago, I believe. I’ve really enjoyed the past two years now, heading out in different neighborhoods to trick or treat and seeing the houses all decorated and the locals really getting into the spirit of the day.

Something I did definitely notice was that most people were dressed goulishly. It makes total sense, but I was a bit surprised to see even little kids dressed as vampires and ghosts, with living dead-style make up. I remember out Halloweens in the US with the kids as being a bit more cutesy, like animals suits and creative costumes like a family dressed as the Impossibles rather than just witches etc. Cheese was the only Elsa that we saw – and one of only two princesses (the other was a toddler Aurora). So princesses were definitely not in style! That said, Cheese brought a smile to many a face in her cute dress – and my Ana dress was a hit with the preschool set too.

We visited a neighbourhood in Sydney called Bronte, where the locals are known to go all out. A few houses made a “tunnel of terror” like a haunted house-type thing, or filled their front or back yards with gory things. A few families set up barbecues on the street and had a party for themselves and their friends.

This entertaining house had a DJ spinning some creepy tunes out the front.

Barbecue in progress!

Halloween in Sydney was awesome! Can’t wait till next year to do it all again. Now to get rid of all that candy the Cheese collected …

An Enchanted Fairy Birthday Party – Cheese Turns Four

August 25, 2015 / Cheese, Family, Kids / 9 Comments

For the little Cheese’s fourth birthday party, she wanted a fairy theme. It seems to be a popular choice for preschoolers! Together we found a pretty invitation on Etsy that was more flower fairy than Disney, and we ran with this for the theme – an enchanted fairy garden party.

This year was exciting as Cheese started preschool in January and wanted to invite some of her new school friends. It was the first party where she had a say in the invite list, and I feel confident that next year she will be ready to choose exactly who she wants – it’s a big step to see my little one making real friendships. Seeing her little face light up with joy when her friends arrived was just the most precious thing about the party. She literally couldn’t believe that her friends had all come. A magical party, indeed.

For the food, I had my friend Rosalie of Cakes by Rosalie make up this fantastic four tier white chocolate mud sprinkle cake. As per the birthday girl’s instructions, the inside was blue.

Rosalie also made 24 mini cupcakes with flowers piped on in buttercream. These were a big hit with the kids and adults alike – the perfect size to pop in the mouth.

Also on offer were cheese and vegemite sandwiches that my mum and I cut into flowers, hearts and stars, and fairy bread pinwheels. Both of these were made the day before and frozen.

Popcorn was poured into tiny cups that were just the right size for kids to have about a few kernels at a time.

Sweets wise, I made little fairy tea cups with marshmallows and other supermarket sweets, stuck together with sugar glue that I picked up from a cake baking store.

A talented local baker, Love Lauren xx, made the sprinkle Oreo Pops.

My mum whipped up some old school chocolate crackles for a vintage childhood touch.

I made some fruit wands out of grapes and strawberries for a healthy touch.

I’m not a fan of giving kids anything other than water to drink, so we found small personal water bottles at the supermarket and wrapped fairy labels around them. My smart mum printed out all of the kids names and stuck them on the back, as well as on the party bags, so kids would be able to find their bottles when they put them down. Genius!

On a nearby table for the adults was a big fruit platter, cheese and crackers, and hot pastizzi and quiches.

Gift bags were filled with bubbles, a fairy figurine, little toys like a ring, and custom fairy cookies by Love Lauren xx.

For entertainment, I borrowed a jumping castle from a friend, hired a fairy from Fairy Wishes, and had some cute princess, fairy and superhero sticker sets and colouring in sheets for the kids to sit down and do if they needed quiet time.

Cheese’s super cute fairy dress was from Pink Poppy. Her flower hairband was from Cotton On Kids.

Cheese had the absolute best day of her life at her party – the only reason why we keep on throwing her parties each year! (OK, I love them too. Kids’ parties are awesome!).

Are you throwing your kids a party this year?

MCA Light Show, Light Lab & Family Fun Day: Sydney Best Art Galleries For Kids

June 1, 2015 / Cheese, Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 0 comment

The Museum of Contemporary Art has continued to surprise and impress us since we moved back to Sydney. Not only does it have world-class exhibits, it also runs kid-friendly labs as part of the exhibits, and a variety of family programing every week for kids of all ages: from babies to toddlers, preschoolers and school kids. Literally something for kids of every age.

Because of their family-friendly programs, we have been feeling brave enough to venture back into the gallery with Cheese. She is not that into art thus far, being more interested in running and causing chaos instead. With the MCA’s set-up, it means we can see the exhibit we are interested in, as well as having a way to engage Cheese that she enjoys too – win-win for everyone, and we also hope that by doing this, our child will grow up to share our love of art.

The current exhibit at the MCA is Light Show (open until July 5, 2015). Light Show is a spectacular multisensory exhibition by artists all around the world, with the one theme in common – light. The show features a variety of installations and immersive experiences that are suitable for people of all ages – including wiggly preschoolers like our Cheese.

We did see the exhibit at our typical break-neck speed, close on the heels of our speedy preschooler, but this exhibit caught her interest and we doubled back to see rooms and installations repeatedly at her insistence.

The immersive nature of the exhibit was hypnotic – the three of us were mesmerised by the glittering, twinkling lights, and visual illusions that lead us to believe we were moving, or falling, all by means of clever placement and design of light. We spoke with Cheese about the lights. See how if you move this way or that, the image we see changes? What happens if you put your hand here? Or stand there? When you look at these coloured lights, and then look at the white wall, what new colours do you see? She particularly loved anything interactive, like the dark room with the beam of light that she could dance in, jabbing her wand into the light ray to try and capture it.

Outside the Light Show is the free Light Lab for kids. Set up into two rooms, one has a light projected onto a wall which captures movement – perfect for entertaining kids and teaching them about their shadows. The second room had UV lights installed on the ceiling shining down into the art works kids were making with simple white paper and highlighters. Simple but enthralling concept: shine the light on paper and it glows. Cheese wanted more and more paper to keep creating her artworks for us, which were quite Miro in style, I have to say.

Also running when we visited was the monthly Family Fun Day. This free program gives kids activities to perform in the gallery, followed by a craft activity in the National Centre for Creative Learning next to the Light Lab on level 3. The program is aimed at school-aged kids, so around 4 or 5 and up, but there were a lot of younger kids enjoying the activities with their families.

In the main gallery area, kids were lying on the floor with their parents, drawing pictures of the outfits worn in the artwork. The “MCA Sketch” sheet they were given with the Family Fun Day activities on it asked kids to find pictures of outfits in the paintings and then draw a new one on their paper. Upstairs in the learning centre was the craft area part of the day (which had a gorgeous view of the Harbour Bridge, by the way). Friendly staff handed kids a tray filled with craft materials and asked them to create their own superhero wearable artwork, like a badge, headband or the like. The art supplies were basic pipe cleaners, paper, sparkles and so on – perfect materials for letting kids’ imaginations run free.

We helped Cheese with her outfit of crown, wand, necklace and wrist cuff. Her superpower, she decided, was “freezing” (thanks Elsa), and “flying”. After which she proceeded to “fly” through the gallery, stopping now and then to press a “button” on her cuff to power herself up again. Crazy cute. I appreciated the idea from the MCA staff to help fuel her imagination.

Museum of Contemporary Art
140 George St,
The Rocks NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9245 2400
Get Directions

A huge thank you to the MCA for hosting us.

Tale Of A Lost Dolly

May 28, 2015 / Cheese, Family, Kids / 4 Comments

We’ve had a super sad week over at our house. Cheese’s Dolly, given to her when she was born by my dad, was lost. We can’t quite understand how she was even lost, but the fact remains we can’t find her. My daughter is devastated, as am I, and also my parents since they’re the ones who chose the doll and gave it to her.

Taking it back to the scene of the lost doll. My husband and Cheese took Dolly in the car with her to school. Usually the rule is Dolly doesn’t leave the house just because we’ve been scared of this happening, but on that fateful day, we’d all had a shocking night’s sleep, and when Cheese begged to take her “just in the car!” I relented through pure exhaustion. “How much harm can she come to in the car?” I thought. Alec was equally tired and doesn’t remember much about what happened to the doll after this, other than that when I asked him about where the doll was later on, that he didn’t know. “She must be in the car”, he said, and went off to look. Nope. Dolly was not in the car. We started to panic as Cheese also noticed Dolly was gone and asked for her at bed time. The next day we drove back to where Dolly might have fallen out of the car and looked around the area. We door knocked the surrounding businesses to see if they’d found her. Nothing.

My mum made up posters in hope someone might have seen Dolly, which we plastered around the area we thought she was lost, as well as in the bottom of our building just in case.

It’s been several days and there has been no word of Dolly. Just one very sad child who, every night for the past week now, has asked for Dolly several times a night as she goes to bed, wakes up reaching for her doll, and then again in the morning, when she would usually bring Dolly with her into our room. I am hoping beyond hope that the doll is tucked away somewhere in the car in a secret hole we haven’t yet discovered.

Why is Dolly so special? My dad gave me my first doll when I was a new baby, and I still have the doll today. It was a special gift that he wanted to repeat for my daughter. Cheese took to Dolly and after a few months wouldn’t go to sleep without her. Dolly has travelled around with world with us – between Australia and New York several times, to Hawaii, Canada, Mexico and more. Dolly had been a constant for my daughter in our life of travel. And now, Dolly is gone and we are so sad.

I found a few pictures of Dolly’s (short) life to commemorate her special place in our lives. Goodbye Dolly, you were well loved!

Babies Proms, Country Kids: Best Shows For Kids, Sydney

May 9, 2015 / Cheese, Sydney, Sydney Life, Theatre / 0 comment

Today Cheese was introduced to country music for he first time at the wonderful Sydney Opera House’s Babies Proms Country Kids. We’ve gone to every single Babies Prom at the Opera House since arriving back in Sydney, and both Cheese and I enjoy them so much, we always look forward to he next one with great anticipation.

In case you haven’t been to a Babies Prom yet, they are a series of events aimed at kids aged 2 – 5 put on by the Sydney Opera House. Other ages are welcome, and there are usually lots of smaller babies and toddlers in attendance.

Each Babies Prom focuses on a theme (in this case, Australian country music), and amazingly talented performers teach the kids about that particular style of music through songs and engaging conversation. A big component of each show is teaching kids about the instruments used in that particular style.

With the Country Kids show, Gold Guitar winning country music artist Darren Coggan was leading the performance, with his band of talented musicians showcasing instruments such as the banjo, fiddle and double bass.

The songs chosen were familiar Aussie favourites, like “Thank God I’m a country boy” and “Waltzing Matilda” – making it the first time for many of kids to hear these classic songs.

Talented musician Coggan held the kids in rapt attention, and even managed to get the parents and grandparents on their feet to try their hand (or foot) at boot scooting to finish off the show.

As the show wraps up, the musicians (including Coggan) come down to the floor to meet their pint sized fans and let the kids have a go of the instruments. It’s a great opportunity for kids to touch the strings on the double base, or get up and close to the fiddle.

The Babies Proms run for 30 minutes, which is perfect for a kid of this age’s attention span. They manage to cram in a jam-packed agenda of songs and education, and kids leave not realise they’ve actually just been taught a lot about a whole new genre of music.

Shows like the Babies Proms are so important for the tiniest kids to learn about music from a young age. Catering to little ones like this program does is pretty unusual in my experience. Many shows cater to slightly older kids and expect kids to sit down and just watch a show. The Babies Proms are so successful because they really speak to the age of the kids and engage with them, and have created an environment where it’s ok for kids to stand up and dance, or run to and from their parents. It’s relaxing for all involved, as there is no expectation on the kids to sit down and stay quiet. In fact, the expectation is the opposite, as children are encouraged to sing, move and often play percussion instruments along with the cast.

Cheese and I love the Babies Proms and obviously can’t say enough good things about the shows. If you’re interested in taking your child to see a Babies Prom, the current Country Kids show runs from Wednesday, 6 May through to Sunday, 17 May with 9.30 am, 10.30 am and 11.30 am sessions available most days from $16.00 a ticket. Tickets are available from the Sydney Opera House.

Thank you to the Sydney Opera House for having us at this Babies Prom. We are huge fans and all opinions are, as always, very much our own.

Golden Ridge Animal Farm: Best Animal Experiences in Sydney

April 23, 2015 / Animal Experiences, Cheese, Sydney, Sydney Life / 4 Comments

We’ve raised Cheese thus far as quite the city kid. She, like our whole family, loves animals and we try to get her out to experience the bush and country life where we can. We had the opportunity recently to enjoy a day trip to Dural for a birthday party at Golden Ridge Animal Farm.

Golden Ridge has been running as a children’s farm for 41 years. It has been owned and run by family of the current owner, Alisa Nye, for the past 26 years.

The animals at Golden Ridge are all pets (you can see more info on the animals and their names online.) and they absolutely love visitors.

A standard visit to the farm follows a path of activities, for which you must be on time to be able to enjoy. The farm opens at 10:30 am weekdays, and 11am on weekends. Activities are guided and hence if you are late, you will miss out.

The visit begins with holding baby animals. On our visit, this included ducklings, chicks and rabbits that were only a few days old. We were told how to hold them and asked to assist the children in holding the animals correctly. It was had to tell who was the most excited about holding the baby animals, the kids or parents.

Next was a walk around the farm feeding and seeing the larger farm animal varieties. We bought the $5 feed bucket option and had a wonderful time feeding the various goats, lambs, deer, ponies, cows and alpacas, all of whom were most excited to see visitors bearing delicious food for them.

Our tour concluded with feeding a baby goat with a bottle. Cheese thought this was awesome.

Afterwards, it’s lunch time, which can either be a picnic lunch or a barbecue using the farm’s facilities, or you can buy lunch from the canteen. After lunch the ponies come out and kids can take a little ride on one of the very friendly farm ponies.

One of the best things about the farm is the space. While the activities are guided, kids can return after the tour to see the larger animals, pat and feed them, or just run around and enjoy seeing a range of other animals roaming around, like ducks and a very friendly little dachshund.

For a day of hands-on country activities, Golden Ridge can’t be beat.

Golden Ridge Animal Farm
686 Old Northern Road,
Dural NSW 2158
(02) 9651 1028
Hours: Mon-Fri 10:30am-2pm, Sat & Sun 11am-2:30pm.
Prices: $15 per person entry. $5 extra for a pony ride or a bucket of feed. Babies under 1 year free.
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL.
Get directions.

Barbie Princess Power High Tea at The Langham Hotel Sydney

April 14, 2015 / Cheese, Indoor Play, Sydney, Sydney Life / 10 Comments

I was a Barbie kid myself, so it’s been an enjoyable case of history repeating to see my own preschooler getting out my old Barbie dolls and playing with them at the same age that I did. Barbie and I experienced so many adventures during our time together, and I love watching Cheese take the same Barbies (and a few new ones who have much better hair than mine) on her own magical outings.

One such outing that almost too good to be true was the Barbie Princess Power high tea at The Langham Hotel Sydney. The Langham has recently re-opened after a significant renovation and this was our first visit since the launch. Boy does it look good. The old hotel was beautiful, and the renovation has given everything a facelift to make it brighter and shinier.

The Barbie high tea was held over two weekends during the school holidays. It was more than just a high tea, it was a special event for kids who love Barbies, and their parents who love good food.

The high tea was split into two rooms. One with activities and one with tables set up for enjoying the high tea. The activities room had a paparazzi style media wall set up for some photo ops, a nail salon and an activity table with stickers for the kids to decorate their own superhero masks.

Inside the dining room, the new Barbie movie was set up to play on a large screen while we enjoyed our high tea. At each child’s place was a gift bag containing a Barbie doll, plus a blank mask for colouring in, and a poster that, when turned over, had more colouring and activities. The tables had containers filled with textas and pencils, so the kids has plenty to play with while waiting for their high teas to arrive.

The thoughtful staff confirmed who at our tables were vegetarians, and asked the girls if they would like a hot chocolate? With TWO marshmallows? Would they ever.

Next came the platters of food – top tier full of sweet delights like red velvet cake, pistachio cake, and macarons, the next tier plan and raisin scones with jam and cream, and the bottom tier savoury, with sandwiches, wraps, mini burgers, pumpkin tarts and heart-shaped fairy bread.

With one vegetarian adult and child, and one non-vego adult and child, we had quite the variety of food. It was hard to tell what was meant for who, so we let the girls choose what they felt like eating, and then ate the rest ourselves.

As you’d expect from a hotel as gorgeous as the Langham, the food was exquisite. The scones were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. The sandwiches were fresh and light, and the desserts full of flavour, with perfect pastry crusts and light creamy fillings. It was a delicious high tea.

As the event wound down, the girls were getting tired from all of the excitement, which was our cue to leave. Cheese was getting over a bad cold and was very tied and grumpy – hence the next pic we asked the concierge to take outside the Langham as we were leaving, where she refused to get in the picture. A big thanks to the concierge with the wicked sense of humour who captured my cranky daughter in the photo anyway. Does this sum up life with a threenager, or what?

We had a wonderful time at the Barbie high tea, and will absolutely be back for the Langham’s next event for kids.

Barbie Princess Power High Tea at The Langham Hotel
89-113 Kent St, Millers Point,
Sydney NSW 2000
Prices: Children’s high tea is $65 children with gift, $70 adults with glass of bubbles
Get directions.

Circus Factory: The Best Of Sydney For Kids

April 11, 2015 / Cheese, Indoor Play, Museums, Sydney, Sydney Life / 4 Comments

The Powerhouse Museum is one of my favourite places to take Cheese in Sydney at the moment. Not only does it have the fantastic Wiggles exhibit at the moment, it also is home to Circus Factory. We finally got around to seeing the exhibition during the school holidays (and if you want to see it you’d better be quick as it closes May 3, 2015).

I wasn’t planning on taking Cheese as the Powerhouse recommends it for kids ages five and over, but after seeing some adorable pics on Instagram I decided to give it a go anyway, and was so glad we did. At age 3.5 Cheese was a fantastic age for the exhibition. No doubt older kids will et even more out of it, including areas of the exhibition Cheese was too little for, but we spent three solid hours in the exhibition and I had to drag her out at the end, which says that this exhibit was a smash hit for the preschooler set.

Circus Factory celebrates the daring, absurd and curious nature of circuses. It focuses thankfully on the human element, such as clowns, acrobats, circus acts, etc, rather than the sad history of animals in circuses.

The Circus Factory is set up over three levels. The top floor has costumes and the bottom one has a fantastic collection of automatas – the later you can also see when you purchase a general exhibition pass. An automata is an interactive artwork, where you wind a handle and it moves the subjects inside. They automatas are kind of creepy to be honest, and they really freaked Cheese out. The subject matter includes things like freaky looking monkeys and skulls. Fascinating for adults, but some of them are a bit scary for little kids.

We spent our entire visit on the main floor of the attraction. The massive space is broken up into many interactive areas for kids to just go wild and really experience elements of the circus for themselves.

Cheese highly enjoyed each of these areas: clown costume dress ups, colouring in, a mirror maze, hula hoops (they were a bit heavy for her but she made her own game out of them), clown faces, balancing tricks (again, a bit hard for her but she enjoyed trying), the balloon room and carousel.

Her absolute favourites were the carousel (we had three rides) and the balloon room. The carousel is a hand-carved 100-year-old beauty made in England around 1900. It is paired in this exhibit with the original Luna Park 89 key Gavioli organ. Absolutely magical.

The balloon room was basically a netted area with a wind tunnel blowing into it, and many brightly coloured helium balloons floating in it. AKA paradise for kids, little and big. Cheese spent around an hour just in this one area chasing balloons. Thoughtfully placed couches inside give parents a place to sit while keeping an eye on the balloon activities.

Depending when you visit there are a range of live activities to enjoy, too. As we visited on a Friday during school holidays, we were lucky to see a range of short performances called “Amuse Bouche”, especially created by Circa for the Powerhouse Museum. Every hour on the hour, two performers delighted the crowd with a 6 – 10 minutes acrobatic performance involving balancing, contortionism and the vertical rope. Each hour there is a brand new performance to witness, so we kept going back for more, wanting to see what amazing tricks we would be surprised with next.

Here is their schedule for live activities:

Amuse Bouche by Circa
Shows on the hour, 4 Apr to 19 Apr

Science of Circus Show
Explore the physics behind circus acts like plate spinning.
27 Jan to 3 Apr, and 20 Apr to 3 May
Weekdays: 11.30am, 12.30pm and 1.30pm
Weekends: 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm, 1.30pm and 2.30pm

April school holiday activity: Clown carnival
3 to 19 April
Make your own juggling balls, contribute to our giant fabric bunting, play carnival games and get a balloon animal to take home (weekends only). On weekdays, learn how to hula-hoop, juggle and more from circus experts. (Free with general admission.)

Planning on eating while you’re there? You’ll love the Black Star Pastry outlet that’s set up in the cafe area. They serve sandwiches and lunch foods, plus their famous desserts and kids’ shakes. It’s worth going for the Black Star pastries alone!

We had the most amazing time at Circus Factory and will absolutely go back. It helped that we were able to get in for a bit cheaper care of finding a Groupon voucher for adult general admission $7 (instead of $12). At the entrance I was able to upgrade the voucher to include Circus Factory for an extra $8, making it $15, and significantly cheaper than the full admission price of $35.

Last notes before you go:
No strollers inside the exhibition.
The Powerhouse advises that you prebook your tickets (particularly on weekends) to ensure you get in on a busy day.

Circus Factory
Circus Factory FAQs
Open 20 December 2014 to 3 May 2015
Powerhouse Museum
500 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
Hours: Daily 10am-5pm
Circus Factory entrance (includes general admission into the Powerhouse Museum):
Up to 3 kids free with each adult ticket

Adult: $35
Member adult: $25
Family: $65
(2 adults and up to 6 children)
Member family: $45
(2 adults and up to 6 children)
Concession: $20
Additional child (4—15 yrs): $8
Free entry for children under 4 years

Exhibition tickets include same-day entry to Powerhouse Museum. Transaction fees from $3.95 may apply.

Get directions.

Easter Sunday + Easter Egg Hunt 2015

April 5, 2015 / Cheese, Family, Kids / 10 Comments

Ahhh it’s Easter Sunday, one of the best days of the year. I managed to turn it into a week-long chocolate fest this year by eating a chocolate bunny a day. There is something about Easter chocolate – it just tastes BETTER than regular chocolate, even if it’s a plain milk chocolate bunny by Cadbury.

This year was our first back in Australia with Cheese, and I wanted to make it a lot of fun. After opening her Easter basket in her jammies in the morning, she then dressed in her Elsa costume to enjoy her chocolate spoils before we head out to our friends’ house to enjoy Easter brunch and an Easter egg hunt.

At my friends’ house, the girls decorated cupcakes with chocolate shavings and mini chocolate birds’ eggs. They made the cutest little nests.

We indulged in a”brown feast” of hot cross buns, pancakes and French toast (don’t worry, there was some fruit in there too), before it was time to release the girls on the Easter egg hunt. We used a mix of tiny and small chocolate eggs, plus plastic ones filled with fluffy toy chicks, tiny chocolate eggs and some Easter gummy lollies.

The kids all crashed out and opened their spoils. The plastic eggs were a great hit – they gave an extra fun element to the hunt, as opening them afterwards prolonged the anticipation.

It was a day for family, not just friends. My parents joined us, as did my friend’s. We’ve been close friends since we were 12, so we’re all basically family at this stage.

With my girlfriend who hosted us – I can’t believe we’ve been friends for over 20 years.

With the sugar high still going strong, the girls bounced it out on the trampoline. Haven’t things changed since we were kids? I remember placing a trampoline next to a swimming pool and using it to springboard into the deep end.

It’s always hard to head home after such a wonderful day with loved ones.

Last Easter gifts for the day from Nana and Pop, and a big hug, and then it was all over for another year.

Happy Easter!

Do you celebrate Easter? if so, how did you spend the holiday?

Dinosaur Zoo: Sydney’s Best Shows For Kids

April 4, 2015 / Cheese, Indoor Play, Sydney, Sydney Life, Theatre / 0 comment

While Cheese and I often see shows together, it’s rare that Alec comes along too. He’s just not usually interested in princess shows (what a surprise) or shows based on cartoons. But when I mentioned the new show at the Sydney Opera House, Dinosaur Zoo, he was in. Finally a show he could enjoy as well as Cheese and I.

Because, who doesn’t love dinosaurs? Dinos are fascinating for people of all ages and gender. They make a great subject for this new show playing at the Sydney Opera House April 4 – 19, 2015.

Dinosaur Zoo is a fun blend of beautiful puppetry, impressive sound effects and comic humans driving the storyline.

The narrator, Graham, takes the audience on a an educational and fun journey where we learned about several dinosaurs that were discovered in Australia. None of the generic T-Rexes here. Only Aussie dinos, thank you very much. I found it refreshing to learn about these dinosaurs, none of whom I’d heard of before, and to see puppet replicas of them come to life before our eyes.

The show could very easily have been too scary for little kids had a different approach been taken. However, with the high level of interaction and frequent humour, the show was never going to freak out the littlies.

Graham introduced each dinosaur to the audience using the correct scientific terms the entire time. This is not a show that dumbs down science for kids. I was interested to see how the kids would respond to this, as there were a lot of younger kids in the audience, like Cheese. The kids, however, were rapped by the dinosaurs and there was very little fuss during the show that would indicate loss of interest. In fact it was the opposite, The kids were all hanging off Graham’s every word, desperate to be called down to the stage for their chance to pat a dinosaur.

The lesson here: never talk down to kids. Use big words. Kids will absorb them like the little sponges they are.

I was impressed by the quality of the puppets. They were incredibly done, and I found them to be very lifelike. I also liked the variety of dinosaurs used in the show. Babies, insects, carnivores and a big herbivore gave the show a good coverage of dinosaurs in general.

Cheese wasn’t selected to go up on stage, no matter how straight she stuck up her arm, but it didn’t matter as after the show two of the handlers brought out the babies to meet the audience in the foyer.

If you arrive early, kids can enjoy the free creative play set up by the Sydney Opera House in the foyer, called “Echo Table”. By waving their arms over tables, kids can control the emerging patterns and reveal large pictures, like the Mona Lisa, hiding underneath.

For a pre or post-show meal, if you’re after an option out of the theatre, downstairs is the newly-refurbished Opera Kitchen. The food is pricey ($17.50 for a small piece of quiche and fries, $22 for Alec’s OK burger and fries), and the choices for kids aren’t very healthy ($15.50 for a kids’ meal, all of which contain a small soft drink, chips and an ice cream).

While the food was okay, it wasn’t spectacular, so unless you really want to sit and admire the view, I would suggest getting cheaper sandwiches (and a much healthier kids’ pack) from the theatre bar next to the drama studio in the Opera House instead. They offer a $7 Kids’ Box including: White bread cheese sandwich, brown bread vegemite sandwich, a banana or apple, Uncle Toby’s mango & passion fruit yoghurt bar, cheese stick, juice, and a party blower. Check out all the kids’ meal options at the Opera House here.

Dinosaur Zoo is playing at the Sydney Opera House April 4 – 19, 2015.
Suitable for children 5+
Tickets: $39 – $55
Run time: 50 minutes
Parking: If it’s a wet day and you need to drive, use the code “Opera” for discounted parking. Ours cost $9 instead of $15 on a Saturday.

Thank you to the Sydney Opera House for hosting us for this performance and for use of some of these images. All opinions are, as always, my own.