A "J" Day

Term 3 ended on Friday, and as J and I had Saturday to ourselves, I decided to gift him with a day under his direction.  That is a day where he made all the decisions, chose what to do, where to go, and what to eat, when to go to bed provided it didn't cost much money.

To back up a moment though, we celebrated the end of Term 3 on Friday after school with two of our favorite things, cupcakes from one of the iconic cake shops on Acland street in St. Kilda and book browsing.

Ok, back to Saturday though, it started with a 7:00 am wake-up call...groan, quickly followed by Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches and NO FRUIT!  A game of Ninjago lego versus Harry Potter lego was succeeded by a wand fight between Harry Potter (J) and Lucius Malfoy (me); Harry won, big surprise!

Then we jumped into the car to collect J's bestie Jules and back out to St. Kilda, clearly one of our favorite parts of Melbourne, to the St. Kilda Adventure Park, a community built and run playground not for the faint of heart. 

St. Kilda is a fascinating mix of neighbourhood gentrification, unique cafes, restaurants, and community interests on Acland, Fitzroy, and Barclay streets.  St. Kilda is also a beach community during the long summer months with a fantastic boardwalk and pier.  This neighbourhood can still reflect its' red light history after dark and be just this side of dodgy but it is staunchly individualistic, revels in its' eclectedness, is colourful, has heaps of of character and we love it.  But I make J keep his shoes on whilst playing at the above-mentioned park in case of needles or other undesirables left on the ground.

J loves this park.  It's a no-holds, no-prisoners, and most importantly no-rules venue where the slides are built by locals, go-carts tear down inclines (at your own risk), and the trampoline doesn't have nets.  It's a "check your helicopter-parenting at the door" free-for-all that is reminiscent of the way I played when I was a kid.

J and Jules

Community donations to support the park - ya I know he kinda freaks me out too!

After the park, J requested that we go to Danny's Diner for burgers and coke.  Danny's self-proclaims to have the best burgers in Melbourne.  Well, I don't know about the best but they weren't bad.  Hours of out-burping each other followed leaving me despairing of these two orangutans.

After lunch, we spent a short-time having a fast run-around on the beach before the wind chased us over to the St. Kilda community gardens where we had a fantastic time laughing at the whimsy, marvelling at the colours and size of everything growing, and making wishes at the wishing well.

We staggered home late in the day, popped some popcorn and flopped in front of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', and a whole lot more burping.  After Jules left, I whipped up J's favorite dinner of Pesto Pasta with shredded chicken which we ate in front of 'Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King'.

"J" Day was a pretty awesome day and funnily enough, not all that different from what I would have chosen had I been in charge.  Except maybe for all the burping.