Backyard adventuring, the flowery way

We are back from a glorious little adventure up to Toowoomba to enjoy a few days soaking up the spring sunshine at the Carnival of flowers. There is nothing better than going for an adventure somewhere in your own backyard and it amazes me to discover that just over an hour away is this taste of a much colder place where there are actual different seasons and not just extremely hot and not quite so hot.

We rented a gorgeous little queenslander cottage close to the centre of town and spent four days exploring the spring delights on offer.

We scootered our way through masses of beds of poppies, tulips and an assortment of other colourful blooms in Queens Park.

We relished in the child themed floral displays at Laurel Bank Park. The space themed garden beds were incredible and I couldn't get it all in the shot so there is a picture of the map instead! Not to mention the wisteria arbour with the most incredible aroma, if only they were serving scones and tea in there.

We joined the twilight crowds at the fair, staying up late to see the spectacular fireworks. Miss Liongirl had her first Ferris Wheel ride while Roboboy had his first mouse in a ball experience.

Can I say that once inside these giant inflatable balls, your children will just run themselves ragged and it is like the cone of silence in there. Wishing we had a set for home!

We sampled some playgrounds with the best views around. This would be Webb Park set right on the escarpment.

With the longest steepest slides and the fastest pedal whirly thingies.

We loved exploring all the secret paths in the Japanese Garden.

And of course a cafe stop at Picnic Point is a must.

Brindabella Rose Gardens  was my treat, a rose and a clematis were stashed in the back for the drive home. The magnolias and rhododendrons were spectacular and we caught the tail end of the azaleas and the start of the roses.The garden also has numbered paths which kept the kids busy working out where to go next.

In the midst of all this adventure, the kids experienced their first hail storm and were so excited to duck  out and collect all the 'snowballs' when it rapidly blew over as quickly as it arrived.

And would you believe we even managed to squeeze in some oppie time, and of course it was the one op shop that we stumbled onto by pure chance, that had the vintage sheet stash. I will do another post about the wonderful finds but in the meantime I will leave you with some windy sheet love.

So, now that I am completely inspired after all this spring colour, I cannot wait to show you the goodies that I managed to ferret out. In the meantime, the Carnival of Flowers runs for another week so if you don't have anything planned for the second week of the school holidays, I think there are some good kids activities running too.

We stayed at Ashbrooke Cottage and could not fault it for location and found it perfect for little kids, there was even a long long concrete driveway for scooters.

And a perfect front porch for stopping to smell the flowers.

Can I just add that I have obviously only just worked out how to make collages, just in time as with this  many photos I needed it. Cannot believe how easy Picmonkey is to use. Lastly apologies for such a long long post. Back soon with some colourful vintage goodies.