Molins Down Under: Anna Turns 13

We celebrated Anna’s 13^th birthday while we were in Albany (it's true, we have officially entered the teenage years), and her treats were a birthday dinner of shepherd’s pie and chocolate cake at home (her choice! We offered to take her out) and a viewing of Beauty and the Beast at the Albany cinema. Thankfully, she didn't quite turn into Kevin the Teenager on the stroke of midnight (check out Harry Enfield's sketch for a laugh if you haven't seen it before).

We tried to tell her that her birthday present was a trip around Australia (surprise!) but she had her own list of ideas. Her main gift was a lovely aquamarine pendant that we'd found in a little jewellery store in the Barossa Valley when we doing our bike ride, and we kept it hidden until the big day. She also wants a candle making kit (inspired by our candle making at Sovereign Hill...), but that will have to wait until our return.

Beauty and the Beast was fun - especially because it had been a while since we'd been to a cinema - and Jeananne told us we had to have a ‘choc bomb’ at the cinema – it’s a tradition – and wow, and it’s quite the creation: a chocolate covered ice cream with a chocolate coated cone that weighed about as much as a large baby. Crazy. It almost – but not quite – defeated even the girls.