The Basin

Yesterday Matt took the day off work so we could hike into an area called "The Basin". This is a great place to camp and you can drive about 45 minutes and take the ferry over or you can drive about 20 minutes and hike in and that takes about 40 minutes on the way there and 1 hour on the return trip. We did the latter.

It was a very fun day!

Just a normal day at the beach?

Today we went to the beach:

ate sandy cookies . . .

buried ourselves in the sand . . .


showed a little attitude . . .

tried to build sandcastles . . .

took walks . . .

and watched the surf rescuers clear the water when a shark was spotted!

Just a normal day at the beach!

Waikikiri

Isabella participated in something called Waikakiri (an Australian storytelling dance competition) and the Pymble Ladies College Juniour School team qualified for and competed in the State Finals last week! - here is a photo (Matt took it, and the light was terrible - that is the disclaimer :) you can however see that she was "born for the show"!

Isabella is slightly left of the middle and has the bright pink with orange outfit, one arm raised and pigtails with a green & white sock on one leg.

Jonah's first baseball game of the season

Jonah's signature pitching kick :) I was trying to take a photo of the playing field as it is gorgeous, but I guess I would need a wide angle lens for that!

It is nice to be at the baseball fields on the weekends again.

PLC Athletics Carnival

Pymble Ladies College Junior School held their Athletics Carnival on Friday. It was a beautiful day and I walked there pushing Tia in the stroller. It is always so much fun to go to these events which are so different than any school events I've attended in America. The photo below shows the field as you come in the main entrance to the College. You can see the beautiful chapel in the background. There are umbrellas set up along the side for the spectators.
Here is a photo of Isabella running in the class relay. Isabella is fairly fast so she usually ends up running in the class relays and the House Relay. There are three four houses in Junior School and Isabella's house is called Marden. The colors on the girls PE uniform identify the house they belong to. Isabella's class was third (out of four) and her House placed second in their race. Isabella had a fun time and Tia and I enjoyed watching her :)

magpies & cockatoo

Tia and I were walking home from Isabella's Athletics Carnival today and when we stopped to shake off the boiled egg she had dissected all over herself, these 2 magpies swooped right in and started serenading us (check out their posture in the first photo!) . . . . Tia's reaction? She walked right over to them and said "HELLO!". . . too funny :) then she threw them some of her egg and they were giving us a show. Suddenly this beautiful Cockatoo showed up about 4 feet away and started watching the show . . . we are amazed everyday by the wildlife in Australia.

The Dog lives outside.

Would you feel guilty?I'm feeling pretty guilty, but also relieved. After cleaning up hundreds of thousands, actually more likely millions or billions of black dog hairs for the past 2 years I have officially moved Zeke outside. He was already spending days outside so it isn't too big of a change. I think he is depressed, he doesn't even look at me anymore. I feel sad, and also very thankful that I may be able to quit looking at and daily cleaning up dog hair covered cream tile. (ok for the record I strongly dislike the tile), for the rest of our time in this house. He is just a dog, right? Leave a comment and let me know; would you feel guilty?

42 years young!

Happy Birthday Matt! We have so much fun celebrating birthdays at our house! Today Jonah, Elijah & I decorated the house with all the leftovers from the kids parties :) flowered banners, pirate balloons and streamers - too much fun!

The cheesecake with raspberries and whipped cream was yummy (check out the candles . . . we just put them ALL on the cake!)

Father's Day in Australia

Serving Daddy breakfast in bed (he doesn't really have horns - heehee)
We had a yummy chocolate cake with raspberries and whipped cream for dessert (Elijah fell asleep so we just photoshopped him in the old fashioned way :) For some reason Jonah & Isabella decided to do the "got milk" moustache, and Tia enjoyed giving Daddy one too!

Ancient Rome Day at Knox Grammar

It was Ancient Rome day at Knox Grammar School for the Year 6 boys. The boys take Latin for their foreign language so this was part of learning about the culture. The boys had the opportunity to dress up like any ancient Roman figure they chose, enjoy a pig roast and participate in some ancient Roman activities. Here is Jonah in his Gladiator Costume - the boys in his class voted for best costumes and he got 8th place of the 24 boys in his class - who would have thought he would do that well in his 5 year old birthday dress up costume, with yellow chicken feathers (from his chicken costume when he was 9!) glued to the top of the helmet! he said his teacher said the yellow feathers didn't look good! HEY!

These photos of Jonah & Elijah playing in the front garden afterwards are too funny . . . especially if you can imagine their squeals of laughter (and in the end a few tears)! Enjoy a little glimpse into our lives this past week.