Busy Wednesday.....

After a hectic day yesterday at school getting ready for a pirate party once I fetched Reece we were then told that Wednesday was ride to school day plus decorate your bicycle! Then to top it all the teachers at Bryce's school has decided that the teddy bears had behaved so well the previous week that they were having another teddy bears picnic!

So on Tuesday after picking the boys up from school we were back at the shops buying goodies to decorate a scooter (Reece does not enjoy riding his bicycle) and also to find a teddy. Bryce had told me in no uncertain terms that he was not going to school unless he had a teddy!

So we went shopping at a local haberdashery store for ribbons etc to decorate the scooter and then went running around looking for a teddy for Bryce. Now in his mind the teddy had to wear clothes and to tell you the honest truth there were not many around that had any clothes! So trying to reason with a 3 yr old about what the teddy must and must not look like, plus we only had 1 hour to get all shopping done as in wonderful Perth all shops close at 5:00pm!

Well we did we found a teddy - a sporty teddy that is a supporter of a footy team - Westcoast Eagles but not the team down the road from us which is Freemantle - Freemantle dockers - as Bryce said that the purple and white colours are for girls and he could not have that teddy! So we now have a new family member called "Rocky"!

Mission accomplished we found all we needed in record time. Whew!

So Wednesday morning once again we were up early as we had to ride to school on our decorated scooter. (Parrot sitting in a tree!) We cheated a bit and parked about 4 blocks away from school and then rode on scooters the rest of the way. Reece was very happy at the end of the day as his decorated scooter was the winner in his class! Bryce also had a great day with "Rocky".

Hopefully tomorrow afternoon we can relax - oh no just remembered we have swimming lessons!

Cheers

N

Pirate party

As mentioned in the previous post Reece had a pirate party at school today. We had survived the storm and amazingly the school has also survived the storm. So the pirate party was on! We got up early in the morning to get ready so we could get to school early for some great pictures with his class mates. All the kids looked great - each and every one of them dressed up! Just after the school bell went instead of doing the usual morning school sport the classes had a pirate parade for all the parents - the teachers were great and also really got into the mood of the day.

They had a treasure hunt, played pirate bingo had a great party with lots of sticky yucky pirate food. Not much school work done but lots and lots of fun!
Oh and how can we forget we have a little pirate in the house who had to try out the pirate outfit to see if it fit and he was so happy that his big brother allowed him to fit on his pirate outfit!

Ahoy mates!

Storm!

Heath is away in South Africa and I have been working in the mornings and then fetching the boys from school around 3pm and then spending the afternoon with them. I must say it has been great to spend the afternoons with the boys but it has been hectic as well. As it is only around the last two weeks at school before school holidays - both schools seem to be having various activities in preparation for the holidays.

It started with Bryce having a teddy bears picnic at kindy and just to make matters worse his teddy bears are still packed in boxes in South Africa - just a little too far away to quickly go and fetch. We had a fluffy monkey that looks like a confused teddy that Reece has won previously so we convinced him to take this instead - thank goodness he was convinced! Whew....

On Tuesday Reece had a pirate party at school and they all had to dress up so Reece was a bit concerned as we did not have any pirate goodies that he could dress up in so we had to go shopping..... on Monday after school.

Now Perth has not had rain for quite a few months but this Monday afternoon we looked like we may just get some rain. We have a really great shopping centre down the road from us but with the boys it can sometimes be a bit hectic as they just want to buy everything they see. As the clouds were building up I realised I had better park under ground in the centre. We had just gone into the "Reject" shop to get a couple of goodies - it is a great store for cheap party items. When we came out the store the heavens had opened and it was bucketing down outside - all was fine and well until we saw the hail coming down. It was scary enough being in the center watching the hail come down and I was so glad I was not at home on my own. So I told the boys that we would wait in the centre until the storm had passed. It was not longer than 20 minutes but when we got out there was water & chaos everywhere. Trees had fallen - there were huge rivers running down the roads.

We got home to find that we had a pond in the garage and most of the soil around the tree at the end of the driveway was down the driveway and into the garage but thank goodness that was all the damage at home. Once I switched on the tv to listen to the news we realised that we were lucky to be in the shopping centre and not outside. As the storm hit around peak time the damage to cars was huge. The hail was as big as golf balls and plenty of cars are being written off. Most companies do not even insure for hail damage as it is very uncommon in Perth to see hail - in fact they say this is the worst storm in 50 yrs! The below car is not mine but some other poor persons car! Most cars on the freeway looked like this.

I was telling my mom the other day that in a way I was very glad that Heath was in South Africa and I had to attend to the boys as otherwise I would have been in the middle of the storm on my way home on the bus or wading through the water. So all in all very lucky. Below is the road in Perth city that I would have walked through!

Cheers

N

Very Lucky........

A couple of weeks ago I had a very blonde moment and knew that I should not have got out of bed in the morning. I got ready for work even though I was NOT in the mood and raced out the door as I was eventually very late. As I was so late I needed to catch two buses into the office instead of my normal one. I climbed on the bus with all my bags and then got off a couple of stops later without.... wait for this.... my handbag! Yip - I left my handbag on the bus!!! How stupid could I be???? (okay no one needs to answer that). So you can just guess I had left my wallet and mobile on the bus BUT luckily I was still holding onto my bus pass so I could at least continue my trip to work!!! I was so shocked I had no idea what to do.... so I climbed on my connecting bus to the city and then I went to the transport office to tell them. Well, did I feel stupid telling the guy that I had left my handbag on the bus. He was not so friendly to start with - but in the end he was telling me " Once he had a couple report that they had left their parents who were french and did not know a word of English on the bus" - not sure if this was to make me fell better or worse!

Anyway in the end he could not get through to the lost property office and gave me the number to try. So by the time I got into the office and close to a phone it was close on 4o minutes that my handbag had been driving around alone! I called lost property only to hear a very big sigh from the woman on the other end telling me I would be very lucky if I would ever see it again - which I knew but the least I could do was give it a shot!

Now as my phone was on the bus travelling around in my bag and I currently was doing support at the head office I had to give Heath's number as a contact. This meant I had to also phone Heath and tell him how blonde I had been! Thank goodness I did not have any bank cards in my wallet as these had been left at home.... what luck!

At 3:00pm I phoned Heath to check if he had heard from the bus lost property dept and can you believe it my beloved handbag had been FOUND! I had to fetch it from the head office the next morning and I also could not believe that EVERYTHING was still in there!!

Very very lucky!!! Now each time I take the bus I double-check, triple check BEFORE I get off! Hopefully my lesson is learnt.

Cheers
N

Just look at this face!

I have one little boy who just loves fruit and cannot get enough of it and that is Bryce and then my big boy Reece only like apples! At least he eats some fruit. Now Bryce will try anything when it comes to fruit and we have to keep an eye on him otherwise he would eat it all day. Below are some pics taken in Feb where he is munching on a bowl of cherries. I think I had about 2 cherries and he ate the rest!

Action of the weekend!

This last weekend Heath and I had planned to take the boys to the zoo on Saturday. They were playing so nicely together that when we told them our plans they told us "Aaaaarrrrrr.........Not today as we are building our house and would like to stay home today...". Well Heath and I were a little shocked to hear this from a 6 and 3 yr old. So we potted around the house for a little before deciding to take a visit to a small village called Leederville. The boys of course were not too happy with us but we wanted to get out the house for a bit. Leederville is well known for all of the various restaurants in the area and there is normally a market on Saturday morning. We wondered through the market the boys played a bit at the kiddies play area and then had their faces painted. Bryce was a little brown bear and Reece a Dalmatian. We did not have a camera with us to take pics but they both looked really cute. We found an Italian restaurant for a small bite to eat and once again the boys found a play area and we had to pry them away once we were ready to go. We then had tears because now they did not want to go home as they were having too much fun.... we just never seem to do the right thing!

So on Sunday we did not tell them that we were off to the zoo we just packed a picnic basket, some books, cameras and zooted off to the zoo. Once they were there they were over the moon. We had a great day playing in the kids area, walking around the various areas looking at the animals, eating, playing some more, relaxing and reading until around 4pm when we climbed into the car for home.

They had tired themselves out so getting them ready for bed was not such a hard task and they were both fast asleep by 8:00pm.... an absolute miracle for this household!

The week ahead is a busy one with parent teacher meetings, work functions, friends for dinner. It does not stop over the weekend either as the boys are starting kidz sport on Saturday, Reece also has a birthday party on Saturday and then Reece & Bryce are going to give soccer a shot on Sunday. Gonna need another weekend to relax after my weekend!

Cheers

N

Boys 1st day @ school 2010

Well today was the day after a very long 6 week Xmas holiday. Whew! - cannot believe we all made it in one piece. Reece went into Year 1 and Bryce started kindy today.

Reece was not worried at all to be in Year 1 and actually in a way told us to 'leave now' so that school can start. He was really so excited to be back at school with all his mates. He had a great day and cannot wait to get back there tomorrow - he has a great teacher so looks like he has a great year ahead!

Bryce well .... Bryce being Bryce woke up a bit grumpy this morning and was not happy to be starting school today. He wanted to be at Reece's school and did not want to go to his own school. Well surprise surprise when we got to the school and his teacher started chatting to him he was like butter he just melted. We had to spend the morning with him and they have also split the arrival of all kids in the first two weeks which makes it easier on them. All in all he had a great morning but I cannot say he is jumping with glee to be back there on Wednesday. He is back to his normal day care tomorrow and as he knows it he cannot wait to get there.

Cheers

N

Reece's Xmas Play

Reece's Xmas play at school took place on the last day of school. The two pre-primary classes got together and put the play on for the whole school. Reece was Joseph and we did not even know that he was Joseph until about 3 days before the play when one of the parents told us. Most of the kids did all of the talking and the a couple of the kids acted out everything. It was very cute as they had modernised the play, so we had quite a few giggles. In fact I was recording the play on video and when we played it back you can hear me have a giggle in the background.

We were then given the opportunity to spend the morning with them have some tea and cake and then it was back to work. (very sad I know!)

In the last term the kids are all taken to the local swimming pool and given swimming lessons. There is a government program here that teaches the children to swim and then they are graded at the end of the period. There are also programs at all of the local swimming pools and beaches to continue with the program and it is really cheap. It is quite a big thing in Australia that kids know how to swim, so beneficial to all.

Reece ended off school one week before Xmas and they will only be going back on 1st Feb........ not sure how we are going to keep him busy but I am sure we will cope.

Bye

N

Bryce's Xmas Songs

Bryce has his Xmas concert at school and when we got there all the kids were all lined up and ready to sing some Xmas songs. From the pics below you can see that he looks like the sweetest little boy ever but boy oh boy he is a monster at home. He is at the stage that he has to dress himself and normally he is very well co-ordinated with his colours but this day I do not know what happened. He was also wearing a Ben10 shirt which my mom and dad had bought for him from the UK. It was long sleeves and over 32 degrees outside but he did not care as he was going to wear his Ben10 t-shirt come hell or high water.

Now one of the songs that they sung for us is used in a tv commercial for the lottery and goes "Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket and save it for a rainy day........" this is the chorus and I cannot remember the rest of the song but Bryce had shorts on with a velcro pocket so he was litterally trying to put his star that he caught into his pocket and spent the next couple of minutes trying to get his pocket open only for the chorus to start again and he would then start opening his pocket again, so therefore throughout the song he was making such a noise trying to get his pocket open. I was giggling so much by the end of the song it was just too cute to see what was going through his mind.

He had great fun though and loved the fact that we were there so that he could show us his school and all his art work, we then stayed for some snacks with the kids and then had a relaxing afternoon at home.

Cheers

N

Perth city

During mom and dad's stay there was only one lucky day when both Reece & Bryce were at school for the day so that left the day open for my Heath, mom & dad to get into Perth city to explore. They took a bus to the train station and then the train into the city. They all wondered around the city and then I met them for such lunch before they took the train back home.

I have been in Perth for 1 year now and I still have not posted any pictures of Perth city so I thought this would be a good opportunity. Thanks to my mom and dad who took some of the pictures. The first picture is the office block that I work in called Central Park and it is the tallest building in Perth currently.

How time flys ONE YEAR ALREADY!

Cheers

Nicky

Hillary's with Mom & Dad

My mom and Dad arrived from the UK on the 3rd December and I was flying back from Singapore that night and only arrived at 2:30am on the 4th December. So I did not have the privilege of fetching them from the airport, but I did have the privilege of waking them up at 2:30am in the morning as Heath had left the wrong key under the front door mat for me so I had to bang on the door for someone to open it up and that happened to be my mom as their room was closest to the front door..... sorry mom :)

The first couple of days they visited the local areas around us and then on the first weekend we took them to Hillary's Harbour. It is about 20km north of Perth. The Perth aquarium is also in the same area. We always visit one particular restaurant there as they have really great steaks and guess what it is run by a South African guy.

After lunch we walked around the harbour area and did a little shopping before taking a slow drive home along the coast.

I need to catch up on my blogging so I am just going to post some short one of what we have been up to lately as I have been asked by many of you "What has happened to the blog?" Missing everyone terribly.

Cheers

Nicky

Great relaxing weekend enjoying Summer or not.....

We are still having strange weather here in Perth 'summer' cannot really make up its mind on whether it should arrive or not..... On Saturday morning Heath woke up with a 'bee in this bonnet' and decided that we all needed a good long walk along the river. So we obeyed our master and within 30 minutes or so we were off – sun shining and all & very happy that it looked like summer was here to stay.

There were a couple of cricket matches already on the go down (now I am talking 7:3oam!) at the local park and plenty of birds were out and about enjoying the great weather to. After about two hours or so of walking and kicking the soccer ball around the park we all sat down to enjoy the great weather – then the clouds started coming in rapidly and before we knew it, it felt like winter was on us again. We strolled home to have a bit of lite breakfast and then lazed about at home for most of the day.

Not sure why but I showed the little ones how to play some games on the computer and that was it - they were hooked! – so I am not sure in the end that it was such a bright idea! They were all educational so maybe not so bad but now I have another two little monsters to fight with to get my time on the computer.

On Sunday morning we woke up to 32 degrees again we got up early and outside before it got to unbearable. I made some egg and bacon sandwiches and we packed a picnic basket full of goodies. We grabbed the beach bag, picnic basket, bikes, kids..... and headed off to the local beach along the river down the road from us in Applecross. We spent most of the morning pottering around building sand castles, wallowing in the water checking out all of the little critters and also watching the various bird life from pelicans, scared ibis, seagulls, swallows, black swans, ducks etc. Bryce is very fascinated with the birds around at the moment and has many many questions....

We then took a slow stroll home around 12:30 and then later in the afternoon we took the boys down to Heathcote park at around 5:00pm but boy oh boy it was so hot! The park has a huge wooden pirate ship for the boys to explore and they just love it so we just had to find a bit of shade and enjoy the warm weather that we have been begging for so long......

And then last night there was a huge thunder storm and today we are back to cooler weather, not cold but cooler so still no summer for Perth as yet..........

Chat soon
Cheers
N

Riding Dunes @ Lancelin

Well I did not get very far with my short brief updates on what we have been up to as I have not really had a chance to get to the computer once home over the last week or so.

Anyway below are some pics of us at a place called Lancelin which is about 1.5hrs north of Perth. There are sand dunes for all to ride on. We were introduced to the place by some friends who live down the road from us. They also have two boys but are a bit older than Reece & Bryce. So it was a real boys day!

Now Bryce is motor bike, car, surf board kite board – you name it mad but when we got there he would not get out of the car therefore there is a lack of photos with Bryce. He was very worried that the motor bikes were going to ride over us and therefore refused to get out of the car and then screamed all morning until we left the dunes for the beach.

Herbert enticed Bryce out of the car and two minutes later I was taking him back to the car.

Reece being Reece just fitted in and had a whale of a time. It was couple of weeks back and even though the sun was shining it was windy & freezing!

The boys all started with a practice round of boarding on a small dune before moving onto a larger dune.

Heath even had a shot at going down the dunes and got covered in sand.

We only hired the boards for a couple of hours from the local newsagent. This little town is a true one horse town basically the newsagent is the guy who is the butcher, baker, hire of all recreational equipment, agent etc.

After the dune riding we headed off to the local pub which is a couple of metres away from the beach. As we got there all of the boys saw the sea and then shot off saying they were going to paddle in the water cause as mentioned it was freezing. Well after 5 minutes their shirts were off and boys being boys they were “paddling” as can be seen by the evidence below. All in all they had a great time and just as we finished eating they were all frozen to the bone and were ready to go home!

All in all another great day out in Perth!

On the way to the dunes we had to wait for this blue tongue lizard to cross the road much to the delight of the boys!