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!

Applecross park

Once again I have been slacking on the blog updates but after work I have really not feel like working on the computer at home as well. Work had been hectic until my project was delayed again so I have been a bit frustrated as it would have been really great to get the project completed before Xmas, oh well now we get to ramp up again in Feb 2010 - where has this year gone to...... can anyone tell me?

So I am going to try and post a couple of short posts just to update what we have been up to lately.

We often go to the local park from home. We are actually so spoilt were we are staying at the moment with having the park and river so close to home. (I think I have mentioned it before :)) This particular day that we went to the park a couple of weeks back it was still a bit chilly in the afternoon but the boys of course never feel the cold - like most kids I suppose. Reece took his bicycle down and Bryce took his scooter as to him his bicycle does not go fast enough! The wind was blowing so the windsurfers and kite surfers were out in full force much to Bryce's delight - he can watch them for ages - and I must say it is really very peaceful watching them.

So below are just some of the pictures that Heath and I took of the afternoon.......

Cheerio

N

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!

Another special birthday in the fandamily today and that is my dad. Sorry we are not around to celebrate your birthday with you dad but hopefully soon we will all get together and we have many birthday celebrations to catch up with.

Reece & Bryce have been drawing pictures and looking at ecards with me all morning and having a great laugh at the various ecards that are available. So hopefully you got those as well.

Sad to say I do not have that many pics of my dad on his own we have hundreds of pictures around but my dad has seemed to be very sneaky and has hidden from us on many occasions. Well the one above was taken while we were on a holiday in Hilton a couple of years ago, we had a really great relaxing time and attached below is a video of Bryce dancing to some music and getting very giddy in the procerss and that is my mom & dad laughing in the background.

Well dad hope you have many happy belly laughs today while celebrating your birthday!

Love

Nicky, Heath Reece & Bryce

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Busy Boys!

Reece is currently on school holidays and Heath was dreading the fact that he had both Reece & Bryce home for two weeks. Well the time has flown by quickly and in actual fact Heath has done so well entertaining them each and every day. They were very lucky that the weather has been good for most of the holidays so they have been able to spend alot of their time down at the beach. On one of the days when the weather was not so good outside Heath took them to the local swimming pool and they spent many hours of fun there.

This morning we all went to the local nursery to get some herbs and veggies so that the boys can grow some of their own veggies and wow did they have fun planting them in the garden. They also bought some little plants to put into the flower bed at the front of the garden.

One of their favourite spots is a at a park called "Point Walter" it is only about 2km's from home and if we were really energetic we could walk there along the river. It is actually a beautiful walk. At Point Walter there is a beach, picnic area, play area for the kids and when the tide is out they are able to walk across to a little island. The picture below were taken on a day that they only went for a "walk" but landed up swimming fully clothed but what fun they had.

The most special part of the holidays was that Heath baked a cake with the boys while I was at work on Tuesday. Reece & Bryce are so proud and happy with their dad for baking with them. When Reece asked Heath in the morning to bake a cake Heath looked at me as if to say "you must be mad if you think I am going to bake a cake" - but he did! The little ones helped with the icing and I think this is the first cake in the house that has been finished! So it must have been good! The pictures I took did not do the cake any justice and Heath will most probably give me a hard time as I have now told everyone he has baked a cake!

I am just so spoilt to have such a wonderful hubby who does all of these special things with the boys and you know what? He is loving it!

Chat soon

Cheers

N

Determined Little Boy!

Bryce is one very determined little boy........

About two months back he saw a skateboard at Jason's house. Now Jason is 8yrs old and we visit his home whenever there has been rugby on so Bryce has had plenty of opportunity to work out how this skateboard works. He initially called it a "surf board.

From then onwards he nagged us everyday to get a skateboard - and believe me at 3 yrs old he knows how to nag and nag and nag. We used it as a bribing tool for a while as he was being an absolute terror and then not sure what happened but his dad cracked one day and bought Bryce his very own skateboard. Well he sleeps with this skateboard in his bed and gets very upset when he cannot find it. We have to send out the search party ' till it is found.

Now only being 3 he is still mastering the art of riding the skateboard but he has mastered the art of flipping the skateboard and just listening to the absolute delight he gets when he sees his board flipping in the air. So a couple of days ago he told me to get the camera out to take pictures of him and his beloved skateboard.... Below is his art in flipping.

Heath and I cannot believe how much Bryce is like his cousin Duran when he was younger - right down to some of his sayings and the way he walks. Duran you need to come and visit to see a mini version of yourself. :)

We have two birthday's in the family today Heath's sister Audra and my brother Ryan. Happy Birthday to both of you and hope that you are both spoilt rotten!

Love

N

Edu-dance Concert at school

"So innocent!"

On Tuesday this week I took the afternoon off as Reece's class had a drama class that the parents could attend and the after that there was a "Edu-Dance" concert. The drama class was very interesting as apparently this is the first year that the pre-primary students are being introduced to reading plus drama lessons. The drama lessons teach them to speak together as a class/group plus also to stand up in front of an audience and speak plus plenty more. It was really great to see the different types of exercises they use to teach them this and the kids just love it!

"Just look at that cheeky face!"

Drama is very big in Perth. There are plenty of drama schools and we are always hearing that Heath Ledger studied in Perth. At the local park down the road (Heathcote reserve) there are sculptures that has been specially made and dedicated to Heath Ledger.

After the drama class we were treated to a small tea party and then we went to the school hall for their edu-dance concert. They split the school into two groups and then each class has their own dance to complete. All kids have to attend boys and girls. The older kids did more the funky style of dancing but you can see that they all had fun.

The pre-primary kids did a dance about the Elephant. They were given bow-ties and had tiny little tails attached to their track pants. It was the cutest ever and my little boy (sorry big boy) did so well I nearly fell off my chair. He is normally not the most co-ordinated child but did extremely well and followed the steps correctly. He had an absolute blast and that to me was the most important.

Giving us a "wink" and a "wag" of their tails

All in all fun was had by all!

Cheers

N

Reece's Sports Day!

Reece had his first inter-school sports day on Tuesday last week. I was sick in bed and had no idea my child was running in any race. Well Heath came home to tell me that Reece had run in a race and came 4th! I could not believe my ears as Reece does run around alot but when it comes to actual sport he will come up with a million excuses, plus to top it all he did not have proper running shoes on so all in all he did well for himself. We then found out that all kids have to take part in the day.

He was so excited when he left in the morning as they dress up in there various faction colours. Reece is in the blue faction (which in the end they came 2nd overall). Heath had found some blue gel to put in his hair and this was the best part of the whole morning. He got dressed in record time as only then could the gel be put in his hair. In the pics below -there is still a little left in his hair.

So once he got home he had me outside taking pictures of him for his Granny, Nana and Grandpa. I don't think he could believe it himself that he came somewhere in a race. But the cutest was that just before he went to sleep that night he said to me "Mom - I actually wanted to be second!". His one friend came first and I think he was quite happy that he came first but would have enjoyed being second!

Then on Friday the school had a fun raiser and organised a "disco". The kids from kindy to year 3 went to the disco for the first hour and then the rest of the school attended for the last 2 hours. It was very well organised and oh so cute to see these little one's dancing around to the latest pop music. Typically the girls were all dancing while the boys were clowning about but have an absolute ball! Reece had no idea what a disco was and could not understand why he had to rush to get to a disco as he had no idea what it was all about! Well now he does and will be better prepared for next year!

All the best.

Cheers

N

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