something fun!

This cracked us up! The grocery stores are literally in the malls, so after you get your groceries, you wheel your cart through the mall, up the escalators, to your car in the car park - hilarious!! The wheels have magnets on them so once they hit the escalators, they don't move until you get off. Hence the "no hands" Grace is doing!! Too funny!!

Rental Home

I forgot to take pictures of the outside of our rental house, so here it is! Grace is posing! :)

Our rental car

For those of you interested in cars...this is our rental car that I'm driving until we find one for me. It's a Mitsubishi Pajero. Kind of interesting seeing cars with names we've never heard of.

Josh's new car!

This is for you, Cory! :) I knew you would be interested in seeing the car! Check out the steering wheel on the right hand side!

Kiss and Drop

part of the school grounds while I wait in the car

At Grace's school you can either park and take them to their room and then park and pick them up at the end of the day, OR you can get in the "Kiss and Drop" line where the cars line up as they come. In the morning the high schoolers help the kids get out of the car and they walk to the classroom - SO CUTE! Then in the afternoon, they have an area where the kids go and a teacher has a microphone that calls out their name as your car pulls up. We have a sign that we put up in our car that has her name on it. It's hilarious, but it works really slick! I've never seen anything like it! The first two days I parked and took her in, etc., but she told me today she wanted to try the kiss and drop line. Miss Independent! I guess we'll do a little of both - just depending on what's going on for us. Too funny!

Grace's school

standing in line to go into her classroom

Daddy and Josh seeing Grace off on her first day!

Part of the grounds, her classroom is at the bottom of the stairs

The outside of her classroom where they gather in the morning

Grace with her teacher, Mrs. Stephens

No hat, No play!

modeling her dress, hat, and jacket

First day of 2nd Grade

So Grace had her first day of 2nd Grade on Monday!! (She's actually starting in the middle of their school year, so she'll start 3rd Grade in February.) It's so strange! Her school is called Pacific Hills Christian Academy and so far we've been really pleased with what we see and are excited about it. There's 3 2nd grade classes and she's in Mrs. Stephens' class. As you can see, she has to wear a uniform to school, so kind of different than what we're used to! The first day they had Gym class, so she had to wear her "Sport" uniform. She can also wear it on Fridays. She has a dress she wears on the other days. They also have a "No hat, No play" rule at all the schools here in Australia because of the intensity of the sun. It's the highest leading country in skin cancer!! Any time they go outside, they have to wear their hats - so funny! All in all, it was a good day.
Funny story: She said the kids kept asking her to say words, etc. so they could hear her "accent". Ha! She said she just wanted to eat her lunch in peace! I told her that would pass and they would get used to it.

Modeling the sport outfit with the sport jacket

Backpack

Ready for school!

Dinner

We had dinner with the Harbour Bridge in the background and then took the train back home. It was an awesome afternoon! Seafood Bisque (of course we have to get pictures of our food! :)

Sydney Tower

The airport is in the distance - a plane just landed

Here's one taking off!

Darling Harbor

You can see the Opera House between the buildings

We decided to go to the top of the Sydney tower (kind of like the Seattle space needle), except it looks kind of like a giant cupcake! It was cool to see all the sites from the top and it helped me to get my bearings on where everything is in realtion to each other.

Note: are you cracking up how we're constantly in basically the same outfits? Our air shipment STILL has not arrived, so we are still living out of our suitcases! Good thing we have a washer and dryer!!

Fun pics!

Hot chocolate moustache!

Having coffee and hot chocolates at the outdoor Opera House cafe!

Someone took our picture for us on the steps of the Opera Houses - too bad all you see are the steps!

Grace wanted to take our picture

and one more!.....

Sydney Opera House

Intersting Fact: this is a gum tree!

Cool picture of it

On the steps of the Opera House

Touching the Sydney Opera House - Ha!

Lance with the Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Luna Park

You can see Luna Park under the Bridge

touring the sites