Raindrop

So in Prep, Lance's class had a pet bird.  Every weekend and holiday, families would sign up to take Raindrop home and take care of him so he wasn't alone over the weekend, etc!  I was a bit nervous, as I've never had a pet bird before and certainly didn't want anything to happen to him on MY watch!!  Lance had been wanting us to do it, so August 31st was our weekend to take Raindrop home!  The kids enjoyed "putting him to bed" each night with the cover over the cage and waking him up the next morning.  They always checked his food and payed careful attention to him.  All went well and he was returned safely to the Prep classroom on Monday morning!

 We thought it was hilarious how we had to strap him in the car with the seat belt - safety first!

Reptile Park

One of our weekends in August we went and checked out the Australia Reptile Park.  It's about a 45 min. drive north of our house.  It's very similar to Featherdale, only not as much "animal petting" goes on here - ha!  We had a beautiful winter day and enjoyed exploring something new!

 Lance was a bit nervous standing next to the giant spider - it surprised us and moved sometimes!! eek!!  Actually that whole exhibit freaked ME out!!  So many killer ones live here!!

 got to pet a wombat

 the guy was feeding the Tasmanian Devils - gross!

 snapping turtle

 we enjoyed some ice cream and their little park before heading home.  Fun was had by all!

Book Week at School

Every year in August they celebrate Book Week here and do a lot of fun activities throughout the week.  They only dress up as a favorite book character every other year, though, so this year there won't be any dressing up.  Last year, Grace dressed up as the Queen of Hearts from the book Alice in Wonderland and Lance dressed up as Prince Caspian from the book series Chronicles of Narnia (previous Halloween costumes sure came in handy for us!)  They had a blast that day and it was fun seeing every body else's costumes as well!

 Grace with some of her friends: Tayla was EJ 12 and Tavania was Little Red Riding Hood

 Lance with some of his friends: Peter was Tin Tin, Oregon was from Cars, and Jesse was Batman

 The head of Junior School, Mrs. Cadwallader, was Fancy Nancy!  Fun to see the staff dressing up, too!

 Mr. Cousins was the Cat in the Hat (her Year 4 teacher this year!)

 Her teacher from last year, Mrs. Stewart, was Little Red Riding Hoods grandma (paired up with one of the kids in Grace's class!)

 Snow White (Year 3 teacher) called out Grace's costume on stage!  Check out the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia! (Lilli)

All the Prep kids showing off their costumes.  Cute!

Party Weekend!

Grace had a fun weekend last August with lots of birthday parties!  I mainly wanted to post this because one of the parties was an ice skating party where she learned to ice skate for the first time!  Too fun!  She picked it up quickly!  

The second was for her friend, Olivia.  She had an art party like Grace's and it was a huge success!  So much fun!!  Lots of good friends!

Manly Aquarium

We had a bit of some down time in August, so we took the opportunity to do some things on the weekends that we hadn't seen before.  We have yearly passes to some of the attractions in Sydney, and Manly Beach Aquarium was part of one of our passes.  So we took the train to Sydney after church and headed in.  It's still "winter" in August here, so it was a bit chilly and the waves were pretty crazy as we took the ferry over to Manly.  Another adventure!!  Pardon the poor pictures, but I only had my camera phone and it was pretty dark inside.

 Grace and Lance in front of the penguins.

 They were doing a bunch of feedings while we were there, so it was neat to be able to learn some things and watch the care takers feed the fish.

 seahorses

 shark attack!!

 we also watched some divers in training!  Watch out for the shark! eek!

Lance turns 5!!!!

Yes, I know Lance just turned 6, but we ARE officially 1 year behind on the blog!! For the one or two of you actually "following" us, we apologize, but it is now like an Australian "scrapbook" for me that I just need to complete during the time of our adventure of living here!  Ha!  Anyway, I just want to be able to have a complete record in the end.

So, Lance (last year) had a Lego/soccer birthday party!!  We had it at a park (oval) where one of the coaches from his KickStart soccer program came and played games with the kids.  He did an awesome job and the kids all had a blast!  We completed the day with some cake and snacks, then everyone headed home.  It was a fun party!

 invitations

 my horrible attempt at making Lego men cake pops - NOT my thing!  I will say, at least they tasted good!!

 goody bags we sent home with the guests

 Lance with his Lego cake

 playing games

 great coach!

 We have a tradition of decorating the kitchen table on the day of the kid's birthdays.  It's a fun way for them to wake up on their special day!!  I love it!

 opening presents

 Lance, of course, chose Outback Steakhouse for his birthday dinner - ha!  We invited our awesome babysitter, Sarah, to join us for the celebration.  Whew!  What a great birthday!