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!

Final days in America

On our last couple of days in America, we were able to go over to Ben and Jill's, and Andy and Erin's new houses in Minneapolis.  They had both just moved there and it was a great opportunity for our families to see each other one last time, and get some family pics with the new additions.  I was just snapping a few here and there, but for whatever reason, I don't have any of Ben and Jill's family??  I must have been distracted doing something else at the time?? :(

 All of the grandchildren: L-R: Elijah, Grace, Jonas, Lance, Graham, and Stella

 Grandpa and Grandma with all the grandchildren

 Josh and Lis's family

 I love this pic of Andy and Erin!

 We played in Ben and Jill's neighborhood pool and Lance and Jonas had some wrestling fun!  Can't wait to do it all over again!!

Wherry Visit!

Fortunately, we are so lucky to have so many friends living in Minneapolis!  We're able to see a few more people while we're back visiting!  We made a quick trip over to Mike and Lynsey Wherry's new house to see them and their two boys, Jack and Owen.  Jack and Grace are about a month apart and Owen is about 1 year older than Lance.  We met Mike and Lynsey while living in Cedar Rapids (Lynsey also works for General Mills).  We became good friends, traveled to Europe together, and have kept in touch through each of our family's moves, children, and adventures!  Our kids don't really remember each other, but hit it off great!!  The boys were such great hosts (as were Mike and Lynsey ;)  and we enjoyed an amazing mexican dinner while catching up.  Thanks again, Wherry's!!  Looking forward to our next visit!

Friends in Minneapolis

We spent a few days with our amazing friends (whom we met in Ohio and now live in Minneapolis), Paul and Lonna Bohlsen.  Our kids became the best of friends as well while living in Ohio, so it's always so much fun to see each other and get together!  I mean, even Reid still calls Lance "his brother"!  Ha!!  SO SWEET!  Our other great friend, Lori Matlack, had also moved up north to Crookston, Minnesota, so she brought her girls and they came down to stay and see us a couple of days as well - how did I get so lucky?!!  We had so much fun all hanging out together - treasured memories I will never forget!  It was REALLY hard for even our kids to leave!

 We had a girls day out and took a visit to the Mall Of America (of course) and ate at the Rainforest Cafe - the girls all loved it!
Jessica, Tatum, Sarah, Grace, and Kristin

 Lonna, Lori, me (thanks, Grace, for taking the picture!)

 Next stop - AMERICAN GIRL store!!!!  This was Grace's first time there and boy was it fun - I was even like a kid in a candy store!!  SO CUTE!  American Girl started right after I "moved out of that stage/age", so it's all new and fun for me, too! (Yes, I'm that old!)  We love everything American Girl!

 The girls enjoyed watching someone's doll get her hair done at the beauty salon.

 Sarah and Grace with their purchases!

 Can't have summer without some swimming!  We went to their neighborhood pool with everyone (including Lon and Carrie Freeman and their kids)  - friends from college AND Ohio, who now live on the same street as Paul and Lonna!!!  Such a small world!!

 They made their own slushies after some swimming - great idea, Lonna!

 One night, all the adults got to watch an awesome performance put on by all the kids.  There was singing, guitars, drums, everything!!!

 They even had a spotlight man, Reid, who took his job VERY seriously!!!  CUTEST THING EVER!!!

Girls also enjoyed Tatum's box of fun makeup!  Even little Jessica was in on it - love it!!! TOO CUTE!  Thanks for sharing, Tatum!