Marsupials, Grandparents, Goats, Horses, Cousins and Thunderstorms

 Santa has been informed of our upcoming change of address.

We are moving from here:

To here - right next door to Max's school. 

We will be living right behind where this bus is parked. Max and all of Prep, Grade 1 and Grade 2 went on that bus to the Melbourne Zoo. The bus left at 7am and got back at 8pm.

Max arrived home from the zoo with scratches up his arm from an iguana's toenails. He had also held a snake and a frog. The snake had gone up his sleeve and then hissed and reversed back out of his sleeve again.

Max has been going through another foodie phase: here he is cooking pancakes.

One day Max was inspired to make peanut butter cookies. He followed a recipe he found on the internet. They were delicious.

The kids and I spent a few days at Nanny and Gramps's house. Nanny and Gramps took care of the kids while I attended a 5 day training in Bowen Therapy. 

Nanny and Gramps took the kids to a wildlife park where they saw lots of native animals.

They also went to the Adventure Playground at Torquay. 

Max was given some work to do while we were away. Nanny did most of the school work with him. Here we are finishing the last of it on the train as we headed for home. He's getting so good at maths!

Max's maths schoolwork required him to "ask the people in your class what their favorite ice cream flavour is" and graph the results. Since we weren't in class, he went through the train carriage conducting a survey among the passengers. Chocolate was the winner by far.

Having a picnic dinner on Williams Parade as a thunderstorm rolled into view.

We sat in the car as the storm got closer and watched the thunder and lightning. 

The Cubs had a pool party at the indoor swimming pool.

Max was awarded his Cooking and Cycling badges. He had very red eyes after the pool because we forgot to bring his goggles.

This weekend we attended the Christmas Concert of the Shahnaz Vocal School. All of Aunty Shani's students performed 2 songs each. We were so proud of cousins Holly and Pia when they sang their songs. And then Aunty Shani rocked the house.

 

  

We went along with Kate to trim the horses' toenails.

There was a baby goat called Norbert who was almost 3 weeks old.

Kate and Bec put the kids on a horse and led them around. They loved it. 

They even rode Ella bareback together! 

Camp, Cousins, and the Cicada

George painting at home. 

Max going to Science Camp. The Cubs camp went over two nights. They did lots of scientific experiments including measuring their resting heart rate and comparing it to after running around, making a plaster cast of a footprint, playing games with magnets. He returned home, exhausted and covered in mosquito bites. 

Meanwhile at Aunty Shani's, George got to be the centre of the cousins' attention while his brother was not around. 

Little Malakai munching on a gum leaf. When George saw this photo he said he wished he could climb inside the photo and tickle Malakai.

Then we went out for dinner with Royce's family, and Holly and Pia came along too.

A very productive drawing session which resulted in one of our teddies wearing a mask and cape made by Piama.

The Cicada: The loudest insect in existence. One very friendly one found its way into Max's armpit. 

George as Aang from the Avatar, rolling around in the laundry hamper.

Sweet little Malakai having his bottle fed to him. This was at a family get together during Nanny and Gramps's recent visit. They brought their caravan and stayed in the local caravan park. 

Malakai is chewing on Nanny's gold bangle, which his siblings and cousin Saskia have also chomped on. 

Max and George stayed over at Holly and Pia's house one day and played with their scooters.

After watching Junior Masterchef, in which ordinary 8-12 year olds competed in a reality TV cooking competition and made the most amazing food, Max got busy in the kitchen. This is his own invention based on "toad in the hole". It bears some similarity to the original but has sugar instead of salt on it.

Running around at the football ovals with some friends. This group of kids had just sold about $50 worth of raffle tickets (fundraising for the Cubs and the Preschool) to members of the Bowls Club.