Baby, bike, blue tongue, music

The school did a play called "Mergatroid's Adventures In Bananaland". The grades 4,5 and 6 had all the main roles, Max's grade 3 was part of the chorus.

Max is in the back row on the left of this picture. 

George had a fever. Here he is flaked out on the couch. On the plus side, he was allowed to watch TV all day when he was sick!

Max caught this beautiful blue tongued lizard at the Lindenow Bowls Club. We kept it for one day and he then released himself back into the wild. It was last seen under our house with a snail in its mouth. 

One day it hailed.

This is the inside of Nanny and Gramps' caravan. They parked it at a local caravan park on September 22nd in anticipation of the birth of their latest grandchild. We popped in on Nanny's birthday to sing "Happy Birthday" accompanied by Max on his ukelele.

Gramps took the kids to the swimming pool.

The cousins were there too.

George is an enthusiastic if slightly overconfident swimmer.

Due to Max's fascination with the ukelele, and his dedication to trying to play an adult-sized guitar Royce had in the shed, we bought him this kid-sized guitar.

George has a rubber drum practise mat. 

One fine day, weeks after the due date, Nanny and Gramps looked after the boys because we thought the baby might be on its way. Nanny and Gramps took them to the park, then swimming. They were well and truly tired when they got home!

She was born in the middle of the night and Max and George were so exhausted from the playing and swimming they had done that day, they could not be woken. In the morning Max said he did not expect to be "shaking with happiness" to meet his little baby sister. George really likes her fuzzy little head and suggests everyone "pat the baby". 

When Ruby was 3 days old George took her for "show and tell" at kindergarten.

Here we are at Oz Mex with Uncle Mike, Aunty Nat, Aunty Shani, and all the cousins.

Saskia is getting tall! She just turned 4. 

Max and Royce have started to get up super early and go fishing sometimes. This one was too small to keep.

Here's George, who was taken fishing separately later that day.

George hopped in bed with Ruby one morning and fell back to sleep. 

 Doing tricks on the trampoline.

The transition program for kindergarten (called preschool in Canada) to prep (called kindergarten in Canada) has begun. Max walked George to the big kid school and George met his teacher for next year and did activities with this year's "prep" kids.

The Lindenow Primary School prefers kids to have an insulated lunch box to keep things cool. We went on a picnic to the park across the road, to test out the new lunch boxes. George is wearing one of Max's school uniforms. On a Saturday.

Just in the last few weeks George has rediscovered his bike.  

George has also started to tie his shoelaces!

Echidna, Buchan Caves, Ukuleles

We were on our way to visit Kate when we saw an echidna waddling across the road!  

We quickly stopped the car and ran to where he had rolled into a ball.

We poked the poor thing with sticks a few times but we didn't hurt him of course. 

Kate's horses like having visitors.

Max is patting Jazzy, George is talking to Coolie.

Coolie is giving George a little kiss on the neck.

Normally this horse is very shy and only approaches Kate and Steve if they have treats for him. Max didn't have any treats but Najib was very friendly to him.

George was allowed to have a little ride on Coolie. Max decided to spend time giving each of the horses individual attention and pats.

Here's Max reading his new chapter book. 

He also read an entire novel in under 24 hours recently when he had a sick day at home and his mean mother wouldn't let him watch television.

One day we went to the Den of Nargun. It is a steep walk down into a gorge.

Nargun is a half-stone half-human creature that is said to live in this pool and prey on children. If you throw a spear into that cave, legend has it that Nargun will throw your spear straight back at you. Max took a great risk by throwing that stick in the Nargun's general direction.

Lots of rain lately has made for an impressive waterfall.

Max caught a little drop tail lizard and held him for a while before releasing him. This picture was taken after release. We were pleased that the lizard didn't feel the need to drop its tail on our behalf.

George and I went to Max's school at lunch time so he could play with the big kids. He is very interested in going to Max's school next year. 

George is learning the numbers. He reads the speed limit signs when we are driving and ensures that I stay on the right side of the law. I was given a Hundred Chart one day when I volunteered at Max's school which has helped George learn to count.

George says he is sick of being the only one around here who can't read and write. So we sometimes practice writing down words and reading them afterwards. While dressed as a turtle.

The guinea pigs went to kindergarten for show and tell. The week previous to this he had taken photographs of his Canadian family to show the kids.

 Max is 134cm tall and George is 106cm. 

Nanny and  Gramps passed through with their new rig. 

Little Malakai (1.5 years old) does a beautiful smile for the camera.

Max bashed his knee on the playground. He initially couldn't walk so Gramps carried him. 

His knee turned out to be badly bruised. He couldn't run for a whole 24 hrs. 

Royce (who is a guitarist) got himself a new axe: a ukulele.

The following day he went back for two more ukuleles. And acquired two students.

It's a good instrument for little hands.

We went camping at the Buchan Caves with several other families to celebrate Max's friend's birthday.

An unsuspecting George is about to get a flick on the ear as they wait to tour the Royal Cave.

Photo: Leanne Peck

It was a cold night but we had a big fire. We slept in our clothes, and in the morning there was ice on the tent.

Photo: Leanne Peck

The kids ran around in the dark playing "spotlight tiggy" with the torches ("flashlights" to you North Americans). They got very hot and thirsty from all the running around. Max and George ran back lots of times to share my bottle of cordial (a non alcoholic fruit drink made from concentrate, for you North Americans), which was in a recycled wine bottle.  

At one point Max found somebody else's bottle of actual wine and was so thirsty he had about 4 glugs before he realised that it was not cordial. It made him feel a bit light headed.

This is George drinking the cordial.

Photo: Leanne Peck

Some of us had food stolen out of our very hands by this cheeky kookaburra.

Photo: Leanne Peck

We drove 1.5hrs to home, and the car's muffler dropped off just as we got home. It had to be towed to the mechanic the next morning.

Max's grade sang in the school production.



George and I watched in the front row.

The kids room has been painted with stripes - one of the last projects I wanted to complete before the new sibling arrives.