A month in Canada

As seen over the CCTV at Vancouver Airport, September 15.

"Ashala took a photo of me and dad. Then theres a photo of Aylah, Ashala, me and George, but not dad because he was taking the photo."

"It was a really hot day so we took off our shirts and then I put mine back on because it was a bit too cold." This is Max, cousin Luca, George and cousin Matteo.

"That thing that we are petting is a dog." 

"We were at Annabella's school, in the playground."

"George with Matteo and half of Luca." 

  

"Here I am in the yellow life jacket on that boat in the picture. The other 2 people in the red lifejackets are Toby and his dad, Chas."

Videoing George saying "I love my mummy". Playing it back for laughs.

The kids went to Calgary over Thanksgiving. They drove 10 hours each way and went over the Rocky Mountains. 

"That's Aylah, and the pink dog is called Bones, and we are borrowing the Swagger Wagon "

 Here are some pictures from the Calgary Zoo. There were dinosaurs at the zoo!

Max, George, Sari, Ashala, Aylah

"When we were at the start of the dinosaur park there was this dinosaur and I was jumping up and down and yelling at it - until it turned and looked at me. Then I stopped. Then it turned itself off or something." 

"This is at Rowan's girlfriend's house, Sofia. Me and Aylah were playing a war with Dad from this Crabapple tree. I kept picking off the apples and Dad grabbed this bucket and was going around picking apples off the ground and throwing the at us, some hit Aylah but he never hit me because I hid behind this branch, then I dropped a crabapple in Dad's eye so we won the war." 

George: "I am drawin' some pictures. Of mans."

Max: "I am making my Tech-lander. The reason I called it a tech-lander is because when I flew it it doesn't actually fly it just glides. But it's got all this tech on it."

"That blue house is Dad's house. The thing in my hand is my Digimon toy."

Anne got some help from George, who peeled and sliced boiled eggs for her potato salad. He has an icepack strapped to his head because he'd just banged it on a door.

This parrot records and repeats everything you say to it. 

 

We got together with Aiden, Max's best school friend from Canada, and his family. 

Max, George, Kaiya, Aiden

We went iceskating at the Moody Park Arena. 

 Saying goodbye to Dad at the airport. 

We spent a couple of days with Harry in LA. The kids liked him, and his cool car, and his parrot named Duncan even though it is a girl. 

 

Duncan had to have her toenails trimmed. And her wing feathers.

We all wanted to have Duncan on our shoulder. 

But this is what can happen when Duncan sits on your shoulder for too long.

Max has definitely inheirited Harry's lips.

Saying goodbye to Harry at the Airport.

 Saying hello and wrestling at Tullamarine, met by Nanny, Gramps, and Royce.

Two very tired little travellers.

September in Australia

One day we drove around looking for cows and other farm animals.

Max loves dogs. Dogs love Max. This dog's name is Emily.

A friendly game of Quelf. It has some pretty silly rules.

 The kids do like George's Burgers. The only thing is, George doesn't give out plastic toys like the place across the road.

We had a hit of tennis.

 George in the Max suit, admiring his tail in the mirror.

Our ongoing battle with lice ended when we bought a super-duper nit comb called The Nitbuster.

We buy farm eggs which are fertilised and could become chicks if we just keep them warm for 21 days. This is Max's idea for a future project. We would keep any resulting chickens as egg-laying pets.

Asleep all tangled up together. 

Baggy's present, George breaks eggs, pompom making

Whenever it rains here we can hear a frog croaking in the front yard. George got out there to try and locate the frog this week. Couldn't find him.

It was Baggy's birthday this week. The Cubs had planned a surprise party for him. They were asked to make a handmade present for him. Remember the pillow Max made last week? Now it has the word "Baggy" hand stitched onto the front, and the Southern Cross star formation on the back.

Baggy seemed to really like his present. He asked Max the names of the stars of the Southern Cross. Max knows their names and was able to reel them off. (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon if you were wondering).

The Cubs are going to be in the newspaper this week as the pack has been given an award for having one of the highest retention rates in Australia. 

Lately I have been making banana bread to put in the school lunches. George likes to help out by breaking the eggs. This week he broke 2 eggs without breaking the yolks or putting eggshell into the cake batter. 

We visited our 3 baby boy guinea pigs, who now live with our friends in a guinea pig "Taj Mahal". The dog stalks them all day but they don't seem to mind.

We had a sleepover with our buddies Jack and Andrew. Not much sleeping took place. They had a lot of fun. 

We visited Aunty Shani who unconsciously coordinates her clothing with baby Malakai's. Max and George raced around playing with Holly and Pia.

On the way home from Aunty Shani's we visited Howitt Park adventure playground.

Max is really inspired to repeat the art and craft projects from school at home, like the pillow and this pom pom.

At an award ceremony at the lawn bowls club. We had afternoon tea with homemade jelly slice. 

Going out to dinner at the local pub. The owner gave the kids icecream for dessert.

George got a very sticky face.