Back to School

Two excited girls with their lunch made before they head to bed!

Family Day Out

Today we headed for a fun day at Adventureworld! We meet up with Amie, Ruby and Jonah and some school friends - Karri (Ella's bestie) her sister Ashlee and their Mum Simone.

The new Kahuna Falls was a huge hit

Jonah with Amie

Karri and Ella ride the kiddies roller coaster

Amie and Kate on the Power Surge. Ella was upset she is still too short for this ride.

Ella, Ruby, Ashlee and Kate

Ruby with a funny faced Jonah

On the Pirate Ship (second back row) Love Kates face!

Kate & Phil ride the Monorail

Ella and Karri check it out too!

Ruby takes a dip

Jonah and Pop Pop take a dip too

Kate was thrilled she was finally tall enough this year to ride on the Freefall!

Ella and Ruby on the Monorail

Kate takes a slide

and a swim in the big pool

Ruby & Ashlee ride the roller coaster

I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday whatever you did!

Happy Australia Day!

Keeping Cool

We are hibernating inside today as the temperature soars to 40deg. I have lots to do, just need to find the motivation somewhere.

Listography: Top 5 Biscuits!

I'm joining KATE today in one of my favourite foods! BISCUITS!

Coming from New Zealand, I love the Griffins biscuit range, which can be hard to find here in Western Australia. When we go home for a visit, we always buy our favourites to have with our cuppa! We can buy them at the "Kiwi Shop" here but they are rather expensive.

My TOP FIVE are:


1. Sultana Pasties

These are yummy if you are a lover of sultanas. Not overly sweet and just the right size.

2. Stripes

The girls favourite biscuit  (they are not big biscuit fans in Australia) Chocolate on one side and stripey on the other. Shortbread base. Very easy to eat a few at a time :)

 3. SuperWine

My favourite from the wine biscuit range. Definitely a dunker type biscuit! Lovely when two put together with a bit of butter.

4. Mallowpuffs

We can buy these locally at The Reject Shop, and Arnotts have a similar one in the supermarkets which doesn't quite taste as good. Only 10 in a packet, so they don't last long around here.

5. Chocolate Chippies

I am a huge fan of choc chip biscuits, and these are by far the best I've had.

All this talk of biscuits is making me want some. Might have to make a trip to the Kiwi Shop. At least it will work out cheaper than flights home!

Hot Weather

Perth set for hottest week in 47 years

NICK SAS, The West Australian January 24, 2012, 5:26 am

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Picture: Lee Griffith

Perth is bracing for its hottest consecutive run of high temperatures since 1965, with the mercury forecast to hit 38C or more for the next seven days.
The heatwave includes a prediction of 40C for Australia Day on Thursday, with thousands expected to converge on Perth's beaches to escape the heat.
Seven day forecast |
Weather Bureau climate information officer John Relf said there used to be a saying for this week's temperatures. "It's called no relief in sight," he said.
In addition to the extreme temperatures, the bureau is predicting strong winds tomorrow.
The impending heatwave has the Fire and Emergency Services Authority on high alert.
A Western Power spokeswoman said the power grid would not be pushed to its maximum because schools were still closed.
The Health Department has urged people to watch out in the heat for the elderly, children and babies.
The last time Perth experienced six days of temperatures of 37.8C or more - above the old 100-degree Fahrenheit mark - was from December 31, 1964, to January 5, 1965.


I'm glad school is still on holidays here!  

New Things

Girls test put their new lunchboxes

New outside wall clock

Night Time

I love this time of night when all is quiet in the house. The girls are tucked up in bed (well on top because it is so hot!) the dishwasher and washing machine doing their thing, the retic watering the lawns and gardens, the cat sitting at my feet purring because we are home after a night out visiting friends.

It's been another really hot day here, so we hibernated for most of it, only venturing out to pick up a few bits and pieces from the supermarket and then tonight to catch up with friends.

We spent time this morning labelling all the school books and stationery that we purchased earlier in the week.

And now it is time for me to go to bed too. Hope you all had a lovely day!

At home

We got up early one morning recently (5:30am!) and straight out to the garden (after a drink) to get a head start before the heat came. We stopped for breakfast around 7am, and then went back out until it was all finished around 10:30am. It's been pretty warm lately, so we either have to get up early to garden when we have more energy or get out at the end of the day when we are all pretty zapped. The girls love gardening (especially Ella) so I'm really lucky.

 

We put our first lot of home-made compost on the rose garden. It was just enough. We really need another composter to have a continuous supply making/ready all the time.

We added a misting system to the back patio, it's not quite finished yet, but Phil ran out of time before he had to go away again, so it will have to wait another week. It makes such a difference out there now.

 

 

I also got a new temperature/rain gauge for the garden. The girls have excitedly been checking the temperature at intervals, and hopefully we will get that rain we've been promised soon. The garden could do with some extra.

The middle-of-summer garden is still looking okay. If only we got some rain. The kids have been in the blow-up pool a bit, so the water when finished with gets bucketed on the garden. It takes awhile though.

 

Our lemon tree that we almost lost is still s-l-o-w-l-y recovering. It's getting stronger all the time, so glad I stuck with it.

 

Finally we woke to a massive storm today. Gosh I love a good storm during the day, not so fussed at night when the power goes out.

It was a great day to head to the library. I didn't get a photo of what the kids are reading as they were in the middle of looking at their books and had then spread out everywhere.

The rain didn't last long but it was good while it did last. The sun came out after lunch and it went from 23 deg to 36 deg in about four hours. We measured the rain in the new gauge and it measured 20mm! Yay!

 

I'm looking forward to the autumn when it gets a bit cooler and I can get outside a bit more. I love being out there, but my skin does not, neither does my head (the heat gives me headaches) We still have the hottest month to come yet, so will just have to pace myself through to the end.