Happy 9th Birthday Kate!!!

Today our lovely Kate is nine! She has been so excited the last few weeks planning a disco party for tonight! As a bonus, she had a sleepover at school last night, so woke at school on her birthday surrounded by her friends. That's the best apparently.

Kalamunda History Village

King's Park

We made the most of the winter sunshine today and celebrated the Public Holiday (Foundation Day) by taking the kids to Perth's famous King's Park for a play and picnic lunch.
They all had a great time, and made some new friends to hang out with. We had to leave at 2:30pm though, as even though it was a public holiday,
Kate still had a tap dance class to attend!

Here's a few pics from our day!

Storing & culling toys

Yesterday I decided to clean out the toys in the spare room. Kate & Ella got in and helped me too. We culled lots of toys they had outgrown, ready for the local church Op-Shop. A few bags for the rubbish bin as well. Then we went to the shops and bought some containers and sorted what we were keeping. These aren't the right size for the bookcase, but I find the bigger containers just get loaded up with bits of everything and no one plays with it as it is all jumbled together. We labelled them all, and are really pleased with the results. We had to stop twice though as this is where Jonah's cot is and he needed sleeps!
Hopefully the girls can keep it this tidy!

Happy Kids

I found these pics on the camera that Kate must of taken as she isn't in any of them!

Ella & Ruby playing with the Barbie campervan is always a favourite.

Jonah loves anything with wheels
but he would rather turn the cars over and just spin the wheels!

Mother's Day 2010

My day started at 6am with 2 little girls gently waking me with breakfast in bed! This is a first time they have done this. Honey toast and a chocolate milk. It doesn't get much better than that! Followed by presents - plants and treasures and hand made cards they made at school. Amie gave me some winter sheets for my bed, Ruby gave me a box of Rose's chocolates and Jonah a box of scorched almonds! Yum!!!

Then we wen to Tomato lake to celebrate Mother's Day!
It has become something of a tradition to go there every year. I think we have missed one in the 8 years since we have lived here due to the weather.
I came here for my first Mother's Day in Australia with just Kate who was 10 1/2 mths old. I enjoyed it very much and have stuck with it. It was absolutely packed as always.
We didn't take a picnic this year, but enjoyed hotdogs from the park cafe.
We always take a walk around the lake (the girls took turns on the scooters)
Then an ice cream and home.
Well we actually stopped at the garden center and bought a Cyclamen and petunias for the pots.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there! I hope you've all had a fantastic day!

Jonah 8 months

A few happy snaps I took tonight while we waited for Jonah & Ruby to be picked up. Despite Jonah only sleeping 20 mins this morning and 10 mins this afternoon, he was pretty happy at the end of the day! He enjoyed trying to pull Kate's nose off and of course hair pulling is fun when you're 8mths old! Oh and if you're wondering about all the scratches on the baby's face, they are from Ruby's kitten, whom Jonah harrasses all the time!

Love the hair!!!!

Love this shot with Ella.
All Jonah really wanted was the Teletubbie but Ella wouldn't let him!

Weekend Getaway

We had a lovely weekend away in Mandurah (an hour south of Perth) for the final days of the school holidays. After all the rain we had last week, we were lucky to have beautiful weather. The apartment was gorgeous and the view, just stunning.
The girls swam at the pool and beach, we went on a 3hour walk right up to the town centre, visited the markets, played at the play ground, and soaked up the atmosphere.
Phil is in the middle of a 2 week course, so spent a fair bit of the weekend studying. The girls and I had plenty to do though, so it was great. We went to the movies Saturday night too (walking distance) to see The Last Song. Ella fell asleep 10 minutes after it started (it must have been the 3 hr walk that morning and playing at the beach/pool all afternoon) Kate & I enjoyed it though. Phil walked down and met us after it finished as it was dark by then.
Today we shopped for some winter clothes while we had the opportunity. It's hard to pin Phil down to clothes shop and he desperately needed some new clothes.
The girls got some new bits and bobs from Smiggle - their favourite stationery store.
Back into routine tomorrow with the return of tap dancing, and back to school on Tuesday.

The fancy hot chocolates that looked too good to drink!

The view from the balcony

Building sandcastles

The view from the front of the hotel