Meet Oscar

He was Ruby's birthday present a couple of weeks ago. He may look cute but underneath lies a ratbag! So don't be fooled.

Amie was sitting quietly on the couch minding her own business but Oscar had other ideas!

Busselton, Western Australia Dec 09 - Jan 2010

fun in the sand!

We had a wonderful time camping in Busselton, all coming back a bit weary. Days were spent at the beach which was walking distance from the camp, the pool and hanging around the camp with the many friends we made. Lots of books got read, but apart from that the kids played all day every day outside. It was our first visit to Busselton, and a place we will definitely go back to. It's very clean and the folk are so friendly.

the big slide was alot of fun - they were on it for an hour and truly exhausted by the end!

enjoying an ice cream

Off to walk along the jetty

Ella clinging on for dear life at the bottom of the jetty

both girls jumped many times off this little bridge

Ella spent many happy days digging in the sand

We had a day trip to Pemberton to have a look around. It's a lovely old quaint town about 1.5hrs south east of Busselton. Lots of forests with trees you can climb. We went to the bicentenial tree . Kate wanted to go up to the first platform but it was too dangerous. She was pretty disappointed as she loves nothing better than to climb! They were allowed to go up a few steps each. You have to come back down backwards so I can't imagine them going any higher. Phil went right to the top though. Me? I like my feet firmly on the ground.

After the climb we visited the Lavender Berry Farm where we had a delicious lunch outside. The girls then got to feed the Alpaccas.

Ella before we walked into see the tree


Kate & Ella went up a few steps




Phil standing on the ground looking at how high up the tree is

The girls waited for Dad to come back down

Phil climbed right to the top of this tree. It was 25 metres to the first platform and another 50metres to the top. He said it was pretty scary going up! He came back puffing a bit :)

Ella took this gorgeous photo of Kate in the garden

The girls loved feeding the Alpaccas

Our caravan

Ella, Emma, Abbie and Kate
a final farewell

Christmas Day 2009

We all had a lovely quiet Christmas yesterday. The girls woke around 6am which is actually a sleep-in for them, especially on this day! Opened their stockings first and were very happy with their loot. Then we opened the presents under the tree. Amie, Brendan Ruby & Jonah arrived late morning for lunch, which this year we cheated and had Woolworths make us up some platters. They were very yummy and hassel-free. Might do that again next year. Especially seeing it was a 36deg day. Too hot for cooking and eating hot food. Kate's favourite present was the lego. She spent all day and well into the night assembling a house! Ella loved her Barbie Campervan, that and he dress-up Tinkerbell shoes. The girls finally fell into bed around 10pm!

We are off camping for a week today, so Happy New Year to you all! Stay safe!

Ruby turns the BIG five!!!!!

Where did the time go? Five years has flown by. She had a lovely day celebrating her 5th birthday, with lots of gorgeous presents including the doll house you can see in the background.
It doesn't feel like 5 years on one hand, on the other she is wise beyond her years and it feels like she's been around forever!

Happy Birthday beautiful girl.
We love you!

Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these easy peasy reindeer cupcakes for the girls to take to school for their class parties. We only managed to fit eight on each plate, so there was a few left at home for us! They were quite delicious!

What's been happening?

In no particular order ...

• Four more days of school for 2009. They have both had a great year making lots of new friends and learning plenty of new things. We don't know which teachers they will get next year yet, but I'm secretly hoping Ella will get the Year Two teacher Kate had last year. Fingers crossed.

• Five more sleeps until Phil gets home for a well deserved break. Seven weeks away seems like an eternity.

• The girls are excited about Christmas. They have lists a mile long, I'm hoping they will be happy with what they get.
  

• We are off to Busselton on Boxing Day for a week camping. We are so looking forward to regrouping as a family before no doubt, another hectic year.

• Ruby turns FIVE on the 21st. Fulltime school for her next year!

• School Christmas Concert this Wednesday night. I'm looking forward to seeing what the girls have been working so hard on the last few weeks.
  

The new look Ella

This sweet little girl has been wanting a fringe like forever. Well about a year anyway. I'm not a fan of fringes on girls - they constantly require trimming and it's hard enough to get to the hairdressers for a haircut a few times a year without going every six weeks for a fringe trim. Plus with doing dancing, especially ballet, all their hair needs to be off the face. far easier when it's all one length. Anyway after much begging and lots of being good, I gave in. So here she is looking very proud!

Concert 2009

The girls had a wonderful time at their end of year concert last Wednesday night! Here they both are in their tap costumes, looking very bright and colourful. They both had four costumes each which was a mission in itself keeping track of all the bits and pieces! They were both very tired wee things by the end of the second night (they had a full dress rehearsal the night before) the collapsed into bed. Now a break until classes start up again at the beginning of February!