School Holidays Day One

watching Despicable Me in 3D at the movies!
(this was just before it started so Kate hadn't put her glasses on properly yet)

Jonah

raids the fridge for chocolate dipping sauce!

School is Out!

three cheers from the girls and their friends!

Food

5 minute teacups for afternoon tea

School Excursion

taken out the front, would have been better if the workers vehicles weren't parked right there!

I went along with Ella's class to the Perth Mint today to learn all about gold mining in Australia & in particular Western Australia. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, and there was renovations going on about the place plus it is open to the public and there was another school there as well so only got a few photos.

Ella and her best friend Hannah enjoy morning tea in the sunshine outside The Perth Mint

an idea of what people lived in back then while they scoured around for gold

Maybelline

Today is a very sad day for Amie & I as our old beloved cat that we had in NZ, (and gave to my parents when we moved to Australia almost nine years ago) Maybelline, life came to an end. I
won't go into details on here as a certain family member has caused too much grief to talk about right now.

I came across these old photos taken between June & August 1994 when Amie was 6yrs old and Maybelline was a spring chicken.

She was aged 19 years.

RIP beautiful girl xx

Museum

Today we visited the RAAF Aviation museum here in Western Australia. It was a museum we had never been to before (and we've been to a few) and we will definitely go back again as it's hard to see everything at once. We were there for 2 hrs, by which time we were getting hungry for some lunch.

There were lots of hands on things for the girls to do, plus some planes they could sit in.

If you are a local, I highly recommend you check it out!

Gardening

We finally got a few minutes to get our vegetable & fruit seeds/plants planted in the pots, infact just as we finished it started to rain. The girls love growing anything edible, but we have to do it in pots at the moment until the backyard is finished!

We planted tomatoes, corn, lettuce, snow peas and strawberries.

Spring Clean - Pantry

before

After getting home from swimming lessons yesterday I decided to leave the kids at home with Phil and head out to get some storage containers and tackle the huge mess that we call our pantry.
I was late getting started (about 8:30pm) so didn't get it all done until today, but wow, it looks so great now, I keep going to look at it!
I had a big toss out of expired food, wiped out all the shelves with white vinegar which deter moths and then soaked a few cotton balls with lavender essential oil and placed them in the back corner of each shelf.
I can now see what I'm getting low on, so hopefully will cut down wastage!
Next will be the fridge & freezer.

after

Father 's Day

walking through the busy markets

We took off down to Fremantle to enjoy Father's day today in the lovely sunshine.
We left home around 10:30am after the girls gave Phil his gifts in bed - a mug, a book, scratchies and a door hanger that Ella had made at school with the Bunnings team! I didn't get any photos of the cards and gifts yet but will soon.
Freo was absolutely packed in every inch, but we still had a great time enjoying each others company. We arrived home about 3:30pm all a bit tired and weary.
I hope all the Dad's out there had an enjoyable Father's day too.

Sunday buskers entertaining the very large crowd

Kate choosing some whistles from an outside market stall

Fremantle has lots of lovely old building including this beautiful church

Kate climbed right to the top of the pyramid

The girls had a go on the clowns mouths winning toy tigers which suited Ella, as if you didn't notice tigers are the in thing for Ella right now and chooses every opportunity she can to wear her tiger ears, tail and bow tie!

the view walking across to get fish and chips

the girls watched the live fish while we waited for our order

enjoying fish and chips at the park

We visited the Maritime Museum which we really enjoyed

Father's Day photo - Phil with the girls

finishing off the day with ice cream

Birthday Pics

Ella helps Jonah open a present

The Little People dump truck was a huge hit

The delicious Tonka truck cake that Amie made!

Yum - first taste of cake!

The ride-on was another huge hit!

Happy First Birthday beautiful Jonah

This fabulous little boy ...

grew from this amazing baby!

Happy 1st Birthday dear Jonah,
we love you xxx

Gardening

I love this lone pansy amongst the primulas


These are some of the pots the girls planted in colour a few weeks back,
they are really starting to enjoy them now that the buds are opening at a fast rate!
Spring is nearly here!!