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!!

Family

We were out the door early today to enjoy some sunshine before upcoming rain (we are not complaining - we need rain) so we headed to Whiteman Park

We were there at 10am and the place was pretty empty apart from a few early morning bbq's going. The girls played on the playgrounds then we went to the cafe for morning tea.

After we ate, we hired some bikes for the girls to get around on.
We usually take their own, but they had flat tyres so we had to hire.
They biked all the way upto the children's forest which they loved.
It has a trail of clues to solve a puzzle.

We took the bikes back after an hour and visited the lolly shop where we stocked up on our favourite sweets!

We hung around for a bit waiting for the bumper cars to open, but they never did.
By this stage Kate was starting to feel a bit unwell so we decided to go on a tram ride then head home.

When we got home, she had a bath as she felt even worse, that's when I noticed some spots on her tummy & back!

So number 2 is down with the chicken pox.
It's going to be a l-o-n-g week!

Book Week Character

The gorgeous
Pippi Longstocking
and
Little Red Riding Hood

Sunday Sunshine

We got out to the park this afternoon to soak up some of the gorgeous sunshine!

Children's Book Week

We were invited to attend a Children's Book Week presentation today after Kate's entry was chosen to receive a prize. They had to draw a picture with their interpretation of this years book week theme - Across the story bridge! 472 children entered from all the primary schools in the Kalamunda Shire. Only 21 received a prize ( 3 prizes in each grade 1-7) Kate received an Honoury Mention (3rd place) for Grade 4's, we were so proud of her! She received a certificate (photo taken with the Mayor of the Kalamunda Shire) some coloured pencils and a bookmark!

Well done Kate!!!

House Improvements

new pansies growing in a basket on the wall

by the front door, yay spring is coming!


A few months ago we had some roller shutters installed on the bedroom windows and the front of the lounge window. Not only is it great for the light control and keeping the warmth in, I have noticed it has cut down the amount of outside noise at night (traffic and noisy parties a few houses away) not to mention they are great for security.
I'm actually not dreading summer as much as I usually do, I know the shutters will help keep all that bright sunshine out.
I love them!

Ella's window by the front door
she moved from the spare room at the front of the house
to the smallest room in the house
and it works perfectly for her
she loves everything neat and tidy
and it's so easy to do in a small room

front of the house
need a new letterbox soon
this one is being held up by a pile of bricks :)

the view from the front
our bedroom is on the right
spare room on the left
we still have the gardens to do!

Kate's bedroom which opens onto the back yard,
this is actually the master bedroom but I chose one of the front bedrooms
as I like our bedroom to look out onto the street!

Still Sick

This poor little sick girl with the spots (or stripes as the case may be!) now also has a really bad dose of tonsilitis! Two weeks of AB's, so hopefully she'll be on the mend soon and back to school next week. School photos plus book week are next week, so fingers crossed. I took this photo a few minutes ago playing with her Barbie dolls and campervan. She has been playing with it since 9am this morning, it's now 4pm and she's still playing with it. She has been a brilliant patient despite 2 nights where she didn't fall asleep until 4am and 2:30am respectively!

Reading

We have been reading Hungry Planet : What the World Eats which we borrowed from the library, but I have ordered it as I think it will be a valuable book to have on the book shelf for learning about what food families from the World eat and how little some families spend and how much we in Australia spend!

The kids have been pouring of the beautiful colour photos and reading about all the families from around the World. They have read it over and over from cover to cover fascinated.

It is really disgusting to see how much processed food and drink people consume. I was really taken by a family of 12 from Bhutan that spends $5 a week on food. They grow their own rice and hot peppers that they eat with every meal. They eat 70 pounds of rice a week! They buy a few other vegetables to eat with it and a few times a year someone in the village will kill an animal and share it with all the families.

I’m not saying they have the healthiest diet in the world but it is simple and they are grateful for it. If most people throughout history have lived on very simple diets then why do we need gourmet? It’s like toys. The more you have and the fancier they are the less children will play with them. Millions of people in the world eat rice for every meal, or some other such staple.

Sickness

My poor wee girl has the chicken pox. She has been immunised but it's obviously done nothing. She hasn't got a mild dose either but she has it bad. A million and one spots and more popping up all the time. They are in her mouth, on her eyelids and her private bits. She's done nothing for 3 days but sleep and soak in a bath with Pinetarsol. She's been vomiting with it too. She started some french knitting tonight which I bought her today to keep her busy. We have some library books and dvd's to get through the next week or so as well. Her class has been really affected. 14 kids down so far with it. Ruby has it as well (she has also been vaccinated) but only has a mild dose (8 spots) Kate hasn't been immunised as it wasn't available to her at 18mths. We shall see if she gets it.

What we have been upto!

Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated this blog. It's been busy around here! The weather has been gorgeous (too nice, we need rain!) so we have been spending alot of time in the garden. We have been weeding, fertilising, painting fences and been to the nursery. We got a lemon tree and a nectarine/peach tree. We will grow the lemon tree in a pot for now, until the patio is finished. We also dismantled the swing set and took it up to Amie's house for Ruby & Jonah. So that has freed up alot of space in the back yard.


The girls sat their dancing exams last week and all did very well. We won't know the actual results for a while, except Kate got all her theory right in her tap.