A little creativity and some soccer

Before vacation, Tom got an invite to a birthday party.  This little girl is one of Tom's favorite friends.  Unfortunately, the party was scheduled for the same day as Tom's first soccer game.  We had to wait to RSVP until we knew what time the soccer game started.  The game and the party both started at 10.  Soccer only last 45 minutes, so we'd be to the party by 11.  The party was scheduled to end at 12.  If this wasn't one of Tom's favorite friends, we'd probably just passed. 
Anyway, I didn't find out the time of the game until late Wednesday.  We were then able to plan what Tom wanted to be for the party.   You see, this was a dress up party.  The theme was pond creatures with the idea that the kids could dress up as frogs, fish, tadpoles, dragonflies, bees, etc.  I looked around for some sort of cheap costume on Thursday with no luck.  Our local area is very limited in what is available.  The closest place that would have a larger selection would be an hour away.  I'm not driving that far with fuel this expensive.  I decided I could try to make some dragonfly wings.  Should be easy, right? 
Well, our closest fabric store is an hour away.  So, I have to make do with what is in our local Kmart.  I found some silver organdy curtains and some garden wire.  Along with my mini sewing machine, I made wings.

I only have my tiny craft sewing machine as we didn't want to move my bigger, heavier one.  It isn't a fancy machine, but it gets the job done.  I had no pattern and only a few hours.  I managed though.


A single wing, one of four



Here's Tom trying them on with just a plain white shirt.  I didn't manage to get a picture of him with the gray shirt and the wings.  He looked pretty cute and was very happy with them.  Everyone was very impressed with the wings at the party.  He was the only boy at the party and only wore the wings for an hour.  Oh well, I sure that this experience was karma revenge for the Mrs. Claus costume.*
Before the party though, Tom had his first soccer game.

Tom, warming up

Tom, number 3

Tom is getting ready to kick the ball. 



The Taipans, at half time.

 Tom's team did manage to win, 5-1.  The little boy with the yellow on his shorts on Tom's team is a fantastic player for his age.  His dad has been coaching his older brother's team for a few years.  He scored all 5 of his goals. Though some of our other players got really close on their kicks. 

Joe also had his first real game on Saturday morning, the same time that Tom was playing.  I wasn't able to watch Joe and I had the camera so Jay couldn't take any photos.  Next week, we switch.  I'll get to watch Joe and Raptors.  Joe's team lost their first game, but hopefully they'll do better next time. 

Slow return to the real world

Today (Wednesday) is Jay's first day back at work after the holidays.  It is also the first day back at school for Sam.  Joe and Tom's school has a pupil free day today so they'll be hanging with me.  Tomorrow, Joe and Tom will be back at school and Sam will be home.  Friday, all three will be at school.

If you are wondering why Wednesday is back to work and not Tuesday...it's because of where Easter fell this year.  Australians have a public holiday on April 25 every year, ANZAC day.  It happened to fall on Easter Monday, which is also a public holiday.  So, they observed Easter Monday on Tuesday in order to give everyone the correct amount of days off.  This gave almost all of Australia a five day weekend! 

Easter in Australia-  So, it is a little bit different than in the States.  Just about everything (grocery stores, shops, public buildings, etc) are closed on Good Friday.  No alcohol sales either that day.  Most restaurants are open, but shorter hours.  Easter Sunday, most stuff is open, though maybe shorter hours.  Aussies also do not dye eggs.  They also don't hunt for plastic eggs so plastic eggs aren't available.  Aussies shops don't have Easter baskets either.  There are a few here and there, but not many.  They do egg hunts, but for chocolate eggs.  These eggs are the same size as a normal egg (or larger!) and wrapped in bright foil.  Almost all Easter candy and treats available are chocolate.  No Peeps or Sweettart chicks anywhere. Typical US stores have shelves and shelves of candy and plastic junk.  Aussie stores have shelves and shelves of chocolate eggs and rabbits.  I've rarely seen so much chocolate in one place!
This was the first year since Joe was 16 months old that we have not had an egg hunt.  There was no way that I was going to hide enough chocolate eggs to make the egg hunt fun.  Once found, the kids would have wanted to eat them all.  Way too much candy then!  The boys each got a small bag with a chocolate rabbit, a chocolate carrot, and some chocolate eggs.  Good enough.

ANZAC Day- Originally, this day is a memorial to all the Australian and New Zealand troops to fought and died in the battle of Gallipoli in World War I.  It later became more of a Memorial Day to all troops in general.   All over the country, memorial services are held at dawn and dusk.  Shops are only open from 1-5.  Restaurants are open, but public buildings are closed.  It is a fairly serious day overall. 

Jay seems to have gotten his car fixed enough to drive.  He is still riding his motorcycle to work, but at least the car is fixed. 

All in all, we are settling in and getting back into the swing of things.

Our vacation, part 2

On our first full day in Perth, day 6, we decided to do something just plain fun and for the kids.  We ponied up the money for Adventure World.  Adventure World is mostly a water park with several kid friendly rides and some adult only rides.  I decided not to take the camera as it would have been one more thing to carry.  We arrived shortly after opening time and rode all the "dry" rides we could.  We had to skip a few as Jay and I were the only ones tall enough.  Sam was not tall enough to ride one of the rides, but it worked out as it was next to a ride that he was the only one small enough to ride.  I rode very few rides.  Not because I don't like to ride, but because it makes me really ill to ride anything other than a roller coaster.  One of the rides that I rode made me quite a bit green and it was a family friendly ride.  Moving quickly in circles just makes me ill.  We had our usual picnic lunch and then changed into out swimmers.  We then spent the next 3 1/2 hours playing in the water.  It was a very hot and sunny day so all went pretty well.  Unfortunately, Sam was only tall enough to ride one of the tall waterslides, and then only with an adult.  He went on it twice with Jay. We stayed until the park closed at 5 and then headed back to the 2 bedroom villa and made dinner.  We ate picnic lunches and made dinner at the villa or cottage almost every night in order to keep down our costs.  Over the entire vacation, we only ate lunch out twice and dinner out once. 

On day 7, we headed to Fremantle.  Fremantle is the major port in Perth and is supposed to be a "must see" attraction.  I'm sure that it is nice; however, it's not very kid friendly. 
We did go to the Western Australia Maritime Museum and the Shipwreck Gallery Museum.  I thought they were both really well done museums.

Confiscated Indonesian fishing boat.  Taken because it was fishing in Australian waters without permission.



Tom, attempting the rowing machine



On the rowing machine and laughing at Jay

We also visited the Roundhouse, which is Western Australia's oldest public building.  It was intended and used as a prison.
On day 8, we drove up to Yanchep National Park.  It was supposed to be a day filled with walking, hiking, etc.  We were expecting a much nicer park.  I think that the park has seen nicer days.  I forgot my camera on this day.  The park is supposed to have a large lake that you can boat on, but the lake is dried up.  There is a cave at the park and we visited it, but it was a shallow, small cave and not much to it.  The day was  sorta disappointing.
Day 9 was spent doing a kid activity again.  We visited the Maze.  The Maze has a large timber maze, two pine tree mazes, a right turn only maze, a left turn only maze, garden chess, disc golf, mini golf, emus, kangaroos, and birds.  We had an enjoyable day.  There was a large bird that had learned to talk, named Henry.  Sam says that Henry was the best part of vacation. 

On day 9, we drove up to the Pinnacles.  The Pinnacles are large columns of limestone that rise out of the desert.  No one is quite sure how the Pinnacles have formed, but they are there.  It is also a little strange as the desert is very near or touching the beach.  The beach has very white sand and the desert is very tan. 

The Pinnacles range in height from a few centimeters to several meters. 

Tom (blue shirt) and Sam (yellow shirt) walking on the Pinnacle Desert Trail

The much lighter sand in the background is the beach.  The fuzziness of the beachy area is due to the very strong winds that were blowing sand everywhere.

Jay and I both thought this formation was interesting because of its shape, its isolation and its little tree growing from the top.

Day 10 was spent doing a kid activity again.  We visited the Maze.  The Maze has a large timber maze, two pine tree mazes, a right turn only maze, a left turn only maze, garden chess, disc golf, mini golf, emus, kangaroos, and birds.  We had an enjoyable day.  There was a large bird that had learned to talk, named Henry.  Sam says that Henry was the best part of vacation.
Day 11 started out with a few loads of laundry, and then we decided to explore inner city Perth.  We had the plan to visit three places, but never made it past the first.  We spent the entire day at Scitech.  Scitech is a small science discovery centre and planetarium.  We paused at lunch time to eat a picnic in the car before heading back inside.  The kids really enjoyed it.  We missed going to Kings Park and the Perth Mint that day. 

Day 12 was Good Friday and our scheduled day to visit Rottnest Island.  It was a bad day to go because it was a busy day to go.  We were unable to rent bicycles (no cars on the island) because they were all rented out.  We rode the ferry over at 9:30 in the morning and stayed until 6 pm.  First we walked.

Rottnest Island was used as an Aboriginal penal colony and is an island about 18 km from Fremantle.   The island has many inland lakes and is home to the quokka. 
The quokka is a small marsupial that looks just like a large cat-sized rat.  It hops like a rabbit and is only found on Rottnest Island.  There are many, many quokkas on the island. 

 After walking about 7 km, we arrived at the top of Oliver Hill.  Oliver Hill is where Australia dug in and installed a 9.2 inch gun in the late 1930's.  It is the only gun from WW II that is still in place today.

We paid the $15 for the hour long guided tour that showed the gun and the tunnel system underneath.  Our volunteer guide was very informative.  The gun was placed on Rottnest to help protect the port of Fremantle.  It was very difficult to place the gun because all the hills are made of sand.  Tons and tons of concrete had to be poured into the hill after the sand was dug away.  The gun was never fired in anger, but it helped protect all the American submarines that used Fremantle as a base during WW II. 

After our tour, we managed to snag a free ride down the hill on the train.  We then walked to one of the beaches and swam for the next two hours, until it was time to head back.  We walked about 8 km throughout the day, and we didn't even see half of the island. 
Saturday was our final day/travel day.  After packing up and cleaning our villa, we drove through Kings Park.  We regret that we didn't get to see more of it.  We should have skipped Yanchep and done Kings instead.  We then quickly went to the Perth Mint.  There, we got to learn all about the Western Australia gold rush, got to see the world's second largest gold nugget, got to try to lift a gold bar, and we got to see a worker pour a gold bar.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the mint.  We wish the mint would have talked more about actually making coins and money in the mint, instead just the focus on gold, but still a really neat tour. 
We then boarded our flight and flew to Sydney and drove 3 hours home. 
It was a very enjoyable trip overall!

Our vacation, part 1

 So, we drove to Sydney on 10 April in order to spend the night at the Hyde Park Inn.  We had a 6 am flight the next day and didn't want to drive down the morning of the flight.  We settled into the inn, which looks out onto Hyde Park.  Since it was about sun down, we got to see bats, lots of them. 

Those shapes in the sky are not birds.  They are the flying foxes that are native to many parts of Australia, including where we live. 

On day 1, we got up early the next morning and flew to Perth.  Once we arrrived in Perth, we then drove 3 1/2 hours south of Perth to Margaret River. 
We rented a three bedroom cottage for our time in Margaret River.  While there were lots of nice things about the cottage, we didn't like the amount of critters in it.  There were loads of little wormy things and spiders and one giant cockroach.  We also only had two towels for our whole family for 5 days.  No other problems with the accomendations.
Margaret River is a very large wine growing region as well as a good base for visiting various parks around the area.
So, on day 2, we visited some local caves.



At the base of the doline, ready to enter the cave

 The first one we visited is the Lake Cave.  In order to get to the interior of the cave, you have to go down 300 steps through a doline.  A doline forms with the roof of the cave collaped.  This doline formed about 600 years ago. 

The caves in this area of Margaret River and much younger and more shallow than the caves that we visited in Jenolan. 

This picture shows a reflection in the lake inside the cave.  The lake has eaten away the bottom of the ground under two columns.  The columns are the only thing supporting the ground around them.  Pretty neat. 

Over the last 40 years, the water level has been decreasing a lot in the Lake Cave.  So much, that in the last 15 years, they've had to pump water into the cave, just to slow the rate enough for scientists to study the cave.  Incidentally, the region really took off as a wine growing centre about 35 years ago.

formations in the Lake Cave

  Our second cave tour of the day was to the Jewel Cave.

The Jewel Cave is also drying up.  It doesn't have the standing water like the Lake Cave, but many of it's formations are no longer active. 
We had some time to kill before our third and final cave of the day, so we drove over to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. 

This lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on the mainland of Australia.  Cape Leeuwin is also the point at which the Indian Ocean and the Great Southern Ocean meet.  At this point, my camera battery was done, and I could take no more pictures on that day.  We walked around the lighthouse, but didn't pay for the tour to the inside. 
We also visited Mammoth Cave.  Mammoth Cave is a self guided tour and was named after the many animal bones found inside the cave.
On day 3, we drove again.  This time 3 hours to Walpole to visit the Tree Top Walk and the giant tingle trees. 

The Tree Top Walk is a bridge that slowly rises while you walk through the forest.  The bridge is designed to sway quite a bit (in order to make you feel one with nature) and takes you to a height of 40 meters (131 feet).  I really enjoyed this walk. 

After the Tree Top Walk, we walked a few trails in order to see some giant tingle trees.  Red tingle trees are only found in this area.  They are a large eucalptus and have the largest base of all eucalypts.  They are a buttressed tree and can be hollowed by fire or fungi and continue growing. 

They can grow to 75 metres in height and live for over 400 years.

The above tree is the Giant Tingle Tree and is one single tree.  It was massive.

  After the tingle trees, we visited Mount Frankland.  Mount Frankland is a very large hill, topped with a really large hunk of granite.  We climbed to the top of the granite, using very narrow steps. 

Great view!

The sky seems to stretch forever. 
On day 4, we didn't take many pictures.  We had a easy day around Margaret River.  We visited the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, a brewery for lunch, a timber maze (very awesome!), a chocolate factory, a winery, and a fudge place.  It was a nice, relaxing day.

  The boys were excited because we actually paid to go into this lighthouse.  It is a much shorter lighthouse than the Cape Leeuwin because it is up on a hill.
Day 5 had us up early and headed out the door.  We said goodbye to Margaret River and started towards Perth.  We stopped in Busselton to take a Busselton Jetty tour.

Joe, looking at the Jetty

 The Busselton Jetty first went under construction in 1864.  The original jetty was 176 metres long.  Over the years, sand shifted around and made the jetty end less deep.  Ships also got larger.  The jetty was added onto over 10 times (up until 1960), making its final length 1836 metres.  A train was needed to run the cargo back to town and tracks were added to the jetty in 1909. 
The jetty and port closed for good in the early 1970's.  Cyclones and fires caused major damage to the jetty.  The government wanted to close and destroy the jetty, but locals wanted it saved.  They did manage to save it and have just finished another major renovation. 

We rode a train to the end of the jetty and visited the underwater observatory.  There are only a few like this in the world.  We walk down large steps and finally get all the way to the bottom of the ocean.  Through viewing windows, we could see all the sea life that lives around the jetty.  Corals and sponges growing on the jetty posts and loads of fish. 

And yes, you could see something similar at an aquarium, but this is the real thing!  They don't feed the fish or do anything to attract them.  The fish do what fish do.  Awesome!
We drove around and did a little looking around after the jetty tour.   We finished the day by arriving in Perth and checking into our villa for the duration.

More to post later!

So, it is too hard to upload photos to blogger on the internet that we have here at the cottage.  I will be posting loads of pictures once we return to home after Sunday.
We are having a great time and enjoying being on vacation.  We've seen lots of really neat and new things with a few days left to explore. 
Talk to you all soon!

A full brain

So, we leave in two days for a two week trip to Perth and Margaret River.  I am super excited for this trip as there are many awesome things that we will be seeing and doing. 

Of course, two days before, I am not thinking about the normal things that need to be thought about.  I am planning the packing and coordinating of the trip. 

So, Thursday was a library fundriser at school.  Children have a chance to bring in money to buy chocolates and the school library makes money.  The boys have to take their own money, but I forgot to remind them.  As a result, no money for chocolates.

Today, I forgot to remind Tom that he needs his library bag.  Every Friday, his class goes to the library right after morning assembly.  No bag= no books.  So, I had to drop the big boys off at 9:05, Sam off at 9:20, rush back home, grab Tom's bag, and rush back to school...all before the assembly ends at 9:45.  I made it, barely. 

Then, later in the day, I am erasing the whiteboard at home and think "don't need the reminder about swimming anymore as today is the last day of Joe's swimming."  Of course, it then dawns on me that Joe didn't take his swimming stuff!  Eeek!  I had to rush around the house grabbing his bag, his shorts, his rashie, and a towel.  Then I had to find the $2.20.  It was 1:35 and swimming starts at 2!  I had then drive back to school, check in at the office, and then go all the way to his class and drop off his bag.  Just in time as they were getting ready to line up to go to swimming!  Geez, that was close.

I can't wait to share all the exciting stuff that we do in Western Australia.  I'm sure that I will be taking lots of pictures!