On the weekend, LR competed in her first gymnastics competition. Tensions were running high for everyone. After three years of lessons, four hours a week of training, and many, many car trips between the gym and home, we (Mum and Dad) were hoping this would be a positive experience, and not a reason for LR to suddenly take up tap dancing.
It took a while for Mum to get LR's hair exactly right.
Last week, RJ and LR went off to try out trampolining. Their coach is an Olympic medalist and they are using full-sized Olympic equipment — these are some BIG trampolines. While LR’s schedule is pretty heavily booked up these days, it looks like RJ is going to stick with it after we get back from our trip.
RJ catches some serious air time as he works on his tuck jump.
A big couple of weekends… Mum took LR and her best friend to go and see the stage performance of Mamma Mia, RJ and Dad spent the day building projects and eating sushi, RJ catches a birthday party with his friend C., and Dad took RJ and LR off to the aquarium!
LR and I. are SUPER excited to be seeing the live performance of Mamma Mia!
LR’s birthday rolled around and, despite appearances, we managed to keep it fairly simple (no giant parties, sleepovers, movie nights, etc.) LR loved every minute of it and is already making plans for next year!
After searching nearly ten bike shops in the area we finally found a bike cool enough for LR.
On Sunday, we took our last trip to the old house (before ownership transferred to the new owners on Monday). We wandered around, admired the veggie patch (now overflowing with food ready to eat), and gave the kids’ trees a farewell climb. We were all sad to go.
In 2005, when they resurfaced the street and redid the curbs, we took the chance to leave our mark!
RJ says goodbye to his tree.
LR and RJ have one last climb as they say goodbye to LR's tree.
Mum reaches to switch off the lights for the last time. Goodbye house!
Near the kids play room,
There was a frog pond,
And a swingset too,
And a piano,
That had never, ever been tuned.
And there were three gum trees,
For climbing and feeding bees,
And two veggie patches,
And a pool that splashes,
And rooms full of light,
And no palms in sight,
And a study with a desk, always covered in mess,
And a street full of neighbours who were the absolute best.
Goodnight house.
The trip to Rotto with the school was full of all sorts of events, beyond the amazing LR learning to ride. A series of school competitions and activities took place on Saturday, despite the massive bursts of rain that showered down throughout the day!
RJ explores Longreach Bay on a final wander around the island.
After months of practice running, pushing, holding, catching, steadying, balancing with dad, LR hadn’t yet got the hang of riding her bike without the training wheels on. The big motivator was to learn before the school camp at Rottnest — EVERYONE else was going to be riding without training wheels and LR was determined to have it figured out.
On Thursday, LR, mum and RJ took the ferry over to Rottnest Island for the school camp. They stopped at the bike shop and rented two bikes: one with training wheels for RJ, and one without for LR. On Friday morning, amidst cheers from her classmates, LR wobbled away on her first two-wheeled bike ride!
LR à Grande Vitesse!
We took a quick trip up to Gingin over the weekend and discovered that some of the trees had fruit on them. We also drove around the farm, stopping at the big pit for an explore. On the way back, we scouted for bones in the fields and discovered a complete fox skeleton, with teeth and everything else intact!
Foxxy made the rounds at the kids’ schools for show-and-tell, and was a big hit!
LR is fully loaded up with mandarines from the citrus trees.
On Saturday, LR and the Jets played the Nedaroos. It was a close match with both teams scoring and the Nedaroos jumping ahead into an early lead. The Jets came screaming back and nearly closed the gap, but couldn’t quite make it, finishing the game at 3 goals to the Nedaroos 4. After their stint in the international leagues, the Jets are still adjusting to the non-regulation, shorter games. All-in-all, a great match with terrific effort from both teams… (Not to mention the best looking coach on the field.)
LR is ready to get in the game!
