Avast, ye scurvy dogs!

Luke — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:07:35 +0000

Just four days before his actual birthday, RJ held his amazing pirate birthday party. He very specifically planned everything, from the location down to exactly what would be on the cake. Thanks to his meticulous plans (and a bit of assistance from his entourage), everything went according to plan. Major events were sword making, a treasure hunt, taking over a pirate ship, firing cannons and eating (an RJ favorite).

Toothpaste?! Bah! Real pirates use rum!

Beware the pirate queen!

"Piracy is the new black."

Pirate Poppa helped get things ready. He just happened to have a helium tank sitting around the garage.

Pirate Grammy does her first animal balloon. Well done!

Mr Chuckles waits patiently for the birthday cake. Raawaaark!

RJ and G search the area for the rest of their pirate crew.

C and X work on their very dangerous looking swords.

RJ and E carefully add precious gemstones to the hilts of their blades.

The search for the pieces of the map to the pirate tresure is on!

C carefully puts the last piece of the puzzle map into place.

"There be plunder here, mateys!" After a lot of searching, RJ discovers the pirate treasure!

The cake was an ingenious way to smuggle the map to the hidden treasure.

RJ blows out the candles, moments before an assist from his pirate crew.

Heather made a fantastic pirate wench... I mean, bench... I mean, "Sorry Heather!"

RJ prepares to fire the starbord guns! Arrrgh!

In true pirate fashion, G returns to the table to plunder some of the remaining booty from the cake.

E does a mighty stomp, launching the rocket high over their heads.

The fearsome band of pirates get together for a last hurrah.

A trip to the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre

Luke — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:00:46 +0000

We took a trip out to the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre. The highlight was the 11 story leaning tower where you can drop water balloons into an incredibly cratered sand pit below. There are lots of other science experiments to explore too. We followed up with a night walk to spot some of the local nocturnal animals. We ended the night looking through telescopes at some of the features of the night sky. Great fun!

RJ looks deep into the black hole simulator.

No Mum! Kids don't go down there! They'll be spaghettified!

LR and Dad push the Bernoulli Principle to its limits.

The mums get the exciting job of filling a bucket full of water balloons.

It's a very, very long way down -- about 11 flights of stairs.

The kids begin the onslaught. Balloon after balloon is dropped onto the zone of destruction below.

E gets a closer look at a butterfly's wings.

LR gets a microscopic view of another specimen.

The face of sadness... E won something in the raffle. LR did not. Life is just so very unfair.

RJ agreed with LR... It is SO unfair... or maybe it's just way past their bedtimes...

We all went out with flashlights on a night stalk to spot animals.

The Leaning Tower of Gingin teeters towards one of the domes housing the big telescopes.

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Avast, ye scurvy dogs!

A trip to the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre