RJ’s birthday was loads of fun. After school, we gathered up most of his classmates and walked them to the park near our house, where we enjoyed fruit, snacks and cupcakes! We had a nice dinner and more cake that night with Grammy and Poppa. The next day, RJ invited two of his friends to go see a movie with us in the city. Happy birthday RJ!
RJ's favorite present was this jaw from a 10ft lemon shark.
We woke up the other day and found RJ had been busy again…
He came running into the room yelling in his ‘stranger’ voice:
“Hey hey! Anyone around here wanna buy some of my bananas? I’m the banana man! If you want some bananas, you’d better come and see me!”
Needless to say, I bought a couple.
"Hey hey! Anyone around here want to buy some bananas?" - RJ as the random banana salesman.
Perhaps one day we’ll figure out where he gets his ideas from and it’ll all make sense.
On the weekend, we all drove up to Gingin to help with the second stage of winemaking. The first stage, picking the grapes and first pressing, was already done a couple of weeks ago; it was time for the second pressing and getting the wine into vats for fermentation. We also spent time working on LR’s latest project, “The Museum of the Universes of Science” — a showcase for all the amazing animals, bones, plants and rocks that we discover up there.
Obviously, winemaking is a very serious business!
Despite the hot weather, we made it up to Gingin for the grape harvest, but Grammy, Poppa, Kath and Brad had already picked all the grapes and crushed them the day before we got there! We made the most of it anyway, picking a lot of figs and table grapes that were ready to eat. Mum cooked up some fig jam and we had a big sewing ‘sesh’ during the heat of the day, before going for an explore out in the paddock.
Our incredibly brave**, heroic** and good-looking** dad rescued us from this marauding beast** that had been ransacking the countryside and was intent on destroying the farm.
We found this guy having a drink from the dog's water bowl. He's a bobtail lizard which are pretty common around here.
**Hyperbole employed as official privilege of the author
Every year, we head off to the Perth Royal Show to see the animals, ride some rides, watch some wood chopping, cheer on the sheep dogs, and of course, pick up a couple of showbags. If you haven’t been, it’s just like a state fair in the US, but perhaps a little smaller with fewer crazy rides. It’s great fun, and we haven’t missed it yet.
RJ challenged one of the Australian Defense Force underwater operations specialists to a game of tic-tac-toe.
LR got her hands on some very cute chicks.
"Whoah. This came from one really big chicken."
LR cuddled this guinea pig for nearly half an hour. RJ discovered that it loved carrots.
RJ's uneaten sandwich had the undivided attention of this Australian Shepherd.
Mum and LR queue up to buy some tickets for the rides.
LR makes some waves in the bumper boats.
"Hey! Look out! You're going to *BUMP* ... crash into me!"
RJ and LR take a wild ride on the kids' roller coaster.
RJ shows off his fantastic new hat from his Backyardigans Showbag.
LR gets to work right away with her new paper and pens from her showbag!
LR jumps on Mum's back for a fast getaway! That's all until next year's show!
