Crumpled Home

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

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Another momentous event: tooth #2 has been ‘fairied’ away by mysterious forces.

LR took advantage of this to continue her experiments on tooth fairy behaviour. Apparently, tooth fairies have trouble fetching teeth in white styrofoam cups, but coloured plastic cups appear to be okay. Who knew, eh?

There goes number two!!!

RJ has begun his grueling training regime for the year. “Spring” training got off to a great start when, at his first practice session, he managed to hit the ball directly into the face of his coach, standing several metres away. Not surprisingly, T-ball is now his favorite sport.

RJ at the bat, moments after giving the ball a mighty clobbering.

RJ and Dad took a trip to the aquarium on the weekend. Lots of exploring, ten rides up and down in the lift, and a bit of confusion over which of the 10 sharks is really called, “Sharky”.

RJ introduces me to one of his best mates at the aquarium, "Sharky".

According to RJ, the most interesting thing in this tank was the equipment the staff uses to feed the fish.

Surprisingly, the lift is a big attraction with our kids. (Insert elevator music here).

The sea lions have gone! No more sea lions! We now have a HUGE coral reef tank instead.

Okay, we've seen everything, we're outta here, bye!!!

January was a really busy month! With the kids on summer holidays, we had lots of activities during the week and on the weekends. While down south we also did a bit of fishing, life-size animatronic dinosaurs came to town, we caught up with some friends and grandparents, and lots of wildlife around our house stopped in to say ‘Hello!’

A total of 5 very small fish caught over two nights -- the kids rated it a massive success!

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Every day for the past month, LR has given us “The Tooth Report” including full details of amount of movement, rotation and deflection from the standard tooth position. There’s been a lot of pressure to have it out before school goes back so she wont be the last kid who hasn’t lost a tooth yet. Last Friday, with less than a week to go, she gave it a mighty push and it finally gave way.

Her first wiggly tooth! (December 30th)

After one month...

and a LOT of wiggling... it finally fell out!

Australia Day (January 26th) is a national holiday, similar to the 4th of July in the states, with the major (tragic) difference being that we can’t buy explosive devices at the shop just around the corner. We tend to go to the beach, eat a lot of barbequed food, and in most towns and cities there are big fireworks displays.

RJ getting his snack on, just before we head out the door.

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It’s summer, so we spend lots of time at or around the water. Having a pool makes a big difference, and so does having summer holidays.

RJ is a cool character while swimming.

Here’s a few water related moments from the past month.

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We took a bit of a break last week and head off to the Southwest. It was very relaxing and the weather was just fantastic. The days were filled with horse riding, beach trips, exploring and even a couple of fishing trips.

Grammy and Poppa were there with the Melbourne cousins for the first couple of days, but couldn’t stay the whole time.

Grammy, LR, RJ and Daddy checked out Ngilgi cave. This huge room is called the amphitheatre and has great accoustics (especially for people who appreciate yelling children).

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It’s been a really busy month, so expect a few more picture updates over the coming days / weeks. One of the massive events that took place was my little sister’s wedding! After over a year of planning and deliberation, everything went perfectly. Jess and Nic (and everyone else) looked fantastic. LR, along with cousins PB and AB were flowergirls, and RJ went down the aisle as a page boy a secret agent.

These are just a few of the photos taken by me. The photos from the real photographer are still on the way.

The forecast for late afternoon thunderstorms was thankfully wrong.

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