31 December 2014

Swan Valley Rally

What a fun way to show Grumpy the Swan Valley wine/tourist area on the outskirts of Perth than doing the Great Valley Rally.

We drove around, following the clues and looking for Stirling the Black Swan and his secret code. Along the way we discovered new parks, historical sites, big climbing trees, and chocolate shops!





After we'd collected our certificate for finishing the rally, we made our way to Guildford's Museum of Natural History which, judging by the dinosaur out front, we thought would be a fun place to see some model dinosaurs. Instead we walked into a massive hall stuffed with stuffed animals of all size and description. Elliot summed it up best when he held tight to my hand and kept asking,"But why would someone want to do this?" It was a short visit. And we followed it up with ice cream to rid our senses of the smell of formaldehyde.

28 December 2014

My boys at the beach

Xmas in Oz

To help my dad feel at home, we had a xmas full of guns: water pistols, nerf guns, air bazookas and spud guns too. We also had a lot of food, a lot of laughs, and face painting too!













26 December 2014

Xmas Eve was saved for just Grumpy

What's the password? 
Nacho needs a bit of help with his present.
Somebody likes his new book.
And Ollie's a really happy chef.
"Quit your hamming, Ollie! Daddy bought us micro chargers!"
So helpful when it comes to opening presents.
But to get to Grumpy's special present, the boys had to go on a scavenger hunt:

Not in the chicken coop . . .  
Or in the cubby house . . .
We found it!
Our very own workbench for building and fixing stuff with Daddy!
And Mommy sent Daddy on a scavenger hunt of his own
to find the tool box that she got for him. He was pretty surprised!

23 December 2014

Holiday with Grumpy down south

Before we could let Grumpy go back to America, we had to show him some of our favourite sites down south. First we showed him the gnomes. I don't think he was expecting THOUSANDS of gnomes.




And we showed him the rocks and the beach and Gran and Granddad's house in Busselton.




We also showed him the really fun maze at Yallingup maze, but nobody remembered to take photos there.

We also took Grumpy to the Valley of the Giants so he could see Western Australia's version of the redwood forest. It was something new for us too, but to be honest we thought it was going to be a bit more exciting with a name like Valley of the Giants. Nevermind, the trees were pretty big, and Grumpy really liked it, especially the tree-top walk.









We even took Grumpy to the Gloucester Tree which is the world's second tallest fire-lookout tree. Daddy said that he climbed to the top of it when he was only a little bit older than us, but Mom and Dad would only let us climb just a little way up.





But they couldn't stop us from climbing all over this train we stopped to see. ~ Elliot and Oliver




11 December 2014

The Annual Daycare Xmas Pageant

Elliot had a long talk with Santa.

 


And Oliver is one super cute dinosaur.

 


But it's these performances that you really have to see: