Happy Trails

As a special school holiday surprise for our wannabe cowboy, Oliver, we took the boys out to Darlington for a gorgeous morning trail ride. The boys were so brave and confident (even when Elliot's horse got a bit of a spook from a gust of wind). And we all had the most delightful morning in the saddle. 

Billy Cart Craziness

Just look at what Paul whipped up with the boys one day while I was at work. I hope the boys realise just how lucky the boys are to have such a great dad!

And the boys just loved riding down Edmund Tce. As you can see from the videos, one of them is much more likely than the other to have a career in motor sports.

Billy cart video #1

Billy cart video #2

Billy cart video #3

Billy cart crash video 

York with the cousins

Vincent and Dom came for a visit, and Paul planned a super day for us all. Yvonne and Keith joined us too.

First we visited an old homestead farm in Beverley where we got to feed huge Clydesdales, and the boys played on all sort of old farm equipment.

Then we headed into York for lunch and to visit the famous candy shop. Once the boys were sufficiently sugared up, we went down to the river where they bounced and wobbled the suspension bridge and generally ran amok before we loaded them back into the car and headed for home.

We had such a great time and the boys all got on so well. It was one of those extra special days I know we'll remember for a long time. 

Gymnastics is not parkour

This term Ollie and I wanted to do something cool like parkour or ninja warrioring or circus school. But because those sorts of lessons don't exist for five- and seven-year-olds in Perth, Mom and Dad convinced us to do gymnastics instead. Um . . . gymnastics is not really anything like parkour, but good try Mom and Dad! ~ Elliot

Ollie is a goof ball!

Brookton Valley Family Rally

In order to help us get to our fundraising goal to participate in The Ride to Conquer Cancer, Heidi and I decided to put on a car rally. The two of us had so much fun researching the route and checkpoints: reading all about the history of the area and roaming around and finding all sorts of gorgeous spots to play in nature all within a 10km radius of our neighbourhood.

Along with the rally, we had a sausage sizzle and bake sale and bouncy castle. Rebeka and Rhiannon even came and did face painting. Elliot couldn't get enough of the Pokemon on his face, and I'm really worried that the photos below may foreshadow some facial tattoos in Elliot's future.

Ollie decided to use his face as a marketing tool and had the girls paint a picture of the drinks he and Cailey and Jessica were selling. 

Slippery rock picnic

Another one of our amazing new discoveries is Stinton Cascades. These amazing cascades run for about a kilometre over these massive smooth boulders with some pretty amazing (and super slippery) splash pools.

In not one of my finest mothering moments, I told Elliot that I thought it would be awesome if he decided to try sliding down one of the longer stretches of cascade on his bum.

Holy guacamole!! That kid caught so much speed, caught air over a bump and drop off, and continued to slide out-of-control toward the debris filled grassy marsh at the bottom of the falls.

Thankfully, Elliot has one responsible parent who saw the wreckage unfolding and made his way to the bottom of the cascade to clear a big branch out of the way and catch Elliot as he came sailing into him. Thanks Paul! El and I owe you one!