Kangaroos and Koalas

We officially live in Australia! We've seen kangaroos! Yesterday we went to the coolest place! Lone Pine Park is a small zoo of strictly Australian animals. And it's so interactive! First thing we got to do was feed lorikeets, which are beautiful birds! Just gorgeous! We've seen them in our yard even, but not this many!












Then we went to hug a koala! Omigosh! How many people have done that? Actually, lots of people have. They had a wall full of famous people having had their pictures taken with a koala. Jackie Chan, Taylor Swift, Mikhail Gorbachev, just to name a few. Apparently we run with an elite crowd. We paid for a picture, but we all got to have a turn holding him. His name was Matt and he was warm and cuddly. His fur was thicker and coarser than I expected it to be. But seriously cool! Fortunately, the photo we paid for was a lot better than this one. But they were nice enough to take this one with our camera. Lydia was elated, I promise, although here she doesn't look it.


Then we went off to feed kangaroos! Yahhh! It doesn't get any cooler than that! You walk in a gate and you're in this huge kangaroo paddock! There are a couple emus walking around looking like they're gonna stab you, but apparently they're docile. The kids walked up and pet one. Over in a far corner are the kangaroos just hangin out. They weren't as big as I imagined. I guess everyone thinks of the 6 ft tall red kangaroos, but these were the eastern grey kangaroos and are smaller.





The rope is to divide the common area from a private corner that is for kangaroos only. Look at them!








We went to a bird of prey show, saw a platypus (which was also a lot smaller than I expected, about a foot and a half long), saw sleeping wombats, and saw the kookaburra. The second day we were in Australia we were woken by the strangest noise ever. I thought it was a monkey, but nope, it was a kookaburra. It was nice to finally meet one.


Another thing we loved about the park was these lizards! They were huge! 2 feet long! I had a great video, but I couldn't get it to post...





What a neat place. We got a year's pass so we can go back. And it's only 25 minutes from our house! Sweet!

School, Aussie style

Here's Lydia sporting her school uniform complete with hat. The hats are mandatory to play outside. "No hat, no play." It's very much the mentality for Aussie students. Lydia loves her uniform!







In the morning we walk 5 minutes to Lydia's primary school and then 10 minutes to Isaac's school on the days that he goes to preschool or "Kindy." In the afternoon we do it all over again. I'm getting exercise!
Here we are walking to Lydia's school.




Lydia in the hall by her classroom. The halls are sort of utilitarian, concrete, open-air type things, but the classrooms are very nice. Lydia's classroom is on the 3rd floor of her building which only houses the administration offices and the year 2 classrooms. Her campus is made up of several small buildings. I find it very confusing, but Lydia knows her way around.



Lydia and her teacher, Mrs Burris (they say bahris). I really adore her and so does Lydia. Notice I didn't put a period after Mrs. Welcome to Aussie spelling!



Isaac's pre-school is tons of fun. He goes MT, MTW every other week. It's from 9-2:30, so he eats lunch at school, which was really hard for me to imagine eating lunch without him on those days, but I've really enjoyed having just Evelyn home. Here he is in his cubby area. That day he had a teddy bear picnic, hence the teddy bear.



I've stayed a couple times, hanging out with other mums, during the first few minutes of play, which of course Evelyn loves. They have a great set up! A sandpit, playground, wheelbarrows and carts, lots of plants to pick flowers and cones, painting easels. All sorts of good stuff. Isaac comes home filthy!




Isaac on his playground. In a hat, of course. School rules.




The kids love their schools and I love that I've gotten to make so many friends with the mums!

Off on a new adventure!! Here's us in Houston checking our 10 suitcases.
After a layover in Dallas (where we luckily got our wiggles out on a playground) we finally got on the big Qantas plane at 10 p.m., ready for our 16 hour flight.

By the time they brought us dinner and the excitement settled down it was already midnight. But the kids did fantastically well. They slept well, especially Evelyn (hallelujah). Adults in busines class get free pajamas (nothing too exciting, just grey t-shirts and pants), but they don't have kid pajamas. So being the amazing mom that I am, I brought new pajamas for them to get excited about. Lydia and Isaac were thrilled to be able to watch TV and movies after they woke up, which, by jove, we happily let them!

Here's Evelyn in her own giant business class seat. Mike was the trooper and stayed with Evelyn the whole flight. She is a Daddy's girl.

I got to hang out in the middle between Lydia and Isaac. We had a great time playing travel bingo and watching movies. Lydia liked her sleep mask.

Isaac chilling to a fun pre-school Disney channel.

Sigh, we made it to Australia! Here is our new home!

Our nice big entry way. Note, these pictures are in no particular order. It is a 4 bedroom house with all the bedrooms upstairs (that was a must). The upstairs is air conditioned, but the bottom is not, but there is usually such a nice breeze that you open the one million windows and it's fine. Or you just sweat a little and deal with it. The whole house is a charming creamy yellow. So pretty! And all the furniture you see is rented. We won't be getting our stuff for another month or two.

This is our little den and the dining room towards the back of the house. Note to self, never EVER get a glass top table with kids. It's not safety that worries me, it's actually very sturdy. But it is NEVER clean! Not only is the top riddled with smears and fingerprints, so is the UNDERSIDE!

Our long skinny master bedroom. I especially like the suitcases lining the walls.

The kids' spacious bathroom. It has a tub AND a shower.

A big open space upstairs, which will be the playroom. It will not look quite so big once it's filled with stuff.

I LOVE our back deck! We've eaten outside loads of times! In fact, last night we ate dinner and watched the bats come out.

Lovely rental furniture in the front sitting room.

This is the bedroom they put a crib in, but eventually this will be both girls' room. It's nice and big! The ironic thing is we bought bunk beds for the girls and now we realize we can't put them anywhere because all the bedrooms have pitched ceilings. Ha ha.

I LOVE this kitchen! But I can't wait to get our own stuff! The knives they gave us are like church kitchen knives!

Swimming in the rain. Our backyard IS a pool. I would have preffered an actual backyard that we can use year round, but everything else about the house was perfect, so beggars can't be choosers. Australia laws are very strict on pool gate safety, so I'm not worried a bit about anybody accidentally geting to the pool.

So that's the house! Next post I'll talk about schools! By the way, we have an extra bedroom for anyone who wants to come visit!