Us Fun Folk

The simple adventures of our highly entertaining little family

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Happy Birthday to Isaac!

Isaac turned 5 years old last week!


We had a great day. In the morning we had two of his friends from Kindy and their mums come over "for a play." The boys were content playing on their own and Evelyn entertained herself in the playroom, leaving me to chat with the ladies. It was fabulous! Then we topped it all off with cupcakes, it was a great morning! (But of course I failed miserably to bring out the camera).

The first picture of the whole day wasn't until after we got Lydia home from school. While picking up Lydia at school, my best Australia friend (who is actually a Kiwi) gave Isaac an awesome pool toy for his birthday. A Lightning McQueen car that drives around the surface of the water.


We had to check it out and were pleasantly surprised that the water was quite nice! So I felt like a supermom when I said "let's get on our swimsuits!"



I hated to drag them out for showers and dinner!


Look at that handsome smile!

One of Isaac's favorite presents was one that Lydia picked out for him: a silly string gun!


He are pictures after our all out silly string battle on Saturday!





We love our wonderful Isaac! He is one fun kid!



Location:Brisbane

Monday, October 08, 2012

Spring Break!

The kids and I had a great two weeks of spring break (I know, it weirds me out too). We stayed local this holiday. We're trying to save money for our trip to New Zealand after Christmas (inaudible squeal). (Funny story: a friend of ours from New Zealand said "why would you want to go there?" Seriously?)

Anyway, back to our break... We stayed in the neighborhood mostly the first week. Trips to the library, bikes at the park, grocery store (where we found this great Charlie and Lola toe-mah-toe soup)...


And we went to a friend's house. At this friend's house was a gorgeously colorful, abstract painting. She laughed and said it was just a crayon melting craft she did with her kids. I was ecstatic so we tried it the next day!


I made it harder than it had to be because I didn't want to end up with crayon pieces glued onto my canvas. So instead, I taped them, which was a bit of a nightmare. But it all worked out. Crayons attacked with a blow dryer and this is what you get!


It's hanging in the hallway by the kids' bedrooms and I love it! It's like rainbow fire!

Our second week of break we took our Houston-friends-who-now-live-in-Gladstone-who-came-to-visit to some good tourist spots. Naturally we went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and had a wonderful time! Feeding the lorikeets...








We got to hold guinea pigs...


And baby chicks!


And get the customary family picture with the kangaroos. These are the big red kangaroos. There are just a few of them in the park and they like to hang out by the sheep. (Isaac is training to be a Jedi)


We even got to watch a sheep dog show which was pretty cool!


Another day we went to a great big playground built around the branches of a colossal banyan fig tree. Isn't that an amazing tree?


And there's even a giant dragon! That's sort of a funny picture of Evelyn, leaning on a dragon egg.



We had a picnic across the street from the playground by the rose garden. Gorgeous roses! I told my friend, Deborah, about the roses in front of Amanda's house. There's nothing like garden roses, you can't buy them from a floral shop as pretty. These were stunning!


That night after their long, hard play at the park I let the kids have a "sleep over" meaning nothing more than they all slept in the same room (no rootbeer and movies). Evelyn slept with Lydia in her queen bed and we dragged in a twin mattress for Isaac. They crashed!


The next day we went to the coolest splash pool at South Bank! But first we took the City Hopper ferry boat there AND we got to sit on the top!


And look what we saw from the boat!


The splash pool was awesome! Evelyn was totally in her element! She is one confident girl in the water (and yet she screams in the bath). We all had a great time!








We had a great spring break! And now...


We get to eat outside again! Hooray for spring!

Location:Australia