...this is the priest all shaven and shorn...

On Saturday I allowed Mike to buzz his hair really, really short. If he had a choice this is how he'd always have his hair. I, on the other hand, think buzz cuts look acceptable on boys no older than 9 years old. The only reason I let him do this was because he has a triathlon this coming week. He had to promise he'd let it grow back after the race.

The kids had a great time cutting Daddy's hair!


I really like this photo with Lydia, just as she went too fast and pulled Mike's hair.


Evelyn even got in on the action. She thought the clippers felt funny as they vibrated in her hand.


Ready for the race.


When it was all done, Evelyn looked at Mike thoughtfully and said "you look like Bishop" (who has no hair). So perceptive!

Camping: part two

On Friday we woke up to a chilly morning, perfect for pancakes, bacon, and hot cocoa. Evelyn really liked the hot cocoa.


Unfortunately, it rained all morning. Here's Mike reading to the kids under the canopy. We don't take any trips without books. We're so smart.


However, when the rain and wind got harder we all piled in our big tent and played games and read. See, our ridiculously giant tent came in very useful!


Here are the two year olds. Evelyn and Wyatt, they are so funny to watch! And they play so well together! What a couple of cuties!


Here's where the day took a turn for the worse. Tired of being cooped up we decided to take another hike. Donning our bright yellow ponchos we ventured out in the rain. The view was spectacular!





But we were wet and muddy and cold and tired AND we found leeches! Agh! Some of the kids had them on their ankles and I about vomited! I had never seen a leech in my life and frankly these were quite small and they weren't quite as freaky as I'd envisioned them. I also learned they are quite danger free (like, no diseases) for a parasite, but still. (I didn't take a picture, nor do I plan to search online for a picture of the ones we encountered. I would most likely have to go shower again, like right now.) Lydia and Mike both had a tell tale blood spot on their feet, but the leeches had long gone.

With being so wet and cold and no way to warm up or dry off and more rain in the forecast we decided to call it good. Luckily, we found a lull in the rain and broke camp. A few hours later, after having hit home and showered and searched everyone (again) for leeches, we met back up at our friends' home to have our scheduled camp dinner. We were so happy to go back to our warm, dry home to sleep in our beds!

So yes, camping was a blast and I'll do it again, but not on a rainy, chilly, autumn day. And leeches are not invited!

Camping: part one

We went camping for the first time as a family! Like really camping, not in someone's backyard. We went with a wonderful family from church who are avid campers and could show us the ropes. They have 6 kids and know what they are doing! The place we went was gorgeous! Lamington National Park is two hours south of Brisbane and up in the mountains. Get this! There were these miniature wallabies on the campsite! They looked more like large possums that hopped around. We ARE in Australia!


We went up Thursday with intentions of staying until Saturday, depending upon the weather. Thursday was absolutely gorgeous! Here's our big ol' tent! Our friends were clever to have several smaller tents for the kids to share and set up themselves. It took us as long to get ours up as it did all their little ones. Hmm, good to keep in mind.


After setting up camp and eating lunch we went exploring. Just up the road was a visitor's center where a lady told us all about nests and snake skins and cool stuff like that!


Nearby was a neat bird feeding area. Gorgeous birds!


Isaac got one to land on him!


Evelyn was content to chase the wild turkeys.


From there we took a lovely little hike. And saw cool trees like this booyong.


And this cool twisty vine (whose name I forgot).


And this amazing strangling fig that grows itself around the trunk of a tree and "strangles" it until it dies and decays and all that is left is a hollow looking tree! Totally cool!



That's the inside!


And we got to climb this bridge up into the trees.


And if you weren't squeamish about heights you could climb THIS ladder up a crazy tall tree! Isaac was fearless!


What a fun hike! Then it was back to camp for dinner. Our only complaint of the campsite was we couldn't have fires. Luckily our friends had a gas stove where we could cook and even do s'mores, so it wasn't a total loss. Here is Ashlee, 13 yr old babysitter/Lydia's piano teacher/big sister for the weekend. As the one girl with 5 brothers, she and Lydia were inseparable. It looks like she was trying to make the water boil faster by shining her flashlight on it. You can also see the boys in the background playing football.


After s'mores it was time for hunkering down in the tents in our sleeping bags! Ooh! What fun! I wish I'd gotten a picture of the kids, but I thought of that only after I was happily in my own sleeping bag and I couldn't quite make myself get up. It was lovely listening to the wind and the frogs as we fell asleep. What a great day!

School Holidays

Last week Lydia was determined to set up a lemonade stand. I made sure the kids had low expectations since we don't live on a busy street. But over two days the collective hour and a half that they were out there they made $13! Sweet! Of course it didn't hurt that one neighbor gave them $5 for a cup. Lydia would have continued everyday, but I told her the neighbors needed a break.




One day we took some fellow Americans (who moved from Alaska and know Mike's brother) (oil and gas is such a small world) to the Queensland State Library, because we love it so much! Here's Evelyn sitting on the giant Scrabble stands. "Wittle benches!"




Isaac and Keith playing the table sized labyrinth game.




Lydia playing with the magnet board.




We could have stayed in that corner for hours! But there was also a song time! Not only did this guy have a guitar, he also had a kazoo stand on his shoulders (which is hard to see). This ain't your ordinary library song time!




Then we found the books and could have stayed there for another few hours.




With a title like "King Arthur's Spaceship" I'd probably look that intense too. (By the way, I realize you don't quote book titles. I just couldn't figure out how to enable the underline option on this thing.) (just had to make that clear, thank you for humoring the grammar nerd)

Easter Weekend

The last day before Easter break Isaac had an Easter Parade at school. All the Preppies (the Prep year is akin to American Kindergarten) shared some fun Easter songs with the parents and paraded around to show off their hats.





Then school let out for a two week break. We'll start Term 2 in the middle of April.

We enjoyed our long Easter weekend by taking a day trip out to Toowoomba, a city in the mountains (which are just really big hills at a higher altitude) about two hours west of Brisbane. It was lovely and had gorgeous parks! This playground was pretty cool with big painted concrete things to climb around on.





And a big spiderweb.


We found a picnic bench on the side of the mountain and ate lunch. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the kids running up and down the hill behind them. They were in heaven!


We found a lovely little waterfall!


At another playground there was this cool spinning contraption! The kids climbed on and Mike pushed them around. Pretty cool!


I found this tree and thought we looked a lot alike.


It was a fun little day trip!

In Australia the eggs are brown, not white. Although back in January I did find this carton of eggs at the store! Too bad I couldn't have kept it until March.


So instead of trying to dye the brown eggs this year we decided to paint them, which is apparently what they do here.












I failed to take pictures of the finished products. And they were still too wet to hide the next morning. But they tasted just fine!

Call him lazy, but the Easter bunny hides eggs in our living room. That way the eggs get hidden the night before. Besides, we really don't have much of a yard anyway. The kids enjoy finding the eggs regardless.


And yes, the kids have gift bags for Easter baskets (just like the gift bags they used for Trick or Treating). I refuse to buy and store baskets that come out once a year (especially since their other Easter baskets are sitting in a storage facility in Houston). And gift bags fold down so nicely!




This year the kids got sleeping bags! We're going on our first camping trip next week (luckily with another family who actually camps, so they can tell us what to do). Hooray!


And the lamb cake! Last year my lamb cake mold was still on a boat making its way here, so I was thrilled to have my lamb cake this year! And I actually whipped out the icing pipe and piped on the wool for the first time. I really liked it! Although I learned for next year to 1) frost the face first so as not to get that naked margin and 2) make more frosting. You can't see that the back of his head is bald. I was a little sad to not have coconut for grass (they have really finely shredded coconut here called desiccated, or as Mike likes to call it "desecrated"), or Peeps to put around him, or Easter M&M's! I'll have to buy a green platter just for him!


But of course, amidst all the fun traditions, I am grateful for our Savior and the path of hope which He selflessly provided for us. I am so grateful for my family, near and far, and the knowledge that we can be together forever! Happy Easter!