Fire Station Field Trip

On Saturday we baked cookies to bring to the local fire station.  I was hoping they'd let us peek at the trucks or something.  Well!  We got the grand tour!!  We were there for an hour!  We got to see their sleeping quarters (no pole because it's just one story).  We looked at cool stuff in the trucks, Isaac tried on some gear.

The kids tried to heft some of their packs,

And we all got a shot at the hose!  It was just a little one on very low pressure (but Isaac said he saw the fireman turn up the pressure for Mike).

Bridget was not interested in the hose at all.  But she DID choose to ride in the truck with the kids when the firemen drove it back into the garage!  It's hard to see them with the tinted windows. 

What a first class tour!  

Happy Birthday Alice!

Our sweet Alice is 1 years old!  Here she is having a date with a fungi. (Chortle chortle) (Why a mushroom you ask?  Because I was slicing them for dinner and just wanted to keep her happy.  It worked!)

For her birthday we gave her a little stroller with a soft dolly.  She really likes it!

Look at those teeth!  She has 6.

We were excited to give her her birthday cupcake.  Would she attack like Lydia and Evelyn or would she merely pick at it like Isaac and Bridget?

Well, much to the disappointment of the children, she was in the latter group.  Alice sort of pulled the cupcake apart, ate a little frosting and decided she was done.  That's her arching her back saying "get this food away from me."  Ha! 

Next a bath and ready for bed.  Mmm!  Clean baby!  I just want to nuzzle those cheeks all day!

As with tradition we forget to do the birthday measuring until a few days later.  Alice is 27 inches.  This was the best picture I could get because she didn't like the measuring idea at all and erupted into tears just moments later.  

But here's a happy baby, hiding in the library shelves again.  Funny girl!

How we love our sweet baby!  Happy birthday, Alice!

Summer Break Catch Up

We had a wonderful summer break!  After Christmas we went to Brisbane and had a lovely time playing with friends and going to our old favorite spots.  (I will not elaborate otherwise I will never finish this post).  On our way back to Gladstone we stopped and did something new!  We went to Sea Life Aquarium in Moolooba, a couple hours north of Brisbane.  We wanted to go especially with our trip to Heron Island being so fresh in our minds.  From the outside it looked rather seedy, but inside it was impressive!

Aquarium tunnels are the best!

They had a chambered nautilus!  I'd never seen one in real life and always thought they were supposed to be giant.  Apparently the biggest ones get to about 10.5 inches.  This one was a good 4 inches.  Terrible picture, but it was cool!

When we got back home to Gladstone we were rewarded with a week of cool, rainy weather.  Such a break from the heat!  Mike and the kids enjoying a light saber duel when the rain let up.  Mike made the kids light sabers with pool noodles and duct tape.  And look at Alice walking!  She's my earliest at 11 months!

One rainy day the kids asked if they could build a tent with a tarp.  Sure, I said, have at it.  Here's their creation.  

Evelyn and Bridget didn't like being wet so they came in and took a bubble bath while Isaac and Lydia ate lunch in their tent.  After their bath Evelyn and Bridget wanted to eat their lunch on the back porch at the little table.

Alice was asleep so I ate lunch inside... all by myself!  It was bliss!

One night the rain brought us this beautiful cicada!  That's my thumb, it was huge!

Lydia and Evelyn got a bunk bed!  And I put it together!  I was rather pleased with myself.  Look at Alice's cute face peeking out the window.

The library is always a fun place to go during school holidays.  Alice enjoys the library too.

We visited the local art museum.  They had several craft stations.  Great fun!  Here's Bridget's house (I helped).

And here's Evelyn weaving a Paddle pop stick (popsicle stick) sea turtle.  Alice is in the background taking cardboard sea creatures off another kid craft display.  

Our dear friend Carol came over to show the kids how to make paper.  They had a wonderful time!  I did too, since Carol insisted I lock myself in my room for an hour!  I painted my toes!

One more outing to Lillies Beach.  We caught this cool swimming crab.  We'd seen some in past visits, but had never been successful in capturing one, but we finally did!  He had some spikes!  That's why I grabbed the shell to put under him.  Look at his bright yellow flippers!  This one was about a third of the size of others we've seen.

By the time we left the tide was up to the car!

All good things must come to an end.  I could have used another week of summer break, but such it is.  Here are the kids yesterday all ready for their first day of Trinity College.  Isaac (year 4) is in his sports uniform since he has PE on Mondays.  Lydia (year 7) is in the secondary school (high school) formal and Evelyn (year 2) is in the primary school (elementary school) formal.

I tried to get a picture of Evelyn with her new teacher (who is delightful), but Evelyn was being too shy so Mrs Field took a picture of us instead.

Isaac, on the other hand, couldn't get away from us fast enough.  Mike was able to convince him to get a picture with his teacher, Miss Clark.  

And Lydia doesn't have a classroom yet!  When we went to the Meet and Greet last week we saw her classroom was still being built!  Turns out the builders are a week behind schedule.  

Lydia's class has been meeting in the music room.  Ha!  

 Poor Alice has been fussy the past few days (probably teeth, right?).  Unfortunately Lydia, her second mother, is at school.  Life is hard.