Just a few pics of what we've been up to the last few weeks...or maybe that should be months.

5th of November
We had a birthday party for Rod at the beginning of November to celebrate his 30th! His brothers Darryl, Glenn and Fritz and friend Eric Dobbe definitely made the evening for him by driving all the way from Albany to surprise him :) His Dad and Mum also ended up coming - they had planned on coming on the Saturday, but also surprised us by popping round on the Friday night.

Fritz, Dad vdS, Rod and Paul Byl having a chin wag

Enjoying a beautiful summer's night
L-R: Evette, Marleen, Ingrid's head, Annette's nose, my Aunty Yvonne, cousin Albert, my Uncle Jaap, Dad, Eric, Justin, Mum vdS's grey head and Kaffa's head

Justin, Hanna, John, Mum holding James from John and Hanna,
Mum vdS and Kaffa (and bump)

9th of November

Olivia had her friend Melissa over for the day and here they and Devon are, celebrating Caitlin the doll's birthday with a tea party outside

"Happy birthday to you..."

blow out the candles!

He'd fit right into English society

17th of November

I also took the kids and Courtney and Renee to visit Annette on her last day at work. She was an enrolled nurse at a private hospital in Perth. After wards we went to King's Park (a huge park in the middle of the city and right near the hospital) so the kids could have a run around.

isn't he just the cutest!!!

aren't they all so cute :)

gone are his golden locks :(

On the 20th of October, Dad and Mum's dog Shelby had 9 puppies! They are now 6 weeks old and ready to leave the nest. They're all sold, but not all have been picked up yet, so of course we have had to visit Oma lots so that Olivia can baby the puppies as long as possible; she just adores them, but when they're this cute and cuddly it's hard not to.

And finally, Rod got stuck into the backyard a couple of Saturdays ago and ripped out all the bushes and bottle brush trees that were growing near the house..it's looking very bare now. Saturday just been, he dug the footings for the limestone wall and that's what he's busy with on the photo below

Chooks...

Check out our new chooks... or chickens for you Canadian ;-) We bought 5 of them about a month or so ago and hopefully they'll start laying in December some time.

Rod used an old aviary (to the left) that was left at the house when we bought it
and then added an extension that goes to the roosting and laying boxes (right)

On the last Wednesday of school before the holidays, all the parents of the Kindy kids were invited to their classroom from 11:00 till 11:45am.

First Olivia showed me all her work in her scrapbook and then
we coloured in a picture together

Then they sang the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" and did a few different
action songs as well. Here they all are playing their own violins to the music- so cute!
We could then enjoy some morning tea that their teacher Mrs van der Jagt had
organised...yummy boeterkoek

The following weekend was a long weekend, so we made the most of it and headed down to Albany to meet Fritz and Viv's new addition and of course catch up with family and friends...

Gorgeous Jasmine

A trip to Albany wouldn't be complete without heading off to one of the beautiful beaches.
Here are our little mountain goats enjoying the weather at Dingoes.

And a trip to Albany wouldn't be complete without a photo of Rod's parents dog 'Deej' or 'DJ' which stands for 'Diesel Junior'. Olivia LOVES this dog because he's so docile and she
can do all sorts of things with him...like play dress-ups!

On the way home we were traveling behind Mike and Kaffa when they suddenly slowed and went onto the verge. We thought they had just stopped to take some photos of the canola fields so we carried on until we came to the next town. We then had reception on our phone and realised there had been a missed call from Mike. As it turned out, their car had no oil in it (even though it had just been serviced) and had completely seized! Well, lucky for the kids - they got to play in the park for an hour while Rod went to help them out. They put more oil in the car but it still wouldn't start, so Rod had to tow them into town. We were still a good 2.5 hours from Perth and it would've been very slow going to tow them all that way, so in the end they got Mike's Opa to drive out and collect them and Mike went back the next day with a car trailer to pick up their car!

Is this happiness or what?

...

Last week we made the most of the beautiful weather and joined Mum, Renee, Ingrid, Annette, Marleen and Janneke at Araluen. It's a huge botanic park set in the hills not far from our place and every year they have nice show of tulips as well as other flowers and trees.

tulips in bloom

what a life!
Marleen, Janneke, Ingrid and Annette soaking up some sun

Olivia, Elisa and Courtney

And Oma with our little munchkins

It was really nice to get away for a couple days last week.

We left late Thursday afternoon and camped at Honeymoon Pool, near Collie which is about 1 1/2 hours south of Byford. Magic spot in the middle of the bush on the banks of the Collie River.
Friday we headed further south to Pemberton where we climbed the Gloucester Tree - something I've always wanted to do :-), checked out the Cascades and drove along the Heartbreak Trail, a scenic drive along the Warren River. We then headed a little north to Nannup, another small town where we stayed at the Blackwood River Cottages for the night.
On Saturday we took our time heading home, going through more little country towns like Manjimup, Bridgetown and Donnybrook. It was just great not having a routine or schedule to stick too and just being able to stop in these towns to check out all their cute little stores and all the weird and wonderful things they have in them.

Next year again...

a map with some of the towns that we visited on it

everything nice and green

cheesy

our campsite
you can see our sleeping quarters in the back of the Patrol
Rod made the set of drawers from scratch as well as a cargo barrier that can be
laid down...throw a mattress on top and you're all set!

aaahh the serenity!

Gloucester Tree
I didn't take a photo of the tree from the ground, so I stole one from the internet

go Rod!

yay, made it - 61m above the ground!

it's a long way down

The Cascades and surrounds

Heartbreak Trail

tall tree country

some strange looking tree

Blue Wren Cottage - aptly named for this little guy that
flits around here and there

warm and cosy inside

private gazebo overlooking the river

fruit trees in blossom - very pretty!