October

So my next update didn't come so soon after all...sorry!  But here's a few photos of what happened here last month.

 A random hot day in the holidays saw us head off to the 'beach' for a cool off.

Here Devon and Olivia are playing in the water waiting for cousins Lauren and Hannah 

to arrive - they were up from Albany for a week. 

 The girls stayed for dinner that night - 

here they are having fruit time with Nanna

 Hannah, Lauren and Olivia letting their creative juices flow

 Levi being a goofball and my maid in the background doing the ironing ;-)

 On the last day of the school holidays we headed off to Perth on the train

 enjoying some morning tea while we wait for the ferry 

which takes you across the river...

 ...to the playground

 

 a quick happy snap of us all before heading back home

The morning was beautiful and sunny but the afternoon was a bit wet and wintry

 good for a quick spot of shopping while Levi slept :-)

 Levi's lovely locks were becoming just a bit long and knotty, so it was time for a trim

 I was scared his curls would disappear if I chopped it too short so I just took a little bit off

 The highlight of the day while Nan and Pop were staying with us - the nurses visit!

 Devon (and Olivia when she was home) were allowed to help the nurse with things like

taking Pop's temperature and blood pressure which they thought was just it! Devon's not shy either

so when the nurses started coming he'd run outside and say, "Hi! I'm Devon, I'm 4 1/2, what's your name?" 

Another big October event: Rod's 33rd birthday this year :-) 

It fell on a Sunday so we celebrated with the family and Ed and Evette

with coffee and cake and then soup and buns afterwards

Here's Andrew, Paul B, Ingrid, Rod and Marcel

Charlene, Dad, Myron Hordyk (Renee's bf), Renee and Rose 

 Marleen, Mum, Evette and Ed

 All the kids made themselves quite comfortable at the front door :-)

Tegan, Devon, Elisa, Anya, Levi, Courtney, Olivia and Caitlin

 from the kids perspective...a familiar sight while the in-laws were here

 and another one from the kids...all the books we need to keep Levi 

occupied during breakfast, lunch and dinner! 

With their dear Pop and Nanna

Here's a start to finally updating this blog of mine!  More to come soon :-)

MAY...

It was still school holidays at the beginning of May so we took the train into the city and visited the state museum with Renee and Marleen and her girls Elisa and Caitlin.  There was lots of interesting things to see and discover! 

 not the sharpest photo but here we are on the train - Devon, Elisa, Olivia, Marleen and Caitlin
Rod was home that week so he kindly offered to look after Levi for the day
he really is the best!  :-)

having fun in the sensory section outside the museum

there were so many drawers to pull out with all sorts of  things to check out!
Renee gets very excited about these things...

scientist Devon

and Olivia doing some observing

... and we soaked up lots of lovely sunshine...

 ...rode to school as many days as we could...

 ...and Levi figured out how to go down the steps into the gamesroom

JUNE...

At the beginning of June we headed down to Albany and had a wonderful time...

 ...meeting Glenn and Leonie's latest addition 'James'

and also witnessing his baptism that Sunday

 ....playing in the park with cousins

 ...smothering Nanna and Pop's dog with lots of love

 ...checking out the cars at the hill climb

...and terrorizing loving the dog some more

 all tuckered out after our weekend in Albany

 and happy to sleep in his own bed again

 I've been doing a few puzzles again - it's great when you can borrow them from the library

 story time

 our neighbour picked up this trolley off the freeway one night and gave 

it to us as he thought the kids would like to play with it.  Well Levi thought

it was fun to walk behind but even better to have rides in :-)

 if Mum doesn't get me something to eat, I'll just help myself!

The next few photos are from the excursion I went on with Olivia's class, the Year 2s.

They went to Melville Library and museum where they did two different activities

which sort of focused on communication, which was one of their topics at school. 

decorating shoe boxes after listening to a story

 morning tea time

doing a tour of the museum - the kids were allowed to wear a hat from a past era

looking at things from the war years

the 5 lovely students I got to keep an eye on for the day

a few of the kids up on a lookout with Perth city in the background

Miss O van der Schaaf helping Devon with his Grug activity book

holidays mean having friends over to play - cousin Naomi came on Monday