And then there were six...

Yay, Uncle Terry and Aunty Sof arrived last night (Sunday night, hence the late blog entry).  The kids are so happy to have them stay with us for the year, especially Josh who now thinks he has a new X-box gaming partner, (Aunty Sof might have something to say about that...)  First day in Kal and straight into training for these two young bucks.  No mucking around here.

Josh thoughtfully set up uncle Terry's desk with his new Skylander toys and X-box game.  He came to me beforehand asking which side Uncle Terry was on, "left or right", I had no idea what he was up to but I chuckled when I saw his little set up.  Josh has a thing about decorating his bedside tables, even when we are on holiday.

THE SUPERPIT LOOKOUT

The top of the SuperPit in Kalgoorlie.  It is a whopping 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 360 metres deep.  It was super  hot at the top of the lookout and apparently it's even hotter down in the hole hitting the 50 degree celcius mark.  Ouch.

Terry buzzing out that he will get to drive a Tonka Truck down this big hole.  Childhood dreams coming true...

My shaddow and me.

Happy Birthday to Papa Dave today 23 Jan 2012. 

Erin, Leonie, Eddie and Josh x

Music to my ears...

Our week started out well with the discovery of a handy new technique to help speed up the kids clothes hanging time.

There were no tears and less complaints this time round.  Josh figured out quickly it was best to specialise in socks and undies, leaving the harder clothes to hang for big sister Eddie.  She doesn't seem to know or care, she even managed a smile.

Luckily, for the kids, the weather turned to custard after Monday and it rained on and off

for the rest of the week.  That was the end of clothes hanging.  Apart from Monday, we spent the rest of the week indoors, which ment more than usual amounts of X-box gaming and TV watching.  A week indoors with the kids is enough to drive me a lil crazy but thanks to the wonderful accomodation Kalgoorlie Hospital provided us with there was enough space for us to keep out of eachothers hair, most of the time anyway. 

Before the weather turned bad we managed to get some bird watching in at Hammonds Park.  Josh has always had a weird phobia of birds (especially Seaguls and chickens..?).  Even though the birds were behind cages he was still jumpy every time they squawked or made sudden movements.

I don't blame him for being particularly scared of the Emu's, they are kind of creepy.  They like to come right up to the fence and stare at you.  Josh was terrified they were going to peck at or bite me and kept pulling me by the hand to get the heck out of there.

This is our beautiful Hammonds Park where we often come, the kids play and I relax.

Beautiful Australian gum trees.  Australia Day is coming up this month and in the supermarkets they have loads of Australian stuff on sale in anticipation for Australia Day.  I asked Eden if she wanted to buy some small Australian flags so we could celebrate Australia Day and she replied with an emphatic, "No!  Mum, we don't go for Australia".  She was dead serious.  Don't forget your roots my friend.

As you all know, the Wharemate's are karaoke die hards, and good on them too.  What is life without a bit of music for the soul.  That being said, Erin got down to business this week setting up a small home recording studio / karaoke room in his office for us and it's been a big hit, especially with Eddie.  Normally she loves to rock out a few Taylor Swift tunes but seeing as it was Sunday today she rocked primary songs.

Eden has always loved singing, but she's always put herself down as not being any good.  I guess, if you compare yourself to Taylor Swift all the time... The more I tried to inspire self-confidence and belief in her by telling her I thought she was a wonderful singer, the more she insisted that she was bad at singing.  It made me sad to think she didn't believe in herself and that I couldn't do anything to change it.  I guess sometimes people telling you something isn't good enough and you have to truly believe something for yourself to accept that it's true.

Eddie listened anxiously to the playback recording.  She was really pleased with what she heard, (which wasn't any different to what she usually sounds like..?)  Anyway, the breakthrough moment was when she said, "I'm actually quite good, aren't I".  It's not important to me weather Eddie can sing or not but to hear her say those words and believe them was music to my ears.

Erin, Leonie, Eddie and Josh. x

(working on the video editing...)

 

Work Hard, Play Hard!

Another week of school holidays in Kalgoorlie and we have definitely got the 'Play Hard' side of it down. 

We saw:  Happy Feet 2 (my fav!) The Adventures of Tin Tin and Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 (Chip-wrecked). 

We met up with friends and had a picnic at Hammonds Park.  Hammonds Park is one of our favourite places to visit, it has a small reserve with kangaroo's, emu's, peacocks, Macca the talking cockatoo, free BBQ facilities, picnic tables and most importantly lots of green grass.

 

We swapped Eden for two boys this week, Lennox Armstrong (7) and Lyric Hunt (7). The boys have taken Josh in under their wing and looked after him really well.  Josh had the boys over for the day to play x-box and Lego. I didn't hear from them for hours, until they got hungry of course. After they were fed and watered I didn't hear from them again until it was home-time.  Good one boys, come again!

Erin was on-call Saturday so we met up with our friends and hit the pools, again...

 

and discovered the FLOW-RIDER.  Some serious FuN! 

 

We would have kept going all day if it was free.  You pay $40 for 30 minutes for 8 people or $5 for 30 mins if you are flying solo.

Let me tell you bout hard work...

Well, the minute I heard Eden and Josh say, "It's boring mum", "What else is there to do", I figured it was time they learnt a lesson in GRATITUDE!  Too much of one thing is never a good thing, you tend to forget the value of it.

There needs to be a balance right?  The balance for all that fun (and in-gratitude) this week was a bit of Hard Work! 

Putting the kids to work tested my patience to the limits.  There were arguments, there were tears and there were elaborate excuses.  We got there in the end and although it wasn't done exactly how I would have liked it done... the jobs were done and some definite lessons were learned, (by everyone).  Erin, Leonie, Eden and Josh. x

We eat ice-blocks, We swim and We ride our bikes...

It's heating up in Kalgoorlie and Eden and Josh have spent the past week eating ice-blocks, riding their bikes and getting wet!  When it gets too hot outside the kids have plenty of toys and board games (not to mention computers, x-box and ipad) to keep them entertained as well (thanks Santa).  It was a big week for Josh this week, Erin taught him how to ride a bike for the first time.  He's crusing with his big sister now, who is a seasoned pro...  We celebrated New Years Eve in style, dancing the night away at the Kalgoorlie chapel with good friends.  We had a fake count-down at 10:00pm and we all held hands in a circle and sang the traditional New Years song, 'old king something..' 

A few pics of our week.  (tip: you can click on the images to enlarge)

Eden and Josh going for it at the Oasis (our second home, the local gym and pool complex). I think they set the record for how many times you can go down a hydro-slide. 

If it's not the pools it's the hose and toy bucket in the backyard. 

Or a tarp and diswash liquid. 

Ice-block making has become one of our daily rituals here in Kalgoorlie.  There's nothing like sucking on a cold ice-block when your battling the heat. 

Watermellon / rasberry flavour = scoop out watermellon into a bowl, add some rasberries and blend.  Pour in the moulds and freeze.  How easy is that.  Orange flavoured one's = squeeze oranges into bowl, add some water and grate a little bit of palm sugar into the mix.  Pour and freeze.

Erin primed Josh up for his first bike riding lesson in the driveway this week.  He was a natural and got it the first time.  He was a bit of a Wonkey Donkey to start off with but with intensive training from his trainer, Josh is well on his way to winning the Tour De France 2012...

 Erin ran behind Josh up and down the school car park.  After a while Josh said, "can you stop following me now please dad". 

 

The picutre on the far left was straight after the first time Josh rode his bike without a push start from his dad.  That's the smile of a new found independence.  He was pretty pleased with himself.  And Erin, being a good sport but still not used to the camera constantly being in his face.  :)

Just cruising.

We say good bye to another year.  A year full of change, challanges, new experiences, new people and new beginnings.  We look forward to 2012 and wish all of our family the best, wherever you are and whatever it is you will be doing this year.  Erin, Leonie, Eddie and Josh. x