winter uniform take two

Today Madi was much happier so I took the opportunity to get some better pictures of her in her winter uniform. What do you think?

SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION

This morning the routine went back into effect. We got up and got ready for school with much joy and rejoicing - and that was just from me! LOL! Really, the kids were so excited to get back to school. I actually don't mind having them around all of the time - they play well together most of the time and they entertain Rylee. What I love is a routine and someone else finding things for my children to do so I don't have to. So we had breakfast, got dressed, and I made two lunches and two morning teas.

Madi's uniforms have switched to winter uniforms. When we moved in they were just about to switch over to summer uniforms and so they told me just to get summer ones and not worry about winter yet. So we finally had to buy the winter ones - which are much more expensive than the summer tunic. She does look really cute in it though. She hates to wear tights and bottle green tights are part of the uniform - so maybe she will get used to them and not complain when she has to wear them to Church in the winter. She can also wear white socks if it is warmer weather, but she chose to wear the tights today. She isn't too happy with the white shirt however, because according to her it is a boy's shirt. The boys at school wear white button up shirts and grey pants so I can see why she thinks this. I keep telling her it is fine and it isn't a boys shirt. She can wear a short sleeve white shirt under her uniform, but I don't have one of those so hopefully she doesn't get too hot. We may need to go out on a hunt for one of those. She can also wear a white turtle neck - or skivvy as it is called here - but she hates to wear those so I think we will stick with the button up, "boys" shirt.

She doesn't look too happy does she? Right before it was time to go she and Cooper turned on the TV and started watching Astro Boy (a Japanese-like cartoon on Boomerage that they love). She wasn't too happy when I told them to turn it off because it was time to go to school. They just had to see the ending. Too bad the ending would have happened after the final bell at school. They weren't supposed to have the TV on anyway. Getting back into a routine isn't always easy!

So I am sitting here typing this post and enjoying the silence of my house for a while (Rylee is sleeping)!

LEAVES ARE FALLING ALL AROUND!

Last day of school holidays and we took full advantage of the sun shining in the morning. We headed to the park. Not just any park. We went in search of leaves to play in! We found a little neighborhood park not far from our house with no kids and had a great time!

How I love fall - it is second best to spring in my book - the sound of crunching leaves and the smell in the air. I love the colors that Mother Nature puts forth and the chill - not too cold, but cooler than summer. Fall here is so pretty! The fall colors intermixed with the ever green gum trees. I LOVE IT!

My Art! (And a side conversation to keep it interesting!)

Before I start this post I just have to tell you a story about a conversation that Stace and I had tonight. We were eating dinner and somehow the conversation turned to conversions (I think it started with talking about the difference in the size of the milk container here vs the size of the milk container in the US and the cost difference). Anyway, I told Stace that there were approximately 4 liters in a gallon (I just looked it up and it is really about 3.8 liters per gallon - so sorry Stace, I was just a little off). When all of a sudden I saw the light bulb go on and the following sentence came out of Stacy's mouth, "You mean that we have been paying close to $6 per gallon in gas?" - realizing that we pay around $1.50 per liter here. I just thought it was funny that this just hit her when we have been here for almost 9 months. I will chalk this one up to her lack of comprehending numbers. I am not being rude here, you can ask her and she will say the same thing. And if you ever get the chance ask her how far away something is from her! It is quite a hilarious game! One I often use to pass the time.


Ok, now back to the real reason for this post. Since coming to Australia I decided to try and work on something I have always enjoyed but never taken the time to work on when I was younger. (You will laugh at me but I always wanted to take art classes in high school but thought they were only there if you wanted to take something fun and so I never fit them into my schedule.)

So I bought some books, downloaded some tutorials off the Internet, bought some supplies, and started reading and learning some different techniques. I really focused on being able to draw people, as this has always been the hardest thing for me to draw in the past. I aways found that you can have a beautiful drawing of a person and then the eyes look "off" and it ruins the whole drawing.


Mostly the time that I spent practicing was on the train to and from work. I would take the daily free news paper that they hand out and use the pictures as models. So most of my pictures were limited in the amount of time I could spend on them. I would only work on a picture for the period of time from getting on the train until I got off so most of the pictures are less than 30 minutes drawing time -- with a few exceptions.


I also wanted to start trying to paint at the same time, so I set up a little table to work on a picture at home on evening when we were just watching TV. I have just now finished my first attempt at a painting and so Stace suggested that I need to put a picture of it on the blog to keep a record of when I finished it. So here it goes, hope you enjoy. I am going to put some of my drawings on as well.


Here is a picture of the first drawing I did. I use it as the bench mark for the rest of my paintings to see the progress that has been made.

Here are a couple of my other sketches.

And here is my first painting attempt. Of course it had to be the Opera House since we are living in Sydney!!!!

ANZAC DAY

National Day of Remembrance consecrated in Australia and New Zealand in memory of those brave men who lost their lives 25th April 1915 World War I. (Anzac Cove)

I have been wondering all day what exactly ANZAC Day is so I googled it and found out that it is the commemoration of the first major military action that the armies of Australia and New Zealand faced in WWI. Under the plan of Winston Churchill they went to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. The two countries formed one army known as the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps - thus ANZAC. They thought it would be a quick battle, but it quickly turned into a stale-mate which lasted for eight months. Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died during the campaign. To commemorate the day they have dawn services all over Australia and New Zealand. As well as a footy game - of course the day must be marked by sport, right?!

When Madi goes back to school on Tuesday they will have their ANZAC commemoration - we will have to see what she says about it.

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS AND 14 DAYS OF RAIN...

Two weeks of school holidays (the kids get a break in between terms) and endless rain aren't a fabulous combination. Last week was fine because we had play dates scheduled and we went to the Blue Mountains as well, but this week I had to find things for us to do. Can't go outside, so what other options are there? TV and movies get boring.

Monday we spent the day pulling weeds out of the soggy ground. We had our first cleaning inspection on Tuesday. Yes, a cleaning inspection. Haven't had one of those since I was in college. We made sure that the yard and house looked good. Kev took time to mow the over grown lawn during a break in the weather. A couple of hours after after he finished the rain started again. Our hard work paid off as the inspector came in and said, "Oh, this is nice! I won't be here very long!"

Some other things we have done. I got out the markers, paper, crayons, etc and the kids made cards. So some of you may be getting their lovely creations in the mail. I thought this would take up a half an hour of their time. I was wrong, they did it all day long. Madi even suggested that we get out the paint and make creations. It turned out to be a lovely, artsy day at our house.

We have watched a few movies and of course had our afternoon rest time. The kids played with the twins across the street as well to keep all four of them from getting bored. The kids have also created a Little People/Pet Shops/Polly Pocket World in Madi's room which can not be taken down until Saturday when we have our cleaning day - this according to the two creators of the world. Because it is spread all across Madi's room she has been sleeping in the extra bed in Rylee's room at night. I think she secretly likes sharing a room with someone.

Last night on day 13 of the endless rain - FYI 11 days in a row was a record - I told the kids to put on their raincoats and get the chalk. They spent a little time drawing on the wet bricks outside. Cooper was just excited to wear his new rain coat - if you can't tell Thomas is on his coat!

Today is ANZAC Day here in Australia. Not really sure what the day is for, it seems a bit like our Memorial Day. Kev has the day off and the rain hasn't ceased. Not sure if we are going to do anything. The kids seem pretty content to play in their world and I don't want to go out into the rain drenched world - I like my heater and a good book!

Speaking of heaters. It has turned cold here - especially at night. With no central heating we have to use our space heaters to keep warm. We have also had to get our "cozy jammies" out - as we like to call them around here. We actually had to go out and buy some flannelets, as they call them around here, because our pjs weren't warm enough - especially for the baby who kicks her covers off. Now we are nice and warm at night. I think this weekend I am going to put on the flannel sheets - oh, how I love the warm cozy flannel sheets!

Three Sisters!!! AMAZING!!!

Amazing! Did you see what I just saw when you were checking out our cool pictures from our trip to the Blue Mountains? In the odd chance that you didn't (I am not sure how you would have missed it!) I have highlighted what I saw below when looking at the picture we took of the three sisters.

Amazingly enough these names appear in the cracks of the rocks! Wow!

Sorry Bro.! No pictures of brothers on this trip!
Ha ha ha ha ha... Love your brother (the weird one),

Kev

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

We headed out for a weekend trip to the Blue Mountains. It was a much needed break from life and stresses of work for Kev. We headed out on Thursday afternoon and drove an hour and a half to get there. A friend of mine told the kids that they needed to look at the for the Blue Mountains before we got there and they would look blue otherwise when you get there they are not blue at all. However, it was a rainy and cloudy day so we couldn't even see them until we were there. By the time we got to the top of the Blue Mountains there was nothing but fog and rain. We could barely see in front of us. I was worried about the weekend ahead. After finding the condo we were renting for a few nights in Katoomba, and unpacking the car, we sat down to decide what to do next. Due to the rain and fog our choices were limited. We went over to the movie place where they had a six story high screen (very similar to IMAX) and watched a movie about the Blue Mountains. We learned that there is a species of pine tree in the Blue Mountains that has been around since the dinosaurs and saw people repelling into canyons full of water

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SIDE NOTE: about the condo. It was a two bedroom place and it was well maintained although old. However, we got a kick out of the couches. I kept telling Kev that I thought they belong in Florida - must have been the colors or something. They were a bit stained and I was afraid to sit on them for a while. I was most excited because it had central heating - the condo was probably warmed than our home in the city. Central heating is so lovely!

After the movie we found a little pizza place for dinner. The kids had a fun time because they gave them dough while we were waiting to roll out and make into any shape they wanted. They later cooked them and the kids got to eat them. I thought it was a fantastic idea. However, have to admit that the pizza wasn't that great. We also found a grocery store to stock up on lunch and snacks for the next day.

On Friday we woke up to a surprise from Madi. She is probably going to hate me when she gets older for telling you all this, but here it goes. She apparently had a dream during the night that she was at the beach and in the ocean. She had to go to the bathroom and decided she could just go in the ocean. I bet you can guess the rest. Luckily there was a washer and dryer in the place so we got the sheets cleaned for the night.

We also woke up to more fog. Our plans were to go and see the 3 SISTERS - a bit hard when the fog is blocking the view. This picture is from the look out point...now you can see what we saw. We actually had a bit of a laugh about it.

A little bit of fog didn't stop us though. We decided to hike through the bush anyway. There was a hike starting at the 3 sisters, down some steep stairs, on a loop around the bottom of the valley, back up the other side, and then a hike back on the cliff top back to the 3 sisters. We decided to try it out. The lady at the information desk told us it would take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We had borrowed a baby backpack from my friend Jackie (thanks so much!) and Rylee had it easy. We decided to give it a go! Wondering if we were a bit crazy!

So we started down the GIANT STAIRWAY around the 3 sisters. Construction began on the giant stairway in 1909 and was completed in 1932. The stairs are chipped away from the rock (except where they have been repaired first by wood and then by steel). It is about 900 steps and is really steep leading to the valley floor. Madi started counting, but lost count at 30 because she said we started talking and she couldn't count with all of the noise. The kids really liked this part. They had to pay attention to what they were doing and where they were placing their feet, but they did so well. At the half way point when Madi saw the sign she said if you just go half way down the rest is easy. It was true actually the second half seemed easier to all of us - maybe we were just used to walking down the stone steps. The farther we went down the more the fog lifted we walked right through the clouds - it was so cool!

Here is a picture of Rylee by the time we got to the bottom - really she did have it easy.

At the end of the Giant Stairway we were at the bottom of the valley and hiked through the rain forest and also saw a portion of Katoomba Falls. We had a break about half way and got Rylee out of the backpack for a little stretch and a bottle. Got some cute pictures as well. Cooper kept making me laugh. He would tell us that he was out of energy and was very dramatic about it and then two seconds later he would be running down the path and juming over rocks. My favorite part was a walking with Cooper (Madi and Kev were far ahead of us) holding his hand and discussing where different animals lived - he thought that elephants lived in Utah (so look out next time you are hiking around the Unitas). It was just one of those quite moments of talking with your child - I love those.

We made it over to the other side of the valley and to the part Cooper had been looking forward to. The SCENIC RAILWAY, the steepest railway in the world. They weren't kidding about that. Cooper and Madi chose to sit on the front seat. I seriously thought at one point that we were in trouble if the cable broke - visions ran through my head.

At the top we decided to stop by a cafe and eat some lunch. The kids had done so well and we still had to hike across the cliff tops to get back to the car. We then decided to take the SKYWAY over the valley and above Katoomba falls. I wasn't too sure about this due to my fear of heights and the fact that it said the floor of the cart was glass. However, it was said to save 10 minutes of walking so we decided to give it a try. Only the middle part of the cart floor was glass and it was all foggy so that wasn't a big issue. I then just looked out and not down. I survived the ride across the valley. We saw some great sights of Jamison Valley and Katoomba Falls. We even saw the 3 sisters for the first time! Can you see them?

We then walked a short 20 minutes across the cliff tops back to point A. By this time the fog had cleared and we had a good look at the 3 sisters.

When all was said and done our 2 1/2 to 3 hour trip actually took us 5 hours from point A to point B. We had promised the kids that if they were good without any complaining we would buy them something small from the souvenir shop. We did have a bit of complaining, but not much, so we let them choose. We ended up with two kangaroos that sing "Waltzing Matilda".

We went back to the condo for a while to give Rylee a real nap and for us to rest as well. I just knew I was going to be sore the next day. We then walked down the street a bit from our condo to the Chocolate shop and had some real hot chocolate. It was so yummy!

The next morning we woke up to more rain and fog - not the best weekend for the Blue Mountains I guess. After checking out we went over to a TRAIN AND TOY MUSEUM in the little town just under Katoomba called LEURA. We had a fun time walking through the museum and seeing all the collections. Madi loved the Barbie collection and Cooper loved the trains - although he was disappointed that he couldn't touch any of them. We also walked through the gardens and across the street to an amphitheater with a great view!

After this we did a little browsing through the cutesie little shops in Leura. We went to a toy shop and a candy shop - both high on the list for the kids. However, they said it was boring to walk around and just look. Not much window shopping for me. We then headed home after a busy, but fun, few days!

HOW TO BUILD A BIRD FEEDER

Madi had to read a book a few weeks ago for her home reader entitled, "How to build a bird feeder." Due to this book we now had a craft project to do. We went in search of pine cones and found some in the front yard of a neighbors house. So here's how to make your own:

STEP 1: tie string around the pine cone

STEP 2: put peanut butter on the pine cone and cover it with bird seeds

STEP 3: examine to make sure the string is attached correctly and it is all covered up with pb and bird seedSTEP 4: hang it in the tree and wait for the birds to come have a feast

So last week we hung them in the tree and then it began to rain for a few days straight. Yesterday I went out to have a look and the pine cones were all empty. Although, I think our mouse friend was back. Some of the strings didn't have a pine cone on them at all and some of the pine cones looked pretty chewed up. Oh well, it was fun for the kids!

QUESTION TO PONDER: I realize that the birds here don't fly south for the winter, but do they go north or is the temperature just fine where they are?

COME LISTEN TO A PROPHETS VOICE

We finally got our chance to see General Conference. This is a weekend that I look forward to every six months. A whole weekend to listen to prophets and apostles and to learn how to improve my life.

This is only our second General Conference in Australia. Several people ask how we get to see it - nope no General Conference on TV here. They broadcast it at the Stake Center the next weekend so we can go there and see it. Last time we went to all of the sessions there - yep, we made the kids sit there for four sessions. However, this time Kev had a soccer game on Saturday so we decided for a different tactic - which worked well.

We listened to the Saturday morning session Monday night for FHE. It was so wonderful to stand and sustain the prophet in our own home. We talked to the kids about the importance of it and what a great Spirit entered our home. We plan on listening to the second session tonight for FHE.

Saturday night we rushed home from the soccer game and Kev showered and headed over to the Stake Center for the Priesthood session. I always love it when he comes home and tells me what he has heard there. I typically greet him by asking, "So, what did they tell you about being nice to your wife?" He just laughs. I love that this session is so important to Kev. He really values holding the Priesthood and knows the importance of this great gift.

Sunday morning we got up and got ready to head over to the Stake Center. I packed a picnic lunch and put a roast in the crock pot. I was so excited that they replayed the sustaining of the Prophet and the 12 Apostles again so that we could stand once more with hundreds of other members and sustain Thomas S. Monson as the Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We survived the first session with a tiny nap for Rylee and lots of coloring books and an activity pack that I had put together for the Primary kids in our ward. It was so great to hear from President Thomas S. Monson as the Prophet. What a great man he is!

Then we headed outside for a one hour break to have our picnic. We thought that we would sit on the grass and eat on a blanket. It was sprinkling a bit so I got out the umbrella for Madi and Cooper to sit under. The sprinkling soon turned into a down pour so we headed into the van to finish our lunch. We listened to Joseph and the Technicolored Dream Coat and enjoyed some family time. Funny story: after going back into the building the boys headed to the bathroom and Cooper came runny back. "Mom, Daddy told me that it is raining cats and dogs outside! Isn't that funny! You have to go and look!" He still thinks that it is so funny.

The kids did really well sitting through Conference - the last hour was a bit hard, but we made it through. I just really believe that if I want my kids to know the importance of Conference and of the living prophets on the earth than we need to make them listen to it even when they are little. I can still remember when I was little we all had our own blankets on the floor. We were allowed to have whatever we wanted on those blankets, but we had to sit there and be quiet. I learned from a young age that General Conference weekend is a weekend to listen to the prophets and that it is important to take two weekends a year to do this.

I loved Elder Hollands talk to young mothers. It really struck a note (obviously), it was a very nice thing to end conference with. I especially loved when he talked to the kids. At dinner I asked the kids what they learned and they both said that they should try harder to help out at home and pick up their toys. Hopefully, they will remember that forever.

After Conference we headed home and had a lovely roast and potatoe dinner with homemade rolls. It was delicious - I surprise myself each time when I make something good. Maybe I am not as bad in the kitchen as I once believed. LOL!

My spiritual cup is overflowing for another six months! Can't wait to reread everything in the Ensign - with the kiddies around I always miss out on so much. I love to read all the talks again and underline the important bits - that takes me another six months, just in time for the next Conference!