CHILD OF THE WEEK

The school year has been on for almost 5 weeks now and we get to brag a bit early on Adalyn this year!  She was named "Child of the Week" for her class for week 4 this year!  Her teachers (she has two this year) honored her with this award because of "her happy and enthusiastic attitude in all class activities and sharing her great ideas with classmates".  She was awarded a certificate at their weekly school assembly and a badge that she got to wear for the week.  We are all so proud of her!  She is doing fabulous in school and working so hard.  

Where is the time going?

I know I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it hundreds, if not thousands, of times more…."WHERE is the time going?"  It has been a whirlwind since the beginning of the year!  We decided at the last minute to spend the holidays back home,  and then the girls and I made a stop over in California for some quality cousin time as well as some sister time!  It was great to be back in the States for a bit, but it was also good to get back and into the swing of things here.  The weather has been amazing!!!  Low 80's and breezy during the days!  Adalyn started Year 2 the end of January and Emi is growing like crazy!  Brandon has been busy at work with the spinoff of DNOW and has been traveling to their locations here in Australia a bit.  Somedays it seems like we have just enough time to say hello and goodnight! :)  The workshops rail museum has a Thomas the Tank exhibition every year that runs through the end of January and with our little fanatic in the house we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go.  We also took a trip to the beach at Coolum (no pics as most of the time was spent ON the beach) with some friends on Australia Day weekend.  It was so nice…we basically had the beach to ourselves! Other than that, we have been getting back into a new school year routine complete with extracurricular activities for both girls in addition to living life!  LOL!  God bless and hope all is well with everyone!  xoxo

Enjoying the carousel at Pier 39 in San Francisco

Having a sit on Thomas

Ready to check it all out!

1st Day of Year 2

Isn't this what everybody does when the basket is empty!?!?

BASEBALL

Adalyn started t-ball three weeks ago and seems to really enjoy it!  She is one of two girls out of about 50 kids!  They won't start playing any games until after the first of the year so right now they have been working on the fundamentals of the game-when the coaches can contain all the boys running around!  Here are a couple of snap shots of her at their first "practice" and of course one of Emi entertaining us while we watched the kids practice. ;)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Okay…Halloween isn't a huge deal here in the land of Oz…not yet anyhow.  We were told that the whole "trick-or-treating" thing wasn't introduced until a couple of years ago, and that some Aussies love it and others can't stand it.  (it's a culture thing)  Our house was one out of two on our street with any Halloween decorations on it, and a taxi driver asked Brandon if we liked spiders for some reason (I had put webs up on the second floor balcony). :/  Anyhow, our Canadian friends, whom we met and became friends with in Mexico, started the Halloween tradition of trick or treating on their street a few years back so we headed over there for the late afternoon. Adalyn chose to go as the beautiful blessed St. Kateri Tekakwitha (she learned about her in Kinder) and Emi was the cutest Minnie Mouse ever!  They had a lot of fun going to the houses with our group!  The girls drew on their pumpkins this year and Emi and I made pumpkin and ghost cookies while Adalyn was in school.  Overall, it was a great first Halloween down under!  

MORETON ISLAND

We were invited to go camping with a few families on Moreton Island for the last part of the school break this past weekend.  We were all excited to go (especially Adalyn since she would be spending her days with one of her best friends)!  A few days before, we all headed to the camping store and bought the necessities since all we had was the tent!  We had so much fun prepping for this vacation and all the work/stress was worth it!  We took the Micat ferry from the port of Brisbane and headed over to the island.  The girls had fun camping and playing...of course Emi wouldn't step on the sand in her bare feet, and if she did, she froze on the spot saying "I don't like it!!!"  Needless to say she had shoes on most of the time or hung out by the tent playing on the mats.  We did get her down to the beach (with water shoes) for a couple of days.  Adalyn loved playing in the sand with the other kids that were in our group and even caught a few ghost crabs.  I'm sure the crabs were probably glad when we left being that they were held captive in buckets for most of the 4 days and if they tried to escape they were quickly scooped up! ;)  The island itself is absolutely beautiful!  No modern roads, cold showers (not so pretty), absolutely unspoiled land!  There is a resort on the North Side of the island but we all enjoyed being out in the wilderness!  It's also whale watching time over here and we did get to see some of the whales breeching!  I have no words for how beautiful and peaceful it was to get to see these animals coming up out of the water.  We saw them from far away but it was so exciting to get to witness something like that in person.  (hoping to do a whale watching tour next season or getting a really high powered lens for the camera) Overall, we had a fabulous time and enjoyed getting to see another part of Australia!

Emi making sure the snorkeling gear works!

Kiddies getting ready for a boat ride.

Adalyn and Lindsay after playing in the sand most of the day!

Our own "semi-private" beach

View from our camp site

Adalyn and one of her ghost crabs.

No caption for this pic....it just makes me smile!

Honeymoon Bay....it was about a 20 minute beach drive from our campsite.  Absolutely breathtaking!

EMI IS 2!!

Not real sure where the time is going but Emi turned 2 on September 18th!  She is a vibrant and very articulate little girl who LOVES to be outside, ride her tricycle, read books, play with her big sister, sing, color/draw, her "little blanket", and her naps (which usually last about 2 1/2 hours sometimes 3)!  Oh yeah....and she ADORES Thomas!  She can count to 20 (skips 15 sometimes), knows her birthday,  can spell her name and sings the words to quite a few songs. (anything from Twinkle Twinkle, Amazing Grace, Big Green Tractor, to Just Give Me a Reason) We celebrated her special day by letting her choose where to eat...she wanted quesadillas...so we went to a little Latin American restaurant near our house for an early dinner then came home to celebrate with a Thomas cake and gift opening!  She was pretty tired by the time we got home (the girl likes to be in bed by 7:30 if not...look out!) The following weekend we had a small party at our house complete with hamburgers and a Thomas ice cream cake! We are so proud of her and Adalyn and know that God has truly blessed us with these two special little girls!   

OOOOO.....A Thomas dress! She was so excited to see this!

I love this expression! Emi decided to put her Thomas bow in after she unwrapped it!

Loving my new outdoor climbing frame!

1, 2, 3....Blow!

Family photo....isn't this the case....always one not looking! ;)

Child of the Week

Proud Parents Moment....Adalyn was named "Child of the Week" for her class last week!  Her teacher selected her among her classmates for "her enthusiasm to learn" and for "her good manners"!  She was recognized at their weekly assembly and received a certificate.  We were all so happy for her and Emi was excited to see "sissy on stage"!