Countdown

We only have 11 days left in Australia! This is what our living room looks like at the moment...

Our Car

This is the car we had while we were in Australia. Nate got there 2 weeks before the rest of us and one of this big jobs was to find a car. It might not seem like much but it was the perfect car for us! It is a 1995 Toyota Camry wagon and the whole time we were in Australia, it never let us down. The only work we ever had to do to it was to replace 1 tire. I'd say that is pretty good for 2.5 years. Especially with a car that old. We even fit 3 kids in the back seat. It was a process to get the kids in but once we were all buckled up it was plenty comfortable.

When we were getting ready to come back to the States and needed to sell it we weren't sure how close we should wait to when we were leaving to advertise it was for sale. We decided a couple of weeks would be good. The first man who came to see it ended up buying it. He told us he didn't want to make a decision too quickly and that he would leave and talk it over with his wife and let us know. We noticed that he never actually left his parking space on our street. He called his wife from there and came right back up and bought it. It was all around a huge blessing. Of course it was stressful getting through our last days without a car (taking Liam to and from school, grocery shopping, etc.) but we managed. We figured it was much better to be without a car for a short time than to leave the country without selling it.

Didgeridoo

Liam made a didgeridoo at school (I think it must have been made from the inside of a butcher paper roll.) They painted them and also made tapping sticks.

Jonas wanted a didgeridoo too so he got a paper towel roll and started playing as well.

School Play

Liam was one of the leads in his school play at the end of his Kindie year at Macquarie Primary School in Australia. His teachers told me before hand how impressed they were with his loud speaking voice in front of the class. Some of the kids got really shy when they were in front of everyone but Liam always spoke clearly and wasn't nervous at all. (I'm guessing it has something to do with him giving talks in Primary since he was 3). He was chosen as the Big Bad Wolf and he had to stomp across the stage (above) and tell everyone he was going to huff and puff and blow them all down. He did such a great job!


After the little play his class and the other Kindie class sang some songs together. I wish I could have gotten better pictures but I was pretty far in the back since I had Adele and Jonas with me.

Halloween

We had our ward Halloween party on Saturday. There was "car boot trick or treating" as they called it, a food contest, spook house and a costume parade. Obviously Liam is a skeleton (this costume took me HOURS to make. I decided I would sew the bones on so I wouldn't ruin the sweats - big mistake! I would highly recommend using paint.) and Jonas is Batman. I knew I would be carrying Adele around all night so I wanted us to have coordinating costumes. I decided on a tree (me) and an apple (Adele).




Here is my food for the contest - meringue bones! I thought they turned out really well until I got to the church and dropped the bowl! Then we just had mostly broken bones. :(


I had to include this next one because I think Adele's face is so cute! I love crying baby pictures!

Floriade, Take 2

Liam has been on school holidays for the last 2 weeks. I took all 3 kids to Floriade one last time. I figured that I waited long enough to finally see it so I better go as often as I can. I'm really glad we went again because the "kids corner" that had a petting zoo and soft play area last time now had a reptile area and sand play.


When Liam was there with his school the week before they saw some bamboo that you can run through. He took us there and led ud through the maze.


There was a nice rock near a little stream - the perfect photo op I thought. All I asked was that they sit on the rock and look at me. Obviously Jonas has trouble sitting still...


He also wanted to show us his favorite gnome - a skeleton. There were some new ones since last time. Here are a few of the good ones:


We finished off the day with a trip to the always awesome "castle park":

Last Picnic

We went on a little picnic at Cotter Dam with our friends the Fishers. We brought food to barbecue and then spent some time by the river.

The kids ran around kicking balls and trying to catch butterflies in these bug nets. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Jonas found this spray painted face on the tree and exclaimed to us all that is was an Aboriginal painting. We tried to explain the it was just spray paint but he insisted it was from the Aboriginals. So here they are with an "authentic Aboriginal" painting.