Down Under Weekend

We just had a 3-day weekend and celebrated in true Perth fashion! Matt got to check out Rottnest Island on Saturday and do some surfing so I took the kids to Caversham Wildlife Park with my friend Kim, whose husband was traveling. Then on Monday it was my turn to have a little fun with a girls' Swan River cruise and winery visit. That pretty much covers all of our favorite things in Australia!

Caversham is probably my favorite place here and it's a good thing I have kids to take as an excuse. Kim was happy to join us as well and I have to credit her for most of these pictures because her camera is much better than mine so I'm using hers. The pictures aren't in order for our fun, fun day.

Meeting Big Bub the Wombat. Alex was particularly fascinated, either because he wanted to wrestle the big guy or thought it was like looking in a mirror.

The farm area has a rabbit petting cage...good thing these guys are fast! Alex is slightly less than gentle right now.

Lucky for the bunnies they could escape behind the wall. Ben was really gentle but Alex's excited (LOUD) laugh scared off even the toughest rabbit.

A wombat whose hands must have been cold.

And our favorite place - the kangaroo field.

The boys had no trouble making friends here.

Ben was so excited because I told him the day before where we were headed and he couldn't wait to see all his buddies.

Alex took his job as kangaroo cafeteria worker very seriously.

EAT IT!! You will LIKE it!!

Are these not the cutest animals in the world?

I love how some of them were frizzy from the morning dew.

Kim loving on some of the sweet ones.

Ben and his entourage.

Cheese! (*grimace*)

This was the most adorable joey I'd ever seen with that little mustache, until we noticed....

....this sweet joey in the pouch!!

He was just hanging with mama and stuck his head out, checked out the scenery, then pulled it back inside for a nap. It was my first time to see the head come out and it was so precious.

We went to pet some koalas and were lucky enough to see this mama who also had a baby in the pouch. Notice the extra little arm reaching out?

Alex: Enough with the boring koalas....what time is lunch?

I tried to figure out a way to smuggle this little one home.


One more visit with the roos.


Ben did love this one more than the others and spent some time talking to it.


**hugs**

Hmm...he's just full of love, apparently! He took a liking to Kim's leg.

We finally dragged the kids out, had a nice picnic, stopped by the chocolate factory, and had a nice quiet drive home with two exhausted boys in the backseat. The best part for me was when we got home and I was able to switch both sleeping kids to their beds for extra long naps, which never seems to work for us!

On Monday, the holiday here, several of my friends and I decided it was dad/kids day while we took our wine cruise.
(L to R) Amy, Rebecca, Jen, Kimberly, Melanie, Kim, and me

We had morning tea, cheese and wine tastings, then stopped at Sandalford (Matt's and my favorite!) for more tasting and some shopping. The vines have long since been harvested but still look really pretty.

Lunch was at Water's Edge and afterward we had more tastings in WA's oldest wine cellar.

Back down the river on the way home we got a nice view of Perth. We saw lots of swans, ducks, pelicans, and sea eagles along the way.

There was some singing and karaoke (none by our group, thankfully) and we even got a song from one of the other passengers who's on a kids TV show here called Hi-5. Funny story: Melanie's 5-year old Brynn said this guy was her "second least favorite" person of the show. Kids sure know how to keep it real. No wonder Ben loves her.

Meanwhile, the boys had a great day with daddy fixing things around the house and playing at the park. It was a great weekend all around!

Welcome to the World

I want to wish my sister and her husband our biggest congratulations on their precious new addition. Robert Reid French was born yesterday at 9:29am, weighing 7lbs 15oz and a healthy 19 1/2inches long. We are absolutely thrilled for them and so excited to know all the joy and love this little boy will bring into Stacey and Jason's lives, starting with this beautiful smile!

I am so excited to go meet my nephew in a few short weeks but it's killing me to be a million miles away from such a wonderful moment. There was no way to plan our trip around the possibility of making his birth but I want more than anything to celebrate a healthy, full-term baby joining our family since I never got to do that with one of my own. Can't wait to hold little Reid and I may just have to steal him away :)

Click here to visit his blog.

Bedhead

Someone woke up with a severe case of bedhead!

Dora the Explorer Live

I thought it would be fun (or maybe I felt like torturing myself?) to take the boys to see Dora the Explorer Live when it came through town last week. Both kids love the show and were really excited to see the show. Unfortunately the cast didn't seem quite as excited to get things rolling so it started late and the intermission ran long. Luckily we managed to not have a toddler uprising in the place and fun was had by all.

Ben and Alex waiting for the show to start. Our seats were on the back row, which I thought would be terrible but turned out to be great because they could stand all they wanted and were sitting at the aisle so no one blocked their view.

Dora! Boots! And a couple of other characters I haven't bothered to learn.

Alex, Ben, and Austin watching intently and playing with their Dora lights which we of course had to buy first thing.

The kids were extra excited to see Diego because they just started watching that show. I think we'll forget Dora and keep watching Diego since it's much less annoying.

This is the song at the end of every show and the kids jumped up to dance to it. The live version was really cute and I'm glad we went to see it.

Later that afternoon the kids tried on their new raincoats. They were so adorable I took about a dozen pictures!




We also got to enjoy playing with Austin a few times this week. His mom and I have swapped some babysitting time which has worked great for everyone because these little guys have so much fun together.

They had a great time with Ben's marble race. Seems that a birthday benefits more than just one boy in this house!

In a moment of inspiration (or insanity?) on Friday I moved Alex's bed into Ben's room. We'd talked to Ben about it a few weeks ago and Ben said no, but over this past week he warmed up to the idea and kept asking to have Alex sleep in his room. Now we have two boys who play well past their bedtime and wake up much too early. Hopefully the excitement will wear off soon and they'll go back to their normal routines, just with some company at bedtime. My sister and I shared a room until I was 10 and we loved it so I want my boys to enjoy the same late-night games and conversations we used to have.

Celebration Weekend

Ben has spent the weekend celebrating his big birthday and as a parent it's been so much fun to see my little boy get so excited over everything. I'd forgotten the magic of a child's birthday! We kicked off the festivities with a few presents Saturday morning and talked to all the grandparents on skype.

The best "smile" I could get...4 years old!
We picked up birthday balloons, had a great lunch at McDonald's (Ben's choice, of course), and spent the rainy afternoon putting together the big marble racetrack and playing with it.

Today was his party at Whiteman Park. We chose this location because it was Friends of Thomas the train day and several of our friends already had tickets to ride the trains and take part in the festivities. The kids were pretty excited when we got on the first train ride.

Alex watched out the window like a little puppy the entire ride (about 40 minutes around the park) and Ben enjoyed it but wanted to see Thomas. I didn't realize that Friends of Thomas didn't include the main man himself but Ben's not that huge of a fan so he forgot pretty quickly.

We did meet Sir Topham Hatt, or just some weird dressed-up guy if you've never watched the show.

We'd reserved a pavilion and met our friends there for a picnic and cupcakes....yum!!

Pretty sure Alex had at least one green cupcake...just guessing...

Ben carefully at the tops off several cupcakes and then lined them up. Since we had a ton and it was his party (and really, it is the best part!), I let him raise that blood sugar as high as he wanted!

Then it was on to the pinata. Such fun for these little kids!

Ben took a couple of good whacks at it but didn't even dent it. A few of the other boys got some nice swings in as well and we gave even the littlest ones a chance to take it down, but this thing was pretty well built and Matt finally just cracked it open.

Candy!! Ben and Alex both took a minute to register the fact that candy just rained down like manna from heaven.

Talk about some happy kids! Ben was so sweet - he walked around handing out starbursts to everyone, even the parents, to make sure we all got a piece of candy. He was a great little host.

Afterward we took the boys on a few of the attractions and they both couldn't wait to ride the little ferris wheel. We were a bit nervous about letting Alex on it but he nearly had a meltdown waiting for his turn and wasn't about to get out of that seat.

They loved it! Both boys would yell "hi!" at the bottom and they say "bye!" at the top.

Next stop - more sugary treats....mmmm....

Alex was definitely a fan. He doesn't like to waste time taking bites and prefers just to shove everything into his mouth and work out the details later.

Ben loved his, too. Is it just me or does he already look a lot older in this picture? (his glasses are off because he'd been in a bouncy castle, but still I think he grew up a little overnight)
It was such a great weekend and so much fun to share in all of Ben's excitement. A winter storm rolled in Friday night and it rained most of Saturday so we were glad to have decent weather today, even though it was cold and very windy. I never thought Ben would celebrate his May birthday with a down vest and a jacket over it!