Bubbles Everywhere

Remember how much Ben loves bubble baths? Click here if you want to hear his "bubbles everywhere" song, which Alex now sings as well. Somewhere along the way Alex has decided he no longer hates bubbles so the kids have enjoyed several bubbly bathtimes this week. Check out the bubble beards!





And once those kids are squeaky clean, never leave them alone with the baby powder! It's not something we typically use anymore, I just ran across a big bottle of it and decided to not to waste it. Alex didn't get the memo.

Premature gray? or a little too happy to squirt "bottom sprinkles"?

Ben got a nice dusting as well. He's also sporting several new, colorful eye patches which we only wear at home. The patch we'd used daily since July finally disappeared so I had to create my own and thought Ben could express himself through color this way.

Here he is on a blue day. Ben was very proud of himself for finding a window seat and naturally Alex needed in on the action, too.

Oh, how I love this sleepy boy when he appears after naptime! He brings everything he can carry from his bed. If you look closely, you can see that he even kept his cookie after lunch, slept with it, and carried it back upstairs.

Sweet boys playing on the starfall website. Now that Ben can manage the mouse on his own he can keep them both entertained!

And for anyone wondering what Baby Reid looks like these days, check out my beautiful nephew enjoying the snow in North Texas!

T is for Trouble

Put these two little brains together and there's no telling what they'll come up with these days. I sometimes wonder if they're more dangerous now than they were as toddlers because now they have imaginations and means to get what they want, like the stamps I keep hidden on the very top of my desk or buckets of dirt from the back of the house. When they're playing somewhere quietly, it always means trouble!

A game of carwash outside turned into naked truck rides.

They were using body paints as the soap and I thought it would be funny to label them A and B. Later I realized I should have written Thing 1 and Thing 2!

Today Ben was multi-tasking...cooking grilled cheese sandwiches and playing with his new car all at the same time. Thanks, Grandma, for the new cars and books we just got in the mail! They were all well received :)

Alex will find ANYTHING to do other than eat at the table. I can take away all the toys and distractions, but he'll still find something more interesting to do than actually eat his food, like stack pretzels on his straw. Only today it was Ben saying "I worked hard on that meal, you'd better eat it!" instead of me. Of course, I still did most of the work but we'll let him have the credit.

Ben is still going to school for half days and I'm really glad they're easing the kids into school because he's already coming home really tired and hungry. For the first time EVER Ben ate all his dinner and asked for more. I was thrilled to pile more food on his plate! At 4 1/2 he still weighs just 32lbs, exactly the same as Alex.

Cheese!!

In more crazy weather here, we've been under high barometric pressure pushed here by the remnants of Cyclone Yasi (the one that just devastated northern Queensland) with hot, extremely windy days. Apparently one guy using a metal grinding machine started this fire on Saturday and it's still burning houses right now. There were four major bushfires burning around Perth yesterday but fortunately they're all considered under control at the moment unless the winds pick back up. Crazy!

New Camera

We've had a series of bad luck with cameras for about the past 5 years. The one I got before Ben was born finally wore out and wouldn't reliably turn on, the one Matt got for a gift would have memory problems and need to be reset at the most inconvenient times, and the new one I got for Christmas last year was baptized in the Indian ocean just a few weeks later and functions intermittently. We actually took all three cameras to Fiji last year just to make sure we got some decent pictures! Finally, I used some Christmas money from my parents to buy a new, reliable Nikon point and shoot and I've been so happy with it since it arrived last Friday.

Here are some of the cute pictures I've gotten...I'll spare you all the boring ones of me playing with different settings. I have yet to look at the manual and really learn how to make the most of the camera, but so far I've been really happy with it. Especially because it works 100% of the time!







It takes full HD videos....pretty cool for a little camera that fits in my pocket. And don't you love how Alex can turn something simple like coloring into a full-on body sport?

I had a great time taking pictures of a beautiful sunset this evening, too! Check out Ben taking pictures with his little camera.

Our favorite bench in the world :)

Looks like we have two budding photographers!

Thanks, Mom and Dad! I love the new camera and hope to share some wonderful pictures with it.

Kindergarten

The big day has finally arrived - Ben is officially a kindergartner! It's called Pre-Primary here but it's the same thing. Since the school year runs along the calendar year here, summer break ends in February and this was the big back-to-school week. This is actually the fourth school Ben has attended so it's a little less dramatic than I would have thought, but a big step for all of us because he'll go 5 days a week from 9-3. They really ease the kids into school here so he goes half days for this week and next before he starts the full schedule. He was looking pretty good this morning in his new uniform.

Not to be left out, of course, Alex went and found his backpack and demanded a picture. I started back at Bible study today so Alex at least needed the bag to go to the nursery, I just don't think he needed to wear it (full) for an entire hour first. Hey, whatever works.

And naturally, no one can resist stealing attention around here. Let's just say after a long summer break, school starting was welcomed by everyone! I had no idea how much these kids could fight and generally annoy each other until they spent months without any separation.

We'll walk to school every day up and down a big hill, then across a pedestrian bridge over a major road. This is the view from the bridge looking at the historic school. I think it was built in the late 1890's.

Inside the classroom we enjoyed a few puzzles, then gave hugs and kisses and wished Ben a great day. He was a bit nervous since lots of the kids went to kindy together last year and seemed to know each other but I know he'll make friends soon. I also liked the fact that only half of the kids attended today so they could adjust in a smaller group. The other half will go tomorrow, then they'll all be together for the first time on Friday.

Ben didn't say much about his first day but seemed to like it and said he's excited to go back on Friday. I don't think it will hit me that he's really started school until he's gone for full days but right now I'm happy for him to have the opportunity to meet new people and have some new experiences outside of the house.

One cute video - our bird friend Clark, the magpie lark. He's noticed that we eat outside a lot and doesn't wait for us to finish anymore before he comes to the table for a snack. Alex's friend Austin was over playing and didn't realize he was a friend instead of a foe (like the big magpie at the end of the video) so Clark was scared away. But he always comes back! Today I found a trail of crumbs leading into the house...I think maybe someone was trying to lure a "pet" into the living room.

Cyclone Bianca

Perth is generally out of the range of cyclones but apparently they do make it here every once in a while. The last time was 1978 when one did quite a bit of damage so it was big news last week when Bianca glanced off the northern coast and made her way towards Perth. But oddly enough, even though the cyclone warning made headlines, there was little or no weather information to be found. There were no cyclone supplies being snapped up at the stores, no lines at the gas stations, or any other preparations being made. Coming from Houston where tropical storms and hurricanes are taken very seriously I couldn't believe the lack of information and precautionary measures. So it was an interesting cultural lesson as well! The most official report I could find said something along the lines of "by tomorrow morning, we'll know whether the cyclone made landfall or not" when they were predicting the storm to hit overnight Saturday night. Uh, I could look out the window and tell you that! Regardless, I'm a severe weather junkie and got very excited about the possibility of a big storm.

The radar picture was impressive.

On Friday, an extremely humid heat wave arrived ahead of the storm, along with a plague of massive grasshoppers.

There were dozens in our yard alone but they were easiest to spot on the walls. Kind of freaky, especially since they showed up overnight.

Saturday evening we got some rare thunderstorms and tropical clouds, along with some increased winds. I was excited to wake up Sunday morning and look out the window, but this was the view:
Cyclone, anyone? Not in this neighborhood.

As it turns out, things stalled overnight and the storm basically fell apart. We still got some unusual weather and, much to Matt's delight, a sizable storm surge with great surfing waves. By Sunday evening the usually placid summer waters were replaced with enormous rolling waves and the beach was busy with surfers and spectators.

So we missed out on a cyclone but still got to experience some unique weather. At least it made for an interesting weekend!

Australia Day

Last Wednesday was Australia Day, a nice mid-week holiday equivalent to the 4th of July, and we took full advantage of a hot day at the beach. Ben and Alex never get tired of sand. Ever.

We have never seen Cottesloe beach so packed! It's probably the most popular and well-known beach in Perth and we were fortunate on this day to not have to worry about getting parking since we walked.

It was the annual Havianas thong competition among several beaches in Australia. Last year Cottesloe won and set the world record for inflatable footwear (really?) but this year it was kind of disorganized and took several hours to get everyone out in the water for the official count. The wind had picked up and naptime was looming so we left before all 1,900 people were in the ocean but it didn't matter because Bondi beach in Sydney took home the trophy this year with over 2,000 floats. It's still a fun sight to see and great day to be at the beach taking part in the festivities.

That evening we had our friends the Smiths over for dinner and we walked down to the beach to see the fireworks in Fremantle. Sweet Mackenzie made sure Ben wasn't missing any of the show.

Alex took it all in from his tall vantage point and tried to run back down the sidewalk the next morning looking for more fireworks.

After the fireworks, I put Alex to bed and the bigger kids got to play with some sparklers.

Luke was double-fisting.

Clint and Reid were lighting the sparklers to share with everyone.

It may not be a holiday that has a lot of significance to us personally, but it's fun to take part in local celebrations that remind us of home. We even grilled fajitas and broke open a special can of rotel for queso to make things seem more like Texas!