Riding the train with Nannie and Grandad

We took Nannie and Grandad to ride the miniature trains in the weekend. It was lots of fun - especially playing tag in the park afterwards.

The ballet show

After hours of rehearsals Mackenzie had her ballet show at the weekend. She was a star and her group all worked really hard to get their dance right.

Big boy pirates

Alex and his friend James went to visit the pirate ship. They were both big boys going out in their undies for the first time and were very grown up playing together while their mum's got to sit down and have coffee and cake - bliss!

Caterpillars

We discovered we had a swan plant right outside our door with lots of caterpillars on it.

Just like the book they are very hungry caterpillars and are proving to be expensive pets keeping them in food. 

They're getting nice and fat so hopefully some are about to go into cocoons very soon.

Our big kids

Alex is now a big boy who uses the toilet. He started asking to get out of the pool and bath to go to the toilet so we decided undies were the way to go - although he prefers to call them knickers like his sister!

Mackenzie is also very grown up and had a girly sleepover in the weekend with  movie watching and lots of giggling. Her friend was a little scared so they ended up cuddled up together in the same bed - very cute!

Fire! Fire!

We got a fire engine out of the toy library this week.

It was a big hit when Luke came over to play. The boys had lots of fun racing along to put all the fires out and rescuing everyone.

We are sailing......nearly

Our cousin Paul has a cool job teaching kids to sail and offered to give us a turn.

Unfortunately it was a bit windy for sailing but we did get to learn how to shoot water guns, collect the buoys in the motor boat 

and get a little taste of sailing with our Paul powered yacht - although there did seem to be a lot of crocodiles and sharks chasing us.

Halloween

Mackenzie never forgets anything, especially that her mother had promised she could have a turn trick or treating this year.

After a rocky start, our prearranged visits didn't happen, we found lots of people to give us candy.

Alex wasn't an enthusiastic participant to start with, but when he figured out he'd get lollies he was more than happy to wear his hat and stand by his sister while she did the talking! (Mackenzie's outfit is Mummy's first ballet costume from 30 odd years ago!)

Australian holiday - off to Cairns

We headed up to Cairns on a Jetstar plane and were pleasantly surprised by the great service. In fact we'd have to say everyone we met at Brisbane airport from bus drivers to check in staff were all fantastic.

Unfortunately we arrived to the wettest day in forever in Cairns but that didn't stop us having lots of fun with Great Grandad and Aunty Faith up on the Tablelands.

Mackenzie and Alex had their first trip on a boat crusing around Lake Barine

We got to know Aunty Faith's dogs - which became great friends after we got over the noise.

We explored the Kuranda markets

and got quite a taste for Devonshire teas

It was a great holiday but on our last morning we were all excited to be heading home to our own beds.

Australian holiday - end of week one

We finished off our first week with a game of mini golf around our resort.

It was the first time Mackenzie had played so she did very well - 

Alex liked meeting the different creatures decorating the course instead!

Austrlian holiday - Currumban Wildlife Sanctuary

We went on an outing to visit the animals at Currumban Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Alex was very keen on meeting the snakes and crocodiles

Mackenzie was more keen on the cuddly creatures - and even managed to make friends with the mascots.

We finished off the day with a family cuddle of a koala.

Australian holiday - dinner out

We ventured out to dinner, once - not quite the relaxing experience with 3 kids!

Australian holiday - fashion parade

Some people on our holiday got to do lots of shopping (not Mum!) and were spoilt by their Daddy with a whole new wadrobe.

 
Mackenzie managed to convince Ben and Paula to participate in a fashion parade with her - Alex has a little way to go in his modelling career!

Australian holiday - the beach

Everyone enjoyed lots of time at the beach - building sandcastles, playing in the water, chasing and rolling in the sand.

 

Australian holiday - Seaworld

We were very lucky to spend the whole of the school holidays in Australia.

We spent the first week in Mermaid Beach (Mackenzie was very disappointed that no mermaids were sighted) with Ben and Paula.

We all went to Seaworld and had lots of fun visiting the animals and enjoying the rides, although we could easily have spent another day there

.