All Change

Mum and Dad went home last week. We had been lucky enough to have them for nearly 7 weeks and they have left a huge gap in the household goings on. We miss them very much and Ru, who has a special bond with his grandad, cried a fair bit. The very same night that they left, Brian arrived home after a four week absence, which at least gave us comfort and cheered us up :-)

We had a busy final week of the holidays with the boys going to a cartooning camp one day and Alfie doing cricket another. One especially hot evening last week we even met friends down by the river for a swim and some fish and chips. It was a gorgeous evening marred only slightly by Alfie getting stung on the leg by a jellyfish. He cried enough that several different people came to offer advice, the best of which seemed to be to bathe it in warm water (this after we had applied ice and he screamed the place down!!). Poor love, he did eventually feel better after we laid hands on some warm water and some miraculous jelly snakes which were better that panadol for pain relief it seems!

As soon as Brian returned last week it was time to hand in his notice for his current job. He was approached a while ago by another firm who are looking to establish a subsea base here in Perth and they offered Brian a job which he felt was too good a move to refuse. The new job will keep us here in Perth for a few more years so we have, exactly 2 years to the week after we first arrived here, answered my intial question "will we want to stay?" Fortunately we have found a school where the boys are happy, and friends who have been both caring and fun. Who could ask for more? (Apart from having family and old friends closer by of course, but that's a whole other thread....)

The boys went back to school on Monday. For Alfie it is the start of year 2. For Ru, the start of a whole new phase- full time school. He has just gone into pre-primary, the equivalent of reception class in the UK and they wear the school sports uniform so he felt very grown up on his first day.

Up and dressed without a murmer (first time ever!)

 

 Best of all was that Brian took the time off work to come in with us that first morning, which I know made both the boys very happy.

Brothers together, school bags at the ready.

 

 Their first day seemed to go really well. I ran about shopping for a few things we were supposed to donate to each classroom that I had forgotten about, then at 3 o'clock Ru came out with a smile on his face and Alfie with an exhausted groan- he had done school swimming ( half an hour every day for two solid weeks a year is part of the curriculum out here) and then got back to school just in time for a sports lesson! Both of them like their new teachers so far too, which is great.

Yesterday two other pre-primary mums came over to give a hand sorting out the "lucky dip" prizes for the school's annual Family Fun Night. We got roped in to help and as it is this Friday evening, we had to get on with packing up the gifts and decorating the boxes. One of the girls brought sushi for our lunch and we set to work, sorting boy prizes from girls, bagging them up and putting them in separate boxes, not to mention our wonderful "special" prizes for the lucky ticket winners!

Nearly 4 hours (and much chatting) later we had finished 75 bags of each type, by which point it was time to go and get the boys from school.

Then, last night I sent Brian out to the shops for some butter so I could make cakes to add to their packed lunches. This new thermomix thing I got for Christmas makes it very easy I must admit, and I feel the need to get our money's worth out of it!! Well, anyway, I wished I'd never bothered. He returned clutching the few bits he went for, pressed the botton to close our (elderly electric) garage door, and it only went half way down. No obvious reason for it, so he pressed again to make it close properly and BANG. The supporting arm broke free of its mount and fired out between the door and the frame itself, thus jamming it part way open. It was going nowhere. Brian managed to push it down a wee bit farther, just to try to make it secure as we have bikes and tools in the garage, but it stayed like this, with the arm that should be inside, sticking outside.

So a very good friend came and collected my little darlings for school this morning, and another "stayed and played" with Ru in his classroom for the first ten mins when I would normally be there. I have been stranded all day in fact, thus having no option but to vaccuum and do the ironing (yuk) and write this little update. The man is here now fixing it, so I should be back to the real world tomorrow.

Between missing Mum and Dad, getting Brian back again, him putting the wheels in motion to move jobs, and the boys going back to school and leaving me on my own each day, I was wondering how I would feel during this week of change. The answer has been that I haven't really had time to stop and think about it much so far, and I guess that means things must be pretty good really!

A family road trip

So 2013 has started in a slightly unusual way in that we haven't had Brian here for the whole month of January. He left on Jan 2nd to go to Malaysia for 2 weeks for work, then needed to go home to Ireland to see his Dad who had to have major surgery last month. We have missed him terribly but it was planned so that I would not be completely alone while he was gone as Mum and Dad have been here for the whole time. The boys and I just love having them around and I know they are already starting to worry a little about how we'll all feel after they go home again, which is fast approaching. In the meantime we have been having as much fun as possible to keep ourselves from missing daddy too much.

Last week we set off down south to Bunbury and Margaret River. First came our stay at Bunbury , at a lovely golf resort where we had our own small 2 bedroom house. It was noticeably cooler than the 30-plus degrees we've become accustomed to in Perth of late, but it didn't deter the boys from having a swim in the beautiful pool (I might add it DID deter the adults!)

Friday morning we checked out of our golf resort early and headed to the nearby Dolphin Discovery Centre. This place has an onsite aquarium but most importantly a beach which is regularly visited by wild dolphins. We had been told to get there early to have our best chance of seeing some, so by 8.15 we were there.  And our early start paid off almost immediately, with a female dolphin coming in to the beach just after we had got there. We raced down and stripped off trousers to wade in (it's a controlled interaction where you may not touch or splash at the dolphins, but just stand and watch)

I was in the water when i took this one...

...then got out to show how close they come.

She went away after half an hour or so, then came back with her daughter later on.

This time the boys came in too. They had been a little unsure earlier and stood watching from the shore, but now we were all thoroughly wet and enjoying a once in a lifetime experience.
After a few hours at the centre we loaded our somewhat damp selves into the car and headed off again, this time further South to the next part of our adventure, Kerrily Park Farmstay.

We found it fairly easily, given that the maps we had didn't really seem to show a road of the name we were looking for. Anyway, after following the roads we could identify we rather stumbled on the right place, albeit that I drove straight past the driveway and had to slam on the brakes and reverse back to get in. Once there we found a signpost directing us to our chalet and saying "Welcome Cotter Family", which I thought was a lovely friendly touch. The chalet, being honest, wasn't really great. It was old and the kitchen and bathroom could do with updating, not to mention the sofa which was so saggy it was hard to stay seated on it! But it was very clean and the beds were comfy and the farmers wife Renee came to visit almost immediately and bring a fan for the boys room, as this was not equipped with air conditioning. She told us we could visit the animals whenever we liked, but the main event "feeding time" was at 8.30 every morning. That afternoon we settled in, visited the playground, and went to the pool for a quick dip.

Then went out to find some supper, which was happily consumed at the Caves House hotel in Yallingup about 20 minutes away, where the boys (and the mummy) were delighted to find a bouncy castle to keep them amused.

Next morning it was all out for the feeding. I had said we might eat a late breakfast after, thinking the boys would lay in and we'd be rushing down to the farm for 8.30. How foolish is wishful thinking? The boys came into my room somewhere in the region of half past 6 wondering if it was time to go yet. So it was on full bellies that we headed for our first day's feed time.
There are several young animals there who are being bottle fed. First two little black pigs, who squealed and grunted with delight at the sight of people coming, whether it was to feed them a bottle, or just scratch their backs. Next was Lucy, a 5 month old goat who has been bottle fed from birth and who wants to join in all the kids games. Lucy has a firm friend/ "brother" in a water buffalo of the same age named Inge. His mother died at birth and he has been with Lucy since they were respectively 3 and 5 days old. They all eat "real" food also, but still enjoy their bottles, and I think the kids just LOVED giving them to them.

Inge, the water buffalo gets a bottle.

Next came the feeding of the shetland ponies....

........followed by the goats other than Lucy.....

........followed by the sheep.....

........and Alpacas.......

 ......all finally rounded off with a chance to cuddle an emu!

Lucy decided she enjoyed Ru's company,

and even wondered if she might enjoy a nibble of his hair too!

The rest of Saturday was spent mooching around the town of Margaret River, eating lunch and visiting the delicious chocolate factory.
Sunday started much as Sturday had with a trip to feed the animals. Then we went not very far up the road to see a demonstration at the Shearing Shed. The farmer sheared a sheep, showed us how everything was sorted, then we got to bottle feed a few more little animals,  lambs this time, before getting a demo of how the dogs work on the farm. It was surprisingly interesting I must confess.

A trim behind her ears.

 

Me getting to cuddle a lamb!

The boys plus Grandma and Grandad bottle feeding lambs.

 

 

Off goes the Border Collie to get the sheep.

 

And they soon arrive in a cloud of dust.

 

 

Next the Aussie dog, the Kelpie, is put in and she runs around amongst and on top of the sheep to get them moving through the pen.

 

 

Just keeping an eye on things....

 

 

The rest of Sunday was spent at the Yallingup Maze. After over an hour of being lost we finally reached the end and rewarded ourselves with food and tea (of course) The boys jumped on the second bouncy castle of the weekend for hours and the grown ups sat doing games and puzzles, with a small interlude for cricket with Alfie. When we got back the boys couldnt resist heading down to find Lucy the goat and she promptly followed them back and played on the playground with them. At one point I seriously thought she would go down the slide (which I'm told she has before), but she changed her mind and went back down the steps instead.

All in all a really lovely long weekend, which didn't end until Monday when we finally said goodbye to Lucy and the other animals and gently headed back to the heat of Perth (via a playpark of course)

Easter hols

We have a 3 week long Easter holiday here, and we are currently half way through it. Thank heavens the weather is still good and we can get out and about. Over the Easter long weekend we went ten pin bowling, visited Sci-Tech and a camel farm, had an Easter egg hunt and friends over for an Easter Sunday roast. Brian also bought me my (slightly delayed) 40th birthday present which I absolutely love. A take on an eternity ring, a complete circle with 3 rows of v small diamonds instead of one row of bigger ones. 

Last Wednesday night we went to the drive-in movies to see "The Pirates". I had been planning to take the boys to see it during the holidays, but the added adventure of seeing it on a huge screen in our car was enough to sell it to us all. We reversed in to our spot and opened up the boot and all 4 of us climbed in. We re-tuned the car radio to the required frequency to hear the soundtrack and ate popcorn till be were fit to burst. I have to tell you it was a tad squashed and  Ru got tired and fed up about 15 mins before the end because it was way past his bed time, but it was fun, and a new experience for us all.

This weekend was mainly spent at the beach. South beach, Fremantle to be precise. After Brian went out for his early morning bike ride and the boys had their Saturday pancakes we went to a Lego building competition at a local toy store and then didn't really fancy heading straight home. So the beach it was.

Alfie decided reading his Lego magazine was more exciting than a playground...

... while Brian found it all quite hilarious.

We watched a submarine cruise by....

...and then Ru took a ride on a dolphin...

...and had a swing on a hammock...

...till Alfie climbed on too.

Time for an ice cream to give them more energy..

...for climbing trees.

Mummy sat and drank tea at that point (as I do).

When we eventually got to the beach itself the boys couldn't resist a paddle. 

Within seconds they were drenched and we had no towels or dry clothes, so we had to go home fairly quickly.

Sunday began with Brian going out for his second bike ride of the weekend. A leisurely trip round the river with an Irish friend who hadn't been out on his bike for a while. What a beautiful morning it was too. So when he came home we had a full Irish "brunch" in the garden and read the paper for a while before deciding to head out to the beach again. This time we were more organised and took the swim stuff and some buckets and spades.

Father and sons swam...

...built sandcastles...

......lots of sandcastles......

....with moats that needed buckets of water...

Then the boys climbed on the rocks..

...ate ice creams...

....checked the laws of gravity....

...climbed more rocks...

.....ran.....

.....and ran....

.....and ran....

..while lazy Mummy once again sat taking photos (and incidentally also drinking tea).

After all that, a bit of posing was in order by Ru.

And Alfie finally got to kick a ball around with his Dad.

All rounded off with fish and chips at a beachside cafe so hungry boys didn't have to wait till we got home. 

Hope you've had a fun weekend too.x