The first week back to school for Term 4 was a tricky one. Isla didn't want to go back to school, and wanted to stay at home, having lots of tears at school drop off. Others in her class felt the same, and finally by the end of her first week, she was excited about school again and smiling her happy self. It helped for her to make a little book and write in it what to expect each day that was exciting and she realised she had lots to enjoy at school. Phew, I was glad when that week was over!
In our pool, Andrew found a fence skink and a spider:
We see quite a few skinks around, or maybe it's the same one that lives on our patio and another by our bins.
Going camping by the beach and travelling on dirt tracks the last few weeks, we have been hoping to see a goanna (monitor lizard) but hadn't been lucky. Then, one afternoon I spotted one running along the grass behind our back garden! He was very long (about a metre) and the children thought he was funny to watch. The magpies and honeyeaters were dive-bombing him so he didn't stay long. We've since seen another one climbing a tree elsewhere.
We went to Rainbow Beach on the weekend, and it was very busy. I watched a baby humpback whale getting caught in shark nets and then freed with help from its huge mum. The sea was very warm here and I tried the snorkel out but it was too weedy. Isla and Evie liked climbing on each other!
Andrew drove us further up the beach to Inskip Point, which looks out onto Fraser Island. There be dingos, so they say!!!
In the week, Evie had a little play by the river:
and enjoyed herself at playgroup. She made some paper dolls with fabric clothes last week, and then on Thursday she made a pizza from a paper plate.
One evening there was a rustling in Evie's room. 'Mummy there's a noise in me room' and Monty was very interested in something behind her doll's house. What could it be?!!
Well, it was only a weird looking mole cricket:
Here's Evie having a sneaky go on the amazing slide at Isla's school:
On Friday at school pick-up time, we were lucky enough to see a koala climbing in a eucalyptus tree just next to the slide! Our first wild koala.
Andrew hired a boat for us to have a look down the river. Here is Makepeace Island, which is owned by Richard Branson:
A trip to the aquarium at Mooloolaba was long overdue:
Isla had a brilliant week at school last week. She started swimming in P.E. and also had a science trip to an island with mangroves and lots of crabs.
She had last Monday off and so did Andrew, so we went camping to the nearby Conondale Range. Here are lots of photos from our adventure. We saw and heard lots of different birds there, including Bell Miners, which make a really loud bell-like boing noise incessantly. See if you can spot the amazing Carpet Python slithering across the leaves at the camping ground, and sitting on a tree stump waiting for prey!
Aboard the galleon mark III in the creek:
Isn't there one of these in the Devizes park?! This was at Kenilworth, next door to a cheese factory where we sampled some cheese, yoghurt and chocolate mousse.
Evie colouring in one of the Wiggles (her new favourite t.v. characters):
On Andrew's birthday, we arrived back home and went out for a meal. Afterwards, we had a quick look at the sea since we hadn't been to the beach all weekend. A storm was coming so we hurriedly went home to escape the rain.
Monty was very bad this morning. It was a crested pigeon. He was very pleased with himself.
