Halloween and spotting pademelons

Hello!
It is nearly the end of Term 4 here in Queensland, so it will be the school Christmas holidays in a couple of weeks time.
Here are some of the things we have been doing:

There was an art show at school, with Isla's crab picture picked to showcase her class's work:

We've been to Nippers most Sundays, even one week when it was very cold and rainy. We've been body boarding after school sometimes too.

Isla's friend had a birthday party at the park with masks to decorate and an amazing ice cream birthday cake:

Evie's new goggles:

We've eaten out a couple of times; one restaurant had Donkey Kong  to play:

At Halloween, we decided to venture out Trick or Treating with our friends:

Evie has been doing gymnastics every week, wearing her singlet. Her instructor showed us how to do a round-off from a trampoline. Before gymnastics there is time to go to the library or the park:

The plants are surviving better at the moment with lots of rain and not much heat:

One Saturday, we travelled up to Maleny in the hinterland, and visited the Mary Cairncross Bushland Reserve. We'd last been there on our trip to Australia a couple of years ago. There was a new information centre with tanks of freshwater crayfish (yabbies) to look at, models of giant earthworms, microscopes to look at insects close up. It was really good! We had a walk in the bushland and spotted a Stinger tree and some pademelons really close. It is a type of wallaby. We also saw a rufous fantail in a tiny nest and some fruit bats roosting:

A big spider on our furniture!!

Today we went to Pomona, where there were some markets to look at. On the way home, we stopped at Boreen Point to paddle in the lake and have an ice cream:

Last week, Evie and I met up with some friends at the Ginger Factory:

Isla and Evie decorated our Christmas tree this week. 

Rainy October

Hello!
Last month we had a day trip a little way up the coast to Double Island Point and enjoyed the sand and sea there:

Isla started nippers at the end of the school holidays. She met up with her friends at the beach and had to run races on the sand and play games in the shallows of the sea. 

A friend of Evie's had a birthday party at the park in a busy part of Noosa so we took the bus there. They had a go at a piñata and had face painting as well as making a snowman out of marshmallows.

 Evie couldn't wait to try out her new body board after watching Isla at nippers:

The local art gallery had an exhibition on recycled art. After looking at the sculptures made by the artists, the children could make whatever they liked from junk. So Isla and Evie made Pob and Monty:

Evie and I visited the National Park before gymnastics one day. At gymnastics she is learning about forward rolls, cartwheels and handstands and likes playing fishing games and beading patterns and making some new friends!

A week ago we suddenly had a lot of heavy rain, and since then it has been cloudy and rainy most days. We visited a castle which was built about fifty years ago and found clues to a treasure hunt:

Isla and Evie have become obsessed with Minecraft. They can play together in the same game and build houses together:

Today we went to the zoo. All of the kangaroos were in their rest area sheltering from the rain. It was the quietest we have seen the zoo. We enjoyed looking at the new exhibit of meerkats, who had a shock when we put up an umbrella with the sentinel meerkat falling off his perch!