Christmas Holidays

It's the Christmas holidays! Yippee! Here's some photos of what Isla and Evie have been doing these holidays:

Dressing up as puppies:

Meeting Santa at the Ginger Factory with our friends N and M:

Doing LOTS of crafts:

Santa turned up at Nippers:

Making and eating a Gingerbread house:

Visiting the Mary River at the Conondale National Park. We spotted a freshwater catfish, a turtle, a snake, a kingfisher and lots of butterflies on our trip:

We stopped off to taste cheeses and have an ice cream at the Kenilworth cheese factory:

Swimming in the fast flowing creek at Wappa Dam:

Have a great Christmas everybody! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It's the end of term!!

Hello! 
It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here, with Christmas parties going on. 

We all went to the playgroup Christmas party one weekend. It was great. They had tractor rides, biscuit decorating, running about under the sprinklers and guinea pigs to hold. Santa Claus turned up to hand out sweets after a little Nativity story and sing-a-long jingle bells:

Isla had a Christmassy gymnastics lesson with swinging on ropes and bouncing on an inflatable mat. Here she is waiting for the lesson:

She went to her first school disco too. She loved dancing to the music with her friends in the dark school hall with disco lights.  Here she is having some food outside:

Evie made Santa and some Christmas trees at playgroup this week, as well as a bird and a beaded necklace:

She has also been to the park by the river for a play. The river was very full and brown after all the rain and storms we've been having.

Evie felt a bit peckish after a busy morning:

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.