Back in August.....

Here's some photos from last month!

Looking across Sunshine Beach for humpback whales before heading off for swimming lessons:

Evie painting on the patio:

We got some concrete poured around our pool so that we could have a patio space. Here's the mixer on our driveway with the concrete going through a hole in our fence to some waiting wheelbarrows:

The following week, our new pool pump, filter and chlorinator were delivered all ready for the final stages in our pool construction. The pebblecrete company came to finish off the interior of the pool. They mixed the pebble colours on their truck in our driveway and pumped it through a hose to the pool:

The pebblecreters put a sunshade over the pool:

They wore special modified thongs/flip-flops:

The pebblecreted pool all ready for acid washing and filling up with water:

The pool took about twelve hours to fill up.


We all had a dip in the pool! The water started off quite chilly but is heating up now that the weather is getting warmer.

The patio is in the process of being tiled to finish it off:

Lunch out at the local brewery:

A blue-tongued skink (about a foot long) near our house:

A trip to North Shore:

The Sea Shepherd's ship called 'Steve Irwin' moored in Laguna Bay to protest about the Adani coal mine that is proposed for Queensland:

There is a Pheasant Coucal living in our street and can be seen occasionally in our garden. It is very like the pheasants we used to have in our back garden in Essex but is much more shy.

Kookaburras at school:

It's the school holidays at last!!!

I haven't told you about what we did in the school holidays yet. So here we go...

Just before the end of term, it was the school fair. They had fairground rides, food stalls and face painting. This year, Isla went on loads of rides including one called 'Shake it Up' and a giant swing with her friends. There were great fireworks at the end of the evening after the sun had set.

We had rain before school broke up for the holidays and it was quite chilly too.

The rain turned our garden into a muddy bog for a while:

In the school holidays we did some winter activities at the local shopping centre. They had play dough to make into snowmen, games with pretend snowballs, and even a plastic ice rink for people to try.

Walks at the beach:

We visited the Queensland Air Museum and had a sit in some aeroplanes and helicopters. See if you can spot the Star Wars characters walking around:

We had some nice walks around the neighbourhood:

Feeding ducks:

We did some landscaping around our pool area:

We had a new boundary fence put up, a glass pool fence and we put up a metal railing pool fence to enclose the area.

Monty had a trip to the vet because he had a large smelly abscess that needed treatment. He had some fur shaved off and some antibiotics and was all better after a week, although he still has a white patch!

At the end of the holidays, we made some slime!! We used the recipe from the Imagination Tree website which used Elmer's PVA glue, bicarbonate of soda and contact lens solution containing borax. We also added some glitter and purple food colouring. It was quite sticky to start with but after a while of kneading and stirring, it looked just like slime! Evie in particular sat for ages playing with it. And we only managed to get a little bit stuck in the children's hair.