Diggin for Gold

Here is a post that I forgot about. We went to Bendigo a few weekends ago. Bendigo is a town a little over an hour from Melbourne. We rode the tram and learned about some Bendigo history. The town was formed in the late 1800's when thousands of people rushed there to dig for gold.

View of the gold mine.

Josh and Sam did find some miniscule particles of gold, they were very excited:)

The tour wouldn't be half as interesting if this guy shaved his beard.

Little gold miners. Rosie was pretty well behaved for the hour long tour under ground.

Forget the gold dust, where are the nuggets?

Discovery Center, Bendigo

So here we are at yet another science discovery center! The kids had a great time and the place was practically empty.

Rosie getting dizzy.

Another example of a super fun and way too dangerous for the U.S. vertical slide. A guy would hold the kid at the top of the slide and then let go. Josh was clever enough to stand up at the end and sock surf!

Army of Sams at your service.

Oh shoot! I shrunk Josh in the wash!

Yummy! Who looks the most appetizing. Cute little Rosie?

Harry man, John?

Toothless Sam? and freaky mom? Cheers:)

A Warm Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal with Tim and Bec. It is always fun to do a joint effort meal.

It did not feel like Thanksgiving with the warm sunny weather and I can see why most Australians have a barbeque for Christmas. It doesn't make much sense to spend a lot of time cooking in a hot kitchen when it is hot outside! This is Rosie and her friend Elly, they are buddies.

A family picture of the Iselis taken by Josh:) We should have eaten baby Henry for dinner, doesn't he look juicy:) ha ha

Healesville Sanctuary

We drove through the Yarra Valley to get to the Healesville Sanctuary. As you can see in the picture it is beautiful countryside. It feels similar to Napa Valley, CA.

John hasn't run out of patience with me yet for wanting to get a picture of all these different wildlife signs. I haven't seen a Wombat in the wild yet but the sign is the next best thing!

Healesville Sanctuary was relaxing to walk around. Looks like the kangaroos are feeling a little lazy.

This aggressive bird decided to help himself to Rosie's sandwhich.

There he is just walking away with it!

Poor Rosie looking so sad. Don't worry we had more:)

These koalas were just chillin in the tree. They look pretty comfy. What a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Princes Hill Primary Bazaar

The kids had a big fundraiser at their school a couple weekends ago (the school raised almost $60,000)! They had a ball going on rides and hanging out with their friends. Even the food was delicious, John and I had falafels.

This is Sam with his friends Finn and Michael.

Rosie worked on her eye hand coordination by making a bracelet with beads. She did the whole thing herself!

I love this picture of Sam because the look of sheer joy on his face is obvious:) He did this ride again and again.

Sam was being a good big brother and took Rosie down the American Bozo. Do you think an American Bozo invented this one?

Josh was off with his friends most of the time, but here is a rare picture of him. He is getting too old to hang out with me:(

American Grocery Store

I trekked 45 minutes away from my cozy neighborhood to find the American Grocery Store. Seeing all the familiar brands was nice, but I decided that that the prices just weren't worth the trouble. I had to get Libby's pumpkin for our pies, John is the pie maker, for Thanksgiving. I thought about just skipping the whole thing and pretending it never happened but Bec said I was being unpatriotic. So tomorrow, Bec and I are making a Thanksgiving meal.

All the groceries you see in the picture cost $100! The box of life cereal was $12, but the kids felt it was a nice taste of home. We also enjoyed root beer floats last night. Can you believe Australians don't drink root beer? crazy! Well, we are going to miss all of you over the holidays, I think we get more homesick as the holidays come around. Hugs:)

Melbourne Zoo Field trip

Sam's class enjoyed a field trip to the Melbourne Zoo. The butterfly room is always a favorite.

Sam was still enough to have one land on his head!

Sam loves to have a good time with his friends!

Flags for Bazaar

For the School Bazaar (a big fundraising event) I sewed flags to hang on the fence at school.

The flags looked very festive. Unfortunately the flags have since been vandalized and are no longer around. I was feeling pretty bummed this morning that people do such rotten things. I had spent so much time trying to make them look nice. Oh well, I guess that is one of the bad things about living in a city. The bright side is that the flags made it for the bazaar:)

Sailing at Albert Park Lake

John has been wanting to get the boys in a sailboat and finally had the chance a couple weeks ago. John has fond memories of learning to sail with his Grandfather and wants to pass that on to our kids.

I think Sam would have liked to just jump in the water!

Penguin Parade

We went to Phillip Island to see the penguin parade. Phillip Island was just beautiful, it reminded me of Prince Edward Island in "Anne of Green Gables". It is quite an ordeal to see the penguins. You buy tickets, walk out to the beach where there is stadium like seating, then sit and wait until sundown for the little creatures to hop out of the ocean! I thought it was hilarious that you can even buy popcorn! It's like a real live penguin movie.

Like clockwork, at sundown, the penguins start hopping out of the water in groups. They are not sure whether they want to brave the long walk across the beach (as the ranger put it, "they get stage fright"), finally the urge to get to their babies win and they waddle across the sand in little groups.

You can hear the penguins making a clucking sound as they go along. Their little houses are all along the boardwalk, we were able to see them fairly close. The babies are so cute and fuzzy. We were not permitted to take photos so I had to get those off the web. The kids really wanted to bring one back.

We were instructed to please check under our cars before leaving! Mrs. Proctor we thought of you because we know you loved the Penguin Parade so much:)

Finished Sweater

Bec's mom gave me the pattern for this sweater and I have seen several little girls wearing this one around. I am quite pleased with mine until I see one at school that was made by her grandmother. I just can't compete with the skill of a seasoned knitter, maybe one of these days.. at least Madeleine wears hers. That is a step. We have a few that will be passed down to her cousin Shilo that did not get much wear!

The Melbourne Cup

John and I had a little date the other day at the races. Tim and Bec were so nice to let us drop all the kids off and enjoy some time to ourselves. The Melbourne Cup is a huge deal here, it is a state holiday! John was feeling like he belonged in the mafia with his suit and hat.

I wanted to get this shot so you could see the city in the background. The weather was great, not too hot but a little windy.

The Melbourne Cup was the 7th race that day and a horse named "Shocking" took the trophy! The lady sitting behind us bet on Shocking and so she was very excited for the win.

Majestic Music was my pick for the 6th race because the jockey was wearing red,white, and blue! A lucky pick for me:)

I made my little hair "fascinator" with a flower and some fleathers. The fashion at the races is almost as important as the race itself. It was fun to get dressed up for a day.

Cool Creatures

We had fun searching in the tide pools for cool creatures. Sam is also proud that he has recently lost 3 teeth:)

This is a cool crab. He has things growing on his back to stay hidden.

This is a crab also. You can hardly tell this is a living creature, he is so well camouflaged!

We had a great little picnic spot overlooking the bay.