Fun days ... last year!

I rarely get around to writing about wonderful activities and excursions, so I think it's time for an update on some of the highlights of this year ... now last year, oops.  I saved a draft and forgot to finish it ... so this is a little collection of brightness from 2013, then we can travel to the present. 

Our friend found tadpoles, which we watched grow into green tree frogs before releasing back into their natural habitat.

We had a weekend away at Dubbo Zoo with some friends.  We rode bikes between exhibits and the Dads acted like monkeys to entice the Siamang Gibbons to call and climb.  It worked a treat.

We went to a fellowship camp in the Snowy Mountains (not during snow season) and enjoyed the company of sweet friends ...

We then climbed the tallest mountain in Australia, Mt Kosciuszko ... Elijah and I made it all the way to the top.  Before the walk, I had been extremely tired for so long, it was a miracle to even get beyond the carpark.  I still thank the Lord for restoring my energy that day and for months after.  We enjoyed the view for a few minutes before the clouds encircled the summit:

Jasmine and Pete made it to a lookout a few km behind us:

Elijah's fourth soccer season was a lot of fun, thanks to Super Coach Col and a large group of lovely team mates.  Elijah played hard and was much more involved this year (less standing back analysing the game, more ball contact).

Both children did a weekly home ed. gymnastics class (we do this most years during the cooler months).  It was a treat for us parents to have someone else in charge whilst we watched and chatted.

We had a great time at the Athletics carnival too ... Jasmine was entertaining on the high jump and I caught some of her moves on video.

We went to an equestrian centre with lots of other home ed. families to a Medieval display, put on by some very enthusiastic, knowledgable and friendly people who role play history for fun.  There were presentations about costumes and equipment, battle armour and weapons.  It was all fascinating, but the most lively parts were dressing a knight and feeling the weight of real chainmail, sword and dagger combat (with blunt but heavy weapons), mounted archery and a demonstration of training horses in skills needed for battle (with lettuces and plastic pigs as pretend targets).

Something that we all enjoyed, was an unplanned but delightful foray into bird-watching and identification, right in our own backyard.  We see lots of lively blue fairy wrens flitting around our rose-apple tree, several pairs of spotted turtle doves nesting in our pine trees, plus we are often visited by kookaburras, magpies, crows.  The finches and wrens love our grass and weeds.

The children would LOVE a pet.  They sometimes babysit their Nanna's dog, and they love the local creatures (birds, blue tongue lizards, skinks, possums) but they REALLY want to OWN something.  Requests have included a whippet, horse, rabbits, mice, rats, several kinds of snakes, and a coelophysis (a dinosaur, in case you didn't know).  I'm sure there were more.  None of those are suitable for us at present for many reasons.  We finally found a pet that would work in our home ... fighting fish!

  

 Midnight  and  Fighter

   

They are lively, entertaining creatures and our friend discovered they will bite if someone dares to put a finger in the water (oops, we now warn our guests before they look).

Elijah had his first ride on a jetski with our friend, and more since.  He's rapt.

Books, books, books ... nothing new about that.  :)

Jasmine had an interest in rocks and minerals for a while, making good use of our small collection, the microscope, posters, books.  We made a model solar system, played with paint, experimented with recipes, both edible and play dough.  Elijah and Jasmine did a few sessions of rock climbing, and at home there was a lot of creative, investigative learning going on alongside the usual routines.

 See you in the present year soon!