Santa's Trip to Oz

Maddie's Barbie House

Izzie's Dollhouse

Travelling at Christmas creates extra work for Santa Clause. He can't expect Mom and Dad to haul large gifts back home, so he makes special deliveries either before or after Christmas. This year, he came before Christmas to bring two special presents for Maddie and Izzie. Izzie said she loved her dollhouse but wanted to know why Santa forgot the sailboat and the fire truck!

Isabelle's Early Birthday

Since we'll be away for Isabelle's birthday, we decided to have an early celebration at home.

Her first gift was a helmet. When she opened it up, she got a big smile on her face and asked, "Did you get me a bicycle?" She could hardly wait to find it! She found it in the garage, but before going for a ride, she ran to the playroom to get a baby doll.

After a bike ride to the playground, we headed to Hungry Jack's for dinner - her choice. When we got home from dinner, we had a little Wiggles party - her choice - with "pink sparkly cupcakes" - also her choice.

And just before bed, Izzie had to jam out on more time on her new guitar. Thanks, Grammy Bammy and Papa Ricky! We don't know where she learned her moves, but she knows how to rock!

We'll have to try and catch one of her acts on video!

Yellow Bear

Maddie's school participates in an Edu-dance program where a dance teacher comes in once a week for a term and teaches each class a dance routine. Last week, Maddie performed her dance and dressed up as a super cute yellow bear. Her teacher helped them make their costumes and even let them paint their hands!

Maddie before the big show

Maddie and Liza

Mom was so impressed that Maddie smiled the entire time.

Camera in the Shop

I had hoped to be better about blogging, but I'm having some technical difficulties.

On Luke's way home from London, he bought me a new camera in Singapore. He said he needed something to do on his layover at the airport. Go figure.

Anyway, the camera worked for a few weeks. Then, it wouldn't do anything but turn on and off. It's been in the shop for a week, and it still hasn't had an assessment. So, I'm hoping someone will hurry up, figure out what's wrong, order some parts and fix my camera ASAP.

It's a horrible time to be camera-less. It's the end of the school year and Christmas. Not to mention, it's been beautiful at the beach!

So anyway, we're still here.

Hopefully, we'll have new pics sooner than later!

Hot, Hot, Hot...

I don't mean to brag, but I took the girls to the beach after school. It was 99 degrees today - a little hot for spring. I think we're going to enjoy living so close to the beach!

Mermaid

When I asked Izzie how mermaids do their hair, she replied, "They comb it with a fork!"

Dorothy

Sports Carnival

Maddie's First School Sports Carnival

Maddie and Liza

Maddie trying to teach Izzie how to throw a frisbee.

Maddie jumping over hurdles.

Maddie trying to help her team win tug of war.

Maddie did especially well at the gymnastics station!

Around The World in a Term

Maddie is in her fourth and last term of the school year. Each week, she has been "travelling" to and learning about a new country. She started in India, went to Egypt and headed to France. She has been excited to share things from all of these places with her class. Even though she hasn't been to India, she had lots of neat clothes to take to school - thanks to Fancy Nancy's shopping tours of Little India.

For a recent school assembly, Maddie was chosen to be a French girl and said something about seeing the Eiffel Tower from her bedroom window. It seemed like the perfect part for a girl with a truly French name.

Maddie put this outfit together herself. She was a little concerned that she didn't have a striped shirt to complete her outfit, but she managed to get by without it. Her class was very impressed with her sense of French style. Maddie looked "tres belle" if you ask her Mom!

Fashion Queen

As most of you know, Maddie has always been a little obsessed with fashion. This week, she's been talking about buying a sewing machine and making clothes. I wish I would have learned to sew, or at least, brought my sewing machine with me. It's sitting in storage in the States. A lot of good it's doing there! I guess I'll have to find her a sewing class so someone who knows what they are doing can teach her to sew properly.

Until she can start sewing, Maddie has decided to sketch her designs. Today, she insisted that she go out on the front porch because she needed inspiration from the great outdoors. Here are her most recent sketches:

Next, she will start work on her shoe designs.

Maddie has big plans to design, make and model her own fashions.

(If any of you noticed, Maddie really is wearing her jacket. Yesterday, we were at the beach soaking up the rays. Today, we were at home chilled by the wind and rain. Hopefully, we'll have our sun and blue skies back tomorrow.)

While the dad is away, the girls will play...

A few days after we got back from Sydney, we headed back to the airport with Dad. Duty called. He had to go to Monacry, Guinea and London. Work, work, work.... and a little retail therapy. We were naughty and gave him a list of things to buy for us in London.

Since Maddie is still on break, we've had lots of fun while Dad has been away.

We went to an indoor pool with a water playground, had dinner with friends, learned to make jam, played at the park, watched the new Barbie and Tinkerbell movies, got new sandals, and had sleepovers in Mom's bed.

Mom is questioning her decision to let Maddie sleep in her bed.



We went to Strawberry Fields with friends to pick strawberries.

We went to our favorite beach which is a quick seven minute drive from the house.

We don't have much of a garden - just a little grass in front and a patio in back. The girls like to hang out on the back terrace but haven't had much to occupy them. We fixed that by buying paintbrushes and filling buckets of water.

Mom is worried that Izzie will be sad when Maddie has to go back to school. Lucky for us, we will finally get our long awaited summer vacation in two months and will have six weeks to spend together!

Girls Day Out

Just down the street from our house are the Claremont Showgrounds - home to the annual Royal Perth Show. It's like a state fair with all the excitement of pony rides, ferris wheels, animals, food, and shows. Dad had to work, so Mom took the girls out for the day.

First stop, teacups. Izzie was so excited to start spinning in her pink teacup. Look at her big smile!

The girls were anxious to milk the cows. They were a little concerned that their buckets were full of water instead of milk. If they wouldn't have run out of water, we would have been there all day.

Maddie asked me to take this photo so Hailey could see that she knows how to milk a cow, too.



The girls spent a lot of time cuddling the soft baby chicks.

The girls got to "pat a pig".

Izzie couldn't stop giggling while they fed the baby goat.

Maddie loved holding the bunnies.

After visiting the animals, we took a break and went to see some shows. This show was called "Dancing Ducks" - a fashion show for ducks. The children found it entertaining and the adults found it extremely disturbing. Maddie wanted me to take photos of the ducks in all their outfits.

Hold on Tight - an action shot of Izzie's first roller coaster ride!

Not a great photo, but look at Izzie. You've got to love that her eyes are closed as they fly around the bend!

The girls both love carousel rides.

Izzie will tell you that she saw "a sheep getting a haircut". We also saw BMX racers doing flips on ramps, a dog that did amazing tricks, and a log cutting contest. We'll definitely be going back next year, but we'll be taking Dad.