Gone to the Birds - Smilebox

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Birds, Triathlons, National Parks

Hi Everbody,
We took this picture by Kings Park in Downtown Perth overlooking the Swan River. Last month the country of Australia came to a stand still for the Melbourne Cup. Carson's school celebrated by having all the kids come in fancy homemade hats. Carson made origami horses and put on his hat. All the ladies around here got all dressed up, got their nails and hair done, and donned a fancy hat to watch the cup. Elise's school had each child bring in a snail and they had snail races. Your never too young to indoctrinate in betting.

We found a nearby National Park, only 45 minutes from Perth. It is located in the Darling Range which runs to the east of us. The elevation was high enough to cause pressure in our ears. The only down side to the day was the weather, it rained. The up side, due to the weather the kangaroos were out in midday. We set up a picnic site with a covered shelter and the roos just came bouncing through our picnic area. We even saw a momma with twins in her pouch! Sorry no pictures as I didn't pull my camera out of the car due to the rain. Once the rain passed we were able to BBQ. In Australia, BBQ's are very popular, but due to the excessive dryness of the summer months lasting long stretches of time, lots of fires were being started with people BBQing. So now in almost every public area there are free gas grills. Some places you have to drop some money in them, but for the most part they are free. So we grilled out at the park and the kids climbed rocks, and amazingly made friends with a wild parrot. (I was able to retrieve the camera for this part of the visit. Note the Gone to the Birds smilebox I added.) This place was so beautiful, with waterfalls and forests we intend on visiting again when the weather is nicer and exploring as much of the park as we can.


I added a smilebox of Nathan's first triathlon. Out of all the competitors he came in 6Th place. The kids he raced against came from schools with a triathlon program or from clubs. He was invited to attend time trials for a local club and just completed the running trial. We will have to wait and see if he gets a spot this year for the state team. Unfortunately,the rest of the meets are on Sundays, so he will not be participating. But, if his time trials are good enough he may be able to get into a spot without qualifying in an actual triathlon, you must finish in the first 3 spots in a sanctioned triathlon to make the state team, and so far he has a 6Th place finish.
Elise just performed in a ballet recital. The production was of a famous Australian story - Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, these are gumdrop babies and it tells of their adventures. Elise was a kookaburra in the ballet. It was held at an outdoor amphitheater, called The Quarry. Set at the top of some tall hills not far from our home. It appears someone blasted through the rock to create the natural sloped seating area. The terraced seating is grass covered and you bring a blanket to sit on. It was a unique venue as you could look beyond the stage and see the city of Perth in the distance. Pictures of Elise in her kookaburra costume are in the smilebox, and to note I was able to get an actual kookaburra's picture at the park this weekend, I also added that picture. One last side note, I haven't used an alarm clock since we have been here, the kookaburra's loud laugh each morning at 5:30 is free and reliable and you definitely don't sleep through it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I wish I could be home to be with our friends and family. We are hosting a Thanksgiving at our home on Saturday. Several families wanted to take part in an American Thanksgiving so we are doing our best to prepare one. Here it's not as if you can go the store and buy canned pumpkin, Velveeta, Crisco, corn syrup, graham cracker crust (or graham crackers to make your own), pie crust, cranberry sauce, french fried onions, even a turkey is a hard thing to find. I have been having to find substitutes and make everything from scratch. I've been experimenting with their varieties of pumpkins to find one that will be able to replace our pie pumpkins that we use to make pumpkin pie. I took a picture of the pumpkin I like best for this purpose I will add it to the blog. I found a specialty store in a city south of here that imports corn syrup, the owner is friends with an American and that is why he imported the corn syrup, it is $8 for a tiny bottle, but now I can make my pecan pie.


Know that we miss you all and especially during this Holiday period. Take care, and we will update again soon. Please look below and see all the new smileboxes we added.
Luv,
~Todd, Pam, Nathan, Mikaela, Carson and Elise

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Diwali @ the International School

At the International School the headmaster got up and addressed us at the most recent school event, the Diwali Festival. He said, "Schools usually try to find the things all the kids have in common and celebrate that, but here at the International School we celebrate differences." So, hence the Diwali Festival this week the Halloween festival 2 weeks ago and so on... It really was a great experience and the effort by the teachers to get authentic costumes and choreograph the dances was impressive (luckily we have several teachers from India). The lower school kids participated by making lots and lots of candles. We had an Indian catered dinner to follow the festival. I have included a Smilebox that shows highlights of the festival and Mikaela dancing.

Diwali Festival @ International School

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