How many 9 year old Canadians gets to play with a koala and crocodile for their birthdays?

I will have to make this entry shorter, simply because I am short on time... but this one will have lots of pics!

This year is a special one simply because it is a first for every one. We have celebrated our first Australian halloween, christmas and some have already celebrated their first Australian birthdays - Zed is one of these. This year we decided to make it extra special, especially since Zed was feeling quite lonesome that there wouldn't be any of his friends and family (from Canada) here to celebrate with us. The boys had asked several times if we were going to be going camping anytime soon. We figured that Zed's birthday would be a perfect opportunity to do such a thing! We got together the things we needed, made our reservations, baked heaps of treats and goodies... then we were off. We drove a days drive to Townsville, which is situated along the coast; such a beautiful city!!

Let me tell you that we had a wonderful time... during the day! The days were filled with fun activities, adventures, animals and of course, swimming. The nights however, ugh the nights, were filled with mozzies (mosquitos), hot, humid air and a lot of rain. The nights were long because you couldn't sleep due to the stifling, suffocating hot air, but they felt too short come morning (simply because you hadn't really slept the night before). So, let's just focus on the fun stuff, shall we?!

The first day out and about we went to Reef HQ Aquarium... and what an aquarium it is! We saw everything from glow in the dark fish to hammerhead sharks. 

It was amazing, beautiful and thrilling for all of us. I saw a lot of my most favourite sea animals (hammerhead sharks being one of them!)  

Here Jonboy is signing 'turtle' to
the turtle.

I learned that Jonathan has a real fascination of turtles. He was so thrilled every time we came across one.  

While at the aquarium we took part in an information session that included talking with a diver who was inside the aquarium with a variety of sharks, rays and fish. Very cool!

Can you spot Wade??

After spending half the day at the aquarium we went for a stroll down 'the strand', which is like a scene out of CSI Miami where you see people riding bikes and long skateboards in bathing suits on the long, wide sidewalks that are parallel to the hot, sandy beaches that draw your eyes past the palm trees to the varying blue waters of the ocean. Yes, beautiful. It would be so nice to just run across the beach and jump into the water, but as you do you would stop in your tracks, as you see the big warning signs that tell you what is waiting for you in the waters... stingers (jelly-fish). Every kind you can imagine... teeny tiny ones and ones 10 feet long. So just keep it as that... a nice view! :)

We took in the view as we walked along seeing all sorts of birds and monuments, until we came to an incredible outdoor spray park. It was just what we wanted after being in the stifling 36+ degree heat, that had caused our clothing to stick to our bodies and beads of perspiration ran down our cheeks. Yes, it was a hot but more so, humid day... again. It was this day, the enticing water and great amusement of playing together that caused us to neglect the use of sunscreen. Fortunately it was only me who experienced a wide spread burn, but of course I didn't notice the severity of it until closer to bedtime. You will see in the pic at the top that I am quite a bit rosier then my family.  So, anyway, after the water park, we took another short walk to another park to play while we dried off. After that it was back to camp. 

Camping in Australia is WAY different then camping in Canada. I will go into further at another date, but suffice to say the we truly take for granted the joy of having a fire that should go hand in hand with the act of camping (in my opinion!).  We made due, but it certainly wasn't the same. Thankfully the "camp grounds" had a fantastic outdoor (is there any other kind in Australia?) pool. It was absolutely beautiful. The only was to describe swimming in it, would to say it felt as though you were swimming in soft clouds. It was a clean, warm salt water pool, surrounded with foliage and fire torches. We spent a LOT of our time in this pool.

Moving along... the following day we made our way to Billabong Sanctuary; which is essentially a zoo with some animals moving around freely. 

There is a large variety of birds, a bunch of kangaroos/wallabies (varying in ages), and turtles that will come up to you, or you can go up to. There are scheduled information sessions that invite you to view, touch and gain an appreciation for the animals they are presenting. 

We held our share...

We interacted with everything from koalas (which are NOT bears -- They are marsupials) to the dangerous cassowary bird. We saw a lot of interesting animals that day... "for sure!" (as Jonathan would say.) I will go into more detail at a later date, but it is certainly late into the morning, and the kids are calling for snack.  

Till next time...

Fear... sadness - awww, RELIEF! We aren't out of Nutella!! (thank goodness!)

Borrowed from the internet - Yes! They are dancing!
We learned about these birds this week, along with the Blue Whale.

Yes, there was a period in which I thought we had reached the end of our Nutella supply, but thanks to Wades keen eye, (and after weeks for secretly mourning the thoughts of Nutella free days) my heart was lifted when he pointed out that we did, in fact, have a few more jars left in our supplies. If there was ever a time to have my life be made into a musical, it would have been then! Needless to say we had Nutella sandwiches for dessert that evening. (a sigh while I remember the bliss of eating it after almost 2 weeks of not having any)

Alex working on an ongoing Map lesson.
I place new flag stickers up every week and the boys have to locate the places on the world map by searching the name
in an atlas to locate where in the world it is, then connect the flag to the county on the unlabelled map you see here.
They work on this when they are in between lessons. Whoever does the most at the end of the month wins a prize.
(I have learned that Alex is really good at map stuff!)

Any who, not much else has been happening around here. We are full on into HSing again, all the kids learning things together, but on individual levels. I have gone back to basics in a lot of ways, and am schooling all 4 kids (yes, Maileigh too) using a main theme, then having them work on things on different levels.

This was an activity I gave Jonboy & Maileigh. It was
free play, quiet time, while brothers had their lessons. This is one that Jonathan created.

Every week we concentrate on a single letter. Last week was "Aa" this week is "Bb". Maileigh does lots of crafts using the letter B's and we repeatedly go through the two sounds (a & b) during the day. She also sits in on most of the games Jonboy and I play together, and these games always incorporate his 'words' for the week, plus we repeat the words from last week. He now recognizes, out of his homemade flashcards he helped make, the words Ax, Apple, Ant, Arm and can distinguish which flash cards say 'arms up' and 'arms down.' This week we have been going over words like boy, big, banana, balloon etc. He and Alex share words, except Alex has to learn how to spell them, and to recognize the french version of them as well. We also learn about two animals that start with the letter of the week. This week we learned about the "Blue-footed Booby"... get your mind out of the gutter!  It is a bird. :D (See the above pic.) And the majestic Blue Whale.

I came into the play room to find Maileigh sorting her books. 

Like I said, there isn't a whole lot that has been going on here. These last few days have been quite rainy and humid. The other day Wade said the outside digital thermometer at his work read 41 degrees; poor fellow. Today (Thursday) was beautiful so we went to Capella. Jonathan has gained enough confidence that he can swim in the deep/big pool. Today was the first time he swam out to me standing about 10 feet away. It was awesome!!!

I have started to work on some children's books to publish, and have recently hired a publishing company to assist me in do just that - publish my first book. I am still working out the finer details, but look forward to having it printed, possibly, in the next 6 months.... Pray that this will work out please. I am apprehensive about it, but want to give another one of my life long dreams a go. My goal is to start a children's book series and use a portion of the proceeds to go towards helping children in need. I am not sure where exactly the monies will go, but it certainly won't be building up in our bank account... it will go to some place it is truly needed!

Well, like I said. Not a whole lot going on. Sorry it has taken me, again, so long to update this. It seems that the Sundays come and go like the kids' snack time... very quickly! Until next time!

We found this stick bug when we went out to hang the laundry up. They are
quick flyers!