Gave Me A Vegemite Sandwich

It's no cliche.

When an Australian child forgets their lunch or lacks the funds, he'll be provided with a vegemite sandwich. Man, that stuff. Main ingredient: concentrated yeast extract. What is that even? Mmmm.

Each class gets a "fruit break" every morning and they encourage vegetables for snack at "afternoon tea." 

Great system to keep little minds on track.

Wrap it up at home with Mom's fresh kangaroo roast and these kids are getting a well balanced diet!

Of Houses, Hats & Carnivals

SCHOOL. Bless it. Forget the notion that our move precipitated this blog. I, all of a sudden, find myself staring down 6 virtually uninterrupted hours each day while my three children are in school. (The same school, with the same schedule, I might add.) Brilliant.

Aren't they just cute?? (Kenna wasn't thrilled about not having packed black shoes.) Due to the hole in the ozone being directly above Australia, it's actually law that children must wear sunscreen & these funky hats anytime they're outside during school hours.

We toured four schools the day after we landed, and were equally impressed with each. Great education system. We chose a private Catholic school down the street with vegetable gardens, chickens to feed and a kitchen for cooking classes. I have to admit I like the idea of having them experience something totally different than they would otherwise have. Uniforms, agriculture, religion sprinkled in. I'm liking it. We may be heavily focusing our FHEs this year on the LDS Articles of Faith to avoid any doctrinal confusion, but I think there's great potential for enriching life experiences there.

The first day was actually their Swimming Carnival. We were bussed to a pool for the day for games and races and they made some cute friends as we sat with and cheered on their "house" participants. Yes, they are assigned houses, like at Hogwarts and it actually makes for some great school spirit activities.

Monday was their official full day and they did great. Well, except for Annie who cried about 5 of the 6 hours. She's still pretty young for "kindie" but barely makes the cut. Kenna's been a sweetheart to play with her on breaks but I think she'll be fine once she makes some friends. They all got real nice father's blessings Sunday night and we talked up how lucky they were to get two in one year (hoping they won't realize that they also never got a summer break...) Kenna and Will bumped up to year 2 and 3 and are so responsible, setting their alarms each night and getting dressed right out of bed. It's pretty cute and they seem to be adjusting well. I think I heard the words "best first day of school ever" in fact.

And me- I'm just home propping my feet up eating bon bons. (wink) I have yet to work out a schedule, but it's worth mentioning that Summer is at that delectable stage where she can sit and play on a blanket with toys for quite a while between naps. She officially "crawled" the week we arrived, but hasn't caught the full vision of being mobile just yet, which I'm a-okay with. Bless her sweet little heart.

Biding Our Time

Until our shipment gets in, what's there to do in an empty (albeit furnished) house
when Legos lose their luster? 

There's always the ever-versatile.... underwear.

 (A homemade boxing get-up that proved quite successful actually.)

Little lady sat in here for at least 10 minutes. Kids get a real kick out of her.

 Who needs rattles when you've got these stimulating new age learning toys? And of course, hours of jacuzzi fun.

These guys are getting serious quality time and I've gotta say, I'm kinda digging "the simple life" for a change. They found a section of rope tangled up in our tree and spent two hours scaling the backyard wall on our second day. Now that's good old fashioned creative fun, right? Regardless, they're making good memories together and I thank my lucky stars daily that they're friends.

City of Parks

Canberra is the capital of Australia similar to our Washington, D.C. It's an entirely planned city, and was chosen for its location between the bigger cities of Sydney and Melbourne (who were fighting over capital status.) One thing that makes it unique (besides being riddled with roundabouts almost to the point of dizziness) is that it's more like a city sprinkled among parks. With nature preserves throughout, there are beautiful places to explore around every corner. We visited 4 "parks" within a 1/2 mile of our house the first week we were here. In fact I almost wish I'd kept the kids home longer because there are so many more to explore. Fortunately, we'll be here a while. :) Here's a look at some of our recent outings.

This path behind our house leads up the hill to a playground and our favorite mob of roos.

Down the street is a real cool skate park with some new age exercise equipment and a nice pond with playgrounds nearby. And man, the sunsets. I don't know if it's just the season or what, but they are somethin' else.

Will attempting to float his make-shift skateboard raft.

These cute kids are a family that has been our lifesavers here. We got connected via email before the move since I had a bunch of questions about schools and such. Then providentially we were assigned housing down the street from them and they were assigned to be our "hosts" and are also LDS so it has become a great friendship. They picked us up from the airport with our house keys, stocked our fridge and made our beds ready, gave us rides everywhere and have loaned us more than just their car, so we consider them heaven-sent in easing our transition. Fortunately, their four kids are all within a year of our kids' ages too, so instant friends!

Old Mother Hubbard

And THIS folks, is how far $1000 will get you here. 

Even from Aldi's - the discount grocery store. :)

 

Again, sort of a spectacle as I filled up two carts and made multiple trips. Well, when you don't have a Costco...! Summer got a kick out of their system though. 

See the ramp? It's like a little amusement park ride every time we shop.

Out of House and Home

So Will is apparently going through some kind of growth spurt. Unlucky timing for us, seeing as food is about  three times more expensive here. He's eating my cupboards bare faster than I can fill them. (But now that we have a car, that should prove a lot easier - yay!) That being said, the produce here is amazing. It's sweeter, crunchier, fresher and straight up delish. So much so that after being told there was no more food for his requested THIRD helping last night at dinner (& he'd literally licked his plate clean,) he requested a giant salad.

And ate the whole thing. A glimpse into our teenage years? I'm frightened already. At least we won't have to battle these prices... On the flip side, here are the things I've found to be LESS expensive here:

Can you see my problem? Baby fat might be sticking around a liiiitle longer than planned, me thinks.

Evening Drive

So we bought an old 4 wheel drive yesterday. I think I'm gonna like this vehicle. It runs on liquid propane and gasoline, has big tanks for each so plenty of range. LPG is much cheaper than gasoline here. After work tonight, we picked a random, barren spot on the map and went there. Finally found a dirt road that looked interesting. Blackberry bushes lined the road for miles. Encountered two wallabies and, later, two emus. Saw an incredible looking bird with a bright red body and blue wings, or maybe I have that reversed. Don't know what it was. Got a video of the emu sighting below. Stopped at a lake, found a rope swing and ended up wet. Quick drive downtown at sunset and a final stop at KFC. A very good day.