School Break

Back to school. Two weeks of Sydney, the beach, off-roading, LDS General Conference, stitches, and a lemonade stand among other things. But I think the fave was just the freedom & quality time.

This was slept in most nights.

You know it's a good book... And some excellent choreography sessions with friends.

See, flowers even sprout from the rocky hillsides - never seen such a brilliant spring.

 Enjoying a little lunch break (ie: barf break) and some fresh air on the bumpy roads.

Oatmeal cinnamon rolls are the new tradition for Conference morning.
(Better than Cinnabon, friends. Recipe in comments below.)

 

Lots of biking. 

Even snuck off for a few trail ride "dates." 

Aren't we all cute and matchy-matchy?? We only ride in style...

Speaking of riding in style - check out this family bike we rented on Lake Burley Griffin. Between the weather, the blossoms and sheer enthusiasm of the kids, definitely made a memory.

Summer was thoroughly confused and enthralled trying to figure this contraption out.

The best was when we stopped so I could feed Summer (Darren wasn't about to escalate our spectacle by condoning a feed ON the bike) and the kids jumped on for a spin. Hardly touching the pedals, they started running people off the sidewalk, narrowly escaping a dip in the lake at every turn. Many a concerned look was cast our way. Kinda hilarious.

 The required tree climbing breaks...

Plenty o' beds full of exhausted kids. Good times.

SWOOP

We'd heard about "swooping season" since the day we arrived. A couple months in spring when the neighborhood magpies exhibit extremely territorial nesting behavior by swooping down upon unsuspecting passers-by. A friend compared it to the classic Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds... and honestly it's not too far off.

Sept. 1st we greeted our first season more curious than apprehensive. But when Will came in shaky and crying saying he'd been swooped six times while biking down our street, I have to admit I didn't believe him. After calming down a bit (but not quite off the "high" from the attack,) he agreed to go ride again so I could be an eye witness. Sure enough, swoop, swoop, swoop, three more times one after the other, nailed by the same bird. I could hear the crack of beak on helmet.

That's when it started getting fun.

The kids ventured out, all anxious for a turn to earn their stripes of courage. I wrangled them in eventually, but I think Annie stopped counting at 17. That was last week.

Today they started getting swooped right outside our house, in the circle, even on our driveway. That's when I started putting helmets on myself and Summer too. (Fortunately, they've only swooped us on our bikes, but can't be too cautious... I've heard more than a few stories of bloodied heads being patched up in the E.R.)

 Look closely, you'll see the black & white wings - someday they'll get a good zoom on the iphone :(

Check out his face all scrunched in anticipation

There's all sorts of tips - strapping zip ties on helmets or big googly eyed stickers in back, walking with a stick or umbrella, always wearing a hat, etc. (We're paying a bit more attention to these suggestions.) We've all, except Summer, been swooped now but fortunately never hard enough to be knocked off the bike. They especially like the girls - not sure if it's their pony tails, slower speeds or bright pink helmets.

They'll wait up in the trees or telephone poles, usually a few at a time. This guy likes to sit on our roof corner. Nailed one of the kids twice this morning on the front patio as they were rolling their bike out. Sheesh!

Maybe they'll finally wanna start decorating their helmets like this dude...



You gotta give it to them for so fiercely protecting their young, but I do have to chuckle at just another "danger" added to the list when taking up residence in Australia.

Wonky Talky

Apparently, there's a proper name for this lingo I call "Australianisms." They call it 'Strine, as in the way Australians say the word "australian" - with the accent it sounds like they're saying "Strine."

Here are some more we've heard lately:

Power point (outlet)
Piked (crowded)
Skivvy (turtleneck)
Make a booking (reserve a spot)
Year 3 (3rd grade)
Essence (extract)
Pip (pit, like in a cherry)
Hob shop (second hand shop)
Lounge suit (business suit)
Prang (crash)
"the drink" (any body of water)
Righto (sure, sounds good)
Spit the dummy (throw a fit/tantrum, since dummy is a pacifier)
Top of (high of, in reference to weather temp)
Courier (shipping & handling)
Hash key (pound key)

Meant to (supposed to)
Brumby (horse)
Mobile (cell)
Digger (shovel)
Feeding (nursing)
Packet (food bag/box)
Expiry (expiration date)
Gumboots (rainboots)
Popper (juicebox)
Muck around (goof off)
Cochineal (food coloring)
Baddies (bad guys)

These are Australian marshmallows. Always half pink and more like the homemade ones you'd find at a cafe. I do miss the cheap bags of weightless, white, miniature mallows, but I'm not complaining - it's still a fluffy block'o'sugar.

Happenings

Yes, we're at THAT age now.

Artists abound...

Sadly, "cheerios" here are coated in sugar - luckily there's walmart.com!

Took a nice horsie-ride around the hills over Labor Day - taking pics on the trail wasn't allowed for the newbie riders, unfortunately. But it was cool riding horses while kangaroos hopped nearby.

mmmmm

Did anyone else play "Hurry Up" as a kid?? You try to get the marbles up without falling through the holes.

Little miss Professional.

Music Mates

And heeeeeeeaps of playing outside again.

Oh, and Will broke his big toe kicking the sandbox behind his bouncing soccer ball, but persists in hobbling around anyway.

All you can do is tape a toe, poor guy.

Sleepyheads

Since church goes right through Summer's nap time, and I'm in charge of the kids' program the last 2 hours, sometimes D just cuts his losses and takes the crabby gal home for her nap.

Or for his... as we discovered last week.

We had a lunch/social following meetings and I'd been borrowing phones to text and call him that we were ready for a ride home (sharing the one car, you know) but to no avail. Finally we bummed a ride from one of the last stragglers and walked in to this little vision:

I just love imagining the scenario unfold. Summer tooling around victorious, Dad succumbing to the snooze, her slowly realizing, "Hey, when did he fall asleep?"then cruising around some more, getting bored/lonely/sleepy, thinking "I guess I'll just climb up there and see what's going on... oh, this looks like a cozy spot, yeah, maybe I'll just sit here and rest my eyes for a minute...zzzzzzzz"

In the whispered words of my son, "I think my heart just melted!"

Peas in a pod, those two. Deep sleepers. (Turns out she was sitting on his phone, hence the incommunicado.) I poked my head in an hour later to find them cuddled up like this.

 Just snorin' away on a Sunday afternoon.