Freo Funny!

Today we decided to have a Family outing. We decided to go to Freo (Fremantle) for a wander around. Neils cousin Paul lives there and we thought we might catch up with him too - but unfortunately he got stuck at work - so next time perhaps.

Freo was lovely - busy as usual and very touristy.

The story of the day was......................We had a bite to eat and a wander and ended up at the Round House - which is an 179 year old Stone Gaol. It is on a high hill and from there you can get some awesome views over the Port & Sea.

At 1pm everyday - they fire a Cannon from there as a reenactment of when they used to do it to let the ships know the time. They had two systems - the Cannon firing and a Ball dropping. One to signify local time and one to signify GMT.

Anyway - we just happen to arrive there about 15 mins before the Cannon fired - so we hung around to watch & listen........ at 12.55- we were all hearded back behind the safety line and given the spiel about it all, told to cover our ears and then there was a big count down.......10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1....BANG! (not)

Ohhhh - it didn't fire!

That was a disappointment.

So the lady scurried around - and we tried again.........awww NO BANG!

OK - she'll just check this and that and plug that wire in again.........here we go........awww NO BANG!

So - that was it.....off we went. As we were leaving there were people hurrying up there to see it. But Ana said...... "Sorry - you just missed it - it was Awesome"!

We finished our wander and came home, stopping on the way for Ice creams.

Kindy Days

As you would have seen on a previous Post - Sarah is now at School (Kindy). She has just finished School holidays and is so happy to be back at school. Although she was exhausted afterwards yesterday.

During the holidays they sent home her School Portfolio of her work so far. It's so cute - so I thought I would put pics of some of it here for you to see.

Mama took me to the Zoo today...

This is the Baby Giraffe at Perth Zoo.

Guess where we went today? My Mum is visiting us at the moment - so we decided to have a day out at the Perth Zoo.

We had a lovely day wandering around - it was warm but not too hot which was good. Here are some pics from our day.

Two of the Giraffe's - the smaller one here is the Baby from last year.




Stripey Horses - Zebra's really.


Sarah called these Turtles....but they are really Tortoise.


While we stood there - they all went off for a walk.


Sarah loved sitting on this Life-sized Galapagos Tortoise statute - she had remembered it from our Zoo visit last year.


This Orangutan had a 6 month old baby. They only have a baby about every 8 years.....then breast feed for about 6 years!


This is one of the Asian Elephants - he has great tusks.


Mr Tiger was sleepy.


Sarah and Grandma

Penguins - really cute...but quite smelly. And really fast swimmers too.

This is a Black Neck Stork also know as a Jabiru.

The big Croc was out in the sun.

He's huge - you know!

Mum got friendly with this Mama & Baby

Mothers Day Project

So did all you Mum's out there have a good Mothers Day? Get time off? Put your feet up? Well I got quite spoilt.

During the day Neil and Sarah disappeared. I could hear Neil sawing, hammering and pottering in the shed. And Sarah seemed very happy pottering round with him. I left them to it for a while and then when up to see what was going on. They were busy making something......so I went away.

A while later they emerged with a new Peg Basket for me. It had to be painted....so they did that. Here are some pics of the finished product.

Sarah painted this side.

Neil painted this side.

See how it hangs on the line....and I can move it along the line or take it off the line too if I want.

A very handy gift.

Spaghetti or Spelling

After I finished my dinner one night - I got up to start the dishes, leaving Neil helping Sarah to finish her meal. When I went back to clear a few dishes I found.....

Since starting School - Sarah now points out every "S" in sight and says "There's my name Mummy". She makes an S out of everything.

So...Card Making is not the only reason I have a plastic table cloth!

Zoom Zoom Zoom!!

Last weekend, we had a great family week end out. The Red Bull Air Race was on - so we decided to go down and check it out.

On Saturday afternoon we sat beside the Swan River and watched the Aeroplanes buzzing around. They are so fast and fly really low over the river around a set course.

Floating on the river are a set of gates that they have to fly through as fast as possible. Each run takes just over 1 min. The fastest man wins.

We could see Jellyfish and Fish swimming by. They were so close that Neil tried a bit of fishing by hand.

The Police were there too.

At the end of the day the Air force did a flying display. Here they are flying in formation - above us and over the city. We had great views of Perth city on the other side of the River.

We manage to catch the last few Air Races of the day - and enjoyed it so much we decided to go back on Sunday for the final day of racing.

So on Sunday, after packing our Picnic Chilly Bin, Folding Chairs, Gazebo, Beer Chilly Bin, Blanket, Sun Block........etc - we set off for another day of racing.

The planes all put out a trail of smoke as they go around the course - which helps you to keep up with them - and you can also see if they are turning tight circles to get round the course faster or not. At times the course gets quite fogged up with smoke.

Through-out the day there were a number of displays by different air-craft. This is the Helicopter that was buzzing round all day - I think they were probably filming the action.

And Qantas did a fly over with their big plane that is decorated with Aborigine designs (sorry it's a bit fuzzy cause it was quite fast and I had trouble taking a pic of it).

Sometimes the planes in the Red Bull Air Race clip the gate things and as the air escapes they float down to the river. Then a little boat races out and fixes on a new bit and they inflate with air again ready for the next plane to start.

As you can see - the sun was shining - it was a beautiful day. We (and other race watchers) were pleased we took our Gazebo for shade and sun block too. It was a great atmosphere. It was fantastic - we had another awesome day out - and were all exhausted by the time we got home (mainly from carrying all our picnic paraphernalia).