Grace is 8!

Happy 8th birthday Grace! Growing up too fast. I have asked you all week if you can stop growing and stay 7 years old to which you have answered, "No way Mummy! I want to be 8 now!" I love how you still call me Mummy though, still haven't grown up enough for that to change!

Grace's Merit Certificate

First merit certificate for 2011! Awarded to Grace at assembly on Friday for "always actively participating in all class activities and discussions with enthusiasm and good humor". Well done Gracie!

Cut Off!

We have had a bit of rain lately, just a bit. I must be getting old as the weather fascinates me now! We have had 179mm for the month of March so far, last year we only had 84mms for the whole month. The sky is looking like this colour most of the time and I'm using the tumble dryer to dry clothes!

So after 88mms of rain since Friday, word got around town that the water was rising! The road to Fitzroy Crossing has been closed since Friday which is the link to the rest of Western Australia. The road to Darwin is open still but all the food and mail comes from Perth. The supermarket shelves in the fruit and veggie section have pumpkin or lemons! We went down to Ivanhoe Crossing after school today to have a look. It's all under water! It should look like this but it's all under water.... that green tree top island on the left there in the water? I think that is the tree that the warning sign about crocodiles is under.


Then we drove over to look at the Dunham River, which was raging under the bridge! Its about 4 times the width of what it normally is! It's all very exciting, besides not having any fresh fruit it's all good!

Molly Springs In the Wet!

It is the wet season up here at the moment which means lots of rain! According to one of my favorite web sites BOM, we had 249.4 mm in January and then 425.4 mm in February! So we try and get out on the weekend amongst the showers! This is a pretty typical view from the front seat of the 4wd, water on the track, green lush tree's and grass and grey clouds.

A few weekends ago we ventured to Molly Springs which usually looks like this, a gentle little waterfall but you could hear the water crashing down 5oo meters away as you walked up the track to it! This is as close as we got to it, the water was just rushing by too fast for us to cross or the girls to swim in. I had visions of them being swept away.

So we walked back down the track and swam in a quieter section that is usually just ankle deep. There was still a strong rush of water here, Daz and I were standing in the water just out of shot on the bottom left, and if I faced the current and did breast stroke, I didn't move anywhere, the force of the water kept me swimming in one spot. It was amazing.

Catch of the Day!

Daz went on a boy's only fishing trip on the weekend. They went somewhere off Cape Domett. He caught a BIG fish! This is a 1 metre and 10 cm Jew Fish or a Mulloway.

This one was smaller, about 82 cms.

It's almost as tall as Milly! So it's fish for tea tonight as well as last night..... and a lot in the freezer!

Hidden Valley.

What to you call a bunch of teachers that walk into a valley on a weekend? I am not sure, but I did ponder it as I made up the rear party of an afternoon outing to Hidden Valley or Mirima National Park on Sunday. This park is on our doorstep practically, I drive past it every day and despite being here a year, we have never been for a walk in it! So we packed our towels, snacks and drinks and took a 30 minute trek to this.......

A beautiful pool. Deep enough to jump off into. See that figure in the white top on the left clapping as the others jumped in?? Notice how there is a gap in the ladies jumping off, almost like the person in the white was supposed to jump in too but at the last second stepped back and said "No WAY!" Well that chicken is me! Just couldn't do it!

There was a smaller ledge that the girls were happy jumping off.

I jumped in off this one just fine. :)

First Day of School for 2011!

My what a difference a year can make. This time last year at the start of the school year, Grace was less than impressed as you may remember from this blog post. And now look at her this morning! Very confident and more than eager to go. One if the perks of working at the same school your kids attend is that you know who their teachers are, so we knew all throughout the holidays that Grace had Mrs H and Milly had Miss W who was the same teacher she had last year so she was extra happy. Milly is in year one this year and Grace is in year three. Being a big year three kid, she didn't want me to hang around and see her in the door this morning, lucky I got to chat to her teacher in the staff room about how it was going. Milly let me walk her to her room and come in for a few minutes, then I was shooed out of there too! We have two happy confident kids so should be proud of that. 2011 is going to be a great year for both of them.