It’s taken Tom at least 3 months to colour in this poster! I have been promising him that when it was all finished I would take him to the “lemonading” (ie laminating) shop to get it laminated so we could stick it to the wall. Today was the day! Here he is with Doggy to help:-)

Not to be out-done, Thea took 3 of her pains-takingly coloured-in Disney princess pictures to be laminated too.

The lady at Snap Printing was lovely. She let me take Tom and Thea behind the scenes to watch all the laminating happen. She really got in on the adventure!

What is it about Elwyn – fresh from UK, she gets the kiddliwinks up to mischief in record time! Here she and Tom are carrying Thea in the blue plastic pig that I found by the side of the road near our rental house in Floreat:-)

It’s Rob’s 60th birthday today, the 60th chance to celebrate the gift of his birth:-)

He’s already had birthday greetings from Elwyn, Tristan, Blaine, Tom and Thea (as well as me as we woke up). Jeanette has a surprise visit to his work planned…

We’ve been through a lot together during the 41 years we have been best friends, but the best bit is that we are still alive and well enough to enjoy each other’s company and just doing things together.

Here’s to Rob!

This morning, to give Tom and Thea something nice to do while Tristan and Blaine frantically got their house ready for the first home open, we let them decorate the Christmas tree. When we pulled our old tree out of storage, it was so fragile and dusty that we put it on the front verge and took the kiddliwinks shopping for a new one! Bunnings had none. Coles look like they had none, but Rob (of course) tracked down the last one.

Picture this: after that we had morning tea at BrewHa, the cafe near Coles, with a HUGE box next to us – the Christmas tree!

So, once again, it was Pa (Rob) to the rescue:-)

Tonight we cut into the last of the lemons that we harvested from the lemon tree at our rental house in Glengariff Drive, Floreat. It was planted by the old lady who passed away there a few years ago, in the 1970s when she and her husband built the house to live in and bring up their family.

As I sliced the lemon to garnish our grilled fish, I gave silent thanks to Bev – her tree makes the most juicy and almost sweet lemons:-)

This evening, as Rob and I had our drinks on the balcony of our woodland cottage near Pemberton, we were joined by one of the inhabitants of the forest. He was quite chatty and very fond of almonds!

This is the view from the dining area of our apartment in Albany; we are here for a few days for much-needed R&R to start recovering from the franticness of the last 5 months!

During our drive south from the heat (39 degrees in Perth) yesterday, including right through the Stirling Ranges where we have enjoyed many walks and climbs in years gone by, we enjoyed seeing: red-capped parrots on the road verges, a beautiful copper-coloured snake on the road (alive!), a big bungara lizard, several small bungara lizards, LOTS of 28s (good thing because the rackety introduced rainbow lorikeets are pushing them out of the Perth metro area!), hawks, wedge-tailed eagles, heaps of little birds which we couldn’t identify.

I write this sitting in our dining area, enjoying the glimpse of the ocean and the lovely, cool breeze with a tinge of salt on it:-)

Lots and lots of people put in lots and lots of effort to make Tom’s school fete a great success. One of these people was Blaine who coordinated and put on the plant stall – great work and a crucial part of the success.

It was good to wander around for a bit a get the feel of this community – ordinary wanting good things for their children.

And Tom and Thea had a good ride on the tea-cups, and especially on the horses with Tristan and Rob watching out for them closely!

This afternoon I made my way across town to meet Tristan, Blaine, Tom and Thea at Galleria to get the kiddliwinks some summer clothes. These are some favourites!

And as I left I noticed the beautiful sculpture in the front of the shopping centre – gorgeous:-)

This morning, while Blaine worked on our library, I took Thea and her rabbit out for morning tea with Thea’s Great-Grandma (my Mum). They all had a good time!