Author: trendfamily

We had the opportunity to observe one of Laura’s ballet classes this week. It was a treat to see her do all her warm-ups, barre, and practice the choreography. She’s come a long way in only four weeks!

Everybody is happy to have the dog here at last.

How to make the playground more challenging? Stand on the spring teeter totter while your sister bounces the other end.

Awesome balance and strength!

A local birding group posted a video to Facebook today of a large flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos in the city. This is an unusual sighting. Colin enjoyed watching the video and went to get Coconut (his cockatoo). He still hasn’t seen any local cockatoos, but I’m sure it won’t be long now!

We have found a variety of Colin’s school work and art while unpacking. He has kept his favorites, but agreed that we could recycle some of them if we took photos first. Some of these are a few years old!!

This is a great skill that has been difficult for Colin.

It’s so great to see him settling in at his school and doing his homework with little fuss.

There are 2 kids in there somewhere.

We have several local cafes. One of our favorites is a very short walk from the house and they make all sorts of beautiful breads, cakes, and pies.

Cliff was out training for his upcoming volunteer work (taking seniors from the local home for bicycle rides), so the kids and I went for a treat.

Laura had Nutella hot chocolate and a custard tart, Colin had a tropical smoothie and vanilla cupcake, and I had peppermint tea and a chocolate chip muffin. We bought a gorgeous loaf of multigrain sourdough bread to bring home.

It was a lovely morning in the sun!

Life has gotten in the way of posting on the blog this week, but it didn’t get in the way of making cookies!

Colin and Sarah made cookies together on Sunday. They took a quick break to document their time with a cooking selfie.

A colony of little blue penguins (also called fairy penguins) lives near our house. Last weekend we went to check them out.

We knew it was best after sunset, but went during the day just in case, and to familiarize ourselves with the location. We saw plenty of signage, but no penguins. We took some time to play on the beach.

We returned around sunset that same day and…

Penguins! They are very tricky to photograph, since it’s night time and they are disturbed by flashes. Penguins can’t see in the red spectrum, though, so there are volunteers with red flashlights to help illuminate the birds.

It was cold and blustery, so we didn’t stay long, but we enjoyed the penguins we saw. We will return on a warmer evening and see more of them!