Riding

Gem is enjoying her riding lessons.

Here she is on Princess. Tahlia is having to lead her as Princess was in a bad mood and wouldn't do as Gemma asked- sound familiar in any way?

They are going on a Bushie, as the instructor likes to call it.

Check out Gemma's new Joddies, chaps and boots- she is looking pretty horsey now- just need to get the helmet jacket gloves....

City Bound

After the rigors of Outward Bound Fraser and his pals are City Bound.
They  go into the City for two weeks, travelling on the train etc and complete a project. Here they are on presentation night Julianio, Fraser, Lewis and Liam. Georgia could not make it. All power to her for being in a group with these dudes. As you can see their theme was transport.

Easter fun

We had a well organised Easter this year at Uncle Sam's

The kids all had a list of the number, colour and size of eggs they could collect. The big kids had to help the little ones to find theirs. Then we decorated hard boiled eggs and rolled them down the hill to the creek- an eggscellent venue for this activity! Grandma was in charge of Lottie- dogs are not allowed chocolate- but try telling them that!

Unusual Visitors

There's a bird on the roof!

We have been visited by a Peahen and her chick- here they are on the roof. They were first seen down by the creek, but are quite tame and visit all the houses in the hope of some food. When Gem was over the road at number 11, they even came into the house and had to be shooed out.

Day in the city

We took Grandad and Gill to a Dogs game. Surprisingly, it was Gill and Grandad's first game- he has usually gone back to the UK when the season starts. This was a preseason game at the Docklands stadium- the dogs put on a good show. It was an exciting game, they won and we got to sing the song! A perfect outing. We also saw some of the new Docklands development along the Yarra.

Keith Bobbinson gets weaving

More fun for the parrots. Here are apple treats susspended in a lattice of rope. This is so that more of them can feast at once. I counted 20 parrots on the superstructure once fully stocked. It seems however much food you put out, the parrot numbers will always cover all the feeding stations with some parrots left over...

Family celebrations

We have been over to Cobblestone Manor for a few birthdays-
Keeley and Uncle Tich.

The cakes were lovingly created by Aunty Dette- Keeley's has a real doll in it- which needed a wash before she could play with it. Tich's was an ipad- it only had a couple of apps- Dette ran out of time!

New school

Gemma started a new school.
Here she is outside her classroom with Maybelle.
There have already been concert performances- they don't have any time for book learning, I'm sure.

Biscuits

The boys go on their 3rd annual camping weekend.
They had lots of fun on the biscuit. Here's Zander and Pete- getting thrown off. It was a very hot weekend, luckily the campsite had an airconditioned room to cool off in.

Grandad and Gill visit

We were honoured to have a visit from Grandad and Gill earlier this year. We mannaged to persuade them to go on a few trips. Here they are at London Bridge enjoying the sandflies- they rather liked the flavour of Grandad's blood... At the Australia Day fireworks, Mornington, a day for wrapping up warm this year. On Oliver's hill enjoying the sunset. Here's one of Kaggs, Gem and Fraser in front of a giant sanddune on Wilson's Prom- grandad and Gill were there too. Perhaps we packed in too many things on their visit- they were exhausted when they got back to England.