West Australian Holiday

David and Sara took some time out and we went to a holiday park in Busselton . Here Aiden is practicing his balancing on the railing - so much more fun than just walking !

Megan is growing up very quickly . She does not think just going down a slide is enough fun - a swing up the top is part of the routine every time.

Busselton has a very long pier with some shops on the end . We watched some people fishing successfully from this platform .

The children can't go to the beach without going into the water it seems. No matter how cool we thought it was all the clothes had to come off or get very wet . We did have lovely weather about 25c every day - too cool for us to swim though !

Aiden is really growing up. We gave him a construction kit for an aeroplane - Hank helped him put it together . They were busy with it for several hours

Here we are in Rockingham a town close to David and Sara's home. We had a picnic on the beach.

Megan loves to climb and swing . She is a very determined little girl who already thinks she knows her own mind . It was so special to spend time with them.

You can see where the little girl gets her climbing from ! Aiden goes to school two days a week now - we went there with Sara one day when she was 'on duty'. It was great fun.

40th Wedding Anniversary

We were thrilled to receive these flowers from the family in Holland. Thank you very much! As you can see they are beautiful and actually becoming more special still as they open up. Annemarie and Gary and the children , and Tim and Amrit and the girls , came for a girl cooked tea and we got out our wedding slides and some others for an old fashioned slide night .That was fun . We also had some friends come for coffee in the morning . So it was all rather low key but still a really special day.

Hank bought these roses - 40 of them. These are the same type of rose that I had in my wedding bouquet - they smell gorgeous and look stunning.

Last hours together

Of course we had to take the opportunity of taking a family shot. The children are growing up nicely and I suppose we are growing older but we are all healthy so it's good. We have a beautiful field of flowers next door -dandelions - so the kids could pick as many as they liked. They really had fun.

Here we are sheltering under a tree (with raindrops on the lens).We went for a liittle walk when a shower of rain caught us by surprise - it didn't last long and we were dry before we got home.

Silvan Reservoir is close to our place. It is part of Melbourne's water supply. Although there is only about 30% of capacity left in the whole system they always seem to keep this dam nearly full (all the reservoirs are connected)

Oops.....I copied this pictue on twice by mistake and I don't know how to delete it without starting all over again .Aiden is very worried by rain so he was not a happy boy .I'm sure he'll grow out of it sooner or later .

The Gingerbread House

I've been making a gingerbread house for Christmas the last few years -well putting it together and decorating it really. It needs to be eaten by lots of people - here are some eager helpers. It did look pretty. I think this little series of photos were taken in less than 10 minutes.

I'm sure you can buy Aldi's gingerbread in a flat pack . It really is very nice - just ask Megan .She polished off great big pieces without any problem.

All together on Boxing Day

We had the house full on Christmas night . Tim ,Amrit and the girls slept in the caravan and Gary ,Annemarie and the children stayed over as well. Breakfast was casual - we put everything on the table and the parents served the kids and we sat all over the place. No worries ! I went around with the camera later on - I call this a picture of harmony. Tim ,Anjali and Aiden playing Trouble , and Dave and Amrit playing Mastermind. Father and son caught off guard.

Sara does her scrap booking on line nowadays. Her she's showing Rachel and Annemarie some of the finer points. Glenise , Sara's mum was a pleasure to have with us. She is living in the same town as them now, so she sees lots of the little ones -lucky thing !

Michelle is a natural as far as entertaining the younger ones. She organises and helps them in a really nice way. Maybe I am biased but these grandchildren are very special .

Here is the flying fairy . Megan is at an amazing age and was a delight to have around.

The present exchange

We draw a name from a 'hat' so that each adult gives and receives one present . The children score lots of presents of course which is fun for all of us. Hank is getting lots of interest from Ben, Jenna, Anjali, Kiran and Aiden.

Rachel and Michelle were given a combined present of scrap-booking material .They have admired Sara's work for ages and have lots of bits and pieces to be creative with now.

Kiran and Anjali love dressing up. They both go to ballet classes .

Every little girl needs a teaset. Megan couldn't get to this one because of the wrapping - she doesn't need many words to let you know her thoughts but this time she just had to wait.

Christmas eve cricket

Our backyard lends itself very well for teamsport -especially if the team is small and mixed ages. The weather was perfect and some of us are pretty good with the bat and ball.

If the little ones are shown what to do they get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Maybe if there was a talent scout around we'd be able to help the australian team - Just look at that style !

Every good team needs a cheer squad .

Day in City

Visiting the city of Melbourne makes you realize what a quiet life we lead in Silvan. Here we are at Federation Square with Glenis, Sara's Mum. All festivals and many concerts in the city are held in this area, the feature-wall behind us is only a small part of the surroundings of this city-square. A photo of the young lovers Sara and David, it was so nice to have them and their children Aden and Megan visiting us during the Christmas period.

Ever heard of the 3 wise monkeys ? Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil ? Well here they are practising. Will it work though ????

While we were having lunch Aiden and Megan were letting off some steam on the balcony along the Yarra River.

Aquarium visit

Over the Christmas period we had a surprise visit from David, Sara and their children Aiden and Megan, as an extra surprise Sara's mother Glenis, a very good friend came along as well. While they were here we decided to visit the Melbourne Aquarum which features a display with the famous King and Gentoo Penguins as a new highlight. Here we walk in the big tunnel inside the aquarium. Here we have a 360 degree view of sharks, stingrays, turtles and thousands of schooling fish in the 2.2 million litre Oceanarium.

Aiden and Megan had a great time watching this wonderful seaworld

In the new Antartica display the penguins swim and play in this spectacular icy new home. We thought just seeing the penguins was worth the visit to this great place.

What is going on in his mind, you wonder....? Aiden is growing up fast, he will be attending school this year.