The last few weeks...

It has been a busy few weeks in more ways than one over here. Wes Mum arrived a couple of weeks ago for a flying visit, but is hopefully back out at Christmas for a longer break. I am now doing some data entry work from home, which works well for us as I am working it around George. The schools went back after the mid term break, so playgroups and swimming are all back to normal. George has moved up a group in his swimming and is adjusting well. Hopefully, I should be out of the water in a few weeks time. We are getting there with George using the toilet, the reward chart we are using is really helping.

The weekends have been busy meeting friends for BBQ's and socialising with some of Wes' friends from work. There always seems to be people in a similar situation to us, recently moved here, either from abroad or just another part of Australia, so it is nice to share experiences and start to build friendships. Western Australia is trialling daylight savings, (this is the last of a 3 year trial), so we are now 9 hours ahead of the UK.

Giggles at lunch

Wes and the kids were all doing fake laughs, then George comes out with...'it's not funny'....that made them all laugh even more....and so it went on!

A quiet week...

It has been the school holidays here this past week and everything stops, so no playgroup or swimming lessons for George. Taking full advantage of not having much on for a fortnight, I decided to try and get George out of nappies. To say it has been a challenge would be an understatement, but we are getting there and have even started to venture out of the house again! We took George swimming on Saturday and he enjoyed the slides. He really is improving and is moving up a group next term, which will hopefully see me getting out of the water and him being more confident on his own. Lew and Kate popped round on Sunday and we offered to have the kids for a bit. They had a really giggly lunch (mini clip above) and just enjoyed playing together.

It is really strange here at the moment, it seems that the whole of Perth has turned into a tip! Kerb side collections start this week and it appears that mostly everyone has had a clear out over the weekend and just dumped there stuff on their front lawns. If you had no idea what was going on, it is quite strange to see all this rubbish appear overnight. The funny thing about it, is that you can just go and help yourself to other people's rubbish! I have seen cars driving round and pulling up next to piles of rubbish having a good route through them. We had a wander around our estate the other night to see if we could pick up any garden toys for George but were unlucky :-(

Bank Holiday Weekend

Last weekend was a bank holiday here and lucky for us the weather was lovely. On Sunday, George had his first party invite to a friend's 1st birthday. We got together with everyone at Woodman Point, where the kids could run around and play and we could have a drink and chat. George loved playing with his cousins and spent a lot of time rolling down the slopes with Luke.

Monday, the Queen's Birthday...(not quite sure which one, but Wes was off work)...so we went to the Perth Royal Show. This is a yearly event that takes place here in Perth for just over a week. There is loads going on everyday, with displays on the main showground, plus cattle/sheep judging, wood chopping competitions, animals to pet/ride, various promotions, food halls with freebies.....who needed lunch.....we tried popcorn, milk, mashed potato, sausages, milk shakes, apple juice and collected loads more along the way. We met up with Lew and co for a bit, then went our separate ways. They had done this all last year, but as it was all new to us so we walked around most of the show.

One of the main things about the show is the show bags. There are stalls full of bags with goodies, mainly for the kids. It was quite funny to watch, but people must go just for the bags, some people had armfuls of them. I did manage to get the 'mammoth' bag for Wes which included a boogie board that he cannot wait to try out. We got George a Disney Cars bag and a Bob the Builder bag, but have put some of the goodies inside away for stocking fillers for Christmas. He had a great day, driving the boats, flying in the helicopters, bouncing down the slides, winning on the side stalls, petting a pig and riding a camel with daddy. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and would recommend it.

http://www.perthroyalshow.com.au/