More Randomness

It's been almost 2 months since my last post - where does time fly?? Here's a little photo update of what I've been up to. 

We had a visit from our local fire department. The kids had a ball spraying the hose!

We made these cute trophies for Father's Day (celebrated in September here). I spray painted disposable coffee cups gold, used double sided tape to join them together and the kids used sticky foam letters to add a message. Totally ripped off of Pinterest.

I went on a cruise with Liz from Bayside Math Teacher for 10 days over our spring break (plus an overnight stay on the Gold Coast and in Sydney). We had a great time and are already planning a ski trip to New Zealand next Winter!

Before we left from Sydney, we did all the touristy things - visited the Opera House, walked the Harbour Bridge and visited Luna Park and the Botanical Gardens. 

While down in Sydney, I had my first Starbucks coffee! I don't think we have them in Brisbane...Once on board the Carnival Spirit, I loved relaxing with cocktails in the Serenity Bar. We ended up collecting all the fancy cups they can get served in. My boy down there was constantly annoying me by not wanting to smile (or pose for) any photos. Ggggrrrrrr. Liz and I dressed up for Mexican (and Caribbean) night and of course the sunsets were amazing as we sailed through Vanuatu and New Caledonia. My head kept getting in the way of this selfie... but the first selfie I've ever taken was on this cruise (believe it or not) and I did get a little bitty bit better at taking them! When I saw Cara's font titled "Oh Poop" I knew I had to use it because that's what I said after about 10 of these selfies all having the same result :)

We ended up having shore days at Isle of Pines and Mystery Island in Vanuatu and Lifou and Noumea in New Caledonia. I LOVED New Caledonia and will definitely go back again. By now I was a little better at taking selfies.... We ended up taking a path through the 'wilderness' at Lifou which was little more than a little dirt track. It paid off, it took us straight to Jinek Bay, which had some great snorkeling. The water was so clear and there were plenty of fish!

After our snorkel in Lifou, we followed this sign to the Cave. I'd read about it online and we'd planned to go there and it was so helpful that this sign was there to show us the way! We passed some traditional homes and Catholic Church and had another little trek down to the cave. The view from where we enter looking back up was beautiful! It is very dark when you enter the cave with just a little light shining in from a natural opening. There is a man there with a torch but it was still really dark. There is a natural pool that you can jump into, which we did! The water is about a metre from the surface and you just have to take the plunge into darkness! I took a photo when I got down in there to see what I was jumping into and you could see the water with the flash, but without it you couldn't really see anything. It was a lot of fun!

The snorkeling was fantastic. We took a tour through Aquanature because it was rated Number 1 activity on TripAdvisor. It was wonderful and Bernard (our guide) was so knowledgeable, that's him swimming down to pick some things up to show us. Most of the good stuff I videoed instead of taking photos, but we got to see a sea turtle, a shark, stingray, schools of fish and lots more! I want to go back and do it all again!

Anyway, we're back to real life now - 7 weeks to go for this school year. Can't wait for summer! We are learning out Sound at the moment in science and the kids had a blast making straw kazoos to explore pitch this week. Click the pic to take you to PBS to view it. I was happy to send the kazoos home in the afternoon for the kids to show their parents!

 

I'll try to be back more school related things soon!