Clean Up Australia Day

I know this is a bit late....still! I got to tell you, I've lived in Australia for longer than "Clean Up Australia" day has been running and I'm ashamed to say that this year was the first time I took part in it.
Our church is wanting to be more involved in serving our community in a practical sort of way, so we thought this would be a good way to do that!


















Mind you, the place we chose, didn't need much cleaning up. All we found were a few cigarette butts and a few popped balloons and lolly wrappers. But, the kids were all excited, not sure why? maybe it was because for the first time they were not being told off for touching rubbish? :) or maybe it was the gloves? :)




















The whole thing was very well organised and there was even a lunch bbq put on by Clean Up Australia day for all the volunteers which we unfortunately couldn't attend.
It was a fun day out! I think we'll be doing it again next year for sure!

Post impressionist's impressions

We headed down the highway to our nation's capital on Thursday to see the exhibition on that's on now at the National Art Gallery - Masterpieces from Paris, Van gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and beyond. Post impressionism from the Musee D'orsay.
Rebekah was sort of excited because she knows a bit about Monet,Van Gogh and Cezanne, thanks to Charlotte Mason (as do I too actually, thanks Charlotte!)
In fact she brought along her Picnic with Monet board book and a Van Gogh art calendar that we got last year.
I just love how homeschooling Charlotte Mason style has enriched my life - yes, MY life!
How else would I have enjoyed this wonderful exhibition.
We chose to go during the week as the crowds thronging there from all around the country is pretty amazing apparently, none like this gallery has ever seen before!
Thankfully we only had to wait twenty minutes in the queue!
Was the long trip there and back in a day worth it? Absolutely! There's nothing quite like seeing all those amazing paintings in real life. I mean, there they were on the wall a foot away from us, we could easily reach out and touch them. They looked like they had been painted just yesterday not a hundred or so years ago! Stunning, amazing, beautiful, fantastic, those are some of the words that came out of our mouths that day!
The highlight for me was "Starry night over the Rhone" by Van Gogh.



















To stand there and see the amazing detail up close in the painting and how he used his paint brush to capture the effects of the night sky and the reflection in the water below was just amazing!
The man was a genius!








Ron's favourite was Monet's Water Lily Pond:



























And to keep the kids happy they had a family activity room and one section of it set up like Van Gogh's "Bedroom at Arles".
Rebekah like most kids has always loved this one.





















And here's Rebekah in the painting! :)



















Pretty cool, don't you think?


Got any plans to go visit? You won't be disappointed!

Do they get any cuter?

Well, it happened Sunday week ago....Rebekah lost her first tooth.
It so happened that we were at church and so she had a lot of friends to share the exciting event with her (and us) :)
It's been more than a week now and I've just been amazed at how cute my daughter is with the gap in her mouth and the way she talks now due to the gap...it's all so... cute!
Seriously....do they get any cuter than this? !!!



















The tooth fairy came too....though she had been told by a friend just recently that the tooth fairy isn't real and it's really your mum and dad that put the money there!
So, Rebekah told us NOT to put any money UNDER HER PILLOW because she wanted to see if the tooth fairy was real.
We put the money NEXT TO HER BED instead.
This has now led to a whole new situation....she thought it came from the tooth fairy and her friend told her there is no tooth fairy, she told us NOT to put money under her pillow, so we put it next to her bed. A few days later, she told her friend that the tooth fairy did come and she knows for sure because she knows her mummy and daddy WOULD NOT lie because lying is bad...oh dear, we dug a hole for ourselves didn't we!
So, we had to fess up and tell her it was us and that we put the money NEXT TO HER BED and NOT UNDER HER PILLOW because we didn't want her disappointed. We were not (technically)lying!
She WAS disappointed, very disappointed that the tooth fairy was not real.
The next day, she told us that when her next tooth falls out she wants to see if the tooth fairy is real. We don't know what happened to our conversation about the tooth fairy not being real when we fessed up! Oh dear!
Where's that parenting manual again? :)