Sunflowers Farm is our favorite place to visit in Margaret River, WA. The children are free to roam the farm, pet and feed the animals and play on a playground all day at their liesure. Caitlyn took no time at all to get aquainted with the animals, in fact, she loved them! Most of them were much bigger than her, but she eagerly pet and fed them as well. The pictures are a bit out of order, but, the last one is Aaron scratching the kangaroos back (i guess he thought it had an itch?), and the first one is it's reaction, looks lik her really liked his back scratched! We had a good laugh. The big black cow having a stare down with Cate was our neighbor. Right outside our door was it's pen, shared with 3 other cows, thankfully they were quiet. Caitlyn loved going out each morning to greet them before we fed the rest of the animals.

I am so thankful the children love nature, the outdoors and animals! God has blessed us with such cool experiences!

Siesta park was Ryan's pick, a favorite from last yr. This park was designed by a father of 3 boys, and has lots of outdoor things to do. Between the tarzan rope, the zip-line, crabbing, and playing in the ocean, the boys were always busy in the fresh air. We also had a little mini birthday celebration here, doing some games and a piniata which was great fun!

The Busselton jetty is the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere. It was built in 1865 to support the all important timber trade. There were a few extensions, the last being in 1960 bringing it to almost 2km in length! At the end, there is an amazing underwater observatory with great sea life. The fish and coral are all there on their own accord, there is nothing done by man to attract them. The colors were simply amazing!

Special time with Caitlyn

The Easter Egg Hunt

We had 2 Easter egg hunts this year, one for just the Wilson's and one with our friends. Here are some pics of both. Anything for candy! And by the way, who's idea was it to make this an Easter tradition anyway? I never knew rabbits laid eggs, let alone chocolate filled ones.

What a bunch!

It's been a while since I have updated things, I know. Well, I received a new camera for my birthday and I have been having lots of fun taking pictures with it, so here are lots of pictures of the children for you to enjoy!

This first one I found hilarious, the Singaporeans love to take pictures of the the "white baby"! This used to happen to us when we were first arrived and the children were small. Now they love taken photos of Cate.

Houdini

This is our newest nickname for Caitlyn. I agree, it's not the cutest name for a 1 yr old little girl. But, you see, she has the sneakiest way of getting onto places you'd never expect! One minute she's next to you reading a book and the next she's gone, to be found in the strangest place. Today I found her in her bathroom sink in the most awkward position, the drain plugged and water running, her totally soaked. Then, as if that wasn't enough for one night, she was found on top of the dinner table drinking from all of our glasses! Another one of her favorite things to do is stand on the toilet pushing the flush button, a thousand times! I spend the day chasing after her getting her out of bizzarre places. Her strong will and curiosity will serve her well as she grows, but it gets tiring after a while. But, I never really wanted a "girly girl" anyway, so this is a blessing in disguise.

Happy Birthday Catitlyn!

I can't beleive she's one already! We had a great time for Caitlyn's birthday this weekend, inviting some old time friends and some new friends. What a blast! I had a friend come and take proffessional pics of her, so when I get those I will post them as well.

Ethan made a new friend named Jackson, it was so great to watch them play together. Caitlyn wasn't sure what to do woth all the poeple in the house though. And as if it wasn't enough to watch her make a mess of herself the first time she ate her "cake", we had to do it again for all to see. She really dove into it this time!

Sweet Caitlyn

Caitlyn is definately sweet enough on her own, but I wanted to give her a taste of a real sweetness on her birthday. CHOCOLATE! I am not real sure of where this tradition comes from, letting the children play in thier food on thier frist birthday. Not allowing them to have any sweets their whole short life, and then giving them something full of sugar, to run thier fingers wildly through while we laugh at the cuteness of it all. THEN, we wonder why they want to play with their food al the time. And I am sure they are wondering why in the world we won't let them, after all, we did that one time and everyone thought it was so darn cute! If you think about it, it doesn't really make sense.

Well, I went ahead and did it anyway. I mean, who am I to break such a tradition? I made her a healthy one at least. It's called Avocado pudding. It consist of avocados, cocoa, agave syrup, and coconut cream. Then I made a crust of ground almonds and agave mixed. Put some fruit slices in and on top and viola! A yummy dessert that's healthy too. No, I couldn't resist the urge to put a plug in here for healthy treats, it's a passion, what can I say?

Christmas in November

So, most of you know the saga about our container arriving in Sg last yr. Well, the saga continues! This is what our house looked like last weekend when we had 60 boxes arrive from our container. You see, Steve thought it would be a great idea to get some stuff out of storage and go through it before they sent it back to the U.S. finally. Now, in theory, it sounded like a great idea. But halfway through the morning when we kept discovering things we hadn't seen in 3 yrs, yet didn't have a place for them, we quickly wished we hadn't done it.

Steve enjoyed going through old highschool and college yearbooks, while the younger boys fondly remembered the train we used to put around the Christmas tree. It was fun, if only for a while.

Just too cute!

Carving Pumpkins

I sometimes wonder wether the pumpkin carving is more for the adults or for the children. After picking the pumpkins we all came back and carved them. However, you can't put a sharp pointed object in the hand of a boy, especially when they love sword fights! So, all the adults took a deep breath and dove in. How quickly you forget about the mess it makes, and the slime! As you can tell, Ryan was thoroughly disgusted at the slimy goopy mess. He kept saying "I'm gonna throw up!". He obviously doesn't take after me, I love goopy stuff! Aaron, on the other hand, dove in head first, with both hands having a great time! Now, that's my boy!

Great fun was had by all. One & a half hours, four adults, and five boys later, we have five cool pumpkins with various designs ready to light up the night.

Pickin' pumpkins

I was excited to here when a friend told me she was going to pick pumpkins, as I haven't done so since we came here 3 1/2 yrs ago. This was one of my favorites thing to do in the harvest season. The Singapore American School (sas) had converted one of their outdoor play areas to a pumpkin patch. There were lots to choose from, of all different sizes. It was so fun, remembering like it was "back in the good ol' days".

There weren't cheap though! Having to ship them in from the U.S. they charged a pretty penny for each pumpkin. But the little ones were only $1 each, and the Indian Corn was 2/$1. This was cool because last year when I bought some at Cold Storage they were at least $5 each.

Anyway, we had a fun fall day today.

This is Caitlyn enjoying Beehoon. I am not exactly sure how you spell it, but it has become one of our regular weekly meals. It consists of rice noodles, and various veggies with chicken stir fried. Add a little Tamari sauce and viola! YUM!

As for how much she actualy ate vs wore, I am not sure. But, it was definately fun to watch!

Mr. Peter

We are always blessed when Peter comes to Singapore. This time he joined us on our Sunday tradition across the bridge to Brewerkz, our favorite burger joint. The boys enjoy sharing with him all thats new and telling srories as well. It was Cate's first time meeting Peter, she took to him quite well, blessing him with a smile.

We sure hope Eileen, Peter's wife, can join him on the next trip out!

The Second Day of School!

Why not the first day of school? Well, I decided it was better to remember the 2nd day than the first. It was "School Spirit" week at ICS. This means you dress up in different themes assigned for the particular day. Day 2 was "mismatch day". They all had so much fun with that one. Other days were "celebrity day", "futuristic day", "pajama day", you get the idea.

The first day was full of hurrying, and stress for me. The rain came down inside and out. We arrived a bit late because it was raining so heavy that morning. It seemed like the longest carride ever. I was excited for my little boy to start school but it was hard to see him in a sea of people not knowing what to do with it all. The excitement and flurry of people at the schoolyard was a bit too much for both of us.

BUT, we both survived and are loving it!

Ethan's teacher is Mrs. Lawrence. She has 5 children, whom she homeschooled for several years before moving to Singapore. You can imagine my delight when I heard this! A woman who shares my heart. Ethan loves her, and I am sure they will have a fantastic year!

Aaron's Teacher is Miss Ringy. Actually, that's not how you spell her name, but that's how it's pronounced (ca't remember how to spell it). She is also a great teacher. He is one of 10 students I think, so his cvlass it quite small this year. Miss Ringy had the class write Aaron welco0me notes for his first day. This blessed us beyond measure! His face lit up so brightly and he wanted to make them all cards in return. For him, having friends and fitting in ranks real high. He was afraid it would be hard to make friends. God is taking care of them exactly the way they need to be.

Ryan enjoys having someone to ride the bus with in the morning, and is a great big brother helping Ethan get settled when they first get there. I am blessed by his friendship and responsibility to them.