Kiddos Room

I have been putting off posting this because I was wanting to get the kids new bedding before showing pictures of their cute room but that will have to wait till we make a trip to the states.

I love that I can close the doors to the play room when it is time for bed. It is wonderful! No kids sneaking toys out and playing with them when they should be sleeping.

I found old cabinet door fronts, painted them, then added vinyl chalk board to the front. I love how they turned out. I wish I had more!

I saw the binderclip-frame idea on pinterest. I think it is genius! Almost every day Forest wants to switch out the art work and put in new stuff.

I have a couple more projects for the room (did you notice the large empty frame?) I will post more pictures when I have finished them.

Purim

So Forest goes to a really great Jewish Preschool here in Coogee. The teachers are really loving and patient, and Forest has really been enjoying it. Forest (and Bridger and I) have been learning a lot about the Jewish culture. Two weeks ago we celebrated Purim, which is a Jewish Holiday celebrating the deliverance of the Jews from captivity in the story of Esther. For Purim the kids dressed up and gave treats to each other. Kind of like Halloween and Valentines mixed. It was a really fun festival and it was so cute to see Forest in his adorable cowboy costume!

With Forest going to the Jewish Preschool we have heard some pretty hilarious quotes. Here are some of the best ones:

-While walking home from school Forest tells me, "Mom everyone knew 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' but no one knew the song 'I am a Child of God'" (Forest sang I am a child of God for the whole class).

-Another time walking home a car made a crazy turn on the road and Forest says to me, "Jewish people like us do not do that."

-The next day after learning that we are not Jewish Forest said, "At school I am Jewish and at home I am not."

Forest also comes home singing Jewish songs (some in Hebrew) it is cute to hear him sing the songs, he has a good memory.

I also love him coming home and telling me stories from the Bible. Right now they are learning about Moses and he was telling me how Moses saw God (HaShem, as Forest says) in the burning bush and then he sang me a song about parting the red sea. Very cute!

I am glad he is having so much fun, making good friends and learning so much.

Good Night Moon

This is the view from our balcony. So beautiful! I feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world and to live so close to the ocean. It is wonderful!

Full Moon

Friday night we headed down to the beach after dinner,took some silly photos,

enjoyed the beautiful night,

and watched the moon come up

We also showed off some muscles

more muscles

and more muscles!

What a beautiful night!

We of course ended the night with some yummy desserts! mmm!

p.s. notice Forest's awesome farmers tan!

Monster Mash

Today we made these beauties! (thanks Pinterest for the idea)
Forest had a ROARING time stomping around and acting like a monster

Westly on the other hand, did NOT like the monster feet. He took about 5 steps with them then decided it was more fun to clap with them.

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On a completely different topic, last night ants started creeping under our door. AH! I quickly researched some ways to get rid of ants and found out that if you sprinkle baby powder where the ants are coming in it will repel the ants. It worked! wahoo no ants!

One Rainy Day

Have I mentioned that this summer has been one of the rainiest summers in history here in Sydney? I feel bad, I think we brought Portland's weather with us. Although it has rained more than usual here it has not felt as gloomy as the rain in Portland can seem. Most of the time it is beautiful and sunny out and will rain at night or for an hour randomly in the day. Which is great because it cools everything down. I think all the rain has been a blessing since I don't really do too well in humidity and high heat.

Anyways, on one rainy day I took the boys down into Sydney. We watched the boats come and go in the harbor while we ate a snack. We also walked up to the opera house.

We are going to play I-SPY with this photo.

Can you SPY Forest? The boys and I then went to craft time and story time in the Opera house - how cool is that?! In the Opera House!In the craft area, Forest made a grasshopper that turned out sooo cute! While Westly decided to be Mr. Terror and kept trying to dump out the boxes of craft supplies - ah!
After craft time we headed over to the reading corner for Reading time

The story lady was so adorable and so fun! I enjoyed listening to her read the stories.

After story time we headed out and ate anther snack on the opera house stairs.

Forest is too cool for photos here.

and then we went for a walk through the botanic gardens and along the harbor.

(Westly in this photo is giving Forest a kiss)

The botanic gardens are so beautiful and so huge, you could get lost for hours in there!

While in the gardens we found some beautiful flowers - can you see the closed flower? It is hard to tell from the photo but this flower is really large - probably the size of Forest's head!

this is the same type of flower opened. Forest and I thought these flowers looked like the magic flower from "Tangled"

both boys were much too interested in the water so we didn't stay here too long- just for the photo.

We spent over an hour wondering about and really enjoying the overcast day. Sydney is beautiful even when covered in clouds and rain.

1st Day of School

Guess who had his first day of Pre-school?!

....This stylin' 4 year old

Forest has been so excited for school to start. He could NOT wait to pack his backpack and to finally get to use it.

It was hard the morning of to wait for school to start at 8:45 - Good thing Daddy was home to keep everyone entertained!

Forest's preschool is close enough to walk to,

which is really great although not as much fun when it is raining.

Out front of Coogee Synagogue Kindy

Forest was done with pictures at this point and really just wanted to go inside,

But we made him take some pictures with his brother who looks HILARIOUS in this picture!

Saying good bye (do you spy little Westly in between?)

Forest jumped right in and started playing! He hardly noticed when we left. West and I got to spend the rest of the day together just me and him.

He is a pretty cool kid, just like his brother. When we picked Forest up at 3:30 he could not stop talking about how fun school was. He sang me all his songs he learned and told me about his teacher who needed glasses while reading - he thought that was crazy!

I am so proud of my Forest and so excited for him and his new adventure!