Fun Recreating.....

It's been really windy here lately and one day we were doing a shop up in Biloela and went to a toy store to look for a kite.  Michael loved this colourful one and so as soon as we got home we all went out to fly it.  The next mission is to make another 3 so we can fly them all together.  They're so amazing watching them dovetail and flit through the air.

We've been wanting to go bike riding as a family and Laura has needed a bike now that Michael has learnt to ride so on a trip to Bundaberg yesterday, Lesley found this bike on a really great sale at Kmart and so this morning we all went bike riding which was really fun to do as a family.  We'll look forward to the weekend when we can go with the whole 4 of us!  

Moving, moving, moving......

Welcome to our new home!

This is our peaceful new house about 4km out of town!  It's a little piece of heaven with no neighbours!

We wouldn't be the Henry family if we didn't have a vege garden and we've already harvested alot off it even after only being here 6 weeks.  We're loving have fresh veges and enjoying working in the garden too!  Mark feels most at home when he's growing stuff!

The kids love the trees they can climb - just before this was taken they saw 3 red belly black snakes slither just over the bank so they climbed the tree and then Mark climbed up to have a better look and sure enough there they were.  He's already killed one in the garage and we saw a brown snake in there too but he got away. 

A favourite of mine - this ramp comes off the back of the house from the laundry which is so nice just to walk out and hang clothes out to dry.  Purposely took a photo of Mark's lovely fluro orange work uniforms!

Also thought I'd show you a bit of the back yard with the 2 big water tanks - we're on all tank water out here so everything we use in the house is off these tanks and one more by the garage.  So we look forward to rain so that it will fill our tanks full again.

So hopefully that gives you a little window into our world.  In the next few days I'll take some photos of the kids and post them so you can all see how they've grown up!

August/September Usuals

Burning off

We were leaving for Bible study one night when we looked out the window of our house and this is what we saw.  About this time every year, all the long dry grass gets burnt to reduce the risk of bush fires and also to allow the new Spring grass to make it's way up through the old .  It's a pretty incredible sight in the black of night!

Country Australia

Moving Cattle on Dusk

Country Landscape on Dusk

We were driving home from a day trip in the middle of winter and we came across a family moving their cattle in the early ours of the evening.  It was so pretty and iconic of life in country Australia that we just had to share it with you.

Latest goings on.....

Laura has been asking for a while if I could start teaching her piano and feeling as though she was really a little young to undertand the concepts, I've been putting it off.  Finally I gave in and started teaching her very slowly this year and today was her first performance.
Today we had an end of term concert here at our house for all my music students in all instruments and we had a wonderful time!  Laura sat up with all the other 'big kids' and waited her turn and then she popped up full of confidence and told everyone very confidently the names of the songs she would be playing and then played them through perfectly - I thought my heart would burst I was so proud of her!
My little girl is growing up so quickly - it seems like yesterday she was born and now in a couple of weeks time she'll be 5 - where does the time go?

If you turn up at our house around 6am every weekday morning - you're likely to think we're a used car lot.  I've been exercising with my Mum for a couple of months and the kids were starting to sleep-in in the mornings and so instead of us going out to her place, she decided it would be best for her to drive in to our home and work out here and then in turn allow the kids to sleep a little longer. 
So, we started using the Leslie Sansone "Walk at home" dvd's and I'm loving it!  So as of this week our 2 has turned into 4 and there's another couple of friends who join us - IT'S SO MUCH FUN!!!! 
Laura knows the dvd off by heart so she alerts everyone as to what's coming next which is quite cute and this morning she went round giving everyone high 5's after they completed each mile. 
She definitley has the gift of encouragement!

Things are hopefully going to wind down a little this week without any lessons for the remainder of the week and then only one more week of lessons next week before the Easter holidays.  Hard to believe we've already completed 1 term of homeschooling - time flies when you're having fun I guess!

Random travel sights....

Just thought we'd pass on a few random things of interest from our trip.....



Here are our 2 ragamuffins who are such good sports about driving so many hours!

The Mulgildie Bunyip 



Hungry Jacks - Australian for Burger King



Roadside attractions



Cheap fuel in Dalby - this is per litre folks - multiply that by 4 and you'll have per gallon !!!!!!





A wise man built his house upon the ......cardboard

In our unit of school this week we are talking alot about our needs and obviously one of those needs (thanks to Maslow) is that of shelter.  So we had to create a house out of boxes and whatever else we could scrounge up.  The kids were pretty proud of their creation and have hosted barbies, finger puppets and all manner of things in it since.  So here's a window into our card-pentry skills  :)

This is our creation, complete with landscaping, windows, external stairs and a puffing chimney.

Can't live in Australia without a rainwater tank and the necessary plumbing to go with it.

And of course every home needs a swing set on some lush green grass!