One week down ... one to go

The first week of the school holidays has passed relatively uneventfully.

We've spent days in the park playing basketball or cricket, riding bikes (avoiding swooping magpies!) along the river, or at the pool splashing around.

We did manage to see Wall E - which we all liked - although Hamish was not as keen on it as the rest of us. The none-to-suble message about the oncoming collaspe of the environment due to human abuse and overuse didn't phase the kids much. The kids are used to continual messages about "reduce, recycle, reuse" so didn't really comment of the wider issues wrapping round the main love story in the film

Hamish, Connor and I (Bella opted not to go) also visited the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition with wooden models of his inventions. The kids were impressed with all the moving cogs and wheels but the replica model flying machines were voted "most impressive".

The photos at the top of this post are of Hamish and Connor working out how to put together the pole bridge Leonardo designed. It took us a while of fiddling around but we eventually got there.

Uriah Jack came to stay with us on Wednesday and Thursday night. It was good to catch up with him as we hadn't seen him since Christmas last year. He seems to be enjoying boarding school - more than he thought he would apparently. He played soccer and table tennis last term and says he has two best friends who he hangs out with most of the time. Jack is in Geraldton now with his mother for the rest of the holidays I think.

Tomorrow the kids and I are heading down south to Albany. Mark is off overseas again (Malaysia) to talk to some people about building a waste management recycling plant (he should have come to see Wall E with us). Weather permitting I hope to take the kids to the Stirling ranges for a walk up one of the mountains one day - but I am not sure what we will do the rest of the time. I am taking down some bikes to leave there and will bring the wet suits to go swimming - so this should keep us busy . We will also try to catch up with Julian briefly on the way back home on Friday.

Anyway toodaloo - and I will drop another line when we get back home.