Mina is 4!

Yesterday Mina turned 4 years old! We celebrated with a birthday party at our home. We had Red's Roving Wildlife come with their animals to entertain the kids. I reckon the adults were also entertained by the wildlife (if not more so)! And the biggest shock of all...Brian made Mina's cake! An owl cupcake cake (a mom, dad, & baby)- he did a great job!

Ranger Red teaching us about the tawny frogmouth (who said birthday parties can't be educational?!)

Kaiya cuddling with Pamela the Python. Notice the lazy dingo in the background!

This pic was taken right before Pamela started slithering up Emiko's back...

Mina held this turtle for a long time- it was hard for her to give it up.

A bobtail skink. We had these living in our yard in our last house...but this one was much more docile. The one in our backyard hissed at us whenever we got too close.

A blue-tongued lizard!

Just about ready to blow out the candles.

We love our Mina girl! We always know when she wakes up because we can hear her singing from the toilet as she's taking care of business (it's the first thing she does every morning)...her repetoire varies from primary songs to 80's hair bands to One Direction! And she is non-stop crazy until she falls asleep at night (and yes, she is often singing as she falls asleep). But we'll keep her...

Happy birthday Mina!

Athletics Carnival

The girls had their athletics carnival at school on Oct. 12th- it's like a track and field day. Emiko isn't at all competitive but managed to win 4 ribbons. One was in the long jump (my dad will be so proud b/c he was a long jumper). I love this action shot of Emiko jumping:

Kaiya placed 1st in her 100 meter dash:

It was fun to watch the kids compete and have fun- even Brian made it home from a business trip just in time to come watch! Proud of our girls...

Bald Spot

Mei is my first baby to have a bald spot on the back of her head...my other girls were so hairy and never got one! So of course I have to document it on the blog. I'm sure she'll despise me for it when she gets older. Oh well.

Mei actually has a bald "ring" that goes all the way across the back of her head- can you see it???

Mina's Birthday Party

Mina's birthday is fast approaching. She gets to have a birthday party this year...not a big one but with just a few friends and their families. For all of our family/friends back in America...know you would've been on the invite list! At least you can see how cute her party invite turned out:

School Holidays Part 2

Once Katie and her family left the rest of the school break was pretty low key...

Mei wore her new Halloween dress to church.

Emiko got her hair did.

We went to a birds of prey presentation at the library.

I let Mina buy a recorder- BIGGEST. MISTAKE. EVER.

The primary president helped watch the kids while I did an activity w/the other primary children at church. She kept them entertained w/playdoh...and thought it was hysterical that out of all the things you could make w/playdoh Emiko chose to make a smashed frog. Emiko is truly her father's daughter...

My friend gave us lemons (we made lemon cupcakes w/lemon frosting & lemonade)- one lemon was almost as big as Mina's head. I promise that I don't orchestrate any of Mina's poses...we have family pictures being taken this weekend- frankly, I'm a bit worried.

Today the girls went back to school and it was blissfully a bit quieter...

School Holidays Part 1

Tomorrow Brian gets home from a 2 week long business trip. His route: Perth to Singapore to LA to Utah to Houston to LA to Tokyo to Singapore to Perth. That's a lot of flying in 2 weeks time. These past 2 weeks my route was more like this: Home to church to home to grocery store to home to library to home to backyard to home to school to home. Yeah, not as cool sounding...

BUT...my friend, Katie, flew out from Sydney to visit for a week while Brian was out of town. It broke up the boredom and it was probably the most time we've spent together since being roommates at BYU. She brought 2 of her kids, Olivia & Zac, and our kids got along famously! And yes, we did do a few fun touristy things while she was here.

Fish and chips for picnic dinner at the beach so we could catch the sunset!

King's Park- I just heart the view of the city!

Apparently we need to talk to Mina about how to sit more lady-like...

King's Park Tree Top Walk...I think they're pretending to be statues...???

Aquarium at Hillarys Boat Harbour.

Ok, ok...I said they got along really well but with spending an entire week together there were a few tiny issues (of course it was always Mina that was involved). Mina was probably being mean and got Zac-attacked!

Then I think Mina hit Olivia (can't remember but I know Mina was the guilty party). So Olivia wrote this letter to Mina in retribution (it reads "we are not best friends):

Olivia and Emi are only 3 weeks apart...they were inseparable the entire week.

Silly shot of all the kids minus Zac (it was his nap time).

Thanks for a great time Katie!

Shafted

Kaiya:

Emiko:

Mina:

Mei:

Someone got the shaft in the hair department...