Welcome to our new puppy

Welcome (Katy)Peri-Peri to our family.

It has taken us 10 years to get another puppy after our beloved Ozone.

She comes 2nd hand from another family who couldn't keep her but we will show her plenty of love.

Brandt has Nando's Peri-Peri sauce on every meal and Sienna sings non stop to Katy Perry songs, so the name stuck.

She already has her own facebook page The-Adventures-of-Peri-Peri-the-Preschool-Puppy

We look forward to sharing lots of fun and love together.

 Sienna couldn't bear to let her sleep outside alone, so slept next to her by the front door.

One of 8 puppies in their litter, Peri-Peri meets up again with her sister Kello and they become mischievous play buddies everyday at preschool.

Now she is a big bigger, both Sienna and Jasper want to train her to do tricks and want to sleep with her each night.

 

Perspective

This is a post about sone amazing artwork done by the youth of Norfolk Island.

A competition was organised for the youth of Norfolk Island to produce some works of art for the display room at the entrance of the Norfolk Island National Park's Botanic Gardens.

My friend Michelle posted first so I will let you pop over to her blog here to see what happened while I continue to a different story about perspective.

 

You see Michelle's son deservedly came first in the competition with amazing painting of a native hibiscus flower (or white oak) while Teddy came second with a great picture of Captain cooks monument using the amazing perspective that he seems to have always had. This time he used lots of colour which surprised me as he is normaly a black pen on white paper kind of guy.

The day of the presentation I opened an old colouring book for Jasper and was so surprised to rediscover some of Teddy's drawings when he was 3 and 4.
I am trying not to compare the two boys at 3 as they are completely different in skill and abilities.

This is Jaspers not so interested attempt at colouring in while Teddy even at age 3 used to bypass the whole colouring in book and go to the black back cover and draw things like these incredible trees.

I have mountains of homemade books with his incredible drawings in. I am so glad I have kept them, though they take up quite a bit of storage, its worth it.


Does this put things into perspective? Well, I think we can safely say that although Jasper had a 25% chance of also being on the autism spectrum, at just 3 we can see no signs of it.

So proud of Teddy. I wouldn't trade him for the world.
 

Later at age 4 buildings began emerging complete with clotheslines and helicopters (We have NOTHING like this on our little island, so the idea must have come from somewhere in his imagination.)

Here is the link to some of Teddy's earlier work
drawings
and
computer and sketches

Friday Favourite ~ above and below

Just by a freaky accident (except there are no such things as accidents) My Camera got switched to the panarama setting while snorkelling. I had never tried it before.

I wanted to design a set of stamps years ago of above and below Emily bay, this is what I would love the world to see.

I will actually break with the Friday single tradition to add more.
These are my friends who come to play with me under the water.

Friday Favourite~ Joy

Jasper begins his Preschool Journey.

In 1 weeks time my baby boy turns 3.

 Normally at age 3 would be when he would begin preschool but he has been fortunate to enjoy 3 years worth with me when I did casual teaching there.

baby Jasper at 5 months old sleeps in the reading hammock.

the boys used to adore and dote on him

 

more swinging in the hammock, sometimes it was the only way to get him to sleep in a busy class room.

just too cute



Jasper in the background, not yet quite mobile enough to get to his sisters preschool work adding glass beads



2 good looking boys in the mirror



preschool life just carries on around the baby!

 

This week marks another exciting occasion as I will not only be working at the preschool but running it also.

So Jasper gets both Mum and a preschool experience.

But he has been there right from the beginning anyway!

 

 

To see more of the new preschool click here

 

To see Sienna's preschool journey click here

 

To see Teddy's preschool journey click here

Friday Favourite~ Funny Flamenco

I can't take credit for taking this photo as I am in it.
Thanks Michelle from her own Norfolk Island blog for taking all the photos.

Beauty after bushfires in the Australian bush

With the recent heat and bush fires raging across Australia, I wanted to share these photos of  my parents backyard in the Royal National Park while we were visiting in November 2012.

It was fascinating for my children to make the discoveries that I grew up with living near the Australian bush. They make completely different discoveries on their Island home.

at first I was shocked to see it so sparse and blackened, but then saw the amazing beauty in the blacks and oranges with a touch of new green.

We are grateful for the burning off that the Grays point bush fire brigade completed months ago as now there is less chance of a bushfire catching and damaging the surrounding houses.

Friday Favourite ~ Family L♥ve

Sharing the love every Friday.

Friday Favourite ~ bubbles & smiles

After a huge Christmas week and thousands of photos to choose from. I have to choose just one. Then this is it.
My beautiful Mum with her pale pink hair smiling at my kids blowing & chasing bubbles around her.

The watermelon truck

Who needs an ice cream truck with its bell signalling all the neighbourhood kids to come and spend their money on a frozen treat.

Here on this generous community of Norfolk Island we have all sorts of special treats for the kids.
One of the best examples was shown at the Boxing day surf competition at Munnas. Local identity 'Bubby' pulled his truck up nearby and assembled his handmade Norfolk Island pine cutting board by slotting it into the back of the truck. He then began to cut up freshly picked watermelon into slices.

All of our fruit is grown locally and seasonally, many haven't tasted watermelon for almost a year so this is a very special treat indeed.

Bubby tells everyone to spread the word around to all the kids to come and get some and bring back the rinds to feed his chooks.

Many happy children grab a slice or two with thanks.