farm day in bakers

 

growing up in the wheatbelt, i had plenty of time around the farms - the wheat and the sheep and all of the dust. but... my kids have never had those same experiences, so i am trying to make sure they end up with them all one by one. today we spent the day with uncle mat out on the farm he works on, watching the shearers with the sheep and seeing the fleece get sorted. 

it was hot out there but it was a lovely day and we let alex have a snooze in the car in the air con while we waited to go and have some fun.

i really love being out on the farm and it was such a good experience for them.

i am always amazed that shearers can just handle the sheep as they wiggle and kick and do their best to get out of there. they are incredible!

we have been to caversham wildlife park and watched the farm show where the sheep is shorn, the fleece seperated, everything taken care of... but now they've seen it in real life!

afterwards we drove home through clackline, past the old railway carriage they use for their post office

for a quick play on the tractor

i have always loved this place and sharing it with my children makes it even more special.

i love being home for the holidays 

❤

fremantle in a day

i feel like i say this all the time, but fremantle always feels like home to me. my family moved to the country just before i turned 4, but my parents grew up and were married here and my oldest brother was 14 when we moved out there, so they had their childhood in fremantle too!

i love the old buildings 

i love the old streets, i love the memories we've made here over the years... i love going to the markets and remembering visiting my mums father roy who always had a honey stall there. it's just such a wonderful place, so now i love to take my kids there too. 

the school holidays always call for a trip there if we have time, so today we went off exploring. walked around the town centre, looked at some of the shops...

including my all time favourite, the picked fairy. i used to spend hours here as a child! i must admit, it would be my dream job (probably even now) to dress up as a fairy and host childrens parties. mums friends daughter had a fairy party when i was a teenager and she paid me to be the fairy and host it. it was like all my christmases had come at once. if only i could find a photo!

we would always throw coins in this fountain and make a wish... although judging by how clean and empty it is, that's not really a thing anymore.

before enjoying a lunch at cicerello's where we met up with madeline's favourite teacher, the lovely miss hannah!

we had to visit poppy's favourite place, the bon scott statue on the fishing boat harbour.

(side note, how delicious is this almost two year old in his pram!)

before we went for a spin on the big wheel! it's the first time any of us have been on it and i loved it! i'm petrified of heights, but it's in a cage with a flat solid base so i can cope. all good.

 alex thought it was wonderful and kept looking everywhere to see what was going on.

joseph was pretty happy too

but as he had the rest of the day, had his nose in a book. oh look it's a miniature version of me. a book nerd. 

miss madeline. cool as ever

loving her time with miss hannah.

lauren is the nicest human being and adores alex, which is totally fair considering they share a birthday. i remember when i was pregnant with alex and she knew i was going in to be induced on her birthday she called out, no pressure, but today's a great day to have a baby. she was pretty chuffed when i emailed later in the day to say he'd arrived.

daddy and his mini 

and me and my girl!

our little family! ❤

few more stops before home time, the memorial at monument hill. we used to climb the bombs when we visited as kids, but now i'm horrified at the thought of my kids doing the same haha.

the fremantle i know and love

and a quick stop in to see my grandparents

at the fremantle cemetery.

last but not least, we stopped off at two little free libraries i had found on their online map and we even had books to trade. happy day!

what a good day. fremantle i love you!

a holiday trip to the pinnacles

today we braved the drive to the pinnacles all two hours and fifteen minutes of it with three kids, one who isn't even two yet, oh my word. i'll start by telling you the funniest bit so that you can laugh now and enjoy the rest of the photos when you're done. joseph (six and a half) was convinced that we would run out of petrol and be stranded on the side of the road. now. i completely get anxiety. completely. so, i thought i would make it easier for him to be settled on the way and when i filled up the car with petrol i got a jerry can of fuel and put that in the back too. worst mistake of all time. it's about a 400km round trip, our car can do that easy without refuelling, but i honestly was trying to keep him calm.

the car stank. so bad. it was horrendous. windows up it was terrible. windows down it was terrible. i couldn't just pull over and tip it out because i needed to keep the can obviously, but holy wreck it was so bad. doug and i both ended up with a headache and by the time we were there it was so bad. it's hilarious now, but i legitimately would have done pretty much anything to get rid of the smell. when we finally arrived, we emptied as much into our car as we could and then the rest into mel and aitu's car (who we'd met up with along the way to go adventuring together) before leaving the car open under the back of our car while we looked in the discovery centre for a while. when we got back and it was emptied and aired, the rest of the day was a lot better. thank goodness!

back to regular programming... the kids had the best time! running free and looking at all the rocks (and not touching them of course!) and generally wrecking havoc.

this kid loved it the most, he had a big sleep on the way up and was full of energy to explore and roam free in the big open spaces.

the pinnacles are these incredible limestone structures that formed about 25000-30000 years ago when the sea receded. you can read more about them here

our bestiecousins. so blessed to do life with them!

this place honestly had views for days and after doing a few laps of the park roads and getting out to inspect some of the stops, as the sun got low, we got ready to find somewhere to eat and share the ridiculous amount of food we always pack when we are together.

nice seeing you again pinnacles.

wa you are amazing. i'm quite happy to be stuck in such a wonderful place.

and the company isn't bad either. ❤

 

school sports dress up

today the kidlets had a sports dress up day. they are always excited to go off to school without having to wear their uniform and today was no exception. 

joseph decided he was going to be a basketball player and dragged doug off to kmart late last night to get a pair of shorts to go with the shirt he had. heaven forbid he wear a pair we already own...

and miss madeline, went off in her step up street clothes, although let's be honest, she would have probably worn her crop and booty shorts if i allowed it. yikes.

some pretty cute kids on show here. ❤