Viva Las Vegas! - Rein's Year 3 Assembly, June 29th

welcoming the parents

recorder performance

 Rein and his class had a year 3 assembly this past Wednesday. Well, he was just as good as Silka was with keeping his class performance on the hush hush. We knew that his class was going to be performing Elvis's "Viva Las Vegas" but that was all he would reveal. Well, I and the other parents were very entertained. I spent a few nights making Rein his Cowboy attire including guns (the teacher gave them the kibosh) and a holster out of duct tape and cardboard.

year 3 cowboys and cowgirls

First, up on the podium, Rein and a few other class mates welcomed all of the parents to the year 3 assembly. Then merit awards were presented to some students and then the entertainment began. They started with 'Viva Las Vegas', followed by '5,6,7,8' and then they wrapped up with a song that they played with the recorder. Here are a couple of videos and some pics- don't worry, you will not be subjected to the recorder performance - although, it wasn't too bad...
Way to go, Rein!

whoo...whoo

Draw!

Yanchep National Park - June 18th

Bougainvillea Mountain

'roos playing footy

 

Purple Gallinule

Rein's injury from a stalactite attack

Silka and Meghan feeling a 'roo pelt

learning about the Aboriginal experience

playing the Didgeridoo

making fire

We met up with some of the other exchange families in Yanchep National Park (45 minutes north of Perth). It rained on and off during the day but enjoyed ourselves nontheless. When we arrived, we met up with everyone at the Crystal Cave where we went below and walked through passages lined with stalactites and stalagmites. Rein was attacked by a stalactite (he jumped up and whacked his head on one). With the sight of a fair amount of blood and kids surrounding him saying "Ew! Look at that!", he turned white and almost fainted - Tom and I carried him out. He soon recovered after sitting down in the car for a bit. It wasn't long before everyone else emerged and we headed back to the picnic area to have lunch.
The kids played some footy after for a while.
We were off to another part of the park to learn





about Australia's Aborigines at the Aboriginal Experience". It was great! We learned about many of their customs, how they used some of their tools, how to make fire, how to throw a spear and were delighted with our teacher's impress-ive ability with a Didgeri-doo. He let some of the men in the group try (women do not play the Didgeridoo, they only make them). We were entertained with a range of flatulent sounds. We ended our day with a visit with the park's Koalas. As usual, they just slept for the most part with a few stretches once in a while. We did catch one that was relatively active and eating some Eucalyptus. It must have woken up hungry from a very long nap.

 

trying out the Didgeridoo

"Yorga Mia" - women's place

Ahhhh.....stretch.....yawn.....stretch

Aunt Tacos came for a visit...

'roos at Pinnaroo

Cuttle Fish at the Aquarium - my favourite

Museum at Houghton Estates

Aunt Cathy, Honey House

Representing the entire Spennato Clan, Aunt Cathy (Tacos) arrived in Perth on June 8th. She left her husband, Garry, family and friends behind to take a tour of the southern hemisphere on the other side of the world. Having a niece living in Australia for a year does make

the trip much easier and more worthwhile of course. She had spent more than a week touring around the south island of New Zealand before she arrived on Western Australia soil (or sand, I should say). She rested up for the first day or so and after feeling rejuvenated and energized enough to continue her explorations, we took her to various places around Perth over the next week. While Tom and the kids were at school, I shared the Pinnaroo Kangaroo experience that was introduced to us earlier on by the Professor, Stephen Satchell. We also went to the Aquarium at Hilary's Boat Harbour after we enjoyed light lunch there. Some other places we managed to get to were the Western Australia Museum, the State Library, King's Park and a tour through Swan Valley. While we were in Swan Valley, we took her to the Houghton Estate Winery, the Honey House, a couple of other wineries I cannot remember and we ended at the Feral Brewery where we had a late lunch. On our way back home, we stopped at the Margaret River Chocolate Company for the kids (and maybe some of us adults as well).

tasting some honey

busy bees at House of Honey

Tom and Tacos tasting

 Before we knew it, she was off to Australia's East Coast for 9 days. And before we knew it she was back with us for a couple more. This time she just rested up, caught up on some emails and did some laundry for her next adventure - China for 12 days - before heading back home. We enjoyed her visit very much and we are thoroughly impressed with her adventurous spirit. We look forward to getting the low-down on her cruise on the Yangtzee River. Happy and safe travels, Aunt Taco!

June Long Weekend: Foundation Day in W.A.

Tom cooking dinner

Using the 70's massage machine

Quince Cottage

Rein, Liam and Meghan touching the sky

Hiking the Cape to Cape Trail

Looking through to Canal Rocks

Well, we took great advantage the long weekend made up of Foundation Day, a public holiday in Western Australia. On June 1, 1829, Western Australia's coast was first sighted from the merchant ship Barque Parmelia. This led to the establishment of the Swan River Colony, the first permanent British colony in Western Australia. Foundation Day is officially celebrated on June 1, but the public holiday is observed on the first Monday in June. We celebrated in Gracetown, a quaint little beach-side village just a few minutes from Margaret River. We rented a wonderful cottage (Quince Cottage) that reminded us of the comfort of the Spennato cottage in Gatineau, Quebec - roaring fires, lots of books and magazines to read, funky art, and big cosy beds to snuggle up in.
We arrived in the dark on Friday night and it took us a little while to locate the place - we felt like we had driven right into a rabbit warren because our headlights illuminated many a furry hide hopping off the roads into the bush. We finally have witnessed the out of control rabbit population that the locals talk about. If I knew how to snare them, I would have loved a rabbit stew - the kids, howver, would probably have been appalled to see me start skinning a couple of those 'cute bunnies'...

Looking towards Injidup Point

Injidup Beach

Kids burying themselves on Injidup Beach

On Saturday morning we got up with the sun and slowly got out of our beds. We drove to Margaret River to our favourite bakery to have breakfast and meet Diana, Mike, Meghan and Liam (another Canadian exchange family). We were going to hike a part of the Cape to Cape trail along the coast. When we finished breakfast, we drove to the north end of Smith's Beach and walked south to Injidup Point. We dropped a car at Injidup Point so that we could walk further in one direction and not have to backtrack. It was a sunny, gorgeous day - the perfect temperature for a hike. It took us about 3 hours to get to Injidup Point and we had a picnic lunch and went for a swim before we

headed back to Gracetown. Diana, Mike and the kids came over for dinner as well. We had a great day and we were so impressed with the kids.  They didn't grumble once on the hike.
The next morning I went for a run along the Cape to Cape Trail out of Gracetown and came upon a memorial. In 1996 a terrible tragedy occurred on the local beach close to town - five adults and four children were killed while watching a surfing carnival. The victims were sheltering underneath a rock overhang at the base of the limestone cliff during a rain storm when the cliff collapsed without warning.

Rainbow backdrop at Quince Cottage

Redgate Beach

A rehabilitation project was commenced on the cliff tops overlooking the site where the tragedy occurred, following funding by the state government, in 1997. Stairways, a lookout shelter and fencing were built and vegetation replanted to stabilise the cliffs over Cowaramup Bay. It was a very emotional run - I felt overwhelmed that such beauty could be responsible for such a tragedy. I ran further and was struck by the awesomeness of the ocean -that it keeps rolling and raging changing the coast continually - it shows no mercy. I stopped and watched a group of experienced surfers take on waves I wouldn't imagine trying to ride. They were fantastic to watch. If I were a little younger I would be out there doing what I could to learn from them. I turned and ran back to my family.

Silka dancing on the trail

Hike from Redgate Beach

Looking down from the trail

Picnic stop at the bottom of our loop

We drove to Margaret River where I dropped Tom off at the Rivermouth to surf and then drove into town to get a few groceries with the kids. We then headed to the Duckstein Brewery to meet Judy & Tony and their kids for lunch. Another family that it turns out were also staying at the same place they were also joined us. We were supposed to go over to there place at Smith's Beach later for dinner but when we got back we were all pooped and Silka wouldn't last. We called and cancelled.

on our way back

Monday morning we packed up and enjoyed a big bacon and eggs breakfast and then headed to Red Gate beach for another hike on the Cape to Cape Trail. It was another beautiful section (I would guess that every part of it is) and it took us about 3 and a half hours to do a loop. When we got back to Redgate Beach, we swam and did a bit of surfing before we headed for home. We stopped for a bite to eat in Busselton and got home around 9 p.m. We had a terrific weekend.

look at that little pebble holding up that big rock...

who's that peeking out?

climbing amongst the boulders

a very peculiar rock

Redgate Beach at the end of our hike

surfing in the silver light

And then the rains came...

We were told it would come, that it would come in torrents and create the streets to flood. Well, it happened.

For the last week it has rained in a torrential down-pour throughout the nights and then rained on and off throughout each day. It has been a welcoming relief from the heat and dryness. There has been much discussion over the local radio air waves that even if it gets a record setting amount of rain this winter, Perth will still run out of water by the end of the summer. It's hard to imagine right now as we watch everything become green and lush again.

Tom has gotten caught a few times on his bike to and from school - his shoes have developed a chronic squelch. He travels with an extra set of work clothes now.