What they say in Australia...

Living in Australia has given us a whole new vocabulary of words. And if it hasn't changed our vocabulary, it may have some interesting effects on my children's proper "American" spelling when they get back to school in the states because a lot of words here are spelled differently than they are in the states. That different is usually the proper English way according to the British grammar.
So, take a look at these fun words and see if you can figure out what they mean...

 Terms:
How ya going?
G'day mate
Love
No worries
Heaps
Your Tops
I'm busting
Wind
Hot Air
Bodgy
Fair Go
Good Onya
Bring a Plate
Brekky
Bogan
Birds
Winge
Who let fluffy off the chain?
Snackered
Bodgy
I'm bushed

Names of Things:
Lie
Long Drop Dunny or just Dunny
Loo
Blue metal
Bonnet
Boot
Brelly
Chemist
Esky
Lift
Lolly
Barbie
Roo or Skippy
Joey
Billabong
Bogo Clothes
Budgie Smugglers
Bull Bar
Docket
Fairy Floss
Fly Wire
Footy
Billy
Icey Pole
Serviette
Beet Root
Fill et
Manchester
Matilda
Op Shop
Lemonade
Ute
Road Train
Rubber
Texters
Mozzie
Jumper
Bathers
Sunnies
Gastro
Nits
Plaster
Plumber
Joggers

AND of course we were introduced to a few new Baby Terms when Jakob joined our family. Can you guess what they are talking about? (In American english that is...)
Pram
Dummy
Nappy
Bub/Bubby
Capsule
Cot
Mum/Mummy

Hope you had fun reading our Aussie word list. We will interpret all these for you....
Later.

10 glimpses of August

Since I totally blew off the 10 on 10 thing for August,

I thought I would recap August with 10 picts to highlight the month instead.

 

First, Spring is here! And with it all the wildflowers are coming into bloom. 

Australia shows all her hidden color this time of year and it is pretty amazing. More on that later. These pretty flowers are on all the corners along the main street through our suburb.

Love them. 

As mentioned in part earlier, we had a lot of fun this month celebrating Adam's 10th birthday.

He had a hard time blowing out birthday candles again during his little party with friends...
it's hard to produce enough air while you are laughing. He was happy to have that more affordable Nerf party at the park with dinner at home rather than go to Dark Zone for some lazer tag... it took a bit of convincing to get us to the Nerf at home approval. I think it went all right. It was really fun to see Adam with his friends. He enjoys a good laugh and is quite the little comic. Definitely "Cheeky" (as his old Dalkeith teacher, Mrs. Ikins used to say last year).

Eli is a super Jakob helper. It doesn't matter what he has to put up with,
Jakob likes to be where his big brother is. This picture was taken Sunday morning before church.
It's amazing I found the time to snap a picture....

The luxury of computers when you are so far from family.... Hello Uncle Brian!
We're glad you've been up with the baby so we could chat while we're all awake.

DO you think he needs a hair cut?

The baby gear has taken over.... It's not usually all in one room,
but somehow managed to migrate there for this picture.

Garage helpers.
The last thing to get organized when we move.....the garage. If it ever gets organized.
You'd think we had this down better and quicker by now, but we don't. Everything left over that doesn't have an inside place gets put where?.....the garage, of course. Till we figure out what to do with it. And of course, the cars can't go there. 

Maybe it's time to get rid of a few more things. 

 

 And, the last day of the month (this last Friday) was also the school fun runs. The kids surprised us with their finishes. I think they are in better shape than we thought they were. Adam especially surprised us with his third place finish because he didn't even want to do it. Eli and Mary Alice both came in first. We'll try to get more picts and info on that for you later too.

 

Mary Alice has waited a VERY long time to lose her two front teeth (the top ones anyway). 

She lost her second one on the last day of the month. Yay!

Basketball

Eli likes this sport. You can tell he really enjoys playing basketball. His first choice would still probably be soccer... but with all the soccer games being on Sunday here, he has had to choose his second favorite sport to play instead.

It has been a lot of fun to watch his team this year. They are a team. No real big stars, but a team where the team plays together, as a team. It is truly a team sport for this little team and lots of fun to watch. And with the improved skill with these "older" boys, the games have been really good.

 

 Go Eli!

The second fun part about basketball this year has been Adam. He decided to play! He has learned a lot and really enjoyed playing. A big thanks for big brothers who motivate us to try something good we would otherwise rather not do. Adam is not a big competitor. It's a little harder for him to go out on a basketball court and be competitive. Especially when he gets the wind knocked out of him with the ball.... he has been a champ and lots of fun to watch.

 Go Adam!

I didn't manage to get as many pictures of Adam's games....
so hopefully we can catch some more to share during the last two game days.

Mary Alice has a new look...

  

Can you figure out what it is?

 

 Her toof, her toof!  (Said her daddy when he guessed the big news.)

She finally lost her top tooth that had been loose since before Jakob was born.... yay!

It seemed like it was never going to fall out.

August 10s

Adam's 10th birthday!

I'm pretty sure Adam would agree that he had a pretty special birthday day despite having a regular school day. Here are a few picts of his special day...

 First, a very special little brother who shared a 3 month birthday with his big brother Adam!

 

Adam began his birthday morning with a yummy german pancake breakfast
and one little present to open before school.
He opened his present while he ate because we were running short on time.
He opened, and opened and opened....10 times!
He almost didn't get any breakfast.
Mom told him he'd better be a little less careful with the wrapping paper
after he'd managed to carefully get off about 4 layers from his little gift.
What was the end result?
A pile of wrapping paper pieces and a pack of gum. Yum!
Then off he went to school.

 Whem Adam got home from school...

there was a super sized present on the table! He couldn't wait to open it. BUT FIRST....he had to wait for the rest of the party to arrive (Eli had basektball practice till 6:15, daddy had to get home from work, mom had to get dinner ready and there was a special surprise guest that needed to show up....)

 so he had to do some homework (he was behind so had to no matter what mom said)

 Mary Alice got a sign ready

 Then Adam played a little of his favorite wii while he waited

and showed off his best face for mom

 The rest of the party all showed up about the same time...
the special guest, our friend, Amy, had to help us finish up dinner.
She brought Adam's favorite - Fried Rice! and helped him cook it up.
Thank you Amy! Adam ate a very generous portion and I am sure he enjoyed every bite.

 After dinner it was finally time for cake and ice cream and the presents!

  Adam finally got to open that very large box.

 What was inside?

A very nice card with a message...

 There were 9 little presents for Adam to find.

He managed to find them all with a little help from mom....who almost forgot where she put them all!

 And the highlight of Adam's very special day,
a phone call from his grandparents who are serving a mission in Poland
just before bed.

We love you Adam!

Tired

 I had been doing some quick work at the desk nearby when I realized things had gotten very quiet...

Does she look very cumfy?

Like a cat curled up for an afternoon nap...except cats usually look a little more comfy...don't they? 

July 10 on 10... +1

Morning leftovers... 

 

 Two yolks in one egg, two eggs in a row....what are the chances?

Have you ever noticed that cats get green eyes instead of red eyes with a flash picture?
I never had...This our friend Ashly with Thomas the Cat.

 Getting ready to go to the Indian Grocer for black beans...yum.

 Jakob spent a little more time than usual in the car yesterday running everybody everywhere...

 BINGO! - This one's for you Heather.

 Another rainy 10th. It must be winter time here.

 Jakob was immunized today.... and had a bit of a fussy evening.

 This ever happen at your place? All while we were waiting for daddy to "play" with his I-phone.

 

 Daddy trying to work his calming magic on Jakob.

 Daddy's the best....unless Jakob is really hungry!