April has seen some serious spending. We have now fully paid for the house and are finally mortgage free!!!!!!!!. The mortgage company in the UK has finally sorted out its mistakes and the new owners of Wood House have the deeds at last!
We parted company with Big ED as we couldn't get 3 people on the back seats! A very tight squeeze and a third car seat was just impossible! Therefore he has been replaced by 2 (new to us) cars - a 10 year old Toyota Landcruiser (12000Km !!)
and a 10 year old (56000km) Toyota Granvia aka 'the bus' in a fetching shade of 'lavender'? Seats 8! - so plenty of room for all our visitors!!!
The boys (all of them) are excited about the new motors and can't wait to put them to the test. I'm sure it wont be long before 'the bus' is full of hoards of noisy boys! and Matt is looking forward to off-roading in the truck. No names for this beast yet - suggestions welcome!
They've spent more time on the driveway than first anticipated as Joe has become a keen cyclist with
his 'new wheels' after outgrowing the starter bike. He has taken a few dives but clambers back on and has another go. Ben loves riding on the back of Sarah's bike, although he is starting to rock from side to side and thinks it is very funny! (Sarah doesn't).
We have cycled home from kindy on a couple of occasions - a good lengthy trip for Joe. Luckily there are wide pavements on most of our routes which allows for the odd wobble. Ben likes to wave at passers by and is especially animated by dogs, shouting excitedly at them as loudly as he can, then waving bye bye as we pass.
We are still able to get to the beach a couple of times a week. The lovely weather is holding and the high summer winds have dropped making it pretty nice. We are planning a weekend away soon so I'm sure it will change by then!
Sarah's birthday was lovely with a lunch in town, watching some street performers and then a walk through the botanic gardens to the childrens play area.
Joe has succumbed to the Chicken Pox this week, after avoiding it all term. His best friend had been off kindy for 2 weeks and the day he returned Joe developed the spots. Luckily it is now school holidays so he isn't missing much. We are on day 6 now and he seems to be recovering quickly so we are hoping to be out and about soon. Ben had the vaccination a month ago, but we thought Joe had already had CP in the UK! oooops!
More soon!
Needless to say it was quite chilly and blowing pretty hard. There was still some snow lying in patches from last weeks fall, so we managed to get in a snowball fight. Both boys are crack shots! After a short walk and a windswept picnic the weather started to obscure the view and we beat a retreat onto the plains.
and decided to treat ourselves to a jet boat trip! It was pretty amazing - the sun came out so we could take in the beautiful scenery and the ride was thrilling. Joe yelled with excitement and Ben smiled for the whole trip, his hair blown back off his face for the first time ever! Our guide spun the boat round 360 degrees and we got a little wet. Joe couldn't wipe the grin off his face for hours! 
After the trip we spent an hour or so by the river skimming stones and the boys tried to alter the course of the river with as many stones as they could splosh.
