Term Two: Week Eight ~ Excursion

 This turned out to be an interesting week. Not at all what I was expecting, but fun nonetheless.

We finished two great books this week. I had never read any books about John Edward Eyre to the boys so it was exciting to find and read this one. He was a fascinating man and we enjoyed learning more about his explorations through the reading of this book.

Two great photos of the St Andrews Cross spider that is currently residing in our front garden. In case I haven't mentioned before, the spiders create the squiggly lines so that birds don't fly in the web and destroy it.

Early Thursday morning I discovered this little gecko on one of the flower pots on the front verandah. He was still there when hubby and I returned late morning from a grocery shopping trip. Monkey inspected him closely and discovered he was injured and had some neurological impairment. That was when we remembered that hubby had done some weed spraying in the front garden. Monkey carefully placed him in a container and kept him in the house until late that evening, before finally moving him into the backyard. Sadly, he was dead when I checked on him Friday morning. Monkey and I have decided we will take over the pulling of the weeds in the front yard since we know many small creatures live there. Hopefully this won't happen again.

Thursday evening I attended Bible Study.

Friday was our FUN day! An unexpected excursion into the city. The friends they normally attend youth group with were attending a special event at The Australian Museum and they kindly offered our boys tickets. Monkey was especially keen so we accepted and headed out for a great day out. First stop as always, and our meeting place, was the Archibald Fountain. Time for a quick photo (where I managed to capture a rainbow as the sun peeked out) and a discussion about our schedule.

Munchkin had asked if there would be time to visit the Lego store, and since it was near our chosen lunch area, we stopped there first. We enjoyed some building and browsing before continuing with our day.

As I didn't attend the event with them, this is the only photo I have. I completely forgot to ask Monkey if he took any photos. All I know is that they both loved it.

While the teenagers enjoyed their museum event, I enjoyed the city on my own. I did some quick shopping at Officeworks, and then roamed and photographed. The Louis Vuitton windows are always good fun.

I think I found the only remaining evidence of the damage done to the fountain a few weeks ago - notice the long scratch on the wall at the bottom of the photo. A dumb, illegal driver (unlicenced) somehow took a wrong turn, ended up in the park, lost control of their car, and ended up straddled on this wall and stuck in the fountain. I am glad the damage was minimal enough that it didn't result in the fountain being closed for a long period of time.

As I wandered back towards the Museum to meet up with the teenagers, I tried to take some good photographs. I'm well out of practice using my DSLR camera, but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome of these.

This sign was spotted by all as we made our way back from the museum. After some discussion about WHY it was locked in the upside down position, we continued on our way. We had decided on a quick trip to McDonald's (Macca's as we call it) for a sweet treat before heading home.

We took one of the more scenic options on our walk down to the Harbour and the evening light on the buildings was so beautiful that both Monkey an I had to stop frequently to photograph.

Our first stop before Macca's was a quick look (and photo opportunity) of the Harbour Bridge.

No photographs of our antics at Macca's as we were all too busy enjoying soft serve ice cream, chip (French Fries for my non-Australian readers), and frozen Cokes. We noticed this cool Vivid display near McDonald's and decided we would make it our final event of the day. It had lights and music and would have looked amazing in the dark. For my non-Australian readers, Vivid is a month long light show across the city. It finished on Saturday the 13th of June.

Finally we spotted this coloured geometric dome that the teens enjoyed inspecting from the inside. Again, we had to imagine how much cooler it would look in the dark. However, no one really had the energy or desire to stay in the city until it was proper dark, so we firmly decided our day in the city was done.

I took the opportunity for one last photograph of the city buildings, and was pleasantly surprised to find something I've never noticed before. This sculpture commemorating pioneer women.

When we arrived at Circular Quay train station we had a nine minute wait for our train. Just enough time for some photographs of our beautiful harbour. It was a great day out. The only downfall of our day (and week) was the discovery when we arrived home that Monkey was sick. Probably with the same crud Munchkin had for two weeks. Time will tell.

My achievements for the week.

One walking grocery shop with Munchkin and the excursion.

A mixed bag Wordle week.

Term Two: Week Seven ~ Celebration

Another slow week for us as Munchkin came down with a cold on Sunday. I should have realised something was up on Saturday when he couldn't walk to and from the shopping centre and we ended up taking the bus home. Sunday morning he woke feeling horrible and stayed home from church. He slept most of the afternoon, and by evening it was clear that he was quite unwell as he was running a low grade fever. Our week was filled with lots of extra reading and much resting and recovering. Because of that, there aren't many photos of particular interest this week. But please enjoy the few I have to share with you.

Monday on my solo trip to the shopping centre I found many "lonely" Lime bike helmets.

There were beautiful cloud formations in the sky Monday evening.

I attended Bible Study Thursday night for the second week in a row. I missed three weeks of Bible Study recently because of various issues, so it was really good to be back consistently. I hope this is able to continue for awhile now as I really hate missing.

We finished one book this week. This was read to Munchkin, primarily, as part of his WWI studies. The book covered animals who served in other wars as well, and various natural disasters and other situations, so it was a well-rounded read.

A solo trip to the library for me this week as neither of the boys attended youth group. Our friends who drive were unable to attend as well and Monkey opted not to take public transport. With his two friends and his brother not attending, he didn't want to go either. The book haul this week was a stack of independent reading for Munchkin and myself. He is keen to re-read many of the Percy Jackson books, and I picked up a bunch of novels that fulfil prompts from my various book challenges I take part in. Nevermind the fact that I have many books I'm already currently reading, and several other library books sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. There will be lots of wonderful reading in my near future.

Saturday morning hubby and I were up and out the door early to attend one his cousins wedding. The weather was absolutely glorious and we couldn't be happier for them. The top photo is a quick "winter" shot of one of the trees in the gardens where the wedding was held. The bottom two photos are of us with the happy couple during the lunch reception, and a photo of the groom with his son straight after the ceremony. We enjoyed a wonderful day of fun and lots of delicious food as well.

Good walking this week. Two trips to the shopping centre and then my Friday trip to the libraries.

I'm very happy with my Wordle Week!