First dance class!

Amelia is now taking ballet classes. Together with 5 of her friends (Peyton, Claire, Tessa, Yvette, and Giada) who go to the same school, they make up for almost the entire class. Today was Amelia's first dance class. She loved it!

Claire and Amelia, doing chassé

Most of the class is about having fun and learning to do some cool simple dance. Parents wait outside and can watch via a live feed (although the door was open today, so we were all spying on them!) They do some nice exercises, and there are plenty of "free dance"! Here is a little video of "rythmetic gymnastic"...

Back to (pre-) school!

Today was Amelia's first day of school after coming back from Australia. It is the same little Montessori school - she was very excited to see all her friends and her teachers after the summer break.

At the dinner table, we asked her how her day was.

"I had a super awesome day".

Last day in Australia!

Fun fun. Once last day at the beach. A visit to the zoo with a kangaroo walkabout. Too bad the camera battery died just as Melissa had a nose to nose encounter!

Museums in Perth

The cultural center in Perth is quite fun. We spent most of our time sitting outside in front of a frog habitat. Watching school kids drawing what they saw and heard, inspiring Amelia. Then there was a fun outdoor play area complete with music. And then zipped through the actual exhibit. The complex is fun and we will be back.

Kings Park

There are beautiful wildflowers blooming all over Kings Park. Just walking through the fields you can smell how sweet they are. We have spotted lots of interesting birds like the kookaburra and parrots.

Last week we discovered the Naturescape play park. A stream to explore and treehouse to climb. At the end we even discovered the rehearsal for a play in the park about wildflowers featuring a giant wasp and kangaroo paw (among other flowers).

Blue Mountains near Sydney

We visited the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney as part of our family vacation. We stayed in Blackheath and found a lovely little cabin at the edge of the National Park. We took a lot of walks and enjoyed the quiet mountains after a busy week in Sydney. 

Every morning we started our day by feeding the birds. A flock of local parrots that start lining up around 8 am for their breakfast routine. There were so many of them. More pics to come. 

 Here is the beautiful view a 15 min walk from our cabin.

 Amelia really wanted to hike the Grand Canyon trail that reaches the bottom of the canyon. We started out on the steep trail. She was so excited to be hiking. Here she is with Luc.

 And on her own-

But she took Luc's Shoulder Shuttle back to the top!

Our little cabin.

We took another little walk that was up-a-hill-down-a-hill-into-a-swamp. A favorite of Amelia's. She had her rain boots on and slopped around in it for a while before she told us her feet were a bit cold.

 Charging down the hill to get to the swamp!

Settling into Perth

Life on the road with Amelia always settles down when we reach our apartment that we plan on staying for the length of our trip. Kings Park is a few blocks from our place. We have been wandering over to play in the morning. The park is one of the largest urban parks in the world. It is just about Spring here and there are lots of wildflowers starting to bloom. As we walk to their amazing big playground, we have been taking the time to smell the blooming flowers.

I think these beauties are paper whites. The smell is so sweet. I have never seen them in the wild.

Australia the land of Oz

G'day mates. We arrived in Sydney a week ago. Here is Amelia at the airport in Seattle showing off her new luggage. She was so excited about the trip and did really well on our long journey.

We spent a great vacation week with Luc. It was very busy and we were all happy to arrive in Perth where we will stay for the next few weeks. Some highlights of our trip thus far include dancing in the park like the exotic birds, making fritter friends at the park, and Amelia working. I can tell she likes our new Perth Apartment because she asked to do some work here. She got busy cleaning our courtyard table before lunch.

Happy birthday Amelia!

A couple of weeks ago we had a wonderful birthday party for Amelia. We can't believe she's 3 already!  Here are a few pictures of the party!

Silly girls! Yvette and Amelia

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After her birthday, we all went on our first family bike ride to one of the nearby playgrounds.  Amelia got a big bike for her birthday, and Melissa recently got a new bike too.

 

New bike! It's PURPLE!

Même si grand-maman est loin, elle était aussi présente à la célébration! (Just because Grand-maman lives far away, it doesn't mean that she couldn't be part of the party!).

A special Boo from Oncle Simon

Happy Belated Father's Day

 

We went camping for Father's Day weekend. As you can see, it was a bit wet. But we had fun.

Apple trees are perfect for climbing

May 17th Parade

Amelia at the May 17th Parade. Norweigan Independence day. Ballard has the largest parade outside of Norway! We went with most of her preschool. It was pretty fun.

And a picture from today.

I think we might have missed a whole season. But I wanted to share this fun picture from today. Amelia riding to school with her daddy.

Snow Day

Amelia gets her first official Snow Day. The forecast seemed like we would get a little sprinkle or huge dump. But we got just the right amount for some sledding. Our local park was a buzz with sledders.



We found two sleds in the park ready to go and Luc took a short video of all of us going down together.



In Amelia's off time, she has been practicing her Rockstar moves. Singing, Dancing, playing the guitar, and demanding all kinds of things. Some of her "crazy moves" she learned from a particularly inspiring dance session with Mara and Henry during our visit to California in December.