Good Friday and Easter Saturday at Mandurah

We decided to go to Mandurah for the Easter long weekend and invited the Romney family to come with us. Jarom and Mon had only just moved into their new house and wanted to get some things done. Kate and her family were heading to Dunsborough with Matt's family. On Thursday after school we drove to Mandurah (and got caught in the traffic heading down South), we arrived in the evening and the Romney's were there shortly afterwards. Christi and the kids drove to Mandurah earlier that day and spent the day at the foreshore. They kindly brought pizzas for everyone for dinner that night. The kids were excited to be bunking together and having a sleep over. Once the kids were asleep the adults stayed up late playing board games (they taught us Rummikub) and we had a lot of fun.   

On Good Friday the following morning we had hot cross buns (too many of them) for breakfast. Then we went for a walk and the kids swam in the pool. It was a very relaxing day and the kids had a blast playing with each other. The photos aren't really in order but you get an idea of what we got up to. 

Sienna about to jump!

Alissa and Meadow 

The youngest Romney is Zion (everyone calls her squishy) that nappy is too cute!

Alissa and Eden love to muck around together 

Zara putting suncream on squishy

Harry and River being tough (they are really the gentlest boys you'll ever meet!)

Meadow, Nya and Sienna jumping in together 

Zara and Cedar in the car!

Harry and River drove on the jet ski by themselves 

Zion - a true Aussie baby with sand all over her face. 

Eden and Cedar eating left over hot cross buns 

Cedar loves the jet ski and watched the boys the whole time - he even had a little ride!

Clint kneeboarding on the back of the jet ski 

These two monkeys at the park 

I love how well they all get along 

Family photo on our walk to the park 

Zara cuddling up to Cedar in their pj's - too cute!

We had a fantastic time with the Romney family, the kids played well, there was lots of laughs and deep discussions and WAY too much eating. They left on Saturday afternoon and we took the kids to the shops to spend the money that Grammie had sent over for them to buy some easter goodies. I don't think the easter bunny needed to come the following morning with all the treats they got! 

Preparing for Easter

The week before Easter we had a lesson in family home evening lesson where we discussed the events that occurred leading up to our Saviours atonement, his death on the cross and his resurrection.  We used 12 little eggs that contained small symbols of these events such as a nail, a rock, etc. It worked really well and the kids were very attentive throughout the lesson. The spirit witnessed to us as we testified to one another that we knew these things were true. It started our week off nicely and helped us to focus on the real reason we celebrate Easter. 

Alissa's preprimary class made crosses out of damper and discussed the importance of Christ's death and resurrection. Sienna's class made cross shaped stained glass window pictures. I love that the kids are at a Christian school that values the true meaning of Easter as we do. They had a lovely Easter service during worship assembly too. 

Zara made a cute easter chick at daycare 

We have an Easter tradition where the kids decorate egg shaped cookies with icing, they were excited to continue this tradition one day after school. 

Zara had a go, in-between stuffing cookie into her mouth!

The finished products!

Singapore Trip - Day Four and Five

On Sunday we held our own sacrament meeting and Harrison gave a talk. We had a relaxing day and wandered around a bit. On our last day we tried to see as much as we could before we flew out that night and Mum and Dad flew home to Hong Kong.

We visited Gardens by the Bay and looked at all the beautiful indoor gardens and waterfalls. 

But first, a quick icecream!

Pulling funny faces!

Harry in front of the indoor, man-made waterfall 

The wood carvings scattered around the garden were stunning

Alissa (or as Papa calls her "little pop") loves being on Papa's shoulders

Hard to believe this lush garden is all indoors 

Like father, like son. Documenting the garden and me taking a photo of it! 

Harry is nearly as tall as Grandma 

Beautiful and rare species of flowers were everywhere 

Harrison loves rocks and crystals and was very impressed by the ones behind him 

Sitting on a giant snail sculpture 

We checked out the Supertree Grove and had some dinner there 

There just happened to be a free J-POP concert on (a Japanese pop star) the crowd was very organised with light up rods which they moved in time to the music. It was the most orderly, family friendly pop concert I've every been to. Lots of fun!

The rest are iPhone photos as it was getting dark 

We went to the fountain/light show after that 

The food in Singapore is amazing 

Singapore is such a beautiful, clean, family friendly city. We'll be keeping an eye out for cheap airfares again. The weekend was made extra special by having Grandma and Papa joining us. Looking forward to going back!