Well, I don’t know where to start! It’s been such a busy, busy month (or two – apologies for the lack of updates, but they’ll be along like trains now, believe me).

Paul’s brother Michael flew back the day before Mr Cheese’s birthday after a fortnight of fun, festivities and jam packed itinerary. It was a little like a military operation, but two weeks went in the blink of an eye and if we’d have spent half the day wondering about what to do and where to go, we would have lost valuable man hours (touristing :o)

The two weeks leading up to Margaret’s and Michael’s visit passed in a blur of preparation, work and kids being off school. They arrived on a Friday night and I’ll detail what we’ve done with some pictures for your visual delight!

The first day they were here (Saturday), we took them down to Mandurah and showed them the foreshore and had an ice cream and a walk along the water front. We also gave them a tour of the (still unfinished :o( house and a quick drive round Secret Harbour.

Sunday was a trip into Perth for Yum Cha. This is a Chinese restaurant where all the waitresses walk round with loads of food on trays and you simply ask for what you want and it gets added to your bill. It’s very chaotic, but fun. We then went to Kings Park for a look around and a coffee before ending up having a picnic at Mullaloo and watching the sunset.

Us all in King's Park on the first weekend of Margaret and Michael's visit.

Monday we took the boat out. I took care of most of the itinerary, but relied on Paul to phone the tourist board and book the dolphin appearance. As usual, he forgot, but we did manage to track some down and managed a few photos (albeit long distance ones!). I think they enjoyed the boat though and we had a fun few hours pootling about.

All aboard the Skylark!

Nice headgear Captain!

On Tuesday we had a drive out into the local countryside and had a picnic at Serpentine Dam. The kids had a swim in the lake and Margaret came face to face with a blue tongue lizard on the way to the loo! We had kookaburras above us whilst we were BBQ-ing laughing constantly. Perhaps they were just criticising our cooking technique. Burnt burgers…. Ha ha ha!

I can still hear the Kookaburras mocking us :o/

On Wednesday, Paul and I had a bit of work to do, as well as drop the dog off at the kennel for his holiday and pick the trailer up to stuff all the cases in for our trip to the Margaret River. Margaret and Michael too the kids to Marapana wildlife park though, so it wasn’t a wasted day for them and had close encounters with roos, koalas and some not so furry animals!

Margaret gets acquainted with a scaly character!

So, on Thursday, we headed off down south to the Margaret River wine region for a long weekend. We stopped off via Miami bakery to sample their famous pies (like the garlic prawn), and also stopped off in Busselton for a wee, a few phone calls and a look at the pier. We were going to walk the length of the pier, but it was very hot and none of us felt up to it, so we bought a few souvenirs and headed on through to Dunsborough where we were staying.

Beautiful Dunsborough beach. Just count yourself lucky it's not an interactive photo and you can't experience the flies!!! Yeuch!

Mr Cheese on his way to the 'First Delaney Beach Cricket Tornament' What a hoot that was! We were all too lazy to run, too lazy to attempt to catch the ball and could barely be arsed to hit it!!! Funny as!

Us on the fateful 'I know! Let's go for a relaxing stroll around the lighthouse' day.

The next few days were spent playing cricket, visiting wineries, having a mini-Christmas celebration and going to Voyager for lunch; my very favourite restaurant in the whole wide WA!

Paul and Michael tuck in at Voyager

The gang in the beautiful Voyager gardens.

Paul and 2/3rds of the kids. Mr Cheese was being un-cooperative.


The beautiful Miss Parcel strikes a pose.

Three generations of Delaneys.

We have squeezed in a trip to Rottnest Island, two trips to the outdoor cinema in Burswood; one to see the Bee Movie, which was quite funny and then we went again to see Mr Magoriums Emporium on Chinese New Year weekend and watched spectacular fireworks in the intermission. The trips out on the boat went well and we really did so much and had so much fun – I should have documented it whilst we were in the midst of it as there’s too much to write all in one sitting. We also took Margaret for lunch is Miss Mauds; a Swedish smorgasboard restaurant. That was yummy. Honestly, we've never eaten so much in the last month!

A brief moment of brotherly love in Miss Mauds.

Rottnest Island was beautiful as ever and the scenery is simply stunning.

Darcie waiting for the Rottnest Ferry.

Miss P enjoying the water at Rottnest.

We did the tour of the WWII gun and had a coach ride round the island before the kids cooled down with a snorkel and Darcie got friendly with the local wildlife.

Sam was chanting, 'bite her.... bite her.... bite her'

Last weekend we took Margaret to Penguin Island and did the glass bottom boat tour. We saw the little penguins, seals and lots of sea birds – no dolphins this time though – I think they’re on strike for more pay and better working conditions.

The kids settled back into school well and seem happy enough with their new teachers and classmates.

All set for the first day of school 4th Feb 2008.

Darcie has Sam’s teacher from last year, Miss Marshall. Goodness only knows what the poor woman did to deserve two Delaneys in two years! At least this year should be an easier ride for her than last! Adam is settling into Kindy.

He's not happy, but he's getting there!

He is only doing mornings at the moment and is still the least settled of all his classmates, but for him, he’s doing well. His teacher commented how he only sucks one thumb and had to re-arrange the line, so that Adam could hold hands and still have the thumb available to suck! There are photos of all the children on the wall in little frames with their names on – Adam is the only one with his thumb in. It’s a slow process, but his is certainly enjoying it more than ABC. Just takes a while for his face to get the message that he’s enjoying himself (a little like Paul, I guess :o)
Mr Cheese celebrated his 4th birthday and seemed more than happy with his vast array of gifts and cards from us and overseas; thanks to everyone who remembered and *raspberries* to everyone who forgot :o) :o)

Adam on his birthday.

The birthday fairy worked her magic again!

Addy with his birthday cake.

I however, cocked up on Adam's birthday and booked three tickets to see the Police. As Michael had to change his tickets and go home earlier than anticipated, we took Sam, with us. It wasn't ideal, but he thoroughly enjoyed it and claimed it was the best concert he'd ever been to (and he has been to a few!). The support band that came on first we'd never heard of, but they were fab! I commented that the lead singer sounded a little like Sting and everyone humoured me. Anyhow, they finsihed their set and were going to be signing CD's and t-shirts at one of the merchandise stalls. I encouraged us all to go and buy a CD. Sam queued and talked with the group, shook hands with them and got the CD signed. It wasn't until we googled them the next morning that we realised the lead singer is Sting's son! The group are called Fiction Plane and they are fab! Check them out if you get the chance.

Darcie too celebrated a birthday in the form of reaching the giddy heights of 7. She had a good day and asked to go swimming. So we took her to the Aqua Jetty for a dip and then on to Rockingham foreshore for chips on the front. Three dolphins put on a show for her whilst she ate her chips; a lovely touch, I thought.

Darcie at Point Peron on her birthday.

Happy Birthday Miss Parcel.

7 or 17???

She received more High School Musical goodies than you could stock a shop with and they have transformed her into a teenager, but she loved them all! I don’t think she’s got a favourite pressie, although she has watched Ratatouille about 50 times (thank you Muncle Michael :o) and the HSM dance mat has seen much use.

Miss P with her Abrigella (as Adam says it) and Sharpay.

The fairies must have passed in the night the other weekend as Darcie had a visit from the Birthday Fairy and Sam lost another tooth, so the tooth fairy was en-route. Busy fairy household!

Homemade Pizza night in the Delaney house.

Unfortunately for P, the day after her birthday, we headed into Perth for the day for her to have a tooth pulled. It was a double that had an abscess under and therefore needed to go. She had a few other bits that needed doing, so it was decided that a general anaesthetic would be best to get everything filled, buffed and polished in one go. It was very traumatic for her, but the anaesthetist was brilliant! He did magic for her and got her to make things happen too. She made balls disappear and re-appear and did magic colouring in a book using only her finger! She was very distraught when the mask went over her nose, but five breaths of the gas later and she was asleep. She was so brave and you should see the size of the tooth that they removed!

What a big bugger! That coin is a little smaller than a 10p piece!!

Other than that, there’s LOADS going on with the house, so I think I’ll add a separate entry for that, and Margaret has now ‘left the building’ :o( She has arrived home safe and sound, which is fab, but it’s very strange without her. Mum has offered to book her ticket for this week to cheer us all up, but I have reassured her that suddenly, I am ecstatically happy and there really is no need to take such drastic measures! Love you really Mum ;o)

I just hope Nanny D and Muncle Michael (as Adam calls him) had as much fun as we did. We all had a thoroughly enjoyable (if not tiring) time and can’t wait for your next visit.

As the song goes……. ‘thanks for the memories’ Love you both, Us xx