Well, this will be the last blog update before Singapore.

Sorry that I haven't posted a great deal lately, but to be honest - not a lot has been happening. The weather is slowly improving and we've had a few days out on the boat, but it's still pretty changable. I looked on the monthly forecast on the weather channel and was disappointed to see quite a few rain clouds in the month for Mum's visit. Never mind - when you're feeding your face in a restaurant, it doesn't matter what the weather's like outside :o) The sun always shine in McDonalds.

Last weekend was Father's Day on Sunday.

This was Adam's card for Daddy:

And it opens up to reveal..... Mr Cheese!

We did manage a few hours on the boat on Saturday, then on Sunday, Paul was treated to breakfast in bed, a few pressies and we whisked him off to Kings Park for a picnic. Kings Park had a Fathers Day celebration as part of their Spring festival. There was loads of free entertainment and music and the weather held, so it was lovely just to sit a chill for a few hours in the sunshine.

We even bumped in to the Perth celebrity that is 'Fat Cat'. The WA version of Pudsey Bear as he's the Telethon mascot - the scariest looking cuddly character I've ever seen!! Why on earth would you want to buy one!?!

Paul had a kick about with the kids for a while after and the park was heaving with people. Was a lovely day though. Kings Park always reminds us how lucky we are to live in Perth. It truly is a beautiful place to spend a few hours.

After the picnic we drove round the park to see the Boab tree. Now this tree has an amazing story and whilst it's not particularly impressive to look at; the story behind it being in Kings Park is pretty cool. You can read about it here: [URL]http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/o/content/view/458/42/[/URL] but basically, the tree was in the path of a road, so it was dug up and the 750 year old tree was transported thousands of kilometres to its new home. I remember the story on the nightly news where this massive tree was squeezed through the streets of Subiaco on the way to its new home. I think the idea is to cultivate loads more boabs from this tree and give them back to the area where this one came from. Pretty amazing story really. Most people would have just bulldozed it down and built the road. I just hope it can survive in Perth's conditions. I should imagine its quite a bit cooler than where the trees come from. Wouldn't look good to bring it all this way at vast expense and then it dies, would it? Never mind - think of the coasters you could produce.

Last week Darcie had her school excursion to Scitech which she enjoyed and Adam went to one of his school mates farm where they grow cucumbers. Well, Adam may not have been thrilled, but I thought it was fantastic! Seeing all the effort thats put into growing these plants was fantastic. They are so fragile; the slightest change in conditions can ruin the whole crop. In the peak of summer, the plants can grow about 6 inches per day. We got a few mis-shapes to bring home and they were lovely; really sweet, and I'm glad I went - I learnt a lot :o)

Today was the Sports Carnival (sports day). The weather rained on and off all day, which is a shame as the other years, they have been lucky. Darcie and Sam both did really well in their races with Sam finishing first in a couple. Their Faction 'Ocean' won overall and they were thrilled as I think last year, they lost by only a couple of points.

So this week Darcie starts swimming with the school - every day for two weeks. Hopefully Mum will be able to come and watch her for the last couple of days. Adam also had his first swimming lesson on Friday - although technically it was a 'stand in the water and look sorry for yourself' lesson. He wouldn't even get into the pool until he was prized off me and I was escorted to the coffee machine. He's still a little cling-on when it comes to new situations. He's still my baby really.

Darcie had a party at the weekend at the Fun Factr'y. The other two kids wanted to go, so Paul got the absolute pleasure of sitting in a building with all the acoustics of a aircraft hanger whilst several hundred kids scream at the top of their voices and a couple shit themselves for general 'ambience' and are left to sit in it for an hour whilst their Mums have a latte and deny all sense of smell. It's pay back for all the years that I've done it - ha ha. We went to Gail's for dinner afterwards; stew and dumplings (Gail's got lovely dumplings!) and Paul fell asleep. Must have been the excitement!

So with five sleeps to go, I'm starting to get nervous. Looking forward to seeing Mum and having a few days of R&R, but nervous about flying alone and finding her at the airport. I'm sure it'll be fine and we'll have a whale of a time - I look forward to reporting in at a later date. Can't imagine what I'm going to do on a flight alone for 5 hours!! I'm so used to waking Paul up when he snores too loudly, or cleaning Adam up when he drops his drink in his lap, or holding Darcie's pens until she asks for the colours, or adjudicating Sam's scores on who's the 'hottest' cabin attendent! The thought of just being able to listen to MY ipod, or read a book without a 'MUM???' or a 'JU?' in five hours? Heaven!!

See you on the other side.