Mining Museum

On our last day of school holiday we decided to go and check out one of the museums in town.  It was a pretty cool little place.  The kids really enjoyed it. 

Here are the kids in front of the museum, Will is back by the garbage can, or should I say rubbish bin. 

 Here are the girls in this super old phone booth in front of the museum.

 At the start of the museum they had this little coloring station.  The kids colored emus, kangaroos, dingos and wombats. 

We got to ride on the elevator up to the top of the old mining structure up to a look out.  It was definitely the kids favorite part.  Here is a video of the ride up the elevator. 

 Here we are at the top.  Gotta love that cheeser!

 Here we all are with two different views of beautiful Kalgoorlie!

Will loved this stuffed echidna! He would get down in it's face and have a great conversation. 

 Here are the girls with a dingo. 

 Had to include a snake. 

 Behind the museum they had a bunch of replicas of old houses and stores that used to be in Kalgoorlie. This one is an old miners house.  The kids loved it!

 For some reason, my kids really loved the toilet. 

 I loved how there was this sign specifying that you should not actually use this as a toilet.  Haha!

 Here's Will sitting on the toilet....can't believe that could be in my near future!  Okay, in probably like a year from now! 

 This was a tiny little mining quarters from back in the day.  It was a train car as well. 

 This rooster was just wandering around the museum the whole time.  Of course, the kids thought it was great. 

 Here is an old type writer. All the kids were pretty impressed. I can't believe that I am old enough to actually remember doing homework on a type writer!  Ah!

 Here is an old safe. 

 Not sure what this is.  Something old and cool looking. 

 I liked this old building. 

 Here is a miners camp. 

It was a pretty fun museum.  Another must see if you come to Kalgoorlie! :)

Happy 4th Birthday, Ava!!

Our sweet little Ava turned 4 on May 2nd.  We all love our Ava girl.  She is Lily's best friend and Lily is hers.  If you are ever feeling down on yourself, express those feelings around Ava and she will reassure you that you are loved and are a fabulous person.  Ava loves to laugh, tickle, snuggle and craft.  Ava is a very polite and sweet little girl, except for when she occasionally forgets her manners.  (As we all do!) She is a fun loving burst of sunshine with the highest sing songy voice I have ever heard.  She still loves milk and probably always will.  We love our Ava and we couldn't imagine life without her.

Here is the adorable little birthday girl. 

We went to a little boys birthday party a week before Ava's birthday and it was so much fun, so I felt inspired and decided to invite everyone we knew here in Kal to a birthday party for Ava and hope that some people showed up. And it worked.  We had a good group of friends show up and we all had so much fun and Ava got very spoiled by all her new friends. 

Here is Ava's Pony cake, as requested.  We did our best!

 Here is Ava with the cake, once again in her favorite outfit!

 Here is how old she is, 4!!

 We (or I really shouldn't take any of the credit, Cory like 80 of them, and I did like 10, if that!) stuffed all these balloons with candy and party poppers and other goodies and then we let the kids pop them to get their goodies.  It's kind of a spin on the piñata.  I was trying to save money, I thought this would be less expensive than a piñata, not sure if I was right, but it was fun anyway! Here are some boys trying to decide which balloon to pop first. 

 Ava could hardly wait to rip open her presents as most 4 year olds go.  She seriously got so spoiled. 

 Here is a Dora castle from her dearest friend, Annabelle. 

 Here is everyone singing happy birthday to Ava!  I forgot that here after you sing happy birthday you're supposed to say "Hip hip"  then everyone else says "Hooray"  I'll have to remember for Lily's birthday. Ava was quite disappointed that I forgot!

 Opening more presents. 

 Eating her cake! :)

 Here are Lily and Ava playing with one of Ava's cool new pressies (everyone calls presents pressies here) after the party excitement was over.

 Look at how well they got Cinderella ready for the ball! 

 Ava got to go to lunch with Dad after the party to Macca's (that is what they call McDonalds here) and then she also got to choose what we had for dinner that night.  Ava chose crabby patties, which happen to be hamburgers.  So after a delicious dinner of crabby patties, Ava had even more pressies to open! 

 The first one was a craft box full of crafting loot from Aunty Sara and Grandma and Grandpa Rappleye.  The girls really enjoyed it!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!  And Sara too. 

 The next one was a long sought after umbrella of her own!  Which Will has already successfully mangled, but Ava still loves it! 

 Now on to the huge present!  It was a dolls house!

 Here is Dad assembling the giant dolls house. 

 And here is the finished product! The girls have lots of fun playing in it!  And so does Will!  I catch him in there doing his thing while both the girls are at school!  Haha! 

All in all, it was a great 4th birthday!  We sure love our Ava girl and are so happy that we have been blessed with 4 wonderful years with her and look forward to many more!  She is such a peacemaker in our home and we love the spirit that she brings! 

Happy birthday, Ava!