Barrier Reef - Bridie

We went on a big boat to Green Island in the Great Barrier Reef. We got off the boat and went to a shop that let us borrow a snorkel, a mask and some flippers. Then we went swimming and I didn't want to have my snorkel and mask. I swam around with my goggles on instead. We lots of nice fish. There was a whitey, grey one with a yellow stripe on it and a blue part...I think! There were lots of other fishes. When we finished we went on another big boat back to Cairns.

Great Barrier Reef - Clare

On Thursday we went to a 5 star caravan park with 2 jumping pillows, 3 swimming pools and 1 water park. We went to Great Barrier reef to do some snorkelling. I saw a big fish with two noses and Abbey saw a small clam when she went close it closed. Dad took us to the deep. We saw a weird fish that was rainbow. Then we went to the ship and we sat on the top of the ship it was very wobbly and then we went all the way back to Cairns and we drove all the way home.

Birdworld - Abbey

On the 18th of October we went to Birdworld. I had a BIG macaw on my shoulder. It was rather scary. All the birds are in a big aviary which you can walk through. They fly around and land on your shoulder. Clare put food in the rim of her hat and some birds landed on her head. In this picture she looks scared of the birds. She isn't - she's holding her hat up! There were sun conures, Blue-and-gold macaws, a scarlet macaw, rainbow lorikeets and scaly lorys. (look on google images if you do not know what they look like)

Trip to the Tablelands

On Thursday we went to a waterfall called Millaa millaa which means "lots of water" in an aboriginal language. At Milla milla we felt the water spraying us. On Friday we went to lake Eacham where we stayed. At Lake Eacham we saw some baby turkeys trying to get up to the mum turkey in a tree. It was funny when some just got stuck on a lower branch and had to sleep there.We balanced on a log. I learnt to balance on a log but just before we left I fell of but other than that it was fun.We also went to bird world where there are birds soaring and landing on peoples shoulders. I got one on my hat. I saw a huge macaw it bit Abbey's finger but Abbey did not cry. Dad fed a green parrot and it jumped on to Dad's back it was a very cheeky parrot.

My Favourite Pools in Townsville - Abbey

My favourite pools in Townsville and surrounds are: #1. Riverways - Because it is close, free and nice. #2. The pool at Mission Beach Big4 - Because it has a water slide #3. The Strand Water park - Because it is fun #4. The Rock pool at the Strand - Because it is big #5. The Rockslides - because there is a natural waterslide #6. Little Crystal creek - because it is a nice place to swim #7. Alligator creek - Because it is nice #8. Broadwater - It has a strong current to pull you down the river which is fun #9. Alligator nest - it has super deep part

A Birthday on the Beach - Clare

On Saturday it was my birthday. I turned 8. It was fun. We smashed coloured ice and we played tug of war on the beach and my team won every time except one time when the other team cheated. After that we made a marble painting it all scribbly. We got marbles and we put them in a little bottle of paint and then tipped them onto the canvas. We wobbled the canvas around and it made a swirly painting. I did orange, Bridie did yellow and Abbey did purple. I got a tamagotchi and notebook and a blue leotard.

Bugs and Stuff - Bridie

We've been learning about insects. We went on a bug hunt and we spotted lots of bugs. When we came home we found a friendly insect in Mum and Dad's room. The next day we saw a humongous stick insect in the garden where we live. We carried the stick insect around for a while and put it back in the garden. In the morning we found it above the door of our room! We think it wanted to visit us.

Ballet - Clare

I am learning ballet. Last week we had a new teacher. She was a bit more strict. She taught us a whole dance! Usually we only learn half a dance. Sometimes we even do less than half. We just just got our costumes. Mine is black and shines. I also got some ballet socks there. I really, really like ballet.

Swimming - Clare

On Saturday went to a camp site at Charters Towers. It was one hour to get there . At the camp site there is a swimming pool.It is very cold. We met some new friends and we saw Jayden. He is a friend of Abbey's. We went to the pool with him. It was fun. We went swimming around it. After that we went to the jumping pillow. We went to a hill with lots of bunkers where people were going to hide from bombs but luckily no bombs came. We went looking around at a broken down tower. I looked for some gold but I didn't find any. I did find a sparkly stone on a brick but I think it was just quartz.

Charters Towers - Abbey

This weekend we went to Charters Towers (an old gold mining town with ghosties) and drove around blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Then we went to a SUPER cool campsite that had a jumping pillow and a pool. We played chases on it and it was really fun and hard because you were not allowed to touch the sand or else you became It. See anyone familiar in the pic? (Apart from us!) For any one who doesn't know it's Jayden Bass, a kid from my class at school who is exactly the same age as me with the same birthday. We were setting up our tent when a kid walked over and said "G'day Mr Maynard, how are ya?" it was Jayden! It was so funny! A kid exactly my age, from Tassie in my class at school, in Charters Towers, at the same campsite, at the same time! We went swimming and Jayden and I had swimming races and we kept tying. I made a friend called Keeley. Keeley, Jayden and I all tried to trick a girl called Michelle into thinking that my name is Renee (pronounced: re-nay). It didn't work.

Movie - Abbey

On the 3 of July we went camping with our friends the Fishers and the Morgans. We made a movie and I was a king but I switched to a guard. It was freezing but we decided to go swimming anyway. Then we got into our costumes and I was wearing two shirts and a jacket. Rachel (My friend) made her sister marry Reuben! Only in the script, not in real life! It was sooooooooooo fun. In the background of picture the skateboarding angel you can see part of Sultana's... No, wait it's Natarnya's wedding dress.

La Luna Youth Arts - Abbey

On the 1st of July we went to La Luna Youth Arts to an open day. I stood on a ball. Warning: Do Not Try this on you exercise balls at home. This ball is solid and hard unlike the exercise ball.
I rolled a hoop down a hill, raced down to catch up to it and jumped through.
It was really fun.

Amazing Animals - Clare

On Monday I went to billabong sanctuary with my friend Christos . I saw a big crocodile being fed. It jumped out of the water. It was amazing. After that we went to feed the wallabies they were lovely. I fed an injured wallaby. We went to the koalas and I got to hold it.

the Chainsaw!










Last weekend we went to Ingham with the McClintocks. We went swimming in a river and that river was full of bullrout (Freshwater stonefish) and we didn't get stung. We built a rock wall in the middle of the river to make the rapids more rapid! Then we lay on our backs to relax in the rapids but the rapids were so rapid that they pulled us down the rapidly rapid rapids with shouts of "Ouch!" "Who put that rock there!?" and "OW OUCH OH OW OW OW OW OUCH!". I am now black and blue because it was so fun and painful that we did it another thirty thousand times (or maybe it was thirty) It is still warm enough to go swimming! We went on a bush walk and we saw lots of cool things such as toadstool staircases. Then we tried to get the kookaburas to eat my new rubber snake but they didn't. So Calum decided to start throwing it to the kookaburas and it got stuck in a tree that was 4 and a half metres high then started to have branches. That meant we couldn't climb up to get it. Jeff decided to throw his best hammer but then that got stuck too! We all threw rocks and sticks at the hammmer but it got as wedged as a hammer could be. We were throwing rocks and sticks at the hammer and snake for about an hour. Finally we got both the hammer and the snake down. The next day we went to the Ingham show. I went on the big slide (and became airborne twice on the same ride!) the Gee Whizzer and the bumper cars. I also got a showbag. Meg and Bridie went on the spinning elephant merry-go-round. Dad and Jeff were crazy and went on the Zipper. We called the Zipper the Chainsaw instead because that is what it looked like and you had to be as crazy as a chainsaw murderer to go on it. Dad and Jeff went jumping on cane trains.

A whole lot of random things 2- Abbey

It is almost nearly my birthday. I will turn 10. I am hoping to get twice as many presents because I am turning twice as many numbers. I just read in a joke book this tongue twister: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. That is extra hard if you try to say it out loud really fast! I have a lot of favourite movies. Here are some of them: Nancy Drew, Home Alone, Asterix and Cleopatra, Asterix vs Caesar, Thunderbirds, Madagascar, Over The Hedge, Prince Caspian, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Nanny Mcphee, Beethoven's 5th, Beethoven's 2nd, Anne Of Green Gables, Evan Almighty, Nim's Island.

New Playground - Abbey

Yesterday a new playground opened. We have been waiting for 2 months for it to open. It is really cool. There is even a statue of Aslan and the stone table (Narnia, book 2, the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, now a movie) We had HEAPS of fun. There are 2 castles and underneath one there is a headless horse man holding a pumpkin.(Which is from a very exciting story)

Swimming with a Dugong - Clare

I was swimming at magnetic island when Dad called out "Dolphin!". I hopped out of the water and then I saw it again. It wasn't a dolphin. It was a baby dugong! I was amazed. You can't see the dugong in this picture but it was somewhere right near us. We saw the dugong just after this photo was taken but he was too quick and too shy for us to take a photo of him.

Magnetic Island - Abbey

We were in a rush to get to the ferry to go to Magnetic Island with Auntie Shani, Uncle Andrew and Will. The ferry nearly left without us. The amazing view pictured on the right is Balding Bay. It is seriously cool. We went swimming and Mum saw a sting ray. We jumped out of the water and only played in the shallows after that. Bridie buried her legs and we hired a kayak and went paddling in it.

Crystal Creek - Abbey

Yesterday we went to Crystal Creek. We found a massive swimming hole, it was deeper than Dad's head and I was scared of the deep bit and you would be to if you have read the Spiderwick Chronicles, book two, there is a giant human eating troll thing that lives in deep water and is as tall as a 2 story building.(if it was man eating troll I wouldn't be worried 'cause I'm not a man, I'm a girl) We slid down a water fall. The part we slid down was only 'bout 2 meters high and we slid on the wet bit on the right side and it goes down another meter. The whole thing was 'bout 50 meters. We only slid down at the bottom of it. Dad jumped off a massive rock. You can't see the bottom of the deep swimming hole.

BEAR!!!! - Bridie

I made a bear mask. ROAR!! The bear's name is Boris Booey Maynard. We went to the art gallery and I turned into a sandwich! Abbey found a Yummy heaven!