My Tree House

Take a look at Spencer's tree house. Although Alan and I continue to call it a cubby Spencer corrects us saying "no MY tree house... silly mummy"!!

Alan managed to spend a good 4 or 5 hours today working on the cubby ...umm.... tree house... and we all can't believe how great it is looking. Work today included adding the little tin roof and building the verandah/deck around the edge.

For me now comes the fun part... interior design! I will be responsible for the final touches on the house and plan on painting the house inside and out. I have been warned by Alan not to make the house too "pretty" however when I asked Spencer what colour he would like me to paint the inside Alan was shocked to hear his answer.... PINK!!
I tested him a few hours later and asked him again what colour he'd like mummy to paint his tree house and his answer was still pink...

Now I'm thinking a pink tree house will be the perfect place for mummy to sneak away and enjoy some quiet time sipping a hot cup of Twinings English Breakfast tea and drooling over some beading magazines!

How long do you think it will take for Alan and Spencer to find me?

Fijian Banded Iguana

Isn't this just the most amazing little creature? We saw this little fella at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary during our recent visit.

He's a Fijian Banded Iguana and is truly beautiful. He is apparently the most geographically isolated iguana in the world. They are believed to have evolved from green iguanas that rafted on debris across the Pacific Ocean from South America.

Male Fiji banded iguanas are emerald green with broad, light-colored bands. The females are solid green with occasional spotting so I am guessing that this one is definitely male ... which is a good thing as I've been calling it a he!! For some reason I assume all lizards are males...

Due to habitat destruction and, more significantly, the introduction of mongooses and house cats to the islands, populations of these iguanas have been declining over the past century.

Both species of Fijian iguanas are considered to be endangered and have full protection under both Fiji and international laws so I'm thankful to have been able to see this little guy in the flesh.

A day at Currumbin

As you know a few weeks ago we had 3 fantastic days at Paradise Resort. On our way to the Gold Coast we drove a little further south and called into Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. We had never been before so we were quite excited to visit the park with Spencer.

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well having been hit with a bit of a tummy bug so our visit to the park was a bit shorter than anticipated but we still managed to spend a couple of hours enjoying the wildlife.
Spencer got to see all sorts of great animals including kangaroos, koalas, emus, lots of snakes and lizards, one incredibly large salt water crocodile and some gorgeous birds. He had a great time strolling amongst the kangaroos and emus and managed to feed the roos when a lovely American couple were kind enough to share their roo food with Spencer and had great delight in feeding them with him.I think the highlight of the day though was our great journey on the Currumbin Express! They have this awesome little train which runs on a miniature train track and travels the full circuit of the entire park - a good 10 minute ride. Spencer, and Alan, loved listening to the clickety clack of the wheels on the track and waving to people and the animals as we passed them by.

We had such a great morning that we ended up buying a season pass and are looking forward to heading back at Easter with one of Spencer's friends.

If you are in the area of Currumbin be sure to visit the park as it's a fantastic day out... otherwise here is their website

http://www.currumbin-sanctuary.org.au/content/home.asp?name=Home

A work in progress

As you know Alan was hoping to build a cubby house for Spencer in time for Christmas Day. Alan was excited to be on holidays so he'd be able to spend lots of time building the cubby.

Now believe it or not Brisbane was, and still is for that matter, on Level 6 water restrictions but it seemed as soon as Alan went on holidays Brisbane was hit with nearly two weeks of rain. Nearly every time he set up his tools ready for some serious cubby house building the rain would fall.... unfotunately by the time he had packed up and got everything back inside the rain would have stopped... of course you know what happened if he tried to set up his tools again... yep... down came the rain.

But.... as you can seen by the photos we eventually got some sunshine and Alan was finally able to get to work on the cubby.

Spencer was very intrigued to see what daddy was building and although we kept referring to his little house as his "cubby" he decided to call it his "tree house". He was daddy's little helper on this day and helped daddy construct the walls with his little plastic hammer.

Cool dude

Spencer has had these sunnies since he was a little baby but for some reason today he was obsessed with wearing them.

He spent a lot of time outside today and wasn't happy unless he was wearing his "cool" sunnies. Of course the more Alan and I told him how cool he looked the more he wanted to wear them saying "mummy me cool"... too cute!

A hole in one

A few weeks ago we had 3 lovely days on the Gold Coast staying at the Paradise Resort. I was lucky enough to win this holiday through the Huggie's website so there's only one thing better than a holiday and that's a FREE holiday!

On the way to the resort we saw lots of Putt Putt Golf parks and I suggested to Alan that we have a game during our stay. Spencer was instantly obsessed with playing saying "I want putt putt" - not even knowing what it was!

So on our second day of our holiday we played 18 holes of Putt Putt. Spencer lasted until about Hole 8 before he got bored, ran off with our balls, joining strangers' games and trying to hit mummy & daddy with his golf club! We still had lots of fun and I can't wait to play again.

I hadn't played since I was in high school... which as all of you know is a LONG time ago. Alan ended up beating me by one point which surprised him as he assumed I would be pretty bad at it! Oh well I guess there's always next time to beat him!

A cubby for Spencer

Alan had always wanted to build a cubby house for Spencer so when a packing crate became available at his work he grabbed it with both hands! The pieces lock back together to form one big box which Alan thought would be perfect to turn into a cubby house.

So whilst my dad was visiting Brisbane Alan got him to work helping him cut the windows and door in the walls of the cubby.

Hard to believe that the pieces below will eventually be a little house... the plan was to have it ready in time for Christmas Day so watch this space..