Miss 15 - Day 15 in Japan

Miss 15 went on Monday to the school to get fitted for her uniform, apparently they don't make Japanese people in her size.

SO the school can provide a skirt for her (wonder how short it is), but she needed to go to a normal department shop to find school shirts and she's getting a blazer made for her.

So today she went shopping for the shirts.

Her report:

"[Shopping was] difficult because my arms were so long and my shoulders are wide - but I found my size in mens, so yay"

UPDATE
Photo obtained:

UPDATE 2: Added a Japanese student wearing the uniform for comparison.

Miss 15's - 14th Day in Japan

Look what she got up to ...  She visited Yomiuri Land - and yes, she did go on the roller coaster and ferris wheel
 

From Miss 15 - Day 12 in Japan

We had the AFS chapter picnic today and it was lots of fun, we went on the train and it took forever, when we got off the station was quite crowded, we walked outside to a massive park and i took a photo of the shrine entrance.

then we walked into the entrance to the actual park and it was quite packed

and we found the aAFSers and followed them into the park,

we met everyone else when we got there and we all sat down, we introduced ourselves and our families to the group, then we ate lunch and played games. Then we finished and micah's and my families walked together to look at the shrine and as we were walking out of the park it was jam packed.

We walked to the shrine but it was under construction so I took a photo of the entryway

then after we went to the shrine we walked to the train station and that was crazy, we waited in the entrance for about 20 mins before getting to the gate

then once we got off the crowded train we had to cross the shibuya scramble, - im pretty sure its shibuya but idk

then when we got off the train at our local stop it was finally less crowded, and we walked home and saw the cherry blossom festival.

WOW Time Flies ...

Hi to anyone still reading this blog :) Quick update on life: Miss 13 is now in Year 8, still enjoying horse riding, and school - she's now in both the Specialist Agricultural and Specialist Athletics programs and still making the world's best brownies. She's in the kitchen at the moment cooking up a batch. Which is both good (awesome brownies) and bad (I'm banned from kitchen for the duration and I need coffee). Miss 15 flew out to Japan for a year's student exchange program. She will fly back in on Feb 4th, 2018!!! Awesome adventure for her and I hope she has a fantastic time. We've got a Danish exchange volunteer staying with us for 3 months. She's working at a local native bird rescue. Our business is going well, I've got a few contracts on the go at the moment, each with their own set of issues, but mostly enjoyable, and hubby is building up his client list too. And that's about it. Also, I am planning to do more regular updates, so stay tuned!

Quick Update

I know I've not posted here for awhile, but I just wanted to reach out to anyone still reading and let you know the best news this year .., Miss nearly-15 has been awarded a full scholarship to go to Japan next year as an exchange student.  She is so excited.

She'll fly out in March and fly back in Feb 2018!!

A Visit to the Outback

On the 14th of April, the family, plus our Japanese Exchange Student and Shootin Buddy headed up to the Outback.  Our destination was a Sheep Station at Gabyon.  This is their webpage and is worth checking out.

It's a 6 or so hour drive from Perth.  And on the whole the roads are very good.  There had been some recent rains and one of the bridges was half washed out, and there were a few bumpy creek crossings but it certainly was achievable and 4x4 wasn't needed.

Passed the sign and prior to the station there were a few creeks that ran down to the road which would be worth exploring in the future.  This time however, we just went straight to the Station.

The turn off from the main road was well signposted, however when we got into the station itself we were a bit unsure of where we actually were to go.  Luckily the station owners had seen us arrive (they had been out mustering but had returned earlier than expected) and were able to point us in the right direction.

The owners, Mike, Helen & their daughter Gemma, are wonderful and friendly people.  Over the course of our stay they could not have done more to make us feel welcome.

They have two options for accommodation (and you can also camp / park a caravan), and we chose the "homestead" option.  This is a wing near the main house (separated by a fence), with three rooms each with a queen bed and a single bed, a kitchen, bathroom, outdoor dining table, outdoor fire pit, and BBQ all with power.  As there were 6 of us, this worked out nicely.

The property is a working sheep station on 271, 500 hectares and we were able to see them mustering sheep from one of the paddocks using quads and a small plane.  

During our time there, Miss 12 got to help out with the horses, our Japanese Exchange Student got to bottle feed kangaroos, Miss 14 learnt how to vacuum a pool and then got to enjoy the pool (except it was too cold to stay in the water for long) and we all got to go on a hike and do some exploring.

Here are some more of our photos

January Wrap

Wow, another year flying by!!!

January was very quiet on the work front :(  BUT very busy in every other way.  Being school holidays meant that most of my time was taken up with the girls.

Miss 12 had an operation on her ingrowing toenail which meant that she couldn't spent all her time with horses so she was around pretty much full time for most of January.

Miss 14 had swimming lessons for her Bronze Medallion re-certification.  Due to her illness last year she hasn't done much sport at all for a long time, but thankfully she was still fit enough to cope with the swimming requirement of the Bronze Medallion and still remembered all of her first aid and resuscitation information necessary to pass.  (Well she did a Senior First Aid / CPR certificate in November so I would have been surprised if she hadn't of passed!).

After all of this was out of the way, we went down to Dunsborough for a week.  Really love it down there.  We visited all of our favourite spots - Millars Ice-Creamery; the Candy Cow in Cowaramup; Bootleg Brewery; and Treeton Estate.  For those who know the area and haven't been to any of these, they're all highly recommended.

In addition we discovered a new bakery - mmm, can't find it on Google and Google Maps has an old photo when it was a fruit shop (it's at Boodjidup Rd if anyone is looking for it, right next to the second hand place); went to a distillery, visited Boranup Cafe and Gallery,  and drove through Boranup Forest.

We returned to Perth on Friday the 29th,  a couple of hours before our Exchange Student from Japan was to arrive.  Her plane was late, so that gave us another hour to get sorted and pick her up.

The last couple of days of January were spent sorting out school uniforms, finding a Kangaroo and generally getting her and the other two ready for school on the Monday.

Miss 12 starts High School at a new school, Miss 14 goes into Year 9 and our Exchange Student is mainly doing the Year 9 classes with Miss 14, which a couple of changes.

I will let you know how they're all doing in my next post :)

I hope everyone else's years got off to a good start :)