The Wonders of Australia Part Two; From the Kids

Ah.  The wonders of a brave new world.

Watermelon.

Corn on the cob.

Windmills on the ceiling.  (Otherwise known as ceiling fans.)

Those twisty thingies that go around and around and spit out water.  (Sprinklers.)

Really.  Aidan and Matthew can sit and stare at these for hours.  They still don't get the point.  Who knew that lawns and plants needed to be watered?  Kids born and raised in Germany aren't going to understand that rain doesn't always fall from the sky.  Water as a source of life instead of a source of discontentment.  Hmmm.  Very nice concept.

Ants.  Cool.  Just look at all of them.  Look at how fast they are! What are they doing?  What will they do with this piece of my apple?  (How is Mommy going to explain to the homeowner why we are spending twenty minutes bent over an ant colony at the edge of his lawn?!

Australians.  (Oh cool.  The homeowner just came out and smiled at us.  Didn't inform us that this was his property and that he had spent an awful lot of time on his flower bed so that he didn't appreciate children, the unmitigated gall CHILDREN, playing in HIS yard, which he owned and which was his, his, lawfully his.  Sorry.  Momentary lapse.) 

Twigs and sticks and bark and seeds and flowers and.....it takes us an hour to walk home from school.  Because Aidan still can't understand that sticks can be found everywhere and anywhere here.  He still gathers up as many as he can and carries them home, arms filled to bursting.  We have a small woodpile in our front driveway.  How lucky we are to have lived in Europe, where the forests that once covered the continent from the western shores of France into the regions of Russia have been denuded for half a century.  Europeans treasure the small, carefully tended pockets they have left.  We are able to appreciate the bounty that still surround us here in this new country of ours. Twigs and sticks and bark and seeds....carelessly left on the ground,  because nature's gifts are so plentiful here that noone bothers with the discarded packaging.

Hummus.  Pita bread.  International choices galore.  (Okay,  that one's for Mom.  We still prefer McDonald's or Subway.)

Target.  Woolworth's.  Cohl's.  All in the same shopping mall.

Malls.

Santa in the mall.

The waves of the South Pacific.

Cockatoos and kookaburras in our back yard.

Strangers smiling and speaking to the children, waving at us out of cars as we wait to cross the street, telling me what a wonderful family I have.

Swimming in the pool everyday.  Hearing from Mum that the deadman's float doesn't count as a stroke and learning how to swim from one side of the pool to the other without swim aids. 

Body surfing in the Pacific Ocean.  WITH SWIM AIDS.  WITH SWIM AIDS.  (Mum grew up on both sides of the ATLANTIC ocean.  Pshaw Mum.  They call it '' the pond'' for a reason.  THESE are WAVES.  And where are our surf boards?!)

A deputy principal who makesMilo for us.  (Can we please go to school, Mum, please can we, huh huh huh?)

A school dance.

When can we play handball with the school kids, Mum? Can we go to school too?

A mum who still yells at us when we play soccer in the house and spill Dad's coffee right next to his computer.

But who then comes right upstaris and gives us hugs.  And does a goofy dance.

Must be all the sunshine