Christmas 2007

Well it's that time of year again when you dust the cobwebs of the old Santa, put up the fairy lights and pull out the Christmas tree from that old box. Get the misses to hang up the beaut tinsel around the house and get ready to pay extra for your next power bill! Yes it's Christmas time again. We always pop Santa up on the roof so the kiddies don't get their hands on him and hook up the lights onto the gutter and like i said up goes the Christmas tree.






And then all you have to do is wait till chrisie day which when you have a house full of kiddies who can't wait, it can be quiet a long time mate. But before you know it, here we are CHRISTMAS.







All the kiddies just got straight into it, Harrison won the day with the biggest smile as he was having just the greatest day of his short little life. Of cause all the little ones were having a great time but Harrison had the greatest time believe me. And it's very important to remember to be real good to your kiddies, because when you get old their the ones who pick your nursing home!





Jacko taking a breather after attacking some presies. He asked me if Santa was for real and should he leave some milk and cookies out for him? I said 'na it's all crap jacko'..... no I didn't I told him 'Of cause mate and he loves beer too so what about we leave that milk stuff in the fridge and just leave a couple of these Toothys Extra and just place this bag of beer nuts here..... as we all know that raindeers just lovvvvve beer nuts and while were here we might as well put this copy of Ralph so he can have a read while having a drink, what ya reckon mate'. 'Okay dad but are you sure that Santa loves reading Ralph', I said 'Believe me Jacko if he doesn't have a read i'm sure he'll have time to look at the pictures mate'.









Here is Sarah before she went down sick for two days....... something about sheilahs and chocolate that doesn't go together, maybe its the fact that they don't stop eating the stuff. But the poor little sod was sick over Christmas and Boxing Day but she still had a beaut time and she loved all her pressies, as she still tells me every night since.



And Christmas just wouldn't be right without our little number four, and did he love this Christmas I hear you ask ? Well does Jack Newton swim in cycles ?????. Bloody oath mate. Oscar just loves the whole thing about ripping pressies apart and that's not just the wrapping paper. He had a great time and so did all the other little nevilles, we made then eat their brekky first and then sit down next to all their pressies nice and quiet ...... then it was OPEN SLATHER.... they just went mad attacking all the stuff, fairdinkum they were busier then a one-legged Riverdancer. But before you know it, it's all over for yet another year. All the choc'ies are gone, all the beers now have been drunk and all the beer nuts have gone south for the winter (flush!!!!). All that's left to do is pack up the tree, pull down the lights and box away Santa till that time of year, next year..... believe me it's a fierce cycle mate!

Happy Christmas
to all you
Nevilles

I hope ya all
have a Ripsnorter
of a Christmas
and a
ripper
NEW YEAR

from ya mates
The Sandgropers
Tania
Carlos
Jacko
Sarah
Harrison
and
little blueie Oscar

Christmas comes early

Well as you know Christmas isn't until about three weeks away but the misses went over to the Midland Gate shopping center today and brought my Chrisie present. Now that's one of the perks of being a parent, that if you want your pressie early then you get it! but as for the little kiddies then tough luck sonny.
And what did yours truly get for chrisie.... the Terri Irwin story which is all about her and her hubbie Stevo. See today Terri was at Midland Gate to sign her book, so the misses popped out and got the book signed by the sheilah herself not bad hay. I've been reading a bit and it's a real beauty, heres just a little thing she says on there first filming trip.....

'Our cameraman was deathly afraid of snakes, and the carpet python was still in the bottom of the boat. Steve scooped it up. The snake decided it didn't appreciate the turn events had taken. It swung around and proceeded to grab Steve repeatedly on the forearm, bite after bite after bite.' 'Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! a male voice yells. You think it might be Steve, as he is the one being bitten, but actually it is John Stainton. He cries out in sympathy each time the python sinks its teeth into Steve's arm. Although the teeth go deep into the fresh and it bleeds quite readily, there was no permanent scarring, no venom, and no infection.'

and this one on the same trip.....

'one night a big lizard showed up in camp and Steve said Grab it. I dropped what I was doing and picked up the lizard. John and his crew of two went into action. I told the camera everything I knew about Lace monitors.'
'Lace monitors are excellent tree climbers, they can grow up to seven feet long, but this guy looks to be between four and five feet..... and so on and as I put the huge lizard down, Steve leaned his head into the camera frame to have a last word.'
'And they've also got teeth like a tiger shark, mate,' He said with relish. 'They can tear you to ribbons!'
'Thanks a lot', I laughed, after John stopped filming. 'You should have told me that before I picked the bloody thing up!'








Fair dinkum mate its a bloody good book to have a gander at, in this photo Tania says G'day to one of Terri's and Steve's best mates John Stainton.

Jacko losses his first tooth

Well today Jacko lost his very first tooth and was he happy, bloody oath! You see the other night he saw Nicko's blog and wanted to lose his teeth just like his mate. I wouldn't be surprised if he hit his face into a door just to loosen one up..... that's my boy. But anyway he lost his first tooth and he was stocked to see that the TOOTH FAIRY .... sorry you have to be correct these days hay, the TOOTH HAPPY GENTLEMAN popped into his bedroom during the night and hay presto. He had a flamin' $2 coin, Jacko was pretty stocked and happy but i did hear him say something about the Fairy was a tight ass mug.
I did sit Jack down and told him how we have four kiddies losing teeth all over the place and if the Fairy had payed him anymore then the poor old sod would have to work overtime..... and you wouldn't want him doing that just for you now would you mate, just imagine his poor old wings flapping about all day during his job hay. Anyway that little talk seemed to do the job and he went away all happy........ God help me when it comes to the talk about 'The birds and the bees'. Somehow I just don't thing some old poof with wings flapping is going to do the job!

Some of our Parks

So when it's over 30 in the shade and all you want to do is sit back with a tinnie in the hand and let the eyeballs rest apond the cricket on the telly. What do your little nevilles want to do? Ofcause go to the flamin' Park. Well we've got a fair few Parks about but our favorite two are 'The Vale' and 'Henley Brook' which are both about a ten minute drive from our place. So with 'Fordie' packed with three kiddies and a few sangers n' cookies off we go for a quick Park-hop.
So our first Park is The Vale which is just next door to Elenbrook and is a beaut little playground, as you can see they have these metal Kangas which are just little rippers, they have them placed all around different places in the Park. But the swings are probably the best swings you can point a bloody stick at mate! And the kiddies love them but as usual they have a flamin' man made lake like all the other Parks so you have to keep a gander on the little ones so as not to loose one to a shark!. Just kiddin' these no flamin' sharks here ... they were all eatin' by the bloody crocs! ... na just jokin' again about the scariest thing around here are the flamin' mozzies ... that's true.



So with one Park down we jump into old Fordie and just around the corner is Henley Brook Park, now this playground has also got the man made lake and the swings are good but the best thing is the little walk around the lake and over a little bridge which the kiddies love.

Penguin Island

On the weekend we went to have a gander at Penguin Island, which is situated in the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park just of Rockingham. You catch a little Ferry across to the Island and then spend the rest of the day just
Beachcombing, there's heaps of different types of animals all over the place.






Like we saw a fairdinkum seal just having a nap on the beach, so we had a little stickybeak at him and then moved on up the beach. The seals occupy nearby Seal Island which is named because seals live there (join the dots).






The Island is a total of 12.5 hectares and has boardwalks all over the place so as not to disturbed the natural surroundings. There's heaps of bird life all over the Island with 2500 pairs of a bird called 'bridled terns' which migrate here for breeding in spring. You also get your normal mob like seagulls and pelicans all over the flamin' place.














And don't forget the main attraction the little fellas themselves The Penguins! this is the largest colony of penguins in WA and is thought to contain as many as 600 breeding pairs. On the Island they have what is called THE PENGUIN EXPERIENCE. It's a little shack that they house a few penguins which in turn gives you the chance to experience penguins up close and watch them feed and swim around in their little pool. It's really great to watch these little fellas walking about and having a swim as they are very fast in the water.


















But after watching for awhile it was off again to explore the rest of the Island, and not before long we ran into a huge old sea lion sunning it's self on the beach. Now I don't know if it was a sheilah or a bloke but to take a line from a great Australian legend 'Crikey! she's a good looking sheilah'.
















Here we are at an old limestone cave which a bloke by the name of Seaforth Mckenzie dug out and called it 'THE MANOR', this was back in 1918.










And so for the rest of the day we just went beachcombing along the sandy beach picking up cuttlefish and shells, and just having a lazy day walkabout.

Perth Royal Show

Well the misses took two of the little nevilles Jacko n' Sarah to this years Perth Royal show, which is held in the Claremont showgrounds each year. As for your's truly I took the other two up to Kings Park playground and I reckon we had a better time (well it was a flamin' lot cheaper!!!).
The kiddies had a beaut time with mum getting show bags, having rides and just enjoyin' a beaut day out.




One of the must-to-do-things at the show was going to the police tent, their they could talk to real life coppers and also as you can see in the photo's the kiddies were able to get up and seat on a fairdinkum ridge-didge police bike...... cool. They also got a showbag from the police with a fair bit of stuff.










The misses took the kiddies through the kids sideshows and had heaps of rides,
As you can see Jack was having a beaut time in the water doge'im boats, looks like a ripper time and yes it was he's best ride for the day.





Here's Sarah having a ride on a fairdinkum carousel pony, she just loved having a ride around on it as you can see.










As you can see they got their showbags and a bit more, have a gander at poor little Sarah she looks like shes stuffed. It was a long day out for the old girl and the kiddies but they had a ripsnorter of a day and can't wait till next year.