Happy 2nd Birthday Evy!

New umbrella...

A garbage truck from Milly!

Opening presents with Grandad & Grandma via Skype.

Playing at the Montessori "Strait Start" kindy in the morning...

A few of her favourite activities are : washing up her dirty dishes + opening and closing different containers and purses to take shells in and out.

Birthday sweetheart...

Blowing out her candles with Milly after school...

Well... Evy turned 2 today!  We opened presents before breakfast, took Milly to school then went to Strait Start kindy at the school for a morning of play & Montessori activities.  We had a cake from See Hop bakery for afternoon tea when everyone got home.  We are having a little party with some of our T.I. cousins on Saturday morning with pass-the-parcel, craft and a home made butterfly-shaped cake that Evy chose out of a cookbook.

Picnic and Bike Ride

Lovely weather today...so we went for a bike & scooter ride down to Front Beach for a picnic morning tea.  Jayne towed Evy in the trailer behind her bike, Milly scooted & Dwayne brought up the rear on his bike.

We ate our morning tea on the shady grass beside Engineers Wharf & enjoyed looking out over the sea to the huge cruise ship anchored in Port Kennedy. 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of cruise ship tourists were walking along Victoria Parade so there was plenty of people watching to do, then we peddled & puffed our way back up the hill to our place - Dwayne had to tow the trailer home, Jayne ran out of steam on the upward slope!!

Milly's 5th Birthday...

Happy Birthday Milly!

Friday 8th March was Milly's 5th birthday!  She woke us full of excitement at 6.30am to open her presents from family on our bed with Evy looking on eagerly.  Dwayne gave her "TinkerBell and the Secret of the Wings" DVD & a mini Cinderella doll.  I gave her a mermaid ornament bought here at the "Col Jones" newsagency / little-bit-of-everything-store & a set of felts with a girl that can be changed into a mermaid.  Evy gave her a Rapunzel doll...that is the absolute favourite!


Opening presents together in the morning



Milly's mermaid present from Mummy



Grandma & Grandad skyped us at 7am to watch Milly open her presents from them - a wooden dominoes game, a picture book, some new clothes & a nightie.  The girls had a chat to them before we got ready to send Milly to school - which was a real challenge as the rain was absolutely torrential!  It had poured down all night & was still going strong in the morning, making the trip to the classroom with 2 kids, Milly's trolley school bag & a container of cupcakes very tricky.


Opening presents with Grandad & Grandma on skype

After school we met Dwayne at the "See Hop" mini supermarket for Milly to choose some afternoon tea.  We had lamingtons and pringles, washed down with a frosty fruit iceblock - how wholesome!  We ate in the park overlooking Bayo Beach then walked to the post office to check our PO Box...there were 2 cards for Milly which made her very happy, especially as the one from Great-Grandma had $20 in it!


Iceblocks by the beach for arvo tea

We had a party on Saturday morning...
Guests arrived at 9am in their dress-ups.  Because she was turning 5, Milly could invite 5 girls from her Prep class.  They decorated paper party bags with stamps, stickers & glitter glue & cardboard crowns with stickers & jewels.  Heidi, the local face painting lady, worked wonders on the girls' cheeks and forearms with her rainbow colours & we played pass-the-parcel.  The kids gobbled up fairy bread, fruit and cheezels for morning tea & then played "pin the palm tree on the island" (my version of pin the tail on the donkey).  Milly opened her gifts, we celebrated with a princess cake & it was all over by 11am!


Milly gets har arm decorated with a mermaid

 

Pass the parcel

Opening gifts

 

Birthday greetings

  

Milly & her school friend Evie



Ashlyn's facepaint





The cake!



Party girls...



More presents...

 

Evie gets painted

Tas & Mia decorating party bags

Time for cake...



Milly & Evy both had a lovely morning & Milly felt very special with all the attention & her lovely presents.  Evy slept for 2 1/2 hours for the first time in weeks & we went for a family stroll along the beach & through the park in the afternoon.  What a fantastic day - happy birthday to my little sugarplum!

Evy at the end of the festivities...

The birthday girl!

Daytrip to Prince Of Wales Island

What a great day!

Dwayne's cousin Marita, partner Benji & 2 girls Shauna & Josie invited us out on their boat for a day on Prince Of Wales (P.O.W.) Island to take a bushwalk, visit a waterfall, swim in a freshwater pool

& enjoy a picnic lunch.

Benji organises the boat and anchor on arrival at P.O.W. Island while the girls swim...

Evy and Dwayne.

 After a 30-40min boat ride between Thursday & Friday Islands & following the coast of P.O.W. for quite some time, Benji pulled us in to a lovely white/grey sandy beach.  Plenty of other boats were moored there too - probably 20, & everyone commented they'd never seen it so busy!  We had a little splash around in the  ocean while the boat was unpacked.

Milly and Shauna.

Evy and Mummy take a dip on a beach of P.O.W.

There were 2 tin roof, cement floor shacks above the beach where we left our gear & headed off along a track through the bush towards a waterfall and swimming hole.

Scenery on the walk...

Milly following the group through the bush to the waterfall.

Crossing a creek.

A 15min walk that included creek crossings, jumping puddles (it was overcast & showery), climbing over logs & untangling Milly from vines ended at a picturesque freshwater swimming hole beneath a waterfall flowing over a wide bank of rocks.  No worries about sharks or crocs here - yippee!  

We had a float around while it rained & some others in the group climbed this waterfall & walked on to another above it - apparently much more beautiful with an even better swimming hole - but the climb was too tricky with our littlies in the wet.

Swimming at the first waterfall.

We headed back to the beach shacks & enjoyed a picnic lunch & more ocean swimming till about 2.30pm.  All 4 girls had naps in the boat on the way back - though I don't know how - it was a bumpy ride...must have been the soft laps they were all snuggled into!

Josie and Evy enjoying lunch!

Josie, Evy, Milly and Shauna ~ picnic lunch on P.O.W. Beach.

Thank you Marita, Benji, Shauna & Josie for a lovely day exploring your islands!

Update on the cost of groceries here vs shipping them form Cairns...

Well, after many days of research, I can now report --- my Coles grocery order shipped from Cairns WAS cheaper than buying here! 

I collected my Coles order from the Seaswift barge on Monday this week.  It came in 11 boxes & with a very thorough inventory of everything I had ordered, their unit prices & totals.  So I visited our IBIS supermarket each morning this week with that inventory list & wrote the local prices next to the Coles prices.  This morning I tallied it all up & here are the results...

Coles
Groceries $512.73 + Coles delivery fee $20.00 + Seaswift shipping $142 = TOTAL $674.73

IBIS
Groceries = TOTAL $842.91

Wow! That's a difference of $168.18.

Now, I'm not saying it's worth doing every weekly shop with Coles online - it's too time consuming & a lot of work to pick up all those boxes of groceries ...but I do think a big monthly Coles shop will be entirely worth it, especially considering many of the things I bought are not available at all here on Thursday Island.  For example - my vegetarian "Quorn" sausages & mince, kids yoghurts in squeezie pouches, vol au vent pastry cases for making tuna & corn pies, lamb mince, lamb sausages, tinned Mexican beans for tacos & nachos, sliced deli chicken, scones, 100 & 1000's biscuits for the kids, croissants, kids chicken noodle soup tins, etc... plus many of the things that are simply in the brand we prefer or buy because they are the cheapest.  For example - there's no "cheap brand" laundry soaker, tinned tuna, free range eggs, corn chips, liquid stock, chocolate blocks, ice cream, crumpets, dips, tampons or yoghurt.  Of course, not all of these things are essential to life on earth - but they do provide variety...and let's face it... pure happiness at meal times.  We could say they are essential for maintaining one's own sanity!  

I have discovered "Grocery Run" online shopping too - they ship anywhere in Australia for a maximum of $11 postage & have some cheap deals, but don't do fridge, freezer, fruit, veg, meat...just pantry, bathroom & cleaning stuff.  So, will probably do a monthly order with them too.   

And...I do completely intend to support the Islander Board of Industry and Service (IBIS) supermarket in-between my big Coles orders. 
:-) 

Arrival of our first grocery order from Cairns!

Our first Coles grocery order arrived on Thursday Island today!  Hooray!!  We ate beautiful, fresh food for dinner tonight!

Anyone who is new here spends a lot of time discussing / asking / researching options for procuring food...it's a time-consuming hobby!  Of course, a good range of things is available at the IBIS supermarket in Douglas St, but everything is expensive because it's been shipped here from Cairns & there's no competitor supermarket.

So, I had a go at a coles online order...I set up a shopping list on colesonline.com.au & an account with Seaswift freighting company before we moved here.  Then after much "to-ing and fro-ing" about whether or not is was worth paying the cost of the freighting, decided to give it a try - because I figure you can't make your mind up till you've tried it yourself!  

Some long-term residents here do fortnightly or monthly orders with coles, wholesale butchers or green grocers in Cairns, others just do there groceries here every week...so there's no one definative answer.

I had originally expected my order to arrive here last Friday, & was so disappointed when I realised I'd missed the cut-off times for delivery to the Cairns wharf...so we had a 'skinny weekend' where we continued eating a restricted diet for a few more days while waiting for it's Monday arrival. 

Dropped in to the TI wharf Monday morning to see if anything was ready - told to try again at 3pm.  Took the girls with me after school pick-up & our freezer & chiller goods were ready, so took those & madly rushed to carry heavy boxes to our downstairs fridge/freezer & unpack everything before it melted while the girls whinged & got in the way!  Went back to the wharf at 4.30pm & collected the dry goods & Dwayne helped me unpack those.  Happy days! 

Wow - our freezers, fridges & pantry look so much happier now!  We all enjoyed chicken breast, cheese, cream cheese & fresh salad, on wraps tonight...ahhh!

Jayne doing a happy dance in the driveway with her coles groceries sent from Cairns!

My pantry is now happy - but not as happy as my stuffed-full fridges & freezers!

Will take my coles receipt down to the IBIS this week & compare prices - see if it really was worth all the effort??  Keep you posted!

Day trip - boating and fishing

Stan, Sonny, Milly and Evy - 9/2/13.

Stan's family is from Hammond so he & Cassie were very knowledgeable guides & expert pilots.  They pointed out fishing & crabbing spots, WW2 huts used by Australian Forces to watch for Japanese invaders, the burial site of a female Japanese fighter pilot, & the fantastic catholic church.  It was built by hand by Stan's father & grandfather from local rock.  Beautiful scenery.

Hammond Island.  
Catholic Church on hilltop and houses on beachfront.

Hammond Island from the boat.

Once we circled Hammond past lighthouses and shipwrecks, we stopped in at a lovely natural beach on Goods Island looking back towards T.I.   The amazing sand is made from millions of bits of shells...

We swam...

We fished...

We enjoyed the amazing scenery...

And then came home by midday for lunch.

Thank you so much Stan, Cassie & Sonny for sharing such special places with us!

(P.S.  This time, our ocean swim did not require a trip to the chemist - Jayne knew to shower the girls thoroughly at home with medicated soap, soak Milly in a bath with some dettol added, & give her a dose of antihistamine!!)