Melbourne Cup and other weekly happenings

Melbourne Cup was Tuesday.  This horse race, held in....Melbourne, is known as the "Race that stops the nation" - and stop it does!  Always the first Tuesday in November, restaurants all offer special inclusive packages and businesses hold parties for their employees.  In some states, the race day is a holiday.

Lily and Caden had school, but started the morning by picking the name of the horse, or rather color of the jockey's jersey, which their dad then drew (yes drew) on their lunch bags.  Stakes were high, with the person who picked the winning horse getting to be "in charge" for the day.

Gia and I watched the cup at ND with Corey, hats and all.  We had a lovely afternoon :)

Selfies in hats

Our shindig

Lily’s horse won!  Fiorente was the big winner, complete with a jockey everyone was pulling for due to the recent hardships he faced with the deaths of a friend and father - and in Lily's case, because he was wearing purple.  Lily was thrilled beyond belief.  This coupled with the news that she received a perfect score on her difficult spelling test (included the words ‘islands’ and ‘information’) – which earned her a pool party with her girlfriends – and she was on cloud 9!  Then we arrived home to find she had a package! Sweet Gracie sent her a bracelet and shirt with a note about how much her and Ben are looking forward to their visit.  It was one of Lily’s best days of her 7 years J

Gia enjoying her breakfast 

I am reaching that point in the trip where I am really trying to savor my favorite parts -some photos below - but mostly will miss the wonderful friends we all have made here '_'

Here is a view of George Street I will really, really miss when we head home.  This is my main coffee intersection in Eastern Freo - Wine Store on left and Hubble is just across the street.

Riding bikes home from school...thankfully all down hill at the end of a busy day.

Morning tennis at the school.  Enrollment has risen with the warmer weather.  Both Lily and Caden are in the lineup.

Gia and Daisy ‘hanging out’on one of the many play areas on the school grounds.

Coffee with my tennis girls at Trenna’s beautiful home. 

Nancy, Kathleen, Trenna and Teo - and yummy banana gluten-free cake that Trenna made

Our self-portrait :)

 Lily's homework on homophones.  Sore/saw makes me laugh uncontrollably!  Both pronounced as sore :)

Beautiful Perth sky - looking up the street at ND.

Thursday eve we had the tennis families over for the typical 'sausage sizzle' and a swim.

Enjoying the "cubby"

...and trees!

Today (Friday) you could pay a gold coin (which are $1 or $2 – wish we had these in heavy circulation too!  All sorts of great school fundraisers with gold coins.) to dress down at school.  Lily of course wore her new shirt, and bracelet which has not come off, from Gracie.  

After school Lily and I had a date!  A little coffee at Cookie Dough (pic) followed by a visit to the Bo Blonde salon for haircuts.  

Looking down from the loft stairs at Cookie Dough

Lily LOVES her new do (as do we!). So much so she put on her swimsuit, stood up to her knees in the pool, and decided to not swim tonight so that she could prolong her styled hair!!!

Caden's magnificent artwork!