Sanders Family Australian Adventures

New b-day sign for the walls Caitlyn's birthday card for Lauren Making birthday treats Enjoying birthday treats!  Today is/was Lauren's 9th (NINE!?!?!) birthday.  Not sure where all the time has gone.  Lauren continues to be amazing and keeps us all our on toes. It has been a super busy day celebrating Lauren. She started the day with chocolate chip pancakes (thanks to a delivery of mini semi sweet chocolate chips we got from the US-- we can't find them here). Then she had a video chat with friends from Maryland.  Then we went to trampoline place (like skyzone).  Then lunch at McDonalds (Lauren's choice).  Then we got gelato and walked around a Sunday market.  There was a cat in a backpack that the girls got to pet.  Then our big kid got her ears pierced. For a second, I thought that we were going to leave with only one ear pierced. Lauren says it hurt more than Caitlyn said it would.  But she got them both done in the end. Lauren says her favorite parts of the day were

 Still playing a bit of catch up in our posts. The girls are finishing up a winter break between terms (quarters).  They get a couple of weeks between each term (quarter) with a slightly longer break during the first two semesters. They had a three week break starting the last week in June. A coworker informed me that the private schools tend to get a week off before the public schools, so we were lucky enough to do some travel during the first week, which was technically "shoulder season."  We started our break by driving a short 45 minutes into the "mountains" for some "snow play." Canberra doesn't get much (any?) snow, but there are mountains nearby where people can go to experience snow. For it to be real snow, you have to drive a couple of hours. We just wanted the kids to be able to do a little sledding, so we didn't drive too far. We went to Corin Forest which is only about 45 minutes away. Closer, but the snow was not at all real. There wa