Science Projects and a day at the Beach

I'm a little behind this week on the blog. We had a nice weekend. It was spent with completing science projects for the boys, a day at the beach, and another trip to downtown after Church on Sunday.
We've experienced a warm up this past week and a half. The highs reached the mid 80's (and it's still winter here. They say it's abnormal August weather. Nevertheless, we've had to turn on the air conditioner and the boys have broken in the backyard pool. Last Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and test out the beaches in the Gold Coast (south of Brisbane). The kids all had a great time and the boys especially enjoyed trying out their new boogie boards.
Jonah made some green slime for his school science project, with Mike's help. My contribution to the project was looking for and purchasing the borax. In the end, I found some at the hardware store after learning what it was exactly. (It's a chemical, in powder form, that is used in household cleaners and pest control). Lucas got to make a volcano-- he got a lot of help from Mike. It was very good to see how much the boys enjoy these projects, not to mention the time spent with Dad. Lucas has another project he is working on-- a water cleaning system, in conjunction to what he is learning about environmentalism. We made another trip to the Science museum downtown on Sunday to get some ideas for this project. They have an Earth section with an exhibition showing how a water filtration system works. This time we drove instead of taking the train.
Zoe continues to adapt to her new routine at school. It seems as though all the students and teachers know her and greet her every morning. We will be attending the Australian 4p- national conference next weekend (Sept 4-6th) at the Gold Coast. They also hold the conference every 2 years, but on odd years. It will be interesting to see how the group here compares to the one in the States. (We went to our first one last year in D.C. last summer.)
The last we heard, our sea shipment was in Sydney and its arrival to Brisbane was delayed a week. Once it arrives in Brisbane, it'll spend another couple weeks going through customs. It'll be nice to have our furniture and all our "stuff," although I'm not looking forward to the unpacking.
Well, I hope all our friends are doing well as the new school year starts!