Today was Tom's big day and he had a surprise waiting for him when he came down for breakfast. Since we decided to have his party today, we decided also that we would tell him that today was his birthday :)
He was amazed with his new bike but a bit apprehensive about riding it. He rode up and down the hallway for ages but wasn't keen to go out on it - probably needs to grow a few more inches yet.
His party went off without a hitch, plenty of games, a bouncy castle and a Buzz Lightyear cake. Friends galore and enough cake to sink a ship.
Fantastic week at the snow. We stayed this year in Adaminaby, at a lovely house called Blue Box. We drove down on the Monday and skied for 6 days from Tuesday. Tom and Ela were so excited they couldn't contain themselves. The first day was lovely weather and we played on the lower slopes of Mt Selwyn. In the afternoon the kids joined the MILO club and took lessons whilst we went off to the blue runs further up. The slopes were so quiet, almost no lift queues. Each day we did the same, enjoying the mornings together and the afternoons apart. It dumped a LOT of snow on the wednesday and thursday and we were worried we wouldn't make it back down in one piece - our new Mazda got a workout and as we tested the all wheel drive capacity.
On Thursday afternoon, the Naidoos arrived and we had a lovely dinner whilst the kids played. We introduced them to the slopes and all the rigmarole that comes with it and they were hooked. They thought the snow covered forest as we drove up the mountain was out of this world. And they were amazed at how hard it was to learn to stand up and at how easy Leah picked it up. Our kids also loved their time on the snow tubes - Tom was more than happy to go down alone and was even hurtling head first on the tobogan. By the end of the week, Ela was beginning to learn paralell turns and was up and down all the slopes and chairlifts on the mountain. We drove home Sunday after an awesome week, weary but all vowing to do it again next year.
Ela has been practicing her sign language for a number of weeks in order to sign the rainbow song. The Kindy at her school were all to perform in the Education Week Concert. I duly trotted along and got my seat - only to find that I had to wait for almost 2 hrs before her stage debut...which lasted all of 1.5 minutes!
And of course the battery died on my video camera so my iphone had to suffice - hence the poor quality. But we have strung together a couple of images, the recording plus a follow up solo at home. Enjoy!
