Back to School

Today Tom started at the local Pre-School (Cabarita-Mortlake Kindy) which was a much anticipated event. The bag was packed, shoes on and waiting at the door at 7.30am! When he arrived, Ela stole the show a little as all the old teachers recognised her and were asking how she was doing at school. Not to be outshone however, Tom was on the ball will all the routine - putting his lunch in the fridge, towel on the peg, bag in the locker. Then he exclaimed "You forgot my sheets mummy". And I had to explain that they were provided at this place (unlike at Gumnut where we take our own). He was straight out onto the play equipment and waving me farewell without a backward glance! Phew, easy!


We just made it for the bell at 9.25 at Ela's school, and the headmistress announced to the over excited kids that they would go straight to the hall to hear about their new classes and teacher. I made one of the mums promise to text me the gossip as they all hung around and I ran off to work.

Unfortunately Ela has been separated from her two best buddies, Celina and Mykala, but I don't doubt it will be long before she has a new best mate. She will be down the 'big end' of the school, in the new multi purpose room (that was newly converted from the old hall). And she seemed highly pleased about that. She wasn't able to tell us the teacher's name, but it sounded something like Miss Allow?

And after school it was Gelato all around as is the custom on first day backs, scuffed shoes and smiles too as we all cooled off from a very hot and sweaty day.

Australia Day

Another glorious sunny day in Sydney, perfect for celebrating Australia day by the pool with family and friends. This year we had about 24 adults and 18 kids. Our Tom had a ball, throwing himself in with his rubber ring on and asking 'Glenny' and 'Chrissy' to throw him up in the air. Ela too hardly left the pool for about 5 hrs, pausing only to grab a sausage off the barbie before diving in again. There were LOTS of empty bottles at the end of the day and plenty of weary kids that night by all accounts.

Mark the superhero managed to fit in a 2.5km harbour swim before the party. He and Chris did the Opera House swim in the morning then raced home to put the sausages on the barby by midday just in time for the guests to arrive!

Garage Sale

Well I knew it wasn't great timing, but I decided after having spent a whole week off, cleaning out all of the rooms of old clothes and toys, that we would have a garage sale at the weekend. The weather was touch and go and I only made the final decision to go ahead late on Friday night. So early Saturday morning I drove around al the local streets tying up notices (made by Ela and her friend Izzy) with balloons on roundabouts and at junctions. We set out everything on the driveway and the lawn and waited the rush of customers.

Alas all the big spenders must still have been on holidays for they came not in their droves but in a trickle. Only two visitors in fact! And to make matters worse Tom was wandering around pouncing on each item shouting "that's mine" and holding onto it for dear life. Maybe I need to try again a) when there are more people around and b) when the kids are away for the weekend!!

Its funny that in my mind I had SO MUCH stuff but in reality when we laid it all out, it wasn't really that much at all. In fact it looked rather sparse - as I imagine were the thoughts of the few drive-by visitors we had!