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!

Christmas Celebrations

Well our celebrations began I suppose at the beginning of December with the purchase of a real tree from the Boy Scouts (although we were very lucky to get one - the floods had made them in short supply), decorating it and the house and of course the advent calendar ritual which came complete with bickering over whose lolly was bigger!

By Christmas eve, we were all rather tired given the whirl of social activities (mainly Ela's - end of year parties, music awards, dance concerts etc). So we tried to have a relaxing day that began with Beados and moved through baking cakes (called white Christmas - a recipe Ela brought home from school) to take to Nanies on Christmas day to a christmas show featuring Mrs Ela Claus and little Tom Rudolph, to a beautiful christmas eve dinner - Turkey with all the trimmings cooked my master chef Dad.

So Christmas morning arrived (at 6.30am, not too early!) and the kids raced downstairs to check santa had drank his beer and spotted the extra presents under the tree plus the large sacks by the fireplace. They then ran straight back up to drag us down so they could start unwrapping.

Ela's favourite present by far was the art set she got with pencils crayons paints and oil pastels. As for Tom, he disappeared numerous times inside the sack but I think Spiderman and the fireman's water gun was his favourite.

Dad was laden with sports items galore including goggles for ocean swimming and new bike gloves and me well i was spoiled rotten with a beautiful Paspaley Pearl pendant.

Farewell Pinkies

Well due to new rules at Gumnut Cottage we are no longer allowed to take photos at events there (Child Protection laws). Which is a shame because Tom and his best frind Clare were singing and dancing a storm. We do have plenty of pics in his portfolio as keepsakes, and here are two of his carer's, Leanne and Shantelle.
And true to tradition we won a prize in the raffle so the Tom got an extra present under the tree (Thomas Lego).

The Big Dance Concert

Ela and Celina in their Dance uniform waiting in the foyer of the dance concert rehearsals at the Theatre in UNSW. This year Ela has been attending singing and drama classes who were putting on four numbers from Mary Poppins. Ela was in 'a spoon full of sugar' dressed as a teddy bear and although the songs were pre-recorded (and she missed the recoding session as we were away on holidays!) she still had a ball on stage.

The second class she has been in all year performed a jazz dance titled 'The witch doctor'. I think though her favourite by far was the finale number (Shout) as Ela got to come back on stage and appear in the front row, jumping and dancing her little heart out.

The big question now of course after she saw all the other types of dance available is which class(es) will she choose for next year. At the moment her preference is for ballet and tap, but she's also keen on jazz,  hip hop,  acrobatics and of course singing and drama!

Kindy Graduation

Today we had the presentation assembly and to her delight, Ela won the Science prize for her class. What made matters even better was that her best friend Celina won the art prize and is pictured here next to her. Unfortunately i left my camera at home so the phone cam was the best I had, hence the blur. The assembly was lovely with a whole host of kids getting awards and prizes and lots of singing - especially a christmas song they had been rehearsing about Love being the best present of all.
Pictured above is Ela's buddy Sabrina. This was an emotional moment as Sabrina is off to High School next year and will be sorely missed, although Ela assures me that Sabrina's sister Nadia will still be around so that's ok.