a little culture

Just lately Ela and I have enjoyed two performances. The first was an interesting event. The Palace Cinema in Leichardt was screening selected Royal Ballet and Opera performances with HD and surround sound and we went along to watch Tchaikovsky’s The Tsarina's Slippers. I thought it was be a fun afternoon and a cheaper alternative to the real thing. The trailers showed a lot of colourful costumes and singing and dancing. However, I should have read up more about it because it turned out to be much more opera than ballet...Well I thought they (Ela and her friend Celina) would at least be able to follow the story but it was a russian opera with subtitles in English! And the girls can't read that well as yet. So i ended up having to read out what was going on. It was quite funny as they would keep asking me 'what are they saying now?' And couldn't quite understand it when i kept answering  "the same as last time'. Some funny quotes from Ela:

"she sounds like a siren" (about the leading lady's singing)

"why is he so worried" (about the conductor)

"I think he's a bit crazy" (also the conductor)

""Those nails look fake to me" (about the devil)

Then today we went to see Wicked the musical. It was such a great show - so cleverly written. Before hand we went for our favourite lunch, Kaiten-Zushi at a beautiful little sushi bar behind the theatre, called Umi. The show was spectacular especially the costumes. Ela made me laugh when at one point, the good fairy and the prince were having an engagement party then the wicked witch came along and the prince decided to run off with her instead. She asked me 'mummy is it possible to get unmarried?' I didn't think it was the time or place to start talking about divorce so i said 'no sweetheart. And anyway they aren't married they are just engaged'. Thinking this would head her off. 'So its ok to go off with someone else when you are just engaged then mummy?'. Good grief :)

Sports Carnival

Ela had her first sports carnival today. Yesterday the kindy kids were finally told what house they belonged to. Ela is in Philip which is yellow. She informed me when i arrived home from work that it would be good if i could go out and buy her a yellow shirt to wear for the carnival the next day! I think not.

Anyhow she must have had her lucky white top on as she came 2nd in both races, the 100m dash (that's her third from left, 'keeping to her line' - she wouldn't believe me when i told her she was meant to keep to her lane not line ), and the sack race! The 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed kids each were given a coloured wooden peg/stick that they had to take to the recording table to get points for their house. When Ela saw her Dad that night she was so excited. 'Daddy daddy, I won I won'. What did you win he asked? 'Two sticks' she replied.

The day was bitterly cold so by the time they got to the house relay races, the full tracksuits were on and then the kids got an early mark for home. Tom was also very excited to be there - he wanted in on the action though and i had to hold him back.

I wonder how he will go this weekend when we go and watch Dad running int he Sutherland to Surf race? I imagine he'll want to join in when he sees him run past.

swimming lessons

We decided to enrol Tom for his first swimming lesson today. He was pretty excited about it and there were no tears or tantrums when he got in the water like Ela at her first attempt. He was pretty scared and wasn't too keen to get his face wet but he loved it. After each little lap with the teacher, he'd look to me and ask "lesson finished now mum?"

Ela was like a fish to water couldn't stop splashing and flailing. Hopefully we'll get some stroke action happening this term so she can enjoy our pool again this summer when the weather warms up. Her breast stroke arms were looking good but crawl needs some work.

Can't wait

We had our good friends Liah and Marco over again this weekend and the four kids got on so well. We are all going on a skiing holiday together in a few weeks time and there was much excitement about that. In fact I'm not sure who was more excited when their ski outfits turned up in the post, Tom or Dad!
Tom was a bit puzzled though as he kept looking in the parcel and asking "where's my skates?"

Farmstay

This weekend the kids went off to stay at Melross, this beautiful country house in the Kangaroo valley with their cousins Harry, Angus and Eddie, and their Nannie and Grandad. They had a ball, feeding the horses and cows, the chickens and ducks and best of all collecting eggs from the coop, with their names on! (Good one Grandad).

They got to ride on the back of the tractor with Farmer Billy each morning even in the rain.

Mum and Dad got two whole days to themselves and drove down to visit on the saturday night. We were treated to a piano concert, the conga and dancing pyjama clad giggling children late into the evening.