Happy 3rd Birthday Tom

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.

skiing

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.

Education week

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!

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?"