quick trip to Mudjimba

After the hecticness of Christmas our family needed some serious cricket watching, puzzle doing, bike riding and beach time.  So we headed up to Mudjimba for a few days to re-connect and learn each other's names again.  This is how I always feel after Christmas.  The year kind of hits me in the back of the head and it takes me quite a few days to stop making lists, checking them, ordering people around and organising things.  Chris would put forward a compelling argument that I never really stop with the lists - it's just that when work and church commitments take a break over the summer season the list making focus switches to him and Jobs Around The House.

The north shore of the Maroochy River is a great place to take dogs and active children for a long walk to tire them out.  And great to have a long walk with old friends.

This dog leaps into water whenever she can.  I think if I had trained her properly she would be one of those surfing dogs.

The river was beautiful, although here were a few moments on our walk where the path was not easily discernible, and we despaired of ever reaching the carpark before dark.  The DRAMA.

We made it back ok.  In case you were wondering.

Scooter the dog even discovered she could balance on a boogie board.  When coaxed.

We made an afternoon visit to Aqua Fun Park at Coolum.  Well worth the $15 to jump around on their inflatable water things all afternoon.  I seriously needed much upper body strength to hoist myself onto the equipmnt, and a couple of times lay on my side flapping like a beached whale until someone took pity on me and hauled me up.  I had many unexplained bruises after this experience.

Yes I went down this slide as well.  It is a lot steeper and taller than you think it is.  But peer pressure made me do it (I'm looking at you Katy).

Thanks Mudjumba for the rest and Mum for letting us stay in her house!

a farewell to grade seven

What a night!  Weeks of planning came to fruition at the grade seven graduation last night.  Annika had planned her outfit ages ago, and we had a lovely friend do tricky braids in her hair (cause that's the thing this year.)

She looked so beautiful!

What happened to this little girl - wahhhhhhh

Anyway.  I loved this dress she chose for herself.  Age appropriate and funky.  A very hard to achieve combination in the early teen fashion range.

And lovely four strand braids done by a friend.  I tried to watch so I knew how to do them.  Got a bit lost.  Might have to youtube it....maybe.

Such a proud family moment.  We all smiled at the camera at the same time.

Oh...and Annika finishing grade seven of course.

She received an English award - yay!

Annika also wrote the end of year song for the whole grade to sing.  It was pretty awesome watching about 150 kids sing a song that your daughter had written - with actions and everything.  It sounded amazing.

Proud grandparents.  It was great how they all dressed to match (unintentionally..).

We are so proud of her, feel so blessed, and we looking forward to what high school will bring.

Not nervous about that part.  Or having a grade nine girl.

Not at all nervous.....

Breathe.

wide eyed Christmas show

We are in the middle of the puppet Christmas season.  We have ten shows booked.  Ten!  With all sorts of different audiences and venues.  I wrote the script a few weeks ago, and included six puppets in it.  We have had to pad out a little bit of the script to give me time to change puppets, as some of the changes happen very quickly.  And then the puppets change costumes.  I probably should have thought this through a bit more...

We painted a new Christmas backdrop after excellent backdrop sewing support by the wonderful Kerrie.

And also endured heckling and input in rehearsals by our resident three year old critic.

Performing the sixth show!

I have my hand inside that pink puppet there.  Cheeky thing.

I have really enjoyed the show this year.  It involves a persistent chicken, a Diva Dizzy, a director called Pam and a slightly inappropriate camel.  And a lot of talk about the real story of Christmas, when God stepped into the world.

What a privilege to tell the old old story that is always new with wonder.

renovation alert

We have promised for a long time that at the end of grade seven Annika could have a room renovation.  We said she could choose her own paint etc, and paint over the yellow I chose for the room when she was one.

Original room.  When she was a baby there were bumblebees and flowers on the purple wall frieze.  Cute.  But probably not for a TEENAGER (ok minor freakout that I am going to have a teenager in the house. Breathe.  Mask the anxiety by re-doing her room and maybe it will all go away).

The time has come.
(Honestly, you turn your back and children grow and all of a sudden they are in grade seven and demanding fulfillment on promises made about rooms).

Down comes the yellow.  Yes we let the girls kick in some of the old plaster walls.  I did some with a hammer as well.  Supremely satisfying.  Then I got thighs of steel by carrying all the plaster outside to the ute up and down the stairs.

In goes the insulation in the walls.

Then we had it re-sheeted and re-plastered.  No photos yet....

Stay tuned for awesome teenage room renovation.

It will not look like this:

or this:

Mostly because these bedrooms are really clean.  Do actual children live in these?  Do they have clothes?  Or tiny bits of paper that are "craft"?  Or school stuff?  Or half completed lego?  I scoff at these designer bedrooms.

Scoff.

kidsummer night's dream!

Annika and Gab were both involved in the primary school musical this year - which was an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Annika was King Oberon (boys being a little thin on the ground in the drama club).  She was pretty awesome and OWNED it.  I can say that cause I'm her mum.  But independent opinions also said she was pretty good.

Gab was a beautiful fairy.  She knew exactly what she had to do and looked gorgeous.  She has come such a long way from being a kid who didn't talk in front of anyone at prep.  She is determined to try out for a speaking role next year.

A big thank you to the group of mums who made the costumes.  It did not involve me.  I handed over $12 and my children were costumed.  Excellent.

And I am so impressed with the teachers and kids that gave up all their time, lunch breaks and after schools, to do a performance that went for an hour and a half.  No-one forgot their lines.  Everyone remembered to come on at the right time.

It gives the kids so much confidence and pride.  Love it.

romeo and juliet - the adapted version

At the Special School this term I have been exploring Romeo and Juliet with the Seniors.  It has been so fun doing some age appropriate material with these kids, and I have used google images of a young Leonardo de Caprio as some of my picture symbols.  It is especially exciting doing it with them, as some of the kids are using their communication devices (iPads with an app called Proloquo2go) to participate in the play and activities that I have.

I have written an adapted version of the play, cut out about 12 characters and simplified the language a lot.  I kept in about 10 lines of the original Shakespeare and 6 main characters.  We have acted out the play, and done language activities around it (because I am such a speechie we have to make sentences and learn new vocabulary!).  I have done character bingo (with lovely pictures from the Baz Luhrman film), opposites (life/death, love/hate, Montegue/Capulet etc), sentences with different tenses, rhymes, match the quote to the character and an interactive quiz on the whiteboard.  We also have a dance party each session - because Romeo met Juliet at the Capulets party.  I have had to put One Direction and Katy Perry on my iPad.

And the kids are getting it.  They are getting the big themes of love, and lost love, and jealousy, and death.  I have put the expectation to them that they will engage with this text, and they have risen to the challenge. They are talking about it and recognising themselves in characters.  They are excited about learning.  The teachers are really amazed and supportive.  We divide into teams of Montegues and Capulets and taunt each other across the classroom.  We have made banners for Montegues and Capulets, and disguises for when we creep into the party.

I am so excited about this that I am going to start adapting some more of the senior texts for the students that I work with.  Macbeth maybe.....

Sometimes my job is pretty fun.

I met a problem solver

I have been teaching year three RE (Religious Education) all year on a Thursday morning.  It is a volunteer job - I love it.  The 8 year olds are really fun and curious, and it is great to enter into their classroom and share in their lives.  They love being craftastic and dramatic.

However, there has been one little problem each week.  They are so keen to be helpful and carry my bags to the next classroom that an almost fight breaks out as to who is going to carry my bag.  Each week I try to pick different kids, but sometimes I just choose the child who is In My Face.

Last week a dear girl put up her hand and suggested that pulling names out of a bag would be a better solution.  I promptly delegated back and said great idea, do you want to organise it.

So this week I turned up on Thursday and was presented with this

She had gone above and beyond.  Covered, labelled, names inside.  I had met one of life's problem solvers.  Who solved problems with grace and style.  I wouldn't be surprised if I saw her name in a few years working out solutions to cancer, or traffic problems, or global warming, or anything she put her mind too.  She is one of those bright as a button kids.  And the rest of the kids in the class accepted the names pulled out of the tin to be my helpers graciously and well.

What a privilege.

triple words float my boat

I have always loved playing Scrabble.  I love the way your brain has to work to figure out how the letters go together.  It is like maths.  And I love how you need to know a lot of words to do well.  Like English.  I love how it hasn't changed the rules my whole life, and I have friendships based on playing a game of Scrabble together.  Old rivalries and cups of tea within a rhythm of a relationship.

When I was younger my goal was to beat my dad.  Then my goal was to make as many words in a square as I could.  Now I play Words with Friends with three people, having several turns a day, and my goal is just to beat them (competitive much?).

For my birthday this year I received a lovely delux Scrabble board, and a scrabble mug, and a scrabble key ring....

I think people know I like Scrabble.

Sunshine Coast quick trip

School holidays are great.  Time to nip up to the Sunshine Coast for a beach fix.  Time to finish my novel for bookclub.  Time to drink tea with friends.  Time to take the dog in the waves.  Time to eat delicious lunch with mum.

Thanks Sunshine Coast for turning on the most amazing weather!

We barbecued in the park

We gymnasticed on the beach

We talked and talked and talked

We made human child pyramids

We jumped at sunset

We posed

We ate fish and chips and swam

We collected a beach of shells (really, what do you do with the shells when you get home...)

Still got sand between my toes and suncream on my ears.  Ahhh, the beach.

buying new swimmers is the WORST

With the change of season here it is time to get new swimmers.  Over winter children have grown taller and having a wedgie with  your swimmers is not acceptable at school swimming.  For some reason the elastic in rashies is designed to last about three months, so they collapse halfway through the summer season and the girls emerge from the surf wearing a sort of elastic dress.

So off we went to the shops for hopefully an easy purchase of new togs for school.  HA!

Maybe I am the only mother in Brisbane who doesn't want her 10 and 12 year old wearing push up bra bikinis.  I am pretty sure my ten year old does not need padding on top.  It was very difficult to find just a one piece normal shaped swimmer.  And with a rashie to match - because their white white pale skin BURNS so easily.  We finally settled on Speedos (thank you speedos for not changing your design.  Ever.), even though they were pushing the budget they were not pushing top padding.

I also needed new swimmers.  When the elastic disintegrates around your arms and you are swimming freestyle laps...it gets a little bit TOO freestyle.  I grabbed a pair of speedos without even trying them on in the shop (because really, I would rather eat a ball of hair than happily try on several pairs of swimmers in the shops) - fortunately they mostly fit except for the back fat.  This I plan to get rid of with my lap swimming.

I broke in my new swimmers by doing a quick km in the pool.  All good.

And hopefully the agony of buying new swimmers is over for another year.

This is exactly how I look in my new swimmers.  Focused.  Fit. In my head.

running away to join the circus

After a concerted pleading effort by my oldest daughter in the first half of the year - I relented and let her do circus classes.  With flying trapeze.

It is a bit of an unusual extra-curricular thing to do - but she loves it.  I think it is awesome for her fitness and trust and self-confidence and meeting different kids.  She loves the flying trapeze and the tissu.

You can check her out getting a catch on the trapeze here:
/http://www.streaka.com/profile/circus-arts/v/nY2laan5rfM/vel/17210/

The trainers at Flipside Circus are great, and treat the kids really well.  Annika has her first show coming up and she has been chosen to go on the tissu.  Heights don't really worry her (complete opposite to me - I start shaking and my blood runs cold when I am further than my own height off the ground).  She also loves balancing on the globe ball.  Pretty much anything high where she can climb.  Monkey child.

Circus is not that cheap, so she wasn't going to be able to do it next term.  But her teacher sent emailed a grant opportunity from the federal government called Creative Young Stars.  I figured - I can fill out a form.  So I did.  And we were the fortunate recipients of a grant - yay!!  So Annika has one more term of hanging around upside down.

So every Saturday morning I spend watching my oldest child swing and climb high.  With a big smile on her face.  I just hope she doesn't run away to join the circus.  I would miss her too much!
 

This is a picture of someone doing tissu - not my daughter, just an image search person