Excursions

So, where were we? Oh yes, I had just finished packing for Jossie's excursion. This term all three children have looked forward to excursions and now only Toby's is still to come. I usually have trouble getting Jossie out of bed at 7.30, but the morning she went to Ballarat, she bounced out of bed at half past five. Andrew dropped her at school at ten past six to hop on the bus with all the other excited year five and six kids. The next two nights we experienced the very rare feeling of rather wishing Jossie had her own phone as we really wanted to know how she was going.

The next morning it was Bethany's turn and she had been counting the sleeps until her first school excursion. They have been learning about jobs this term and lots of parents have come in to talk about what they do and demonstrate where possible. They have been curling hair with the hairdresser and hopping on the huge cattle truck. I know a soldier came in but I don't think he brought any weapons :) On the excursion they visited four different workplaces starting at the airport where they went on a plane. They had morning tea and patted the animals at 'At the Farm', a café owned by some parents, they got to squirt the hose at the fire station and after lunch they came to the library. I told them all about the library, read them stories filled with underpants, poo and gross things in a witch's kitchen before we made googly-eyed monsters. It was so much fun.

Jossie arrived back at school at quarter to nine on the Friday and didn't draw breath the whole way home. Despite the fact that she was very tired (who could have guessed that four friends in a room  wouldn't sleep?) she had to show us all that she had bought and tell us all about it. We were very impressed that she spent some of her money on buying presents for all of us.

I had been a trifle worried about lending her my camera but she took very good care of it.

She took some fabulous photos. An awful lot of them were just like these.

It is very important to remember the hotel room.

Gorgeous bathroom tiles.

She did take quite a few photos at Sovereign Hill and I am looking forward to seeing the professional photo of the girls all dressed up. Jossie took one of the boys with her teacher, Mrs Heath.

Just like her mother, she took photos of her food.

And when, like me, she would be so keen to eat that she forgot to take a photo, she took a photo of the plate :) All in all it was a wonderful experience and she had such a good time.

Toby had his team photo taken.

It was very lucky that we did that last week because soccer was cancelled this week thanks to the rain. It has been a very rainy season which has been a nice change.

On Friday night we went to our friend Maame's 30th (it feels good to get invited to 30ths when we are much closer to 40ths ourselves). Bethany dressed up in her fairy gear. Can you see Maame's super high heels? They didn't last very long!

Bethany took the camera for a while. Now I can remember that I wore my red shoes.

Bethany, obviously inspired by the hairdresser's visit to school, made Maame's hair 'pretty'.

Then she asked Maame to braid her hair. It takes 10 hours to braid Maame's hair so Bethany had to be happy with just two braids. Birthday girls can't spend their whole party braiding hair.

Adeola did one more but will need to come for a sleepover to do Bethany's whole head. I wonder if Bethany could sit still for that long?

Toby made a new friend and they absconded with my phone to play doodle jump.

Bethany helped to cut the huge mud cake but I made sure she didn't help blow out the candle - children spit.....

Yesterday I worked. I am supposed to work one in five Saturdays but there are lots of part-timers who really like the extra work so I haven't been in on a Saturday for ages. Thankfully, it was Farmers' Market day so I rode in a bit early. There was no hot water for my shower which was rather nasty on a cold morning, so I warmed up with a plate of dutch pancakes with cream and maple syrup. There is a new, french baker in town (he is actually from France as well as a baker of delicious french things) so I bought an almond croissant and pear and almond custard tart to share. Kristy and I were just swallowing a mouthful of almond croissant when an older man came to the desk. We told him that we needed to keep our strength up and he suggested that it was for when we went clubbing that night (!?) How old did he think we are? Then, a young man watched me bend over to get books out of the return chute and commenced discussing my bottom with his mate. It must have been the day for pervs at the library.....

I finished reading Natasha Solomon's Mr Rosenblum's List. While I was reading it I was often worried that it wouldn't turn out well, there was a lot of potential for disaster, but it ended up being a lovely read. I also read Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides. Having loved Middlesex I ordered this for the library and it was very good. The ending was slightly less satisfying than that of Middlesex, but I really enjoyed it.

Today has been wet, again. I plan to ride in the morning so I hope the hot water is on! I think I'm about caught up now. I'll try and do shorter updates more often, just uploading the photos takes forever!