Stuck

Andrew was due home from Brisbane last night, but didn't make it. His flight from Brisbane to Sydney was delayed and came in after his flight from Sydney to Wagga had left! It's fortunate that Andrew didn't have anything very important on today. I have a job interview this morning.... I also have two photos from the weekend,to share.

Toby and Bethany made the biggest mess at Kids' Club, but only Toby would let me photograph the handiwork. You can almost see the extent of the destruction in the background.

On Saturday night, the women of St Aidan's had our annual summer event. It wasn't called Café by Candlelight this year and we didn't do craft. We made mocktails, I gave some summer reading book reviews  and demonstrated the making of Eton Mess. Such fun!

Progress

This is the stage in the build where each day can make an obvious difference.

They must have started putting up the frame yesterday and only got half of today in, if that, as we had rather a lot of rain.

I have found two mistakes so far, you really do need to pay attention!

Space

I have been holding onto this post since last week. Google told me that I have used up all my free space for photos and need to start paying for more! It's all sorted now, so we are back in business.

Last Thursday evening we picked up some pizza and met the Shephards at the lake.

We, and the ducks, ate much pizza.

Monique and I then set off to walk right around the lake, leaving the menfolk with the younger generation. We came back, nearly an hour later (it's a big lake) to discover children who had gone swimming in their clothes or who took photos of their feet.

I'm glad we managed this before the weather warmed up. It is going to be 40 degrees this Friday!

The Entertainer

Toby is studying the book Holes by Louis Sachar, which is set in Texas, and was given a project with lots of Texas-related options. We found out about the project rather later than we would have liked, so were very pleased to discover that one of the options was to learn to play The Entertainer by Scott Joplin. Toby did that for his second grade piano exam! He hadn't played it in ages so has needed lots of practice, and we also had to do some research so he could present a little background on the piece.

Yesterday, after Israel's trumpet lesson, Shep and Andrew helped him out. It's a shame they can't do it at school with him, three people on a piano is pretty impressive.

Part of the background we uncovered is that ragtime was dance music played in the red light districts of African American communities and that Scott Joplin died of syphilis. I decided to leave a few of those details out for Toby's Year 5 project at the Christian College.

Habits

Warning, very bad phone photos, taken at night, coming up. When we lived in Estella, I used to walk Milo late at night, after the kids were in bed. I haven't done that here, largely because it isn't as safe an area to be wandering around late at night. Milo comes with me to the kids' bus stop in the mornings and when I go in the afternoons but it doesn't always happen and we don't go to the bus stop on the weekends, so I am starting a new habit. Walking Milo after dinner with Joss.

The first walk was great, we all loved it. Last night, however, Joss did not feel up to it, so Toby, who had been exercising for hours at track cycling, begged to come on his scooter. The scooter factor meant that there was less chatting, he was often a bit too far ahead, but he loved it and wants to come every night.

Here we are, almost home again by the light of the golden arches.

Then I decided to capture the moment. Yes, I am walking in my pearls.

It didn't seem fair to leave Milo out of the moment but he didn't really get the concept, silly dog!

Rest

We have had glorious weather this weekend and have taken advantage of it. After waking up naturally at 8am on Saturday, I had a leisurely day with tea, coffee, gardening and baking with Bethany.  Milo got a bone and 'hid' under the trampoline with it.

Andrew and Toby went for a ride (they ended up riding 40 kilometers!)and Bethany and I went to the park with Milo.

We have recently watched Alice in Wonderland and Bethany warned me not to fall down this hole.

Just the sort of weekend you need before a big week.

Progress

Earlier in the week we drove up to the block to see pipes sticking out of the ground and metal and foam hanging around.

Yesterday afternoon we saw this!

So exciting!

Busy nights

I have been out every night this week and am very excited about sleeping in tomorrow morning. Even fun things, after a busy day at work, can wear you out.

On Tuesday evening I went to a Swap Party at the Civic Theatre. It is National Recycling Week and the environment and sustainability folk at the council held the Swap Party as a way for us to recycle our clothes. We all took up to five items of clothing we no longer want and swapped them for buttons at the beginning of the evening. We went upstairs to the bar with two drinks vouchers and sat on the balcony, sipping champagne and eating finger food. This is the view from the balcony.

We then went downstairs to find all the clothes organised on racks according to size and found five new things to swap our buttons for. We didn't spend a cent and had a great time, I wish they held them more often.

Last night the whole family went to school to watch the school band play with the Australian Army Band, Kapooka. The Australian Army Band, you see, is based here in Wagga and they very kindly gave a concert and collaborated with school kids! These two players are in Year 12 and have won scholarships from the Conservatorium, but the band included lots of little kids too.

The choir sang two songs as well, including a great favourite of mine, Kung Fu Fighting. The dancers even joined in with a very clever and funny martial arts routine. One of Bethany's friends came on in a pink robe and beat up the three older boys.

Our good friends, the Shephards, sat with us and we waited and waited for Israel's solo. Izzy is Andrew's trumpet student as well as our family friend. His solo came in the very last song! The stage was flat, non of the Shephards are very tall and we were worried that, even though Izzy stood up for his solo, we wouldn't be able to se him. The time finally came and we could just see his head, he was pointing his trumpet down (not a good thing, apparently) and he lifted his trumpet up just in time for me to take the photo. All you can see is the round end of the trumpet!

It was a brilliant concert and I am very glad we went, though putting an 8 year old to bed at 10pm on a school night is always less fun than it sounds.

Happy 40th!

Three school friends who turned forty this year. I wish we could get together more often.

The second of only two decent photos taken of my weekend! Sometimes you are too busy enjoying life to stop and photograph it. They were delicious dumplings and just one of three delicious courses served at Janice's party. It was a great evening of food, conversation and celebration, I am so glad I was able to go.

Mini break

I have been meaning to do a 'what have been reading and watching' post but I haven't been watching anything but Miranda and 56 Up and have been sharing all my reading on goodreads. I will get there, but not tonight, or this weekend. I am getting ready to head to Sydney tomorrow! I can't wait to catch up with my old friends. Old because we have been friends for a long time, and old because we all turned 40 this year.

I'll leave you with photos of the pretty gardens we walk past on the way to the bus stop.

Melbourne Cup Day

I'm not at all interested in horse racing. It all seems terribly dull to me, but I do like a celebration and all the food that goes with it. We ate for most of the day, the race went for a few minutes.

I went in the sweep and my horse came first! Actually, I had put Toby's name on that horse but thought that $35 would cause too many problems with his sisters. So, I kept it for myself!

It was a fascinating day (there are four fascinators in this photo)!

So pretty

The park across the road from the library is so pretty in Spring. On hot, pollen drenched and stormy days, I really like passing through it early, then late and looking at it from the cool, filtered air of the library during the middle of the day.

I got home late today, as I always do on Mondays, and have spent my evening making roast vegetable and Israeli couscous salad for tomorrow's Melbourne Cup Day lunch. We're all frocking up too, do you have special plans?

Riding

When we lived in Estella, I rode my bike seven kilometers to work, and the same back home, twice a week. Since we have been in town, my bike has been languishing in the garage at work as there is no bike lane on my route home and much more traffic, so  find it much easier to walk. I may be taking a break from riding, but the rest of the family are getting right into it. I never would have predicted that Joss would become super keen on cycling. She has always been a bit more like me on the sporting side of things, but yesterday, she volunteered to ride twenty kilometers to our block and back.

She is getting too big for her bike and, considering it is a mountain bike and Andrew and Toby were both on road bikes (which are much lighter and faster) she did really well. When they were at the fifteen kilometer mark Andrew texted me to see what was for dinner. I thought he might have been thinking about going out, or getting takeaway, but he just wanted to give Joss motivation as she was flagging. We were having lamb cutlets and that did give her a second wind!

Lycra is extraordinary stuff, isn't it? The outfit Joss is wearing belongs to me! It looks very relaxed on Joss, it has to work a lot harder on me......

Pollen

I have had stuff to post about, and I haven't been any busier than usual, I think the hay fever has made me tired so I couldn't be bothered to blog. Disliking the heat as I do, it's hard to wish for Spring to hurry up and leave, but it has been a particularly bad year for hay fever. It makes me want to scratch my eyes right out and squash my nose flat. The trees and flowers are awfully pretty though, and last night's couple of hours filling my lungs with pollen was completely worth it as we saw the Groove Factorie doing Twilight by the Lagoon.

Every summer, the Civic Theatre puts on a free concert series called Twilight by the Lagoon. For the first concert this season, Andrew's band,  Groove Factorie, played. It starts at seven so families can come and there were hundreds of people there. They were a bit shy of the front seats in the amphitheatre (at first) but the grassy areas around the amphitheatre were packed with picnicking people.

Luckily for me, Kids' Club and Joss' youth group meet just over the road so I could drop Joss over at 7.30 and pick Bethany and Toby up to watch the rest. Toby found friends and spent a lot of time enjoying the music while playing, but Bethany shuffled closer and watched by herself.

The Groove Factorie band is made up of core musicians and they invite lots of local singers to sing with them. The music was great and the Civic Theatre said it was one of their biggest Twilight concerts ever.

Now, I was planning on getting some work done in the garden this weekend. I wish I had a gas mask!