Slip and slide

It was very hot yesterday and I was rather dreading standing in the hot sun at cycling. I was pleasantly surprised by a really fun evening. Wednesday night is racing night but they didn't do normal races. They had four teams made up of all ages and they had bike races with extra elements, like crawling through tunnels and popping balloons, and non-bike races such as the one below - a relay with half a lap on scooters.

Santa arrived, riding the smallest motorbike I have ever seen. It got a flat tyre and put a big hole in his suit, so that his stuffing was coming out around the crotch! The thongs were a nice touch.

While the sausages were cooking, the kids went water sliding. It took Toby and Bethany a long time to decide they wanted to do it, but then they got right into it.

It was so sweet when Bethany's little friend waited patiently for her to finish her sausage so they could go sliding together again.

A happy birthday

One week before Christmas may not be the very best time to have a birthday, but it is what it is and I think we made the best of it yesterday. Andrew and I had to work but the children stayed home, keeping to a strict schedule of jobs including playing with Milo, putting Bethany's hair into 50 little plaits and walking to the shops for the wherewithal to make this birthday cake.

We walked into town for a celebratory dinner, where Bethany took this fabulous photo....

A happy birthday for a wonderful husband and father (amongst other things too numerous to mention).

On your mark....

This is the last week of track cycling for the year, and with a few minor adjustments to the bike and a need for speed, Toby had a cracker of a day today. Can you spot him in the warm up group?

They do around 15 or 20 laps gradually increasing in speed. He can stay with the bigger kids until the end now (the trick is to race behind someone much bigger than you :)

This is one of his friends Lauren - she's no slouch either.  She is one of about 10 kids that Toby regularly races against in his age group. Initially he was heavily handicapped, but is now the top of his age group starting mainly from scratch and will probably move up to the under 13s soon. 

And this is why (the sprint home)...

Meanwhile, Bethany + my phone = instant friendships with the "pocket rockets"

Returning triumphant  - 3 races, 3 wins.

We are loving it and I get as much enjoyment watching as I do riding myself (this is Andrew posting this if you haven't worked it out yet). It's a technical but fun sport and so very good for them.

Christmas Party

One more week of work to go, phew! It is, as my last week in this job, going to be very busy as I try to tie up all the loose ends and hand over my responsibilities. I am very much looking forward to having three weeks off!

We mostly finished off our Christmas shopping on Saturday, getting up early to beat the crowds. We ended up out at the Muddi Café where they have local and handmade products. Bethany asked for coins to throw in the fountain and when I came to take a photo she told me to leave her in privacy...

A quiet night in may have been the smartest choice, but I had my work Christmas party. We dressed up and had dinner and a show at a local café.

There was a fair bit of random behaviour and hilarity.

Proof that not all library workers are women!

Today we church started earlier as we had a celebration service with all three congregations, meeting at the school, followed by a farewell lunch for the Halbisches. Bethany has a friend over this afternoon, we are having dinner with the Shephards and, if we have time, we are dropping in to the Halbisches' before 10. A perfect Sunday before my last ever ten hour work Monday!

Progress

 The kids are on holidays! Andrew and I may still have a week of work left, but we are spared making school lunches, ironing white shirts and walking to and from the bus stop. I can live with that level of holiday for another week.

There were no builders at the house when I popped up at 3.30 yesterday afternoon, but the roof line is looking more complete.

They have extended the lovely raked celling line to outside.

We're so pleased with our choice of blocks and can't wait to see them on the whole building.

We're off to do the last (please) of the Christmas shopping.....

Nearly there....

It seems that a relatively short and largely succinct presentation night is just for the smaller kids. Last night's middle and senior school event was neither of those things. Perhaps my tolerance is low at this time of year, but I couldn't help feeling that we could have celebrated a great school year and all the achievements of students and staff in much less time. We were sitting with Shep and Nelly, which didn't help us maintain mature behaviour. Three iPhones and an iPod touch meant plenty of cameras and photo manipulation apps to keep our shoulders shaking during the speeches, at least for the first third of the evening.

Not all middle school students receive awards and those who do are notified by mail, to make sure they come and then they sit together so at least that part of the proceedings goes quickly. Nelly did not receive a letter so she was sitting with us. Toby had already received his award so I had ceased paying attention when poor Nelly had to push past and run up the front to accept her two awards. It is my bet that Shep read the first sentence of the letter, all about the presentation night, and then threw it out, never getting to the part about Nelly's awards!

Someone has had a growth spurt.......

Toby received a commendation in all key learning areas. Clever boy!

We decided, as we had only gotten through one of four pages of programme, that Bethany should go home to bed. We thought about all leaving but Joss wanted to stay to the end to chat to her old friends and Toby and Nelly also wanted to stay (there was a heavily laden supper table). Israel was playing in a band right at the end of the evening so after thinking of all the possible ways of getting out of listening to the rest, Andrew took Bethany and Shep and I chatted outside for the last hour or so, with all the younger siblings running riot. We watched one little girl attempting to make a snow angel on the tiles....... in 30 degree heat.

At last, the band came on and Izzy was great, trumpet solo and choreographed moves. He and Toby get on brilliantly, despite the fact that Izzy is in year 8 and Toby only in year 5. Perhaps it's a height thing. See how Nelly now towers over Toby and they are the same age? The fellow with the awesome 'fro, playing the base and standing a good meter further back than Izzy, is also in year 8!

Festivities

Are your pre-Christmas events almost over? We have been to two out of three presentation nights, missing one work Christmas party in the process, and I have had one work lunch and a farewell. One more presentation night, work lunch (for my new work, wasn't it nice of them to invite me?) and work Christmas party to go.

 This was the lunch table at the library yesterday. The cake was actually for Matt's birthday, we had Crust pizza for lunch. My secret Santa present was a lovely jar of lemongrass, kaffir lime and chili mayonnaise.

Joss has finished school completely. The last weeks of second and fourth term are Activities Week. Joss and her friends went to Lake Albert on Monday to go biscuiting (that is clearly not a real word - it means holding on to a huge, inflated, doughnut shaped device and being dragged behind a boat, at great speed) and get sunburnt. On Tuesday they did Christmas craft and ate pizza at school, then yesterday they had their nails done (!), went shopping and to the cinema! Obviously, she deserves a sleep in after all of that hard work, while the rest of us go to school and work.

Some Christmas festivities are more festive than others. School presentation nights have a poor reputation, but Bethany's, held last night, wasn't too bad. Having low expectations always helps, I find. I could do without the two speeches and wish it were not legal to waste words saying that you are going to be brief, particularly as people rarely manage to, but the items by each class were sweetly enjoyable. I also had fun taking photos of Jacob, who was sitting next to me, playing on his mother's phone, and sending them to that phone. I do enjoy being immature at these events.

Every single child in the Junior School gets an award, for whatever their teacher thinks was the most positive aspect of their school year. Bethany's was for 'Expressive and imaginative creative writing'. I think that was very apt as I found the rest of the book she wrote on Sunday and it is definitely expressive and imaginative! I took it to work and everyone who read it loved it, and Carol wrote a proper review of it. Bethany was chuffed.

Tonight, Toby's presentation night!