- An invitation to meet up for coffee
- A friend who bought us a tart pan because she knew we didn't have one and we love her fabulous lemon tart
- A family get-together that started off at the ice skating rink, then progressed to the community pool for a swim, then progressed to a BBQ
- Calls to pick up someone's kids from school when the mom or dad is running late. That's happened three times in the last three weeks (different families each time) and I love that other parents trust me and know they can count on me to help them out.
- A friend who drops off some electrolyte frozen pops when my kids had gastro
Those are just a few examples, but they really make me feel as though we are settling in here. Just today Alanna and Aliya mentioned that, for a lot of reasons, they are glad we came to Australia! They both have made some great new friends, Alanna loves Superclubs, Aliya loves basketball, they both like walking and scootering to school each day, and being able to have lots of playdates. They love being able to travel and see things they wouldn't have seen otherwise.
That doesn't mean they don't miss home. They have been counting down the days and eagerly noted that we'll be back in Cali a month from today! They already have a long list of people to see, places to go, and restaurants to eat in. I know the three weeks will go by very quickly, and we can't wait to see all of you. It's going to be a bit crazy with the holidays and family in town, but it's a safe bet we'll be at the HB Pier on Christmas Eve morning and New Years Day, so plan to join us for potluck brunches and beach volleyball!
So what have we been up to the last week or so? Alanna created some new fonts based on her friends:
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| Alanna's friend fonts |
Aliya's class is studying insects at the moment, and she was chosen to keep the silkworms over the weekend:
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| Don't worry Mom, I promise they'll stay in the box! |
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| Pretty much just eat mulberry leaves all day long |
Today was Italian day at school, and the children were encouraged to dress up as something Italy-related or they could simply wear the country colors. Alanna wore green (one friend wore all white and another wore all red so together they would be the flag) and Aliya went as a pizza maker. She wanted to be a pizza but we couldn't pull that off at 8:00 am in the morning.
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| Italy day |
It was quite a fun day by the sound of it. They played boccie ball on the oval and did assorted arts and crafts. Alanna's class pretended to be Italian designers. Aliya made a pasta necklace. When I asked to see it she said I couldn't because she ate all of it. Yep, uncooked pasta. Yum! They also watched a very funny play. While the play was entertaining (the actors played a variety of different characters), the highlight was the Q&A session afterwards. One child asked, "How do you poo?" and the response was, "I don't know, I've never done it." (Yes, potty humor is hilarious to the under-10 crowd) Another child asked, "How do you make clothes?" and got a long-winded response about feeding a bunch of cheerios to two silkworms to get two threads and I don't remember what happened next but I know at some point Harry Potter gets involved." The perennial question of "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" also got a long-winded response that apparently got resolved at Maccas (McDonalds.)
The next few weeks are going to fly by, as the school year wraps up and we prepare for Christmas. In the hopes of crossing off a few things off my Christmas list, I did venture out to Chaddy's, aka Chadstone, which is perhaps the largest mall in Australia. I still can't get used to the grocery stores being at the mall. Can you imagine Ralphs and Vons inside of South Coast Plaza? I really don't like going to malls, so I wouldn't never go there for my weekly shopping, but it was kinda handy to run in and be able to pick up a few things on my way out. It can also be fun to shop when you never know what you'll discover. I found this at a store called the Reject Shop. It's a kid's candy Christmas stocking that includes a candy bar with an unusual name:
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| Mighty Perky Nana, anyone? |
Apparently, it's a chocolate-coated banana chewy-type bar. Might be delicious, but Cadbury really should reconsider the name!
Did I mention it's just a month until we are back home for a visit?!?!
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