What Goes On

I have some catching up today, so I probably won't write too much. Just want to share some pics from assorted recent activities.
   In late November, Andy took Alanna and Aliya and a friend to a motorcycle show. He'd done this back home every December, so he was pretty excited to find a show here in Melb. The girls made it their mission to collect posters and  cards from every booth in the show. The also posed with some biker dudes...

...and watched some crazy stunts. You can see Aliya and her friend right at the fence if you look closely.

December in Australia means summer. One hot day after school I took the girls to the local community pool. One of the best things about it is that there's usually other kids from school there.

Alanna and friends

 Another cool thing is the diving boards, especially the three meter (metre?) one. 

The next weekend, we went to a BBQ with two other families who have daughters in the same grades as ours. 

Two of the Year 2 Girls

The Year 5 Girls

Both girls love playing basketball. The season runs for two terms, with a break for summer. Alanna has a clear height advantage, you can see she's the tallest on her team. If you look closely, the next tallest is standing on her tiptoes.

 Here's a quick clip from Aliya's game, she scores a basket at the end.

The second weekend in December we went camping with a bunch of other families with Year 2 kids. As you can see from the picture, it certainly wasn't a Leo Carrillo-type campground. And unlike Leo Carrillo activities, here we played cricket!

 Near the campground was Ocean Grove beach, so we headed there for some surfing and swimming. Amazingly enough, I actually went completely in the water. Probably had something to do with the fact it was 40 degrees (close to 100 F.)

Aliya and friend strike a pose

 Unfortunately, the weekend was cut short. Saturday we got a call from our friend that Alanna was sick. Alanna stayed with them for the weekend because she didn't want to miss birthday parties for two of her closest friends. Aliya was distraught when she heard we had to drive back, but happily several families agreed that Aliya could stay with them at the campground.  She'd slept in a friend's tent the night before anyway, so it was no big deal. We headed back to Melbourne, about a two-hour drive, and of course, Alanna started getting better. Better safe than sorry though. 
   The next weekend, Andy's company held a Christmas party for the kids of the employees. Can you believe someone got the ages and genders of each child, and picked out a gift for each one? Santa handed out over 30 presents at the party.
   

The next night, we shipped the kids off took the kids to friends for a sleepover and headed to St. Kilda for a 40th Birthday Party. Shelly always jokes about hanging out with giants, and you can see why.

Next up, Pap and Gram arrive!!! To be continued....