School's Out

   Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a joyous holiday. We certainly did as Pap and Gram arrived safely on Christmas Eve. 
   Last Friday was the last day of school, and the last day of Primary school for Alanna. As part of the never-ending celebrations, the Year 6 kids gathered for a breakfast in the park before school. Afterwards they walked to school, where they spent the day signing each others shirts.

 Aliya gathered with some of her friends:

 At 1:00, the entire school gathered on the oval for assembly. The Year 6s were in the front, where they sang "Lanterns."

 The night before, the school principal called and suggested that Andy and I would definitely want to be at the assembly. And here's why: The principal from Alanna's future secondary school came and presented her with the Academic Excellence award! It was a nice recognition of her hard work, and Alanna was pretty excited to receive a check with her name on it! 

Here's the video:

 Aliya with her friends Ollie and Oscar:

 Whoo hoo, school's out!

 Sad goodbyes in the Senior Learning Center afterwards. The kids are all going off to different secondary schools. More than half of Alanna's class are going to very expensive private schools ($20,000+ per year), which is something we find hard to fathom. I suppose part of the reason they can do this is that Uni (college) is a lot cheaper.

After assembly, we headed home and packed up the van for a weekend of camping with other families from school. Our destination was a Big 4 Campground on the Bellarine peninsula, about an hour and a half from Melbourne. They all stayed in cabins, but we "roughed it" in tents. 

 The camp ground had a nice kitchen. We all bbq'ed together and brought salads to share.

 Sadly, no campfires allowed, so we made do with a little Weber grill.

 On Saturday we went to check out the beach, hoping to surf. No luck. Have to try again the next day.

 One of my favourite things about our camping trips to Leo Carillo is having a group picture every year. So (and Julie would be proud!) I gathered all the kids for a group photo. Aliya and her friend managed to tip over and fall out of the go-kart she was riding in, so her knee was a bit sore.

 And now the adults:

 And a silly pic:

 

 After packing up on Sunday, we headed to the beach at Ocean Grove for one last look at the waves. This time, we were in luck! We rented some wetsuits, and Andy gave his now-perfected surfing lessons.

 Alanna got up quickly. She really gained confidence while at Year 6 camp last week, where they surfed for over two hours. For fun, Andy had them wear his Go-Pro webcam.

Aliya teaching her new friend how to stand on the board:

 Most of the camping families were from Year 3, so Alanna brought along her friend Charlotte.

Great times! After a few hours of water play, where even Andy got a chance to surf, we headed back to the campground for lunch, and then home. We had a lot of laundry to do, and guests to get ready for!

Crazy Train

Hello? Is there anybody out there.....? Needless to say, I am a bit behind in my blogging. Not for lack of topics, as I'd love to tell you about our trip to Bali, the visit from Andy's mom, the visit from the Ransoms, and the perfect dog we puppy-sat for four months,  just for starters. But mostly, I haven't been motivated. Even now, I should be wrapping presents or packing for our camping trip, but instead I'll do a short post for old time's sake.
   Last week had a couple of rather interesting events. First, Aliya was invited to participate in a fashion show. The mother (I still can't say Mum) of one of her good friends teaches fashion design. Every year, the graduates show off their projects in a fashion show, and there's usually a couple of kid outfits. Aliya modeled a very cute outfit:

She did rather well for her first time on the catwalk, not that we are encouraging her to take up modeling. Stick to math and science, Aliya! Here are clips of her modeling and of the finale.

The next night was Alanna's graduation from Primary School. 

Each of the 69 students were allotted about a minute to make a short speech. It could be a thank you-type speech or some favourite memories. It might sound tedious, but they were actually entertaining, and often very touching. Here's Alanna's:

After the ceremony, the Year 6's walked down a red carpet into the Senior Learning Center, where they had their own dinner. The adults mingled in the library, enjoying snacks and our BYO wine.

We capped off the week with the long-awaited Taylor Swift concert.  

We'd seen her last year at a much smaller venue, which I greatly preferred. This time, she was playing Etihad stadium to almost 50,000 people. We were told that Taylor was the first woman since Madonna to do a stadium tour of Australia. I won't post any pics because we were just too far away from the stage. Still the girls enjoyed the show. Aliya especially enjoyed the first opening act, Neon Trees. For about a year, she played their song Animal whenever and wherever she could. The second opening act was Guy Sebastian, an Aussie singer who is very famous here, and I believe recently broke into the US market.
   We took the train into and out of town (have I mentioned how much I love the public transport in Melb?) and we got home quite easily, although it was 11:30. Thankfully our basketball games the following morning were later than usual. It would have been tough to play at 8:15 am!
   That afternoon, we had one final activity. Our school Drum Corps performed at a "Carols in the Garden" service at a local church.

Here's two videos. In the first, they did a routine from the school recital. Check out drill sergeant Mr. Hood's dance moves!

  

This week has been less crazy. Alanna spent three days at Year 6 Camp in Angelsea, a beach-side town at the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. They surfed, boogie boarded, mountain biked, climbed towers of milk crates while on a harness, and had a beach carnival. Good times.
   School finishes up on Friday, and as soon as the festivities are over we are heading to the Bellarine Peninsula for a camping trip with a few other families from school. Pap and Gram arrive a couple days later, on Christmas Eve! We can't wait.
   Not sure when I'll blog again, so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Or, as John Lennon said, Happy Christmas and Merry Goo Year.

A-cross the Universe (Cross Country)

Two weeks ago the girls participated in a school event, House Cross Country. Everyone in the school is divided into one of four Houses. Red is Warren, Green is Gaze, Blue is Mitchell, and Yellow is Dunlop. Normally the kids wear uniforms to school, but for this event they were encouraged to dress in house colors.

 That morning we were at school early, as Alanna had Drum Corp practice. Drum Corps is an amazing opportunity available to the Year 5's and 6's at here school, and I will be posting more about this later. The pic below is kind of fun as they are all in colorful clothes, marching around the field at 8 in the morning. Alanna says-The guy in the black suit, Mr.Hood, is the drill sergeant leader of the corps. Dad thinks he's great. Mr.Hood yells at us, calls us pathetic when we don't do well, and he calls me California Girl, California Dreaming, or sometimes just California. Heh heh heh. Apparently some previous Drum Corps have received offers to play at many special events-even in Scotland!! Mr. Hood is funny though.  He calls himself gorgeous, and has all sorts of funny stories like when some Drum Corps were marching and the dye on their shirts ran and they looked like Smurfs! So even though everyone dreads being late and getting yelled at, it's all good fun!!

Two sets of sisters, getting ready to race

Friends!

For the event, students raced against kids of their own age and gender. The 11- and 12-year olds each ran 3 k, while the 8, 9, and 10 year olds ran 2k.

Alanna lining up with the 11 year olds

And she's off

The home stretch

Checking out the competition

Last few feet, er, meters, still smiling

Finish line

Eighth Place! Friend named Nattali on right.

The top eight finishers automatically qualify for Districts, so she was very excited. She doesn't do running per se, but I think her basketball training and swim squad gave her good conditioning.

Aliya's group was much larger, because it was for all girls turning 9 and 10 anytime this year.

8, 9 and 10 year olds

Aliya was stuck at the back, but eventually broke free

Second lap, still smiling

Running hard, not so happy!

Home stretch

Her teacher hands her her place card

5th place!

Her good friend came in 4th

 Aliya qualified for Districts as well. She was so determined to do well, and she did. I have no idea of her time, but given that she doesn't run, I think she did amazingly well to place 5th. Like Alanna, she has built up her conditioning and endurance from swimming and basketball. I think we need to do a 5K fun run.
Speaking of sports, now seems like as good a time as any to  fill you in on basketball, especially since the season has come to an end. Last Sunday Aliya's team played in the reserve Grand Final, and came away with a win! 

It was a tough season, with three girls having never played before. We had a 6th player, but she moved in January, which meant that the girls got a lot of playing time and the coach never had to worry about substituting!
Later that night, we attended Presentation Night, where the girls get participation medals and various awards, and coaches get their presents, etc.

Aliya and coach Sally

 Alanna's team just made it to 4th spot on the ladder, earning a playoff spot. Unfortunately, they lost to a team who just happened to be coached by the coach of AFL's Richmond Tigers. You can see why Alanna does a lot of the rebounding for her team!

 We were excited when Alanna was given the Coach's Award by her coach.

A great end to a great season. We've already signed up the girls for their third (Alanna)  and fourth (Aliya) seasons, which start in two weeks.

Hoppy Easter

Term 1 of school ended on Thursday, because Friday was Good Friday. Did you know that Australia pretty much closes up for the day on Good Friday? Post Offices, banks, malls, shops, business, all closed. As a sign of how sacred the day is, they don't even play footy! Which is unusual because I think--in Melbourne at least--people are more interested in football than organized religion.
   Saturday was multi-cultural day in our house. The girls dyed Easter eggs at our house while eating matzah with their friends, one of whom was Jewish and one who was Greek Orthodox.

Matzah with lots of Mexican cheese on top

If you look carefully at the pics below, you might notice that there are a few brown eggs. Most of the eggs in Australia are brown, not white. Which is no big deal when you just want them scrambled (as Alanna does every morning!) but not so good when you want to make Easter Eggs. So I was thrilled last month when I found some white eggs at a local fruit & veg shop. I also had several egg coloring kits in our Easter box-o-stuff from the US. This was fortuitous, as they don't sell them here in Oz. I boiled some eggs, set out the colors, and the kids went to work. They had so much fun Andy had to go back out for more white eggs.

We did dye some of the brown eggs. If you let them sit long enough, especially in a dark color, they turned out quite nicely. But we still preferred the white eggs as you had a lot more coloring options. Here are the results.

Aliya's friend arrived bearing a chcolate egg as a present. Aliya was worried about someone taking it, so she insisted that Andy lock it up to the kitchen table....

Saturday night we went to a friend's house for dinner. Their daughter is a friend of Aliya's, and her dad grew up in the house we are now renting. Also at dinner was the mom's sister and her family, because one of her daughters is a friend of Alanna. Got all that? The funny thing was I had no idea these two women were sisters, until Alanna and Aliya figured out that their friends were cousins. Small world! We had a lovely time at dinner, and it was what we now consider to be a traditional Aussie bbq: lots and lots of meat (no prawns, aka shrimp.) Aussies also traditionally serve a large platter of fruit for dessert, to which we added Andy's lemon tart. Yum!
   Sunday started off really early for the A-team, as Andy dragged took us all to Sunrise Service at church at 6 am. I dragged myself out of bed at 5:15, and wondered how I left for Temecula at 5:30 am for so many years...The girls knew they'd have to get out of bed promptly if they wanted to find their Easter baskets.
   Aliya had announced the previous night that she hoped the Easter bunny wouldn't put her basket anywhere obvious like the cubby under the stairs. Still, that was the first place she checked:

No luck though. Alanna found hers pretty quickly behind the TV and surfboards.
With a little help from Andy, Aliya finally found hers in the laundry room in a basket hidden under a dirty shirt. They eagerly examined all the goodies, which included a few dvds, chocolates, fairy floss (cotton candy) and marbles, the latest fad at school. 

We got to church right at 6, collected our candles, and joined the group in the dark outside the church for a little ceremony. Then we headed inside and listed to some readings, mostly in the dark. We were a bit startled when, after almost 40 minutes of stories from the Old Testament, the priest announced, "And now we begin the regular mass..." 
   After the service, Andy dropped us off and went in search of hot cross buns. He returned with the choc chip version, and the girls insisted on eating them this way:

Later, our just-returned-from-Bali friends came over for dinner. It was wonderful to hear their stories, and now we are eager to go to Bali ourselves.

Today is Easter Monday, another public holiday. Andy got up at 6 am to finish off our US taxes. Yes, the U.S. is one of the few countries that requires citizens to file taxes regardless of where they reside or where they earn their money. Meanwhile the girls and I slept in! After lunch, Andy took the girls into the city to explore. The last text from Alanna said they were eating Krispy Kremes donuts. Andy and the girls definitely miss their traditional Sundays back home where they'd bike to Vons for donuts and get smoothies. The donuts here don't seem to compare. Andy also hinted he was taking them to the Eureka tower, another activity I am happy to miss out on!
   This just in...they did go to the Skydeck!

Happy Easter everyone!

Once, Twice, Three Times...

...in third place in three years!

Today Alanna competed against several other schools at the District swimming event. This year, she was in the freestyle medley, and her favorite event, the breaststroke. The medley came in 5th I think, and in the breaststroke, she got third place. Yep, the same thing happened last year and the year before. Here it is in pictures:

On your mark

Get set

Go!

Seriously? Third place again??

It was slightly disappointing as she's been doing swim squad weekly for the past year, so we thought maybe she'd place second? Perhaps all the other girls started doing squad as well! Who knows. As you can see from the pics, it was a gloriously sunny and warm day. It was a definite plus that she got to spend the entire morning at the pool rather than in an overly warm learning center. That would be the brand-new building in which some geniuses decided not to put in air conditioning...but don't get me started on that topic.

Congrats Alanna, so proud of you, and so glad I was able to be there to watch you compete.