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!
...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.
An observant friend noted that my last blog was posted in a not-so-timely manner (Christmas blog in Feb.) Let's see if I can do better today. 11 years ago, Andy and I got the best Valentine's Day present ev-ah:
Best part is, February 14 is not longer a Hallmark holiday for us, it's Alanna's birthday. Lucky for her, the teacher's union here in Victoria went on strike today, so she got the day off of school. At her request, Aliya and I served her heart-shaped pancakes in bed.
Later in the day I took the girls, and a friend each, to Bounce, an indoor trampoline place. She wants you to see the backflip at the end of this video.
Dinner was Alanna's favorites: spaghetti, rolls, and her own creation: Sunburst Salad, a fruit salad she made herself (pineapple, oranges, watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe and strawberries.) We dressed up, lit candles, and the girls drank their water out of wine glasses. A very nice evening indeed.
Alanna just came in and said it was her best birthday ever. She's really been having a great year so far, and she's determined to make the most of her last year at her school, and possibly our last year in Oz. All of the Year Six students (the highest grade at her school) get an opportunity to be student leaders for a term. Alanna is a leader this term, and she got to recite the Student Declaration at the weekly student assembly.
She also participated in the Swim Carnival for her school. Just like the last two years, she came first in breaststroke. She found out on Wednesday that she'll get to compete in Districts in the breaststroke, and also the freestyle relay.
Finally, she was elected to the school's Junior School council, after giving a very motivating speech about helping others, especially children who are less fortunate. Alanna's enthusiasm and happiness is contagious. We're excited to see what this year brings! And now I need to get to bed. Alanna has her first drum corp practice at 7:50 tomorrow morning!
For the A-team, the best day of 2012 was the day this happened:
The kids gladly missed their end-of-year class parties to go to the airport and pick up Pap and Gram. Despite traveling almost 40 hours (door to door,) they said it was worth it just to get hugs from the girls Those that know my parents know they wouldn't come empty-handed. One whole suitcase was devoted to books:
And though Christmas was still a few days away, Gram gave the girls these two beautiful dresses that she made:
There was no rest for the weary travellers. The very next day, after dropping the girls off at school, we did a three-hour bike tour of the city.
The electric bikes were fabulous, as you could pedal as much or as little as you desired. Although we didn't go in the CBD (central business district) we covered over 20 kilometers, and rode around the Docklands, by the Yarra river, around two footy stadiums, by the Royal Botanical Gardens, over to Fed Square, and more (and not necessarily in that order.) They provided headsets, so we could listen to the tour guide as we rode. For my parents, it was a highlight of their visit, and a great way to learn more about Melbourne.
And the pace didn't let up. The next day, Friday, was the last day of school for the girls. We celebrated with lots of their classmates and mums at the nearby park after school. On Sunday, we drove east into the country to ride Puffing Billy, a century-old steam train. The best part of the ride is that you're allowed to sit on the sides and hang your arms and legs out over the edge.
A popular holiday event in Melbourne is Carols by Candelight, held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, which was modeled after the Hollywood Bowl. The outdoor concert, held on Christmas Eve, sold out long ago, but Andy discovered that for just a few bucks you could attend the rehearsal the night before. So we walked to the end of our street, hopped on the tram, and went into the city to listen to the singers rehearse.
It was such a hot day, it didn't feel very Christmas-sy, but it got a bit more festive as it got darker and the lights came on.
Some of the singers were contestants from the Aussie version of X Factor, which the girls have been watching on TV, and as we left Delta Goodrem (one of the more famous Aussie singers) performed. Before going home, we walked over to the Melbourne Town Hall, where there is an amazing sound and light show projected onto the building.
The picture doesn't do it justice, you really should check out the video. Stick with it, because the second half is really amazing.
Christmas, well, it just didn't feel like Christmas. It wasn't the weather, since we're used to warm Christmas days. I think it was mainly missing the usual holiday activities we did with family and friends back home. We definitely missed our traditional brunch and volleyball at the beach on Christmas Eve morning. We still went to church on Christmas eve, but it's just not the same. Very few houses have Christmas lights. The streets and malls have a lot less decorations. And it stays daylight until after 9:00 pm. Nevertheless, we had a lot to celebrate and were so happy Pap and Gram were there to share our first Christmas in Oz.
Gram gave me these super-soft, aloe-infused socks...but I didn't get to keep them for long.
The girls wore footy jammies when they were little, those all-in-one outfits that covered up their feet. Now their footy jammies are for Aussie-rules football teams.
Our American friends invited us for a Christmas Day BBQ, an offer we eagerly accepted. Lisa's truffle was amazing!
Proudly wearing the hats that were in the Christmas crackers:
The next day we headed to Apollo Bay...to be continued!
If you follow tennis, you know that the Australian Open
recently wrapped up here in Melbourne. On the Saturday that preceded the opening of the tournament,we went to the Kids Day event. There we got to see Roger
Federer, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
and Ana Ivanova play a friendly game of mixed doubles (and triples, and
3-against-1). It was quite entertaining, not to mention exciting to be able to
see all these great players live and in person, in Rod Laver Arena, for free no
less!
(Image from here: http://hotshots.tennis.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/JC_kids.tennis.day_Web028-580x396.jpg) Once the tennis exhibition wrapped up, the umpire got down from the chair and started singing. It was Guy Sebastion, one of the biggest artists in Australia, and he put on a mini-concert
(along with Sponge Bob, plus Dora and Diego). And after that, we walked outside
to watch a practice match between Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanova. Let me just
say, they were impressive. Oh, and the tennis was good, too. Not wanting to spend $10/person on a slice of bad pizza for lunch, we walked into the city after the show. At Federation Square, there is a large screen where they will show movies or sporting events or....
During the two weeks of the Open, we spent a fair bit of time watching the tennis matches on
TV, choosing Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray as our favourites to support.
Unfortunately, Maria was ousted in the semifinal against Li Na, and Andy lost in
the final to Djokovic. Nonetheless, enough tennis sunk into the kids heads that
we had to go out to play a bit of tennis on the local courts.
Before Aliya and I went out to play, she rummaged through her closet and
put together a pretty good tennis outfit. The visor is Alexi's. The skirt is part of
a netball uniform. The shoes are from basketball. And the overall combination
made for a very cute tennis player.
On the court, I quickly noticed that Aliya had absorbed the mannerisms of
the tennis greats, including bouncing the ball before your serve, stashing one
ball under your tennis outfit when serving, and wiping your face with a towel
between each point. She even began to grasp the nuttiness that is scoring in
tennis. Love-15? Advantage Federer? Deuce? We played for not quite an hour, and
her forehand kept getting better and better. The backhand was a bit erratic,
but showed potential. And according to Aliya, "Serving overhand is not easy."
I think we can all agree on that last point.
The next time we went to play, Alanna came along, and showed that she
retains some of the tennis skills she picked up at tennis camp in Huntington
Beach. Her best swing was a consistent lob over my head, which I had to chase
and creatively hit back. When I tired of chasing her lobs shots, I switched
over to scorekeeper and ball boy while Alanna and Aliya played. We had just
enough time to play the first six games of a set, and (conveniently) the score
ended up being 3-3. Alanna had a great time, but doesn't want to take up
tennis, while Aliya has asked for tennis lessons. We'll see if we can fit it in between the basketball, swimming, and piano lessons.
As for golf, I get out to play 9 holes before work once in a while with
some guys from work. On this particular outing, Aliya decided she wanted to
come along, and even set her alarm for 5:35 am so she could join me. And boy
was she an excited chatterbox as we each ate a bowl of Cheerios before heading
out. I figured she wouldn't be up for walking the entire 9 holes, so I rented a
golf cart for the two of us, and let her drive once we were out of sight of the
pro shop. That alone was enough to make her day. But there were
many more highlights, including my birdie on a long par 5. As for Aliya, she
teed off with us on each hole, then we'd drive up to her ball and she'd
either hit again, or pick up her ball and move to our shots and take a drop,
proceeding along until we reached the green where she putted in from the edge of
the green. On the ninth hole, though, Aliya decided to play the entire
450-metre hole herself, successfully staying in the fairway and managing to
reach the green in 9 strokes (50 metres or so per stroke), then 3-putting into
the hole for a 12. Not bad for an 8 year old.
When she was driving the cart, I occasionally hopped out just as the cart
came to a stop, which in hindsight was not really setting a good example. So
when it was my turn to drive, she decided to try the same thing, quickly
learning a hard lesson about "momentum." Needless to say, when she hopped out
just as I pulled to a stop, she was unable to arrest her momentum, and fell down
and rolled along next to the cart. She stood up, smiling and uninjured but
covered in grass stains, and said "That was fun!" So THAT moment became the
signature highlight of the outing.
No luck though. Alanna found hers pretty quickly behind the TV and surfboards.
