Thursday, February 20, 2014

Katy's is at Preschool!

Katy's preschool days are Thursday, Fridays and every second Wednesday so she had to wait a few days for her turn to begin school. Crimson Magnetics is Katy's class led by Marny, a new preschool teacher and assisted by Robyn. Unfortunately Katy and Mira ended up in different classes but are still able to play together at recess and lunchtimes.

Katy was as cool as a cucumber on her first day. The drop off routine has changed a little in the elapsed year. Noticeably there often is a rabbit nibbling the lawn as we arrive. I haven't yet established if this is a pet of the preschool or if it's escaped from the next door neighbours! Other changes involve the inclusion of fruit break and students taking their own water bottle (aligning with big school procedures) followed by hand washing before launching into a drawing/reading/puzzle/construction activity and this morning it was stencilling!

Talking about big school, Ella happily takes herself the last 200m to school, parks her bike in the cage and heads off to her classroom. This process is reversed in the afternoon with Ella meeting us at the preschool gate for the ride home although today she forgot to bring her bike!!


Year 1!

It was lovely to ride together to Ella's first day of school with Katy on her new bike (thanks Aoife!) Leaving nice and early we were able to lock up the bike and play for a little bit before assembling on the multi purpose court with all the other students. The students were buzzing with anticipation and parents hovered. Aranda PS has a tradition of the students finding out their teacher/class after ice breaker games mid way through the first day of school.

Later that afternoon we regathered on the multi purpose court eagerly awaiting Ella's return. She bounded towards us, with a massive smile. Turns out her Year 1/2 teacher is Mrs Whitford's and the only students from Kindy in her class are her good friends Max and Emma!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Last Day

To avoid the heatwave waiting for us back in Canberra, we played at the Tathra beach as long as possible! The waves were rolling in nicely and with Andy stuck firmly on the beach avoiding getting his cast wet, I spent a long time in the water with the children.

It was wonderful to see their confident grow,  getting accustomed to the movement of the waves. Ella was in her element, diving under the waves and creeping ever so further out! I found it scary at times, as she couldn't see over the top of the waves and therefore couldn't see when a 'big' one was coming! Regardless, she managed to avoid being dumped but I suppose there is always next time!

We feasted on fish'n'chips for lunch before beginning the drive home. I entertained myself by watching the car thermometer - as we climbed Brown Mountain the outside temp dropped to 24ºC, then steadily rose - 31ºC at Nimmitabel, 34ºC at Cooma and finally 38ºC in Canberra. Our holiday ended but we all agreed that Tathra is a fantastic spot, the house was wonderful and timing perfect (with NSW and VIC schools going back) meaning that this may become an annual occurrence!


 


Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Another Day, Another Beach


While Andy was at Bega hospital awaiting diagnosis on his wrist, Rob and Blair went out for their planned long run along the Kangarutha Track. Beginning at Kianinny Bay, this coastline track heads south through the Bournda National Park to Turingal Head. It was at the southern most point of the track that Rob discovered a fantastic beach - Wallagoot Gap.

With perfect beach weather forecast for the next day it seemed an obvious choice to visit. A short drive followed by a shorter walk and we were greeted with a wonderful sheltered beach.
Wallagoot Gap is an impressive place with two gaps carved out of the steep rock walls by the force of the ocean. For us, an outgoing tide meant the water was past the first gap.

As I descended the wooden staircase, a feeling of deja vu washed over me even though the name sounded unfamiliar.  I questioned Andy and he couldn't recall anything.....oh well must have imagined it!

Set up our picnic area beneath the rock wall and proceeded to check out the waves, where we interrupted a goanna scavenging along the shoreline for food! We spent a good portion of the day there doing the usual - swimming, jumping waves, building sandcastles, boogie boarding, running races, beach combing....We also discovered a secret beach!





When I got home, I still had a nagging feeling like we'd been there before. So I trawled through our photo album and it turns out I was right! The photo below was taken seven years ago almost to the day! Andy and I (who was 6 months pregnant) had spent the Australia Day long weekend camping at Mimosa Rocks. We'd driven down to Hobart Beach then walked north past Wallagoot Gap and along the coast for another few km's!!



Thursday, February 13, 2014

A Break in the Holiday

All was going swimmingly well down at the coast. After a fun day at Kianinny Bay, it was time to go home for some down time and for the boys to head out for some exercise. They'd chosen for Andy's first mountain bike ride, to go mountain biking on the 'easier' Fire Shed 14km trail. The ride though began in town sampling the local coffee - which was good except for being served in a paper cup (a pet hate and instant black ban according to Andy's standards!)

Meanwhile, the kids were entertaining themselves and Cathy began preparing her mexican feast for dinner. The boys rocked up about 2 hours later with Andy looking rather sheepish.

Then the story emerges.....Andy was on his first mountain bike ride (on my bike) and was managing fine until a lapse in concentration where the front tyre slipped and he fell. It was a slow speed stack but in trying to save himself, Andy used his right forearm as a brace on a tree. After dusting himself off, a quick check that everything still worked, they rode the final 5km of the loop.

By the time he had got home, there was a plum sized lump on the back of his wrist. Cathy checked him over, gave the mostly all clear and instructed him to do the usually ice, rest... Didn't stop him from playing phase 10 that night, however it was rather painful in the morning so much so that he had to skip the planned long coastal run with Rob and Blair and visit the hospital!

Luckily the local hospital in Bega, was about 18km away and A & E was quiet on our arrival. It still took a few hours to get an x-ray and diagnosis....fracture of the distal radius extending to the joint!! After reading the x-ray report, the emergency department doctor said something to the effect of 'I'm not very good with bones so just have to ring someone!' A short time later, it was decided that the fracture was stable, a half cast would be put on and once back in Canberra Andy would need to go to the fracture clinic for a full cast. In the meantime, the rest of the holiday was going to be fairly subdued affair for Andy.

Kianinny Bay and Cunjevoi


Wednesday began early with the big girls heading off to explore the Bundadung mountain bike trails located only 1km from the house. The trails were lovely - sandy through nice forest with not too many tricky bits. Meanwhile the boys were feeding and organising the troops.

Kianinny Bay was chosen as the swimming location for the day. Another great spot less than a kilometre from the house! With the tide out it was a fantastic place to play. We began by jumping off the jetty only to discover the water was freezing, so we retreated back to the beach area. Play revolved around sand construction including making a treasure cake and swimming / boogie boarding. Cathy, Luca and Maki were much more adventurous donning wetsuits and snorkel gear to discover the underwater world of the bay.






The most interesting discovery however was revealed at low tide - a cluster of cylindrical plants which opened up when submerged by water and closed again as the water retreated. The fun part though was pressing or squeezing them resulted in a jet of water being squirted out.

Thanks to a google search later on, we were enlightened to find out these were not plants but animals known as cunjevoi and commonly known as sea squirts! These filter feeding animals are found in large abundance inhabiting rocky foreshores in intertidal surf zones and are often harvested by fisherman for use as bait. Well there you go!





Soaking up the Holidays

The last week of our school holidays were spent down on the South Coast at Tathra. Andy found a house that was advertised at about half of the price of everything else so we decided to take a chance. With such a big place we roped in 2 more families - Cathy, Maki and Luca as well as Al, Rob, Max, Mira and Alma.

We were pleasantly surprised to arrive after the 3 hour drive from Canberra to find a spacious and beautifully furnished place with spectacular ocean views like the one of this sunrise! Not only was the house great but so too was the location.

We tested out the main Tathra beach on Tuesday afternoon. It was pretty windy and rough with the waves pounding in. Despite this everyone got wet to varying degrees. Once we'd all cooled off and had enough of the wind we retreated to the perfectly placed playground.




Monday, February 10, 2014

Sprint Canberra

The inaugural Canberra Sprint series was held over Australia Day long weekend. This 5 events series was developed to be run concurrently with the high performance sprint specific orienteering camp at the AIS.

Andy set the final day at ANU. He took the girls on their bikes, to check control sites and in doing so, motivated Ella to try orienteering by herself. As a result,  Ella attempted the short course at the CSIRO with some coaching on Saturday evening after dropping Nana off at the airport. Katy was a little miffed that she couldn't come so I suggested that she go around the course with Sophie Arthur (and anyone else she could find who wanted to) and Andy.

Ella took off at the start but this only lasted for about 200m before she got tired! This set the scene for the next section where we followed the fence line uphill! Lots of walking here until control 4 where it flattened out. Halfway to control 5 we spotted a fast approaching Sophie with Katy just behind and Andy a little further back. Instantly Ella's competitive streak emerged ! We raced all the way to the end without being caught however the damaged was already done and I think Ella was slightly upset to see that Katy and Sophie had beaten her time by 5 minutes!

We spent most of Sunday with Cath, Eoin and Aoife. A mountain bike ride for the girls before meeting up with everyone else for coffee at the markets. It was fantastic to ride home all together then hang around playing and chatting.

Day 4 was held at Remembrance Park, just behind the War Memorial. Ella expressed her desire to do it by herself without any help but with a shadow. There was a long uphill walk to the start and in the warm conditions, Ella enthusiasm plummeted! Makhaya and Luca started a few minutes before us. Ella began well but loss her competitive drive on the long leg to control 2. Finding a walking stick helped although it was slow going from here with lots of grumbling about the heat and distance. I encouraged her to keep going and enjoyed the view through the trees across Lake Burley Griffin.

As we approached control 3, Makhaya, Luca and Cathy came into view. Turns out they by passed control 3 and ended up at the finish. The course was a little harder than the typical very easy blue course :) Eventually we all made it to the finish, passing over the bridge that had a troll underneath (thanks to Eoin!). We took the opportunity of the warm evening and great location to have a bbq dinner.



Needless to say there we no takers for the final event at ANU. Instead the gang of kids made their own fun at the near by weeping willow tree. The branches make great beds and even better swings!!



Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Nana's School Holiday Program

Less than 24 hours after Grandad left Canberra, Nana arrived just in time for the cool change! There was no easing into child minding for Nana, as both Andy and I headed off to work come Monday morning. The girls opened the Pop Cake kit they received for christmas. This kept them busy until Andy returned mid afternoon. Although the concept of cakes on sticks like lollipops is a good idea, they were in fact very fiddly and difficult to complete. Nevertheless the girls did eat a couple of the more successful ones!

Tuesday saw us visit the National Dinosaur Museum. Ella completed the Dinosaur Activity to earn a Dinosaur Hunter License with real fossils attached for both herself and Katy. The 20 year old museum houses a relatively small collection located on the second storey. The exhibits takes you on a journey from the earths beginnings through evolution highlighting the success of the dinosaurs. Ella was reading bits and pieces which caught her attention while Katy was happy to touch the numerous hands on exhibits.




By far the most interesting piece of info was chatting to a staff member who was obviously bored of his dusting the exhibits job, who happily informed us that the well known and popular brontosaurus wasn't a real dinosaur! This tale began in 1877 between two palaeontologist whose rivalry of dinosaur hunting evolved into the bone wars. As a result the skeleton of an apatosaurus was given the head of the camarasaurus and named the brontosaurus! The name brontosaurus was formally removed from records of palaeontology in 1974. However the popularity of brontosaurus continued to stick with the general public and in books. I definitely remember it despite that fact I was born in 1974! Even 15 years later, the US Postal Office issued 4 dinosaur stamps including brontosaurus receiving a large amount of criticism. So now we know that the brontosaurus is synonymous for an apatosaurus!

Wednesday was a quite relaxing day. Spent most of the morning in our pj's. By the time we got ready it was lunchtime, so we stopped at Ricardo's for a bite to eat, then a visit to the library, markets shop followed by an even quieter afternoon.

We decided by Thursday that girls needed a break from each other so Ella spent the morning over at Nana Hoggs house. Katy meanwhile enjoyed having Nana to herself playing games, reading books...Thankfully Nana looked after both girls while we chatted to our architect for a few hours in the afternoon. Then it was a rush to get to the Little Ath's twilight meet. Nana and Katy picnicked and watch Ella compete in the shot put, long jump, 50m, 100m and 200m. Meanwhile I ducked off to enjoy dinner with work colleagues!

Andy and I were off to work again on Friday. Ella was chuffed that Nana could teach her how to knit on her knitting doll which took most of the morning! Andy returned home in early afternoon to take the girls for haircuts and give Nana a much needed rest. The day ended enjoying a takeaway dinner.

Saturday we drove over to the National Arboretum to show Nana the Pod playground. While enjoying the sunshine, we bumped into Anne and her three children who'd made the trip from Melbourne for the orienteering. As we were in no hurry we stopped off again at Ricardo's for Nana's final lunch.

Based on the previous weeks experience at the airport, we decided en route to the airport to drop the girls off to Andy (who was trying to catch up on work). Nana's flight was on time and she surprised Grandad at the other end with an early arrival! We loved having Nana around and look forward to seeing her again.