Friday, August 31, 2012

Playing




With the sun out briefly on the weekend, it seemed like a good time to draw on the driveway! Together with nextdoor neighbour Sofia, Katy and Ella created some lovely pictures. Katy and Sofia's were more like colourfull squiggles while Ella drew a girl with a very loooong dress as well as a hopscotch template!



       

On the same topic of playing Ella and Katy's latest favourite game is called shops. It involves the girls taking their toys, books and other stuff, arranging these carefully around the couches, tv entertainment unit and floor and positioning the cash register on the arm of the couch. We are then instructed to visit the shop and purchase something on sale. 

Last weekend when the shop was up and running, Andy visited. He took a book and toy up to the cashier (Ella) who promptly stated that the total was $20. Andy handed over 20c which she happily accepted!. Now Ella's idea of shopping is to exchange money for items taken but she has no concept of the relationship between the actual total, the sum of money handed over and the change given however she did surprise us when she to said to Andy 'Would you like cash out with that!!'


The Little Mermaid

Today at Ella's preschool it was dress up for bookweek although I'm sure bookweek was actually last week...anyhow we explained the concept to Ella about choosing a character to dress up as. Her initial response was Cinderella but then we remembered a work colleague had given us a mermaid costume recently and so it was the Little Mermaid.

Amazingly with the incentive of dressing up, Ella was out of bed and straight into her costume without any prompting, nagging or threats! It was great :)

At preschool the Little Mermaid played with numerous princesses/fairies as well as Superman, Lettuce - a rabbit dressed up as a princess, Fancy Nancy, a pirate....just to name a few!


Thursday, August 30, 2012

For Nana




Happy 65th Birthday Nana!

We hope you had a lovely dinner with Grandad and look forward to playing with you very soon.

Love Ella and Katy

xxxooo

Riding with Friends

We had the pleasure of a visit from Aoife, Cath and Eoin a few weekends ago. It was supposed to be our annual day trip to the snow however as Andy was going to be outnumbered (I was in Sydney for a workshop) he decided that it was going to be a bit much. Aoife and Lily (with their parents) still headed up to the mountains on the Saturday and although the weather wasn't the greatest the snow was fantastic - heaps of powdery snow. We are hoping that the snow will last for another few weeks so that we are able to do a mid week day trip.

On Sunday we (I had returned from Sydney) all headed to a cafe in Dickson followed by a bike ride to explore Dickson wetlands. The latest trend in Canberra is the transformation of several local parks into wetlands. The benefits of these wetlands according to the ACT Government include -


  • provide water quality improvements
  • play a role in flood detention
  • increase aquatic and terrestrial habitat in urban areas
  • provide an oasis in the suburbs
  • create new recreational, volunteering and educational opportunities
  • supply stormwater to irrigate playing fields.





Dickson wetlands is a medium sized pond with a path winding around the edge. The beauty for us adults was we could stand at the lookout and watch the girls complete a loop of the pond!!






Friday, August 24, 2012

Afternoon Tea With Quentin Bryce

The lounge suit made it's second appearance of the year and this time it was at the Governor General's Residence as Andy received an invite to attend afternoon tea with Quentin Bryce!! No specific reason was given as to what the afternoon tea was for - it was science week and the GG had just had hosted a discussion with various important people on Capturing the Benefits of Research in Australia.  Anyhow Andy joined about 20 other young scientist from various universities and disciplines to eat cucumber sandwiches and drink tea from fine china cups. A little more exciting than his usual afternoon coffee at the Vanilla Bean.


Thursday, August 9, 2012

Redundant

For the last few weeks, Katy has been transitioning extremely well to swimming without me and as a result will advance to school age level 1 next term. So I am no longer needed for swimming lessons! With a twinge of sadness but at the same moment so proud that the girls are developing into lovely confident swimmers. I am relegated to a dry seat on the benches at the edge of the pool. Unfortunately for Nana who came to watch during the week, Katy had a complete meltdown and ended up getting out of the water half way during the lesson!


Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Deck is Done!

Today we placed the finishing touches on our summer project the deck!

 Before
 After







Winter Sports

Canberra winter has it's disadvantages, but lately we've been trying to take advantage of the cold we endure here -- that is, that we can introduce the kids to some real winter sports.

Activity #1 was a few weeks ago -- actually, when Grandad was in town, and we took both girls to the open air ice skating rink in town. Katy got in for free, but even so she didn't get her money's worth, and she was off the ice after 2 minutes. But Ella stuck it out for the whole (90 minute) session. At first she was clinging to the railing around the edge, but after a while I started skating behind her, attempting to catch her every time she fell (I probably got her about 75% of the time). By the end she was quick enough that I couldn't get close enough to catch her, so she was on her own.


 We had planned to go skating again last weekend, but Aunty Cathy rang up with a better offer -- leading to Activity #2: X-C skiing. Cathy & I drove up with her kids and Ella, Katy once again missing out. When we got to Perisher we found that parking was pretty scarce, and  had to park closer to Smiggins. But we eventually found some flat (slightly icy) snow for the 3 kids to learn to ski on. Ella did much better than I expected -- lots of falls, but also lots of times when she skied along looking semi-coordinated. It was a bright sunny day, not too much wind and we managed lunch in the snow, a few hours skiing, several runs on the toboggan and a snow man before we had to head for home. A long day, but very worthwhile.