Cricket in Adelaide

For the last three years, Ella has enjoyed playing cricket in a local girls competition designed to encourage participation and have fun. Aranda PS also takes part in a girls cricket gala day which this year was to be held the week we were at the snow. Luckily for Ella, there were only 2 northside schools wanting to take part and so the gala day was cancelled. The northside schools were invited to join in the southside gala day which was to be held the following week so Ella was happy once again. It was during this gala day that Cricket ACT spoke to the girls about the ACT Schools team and encouraged girls to nominate.

Ella was bubbling with excitement with the prospect of being in a team, however we (Andy and I) were reluctant to take this journey. We put the decision in the too difficult basket and got on with our busy lives. It seems though that wasn't what the stars had aligned for our family! The night before nominations closed and the final trial, one of Ella's teacher forwarded us the information and once again a very enthusiastic Ella broached the subject that evening. After much discussion the forms were submitted.

Ella attended the trials with about 25 other girls. There were a few familiar faces - one from her cricket team and another from band! Anyway they took the girls through various activities to help rank the girls according to their abilities. A few days later we received word that Ella had made the cut....we would be going to Adelaide in mid November!

Since then our Monday afternoons became crazy thanks to the extra cricket training requirements! We would leave home at 3.40 to get to cricket by 4pm. Katy and I would hang around while Ella trained til 5.30pm. From there we hightailed it over to band dropping Ella off before continuing on to Katy's 6.30pm gymnastic class. I stayed and watched Katy do gymnastic for an hour and then we'd drive back to pick up Ella and another school friend from band at 8pm. Eventually we'd get home just before 8.30pm!

We had this routine nailed down after a few weeks and would even wander over to buy some hot chips from the takeaway at Watson to eat between activities! Then Katy got promoted in her gymnastics class which meant a different and longer class! Thankfully it was on the same day beginning at 6pm and going for 1.5 hours. Thus we modified our route to go from cricket to drop Katy off, go onto band and drop Ella off before returning back to Katy and then back to Ella!! Luckily it was for only 5 weeks and we'd survived!

Upcycled Jeans

Inspired by the G-Force teacher at school, Ella took a pair of old jeans and created a mini backpack! With a little assistance Ella, over a few nights designed, cut and sewed together the pieces to create this very cute and functional backpack! It's already accompanied her on a trip to Adelaide and to various functions and outings.

 

Spring Sc-ore

Before school orienteering is back for 4 weeks in Spring. It means early starts on Thursdays for the girls especially as I was helping out at the events too. Anyway the series was based around schools in the inner north making commute time fairly short. The weather was mostly kind to us too.

The Sc-ore series visited St Thomas More, Ainslie, Turner and St Joseph's school, with the complexity of the courses slowly increasing in difficulty. Aranda PS was well represented, fielding 8 out of the 45 teams.

The few weeks were chaotic with the new students (and parents) figuring out how it all worked! Despite this all events ran smoothly and efficiently.

As for final results, Ella's team came in 5th and Katy's 8th. Aranda had 4 teams finishing in the top 10! With such promising results we are all looking forward to the ACT Primary School Champs in a few weeks.

School Opportunities

You never know what opportunities will emerge with kids. One of Katy's fellow classmates wrote a letter to the ABC Canberra 7pm nightly newsreader Dan Bourchier. As a result the whole class was invited to watch the live recording of the ABC 7pm news bulletin.  Most of the class took up the opportunity. The kids were under extremely strict instructions to not make a sound during the 30 min live show!

Prior to the recording, Dan explained how it all worked from the different cameras, to the pre recorded clips and as well as pointing out various personnel that make the nightly news go off without a hitch. I've never seen kids be so quiet and well behaved!

Spring Gardening

Vege patch is sorted and going well. Red cabbages are slowly forming heads (I've been informed that I should plant these in Feb/March). The winter plants have been removed and new seedlings/seeds planted. Tomatoes, eggplants, beans, fennel, basil, corn and spinach are in. With fruit budding on the nectarine, plum and blueberry plants, it was quickly time to net these.

 

  

 

A few random photos!

 

Above left new hair clip and above right Lily, Ella and Slyvie at the school fete.

Below Halloween shenanigans... we don't normal participate but this year the girls were dragged into the festivities by their friends!

Katy as a black cat with Mira the ghost!

 

Ella's artistic selfie as dead goldilocks (!) and her homemade sweet bloody breads she shared at school.

 

Clean Rooms??

The other night, I went to find the girls and see what they were up to. Both were in Katy's room with Ella at Katy's desk. I asked her what she was up and she replied that she was cleaning Katy's room for her. What a lovely gesture!










It was only when I turned around to leave her to it and that I noticed the state of Ella's room.. hmmm..