Sunday 21 February 2016

Abseiling

LiAM was the first of the kids up yesterday, after having a great night's sleep, and he curled up next to me on the couch while I browsed the internet, and commented on what I was doing, read bits and pieces of the sites I was looking at, then after Amelie joined us we did some Minecraft quizzes on Jetpunk, and between the 2 of them they knew most of the answers.

I woke Caitlin at 8.30 and she got up to get ready to go abseiling with Girl Guides. I got breakfast for everyone and the other 2 played Minecraft. Tony got out of bed just before we left - he didn't have to go to work so was very grateful for a sleep in, and I was grateful that he could be home with L and A while I took Caitlin to her activity.

The abseiling was at Clifford Park Activity Scout Activity Centre, somewhere I didn't even know existed until this week. The setting was beautiful, in the foothills on the side of the Yarra River, lots of bush and some cleared areas and so many activities for campers or visitors to do. I started thinking about potential for homeschool camps and so on - will look into that at some stage. Caitlin was joining Mooroolbark Guides for the abseiling, so it was a group of girls and leaders she hadn't met before (they were there on camp, and opened this activity up and invited girls from all the other units in the area - Caitlin was the only one who joined them).

As soon as we got there 2 of the girls ran over and introduced themselves and took Caitlin off to play with them, while I chatted with the leaders. We made our way over to the abseiling tower and I read my book in the shade while they did the safety talk and showed them how to do it. When it was getting close to Caitlin's turn she wanted me to be closer, so I spent most of the rest of the morning near the tower watching her and the other girls, chatting to the leaders, and taking photos on various cameras (mine, the girls' cameras, and one of the leader's cameras when she went up the tower). Caitlin was quite scared when it was her turn, but she took it slowly and followed the instructions perfectly and went down fairly easily. She had 5 descents over the morning, and she got quicker and more competent each time, although she says it was still really hard and a bit scary each time. I was so impressed with the girls as a group, they were supportive and understanding of those who decided not to try it once they got to the top, and even those who tried and tried and after a long time of attempting to start decided not to go down. I was also impressed that all of the girls who didn't go down at first, went back up several times to try again, and each time got a little closer to abseiling down.






It was a fun morning and Caitlin and I were both pretty tired at the end of it (she was probably tireder, she'd done a lot of hard physical work, I had just stood in the sun for a few hours). We came home and the others had watched Ice Age 3 and were now playing Minecraft again. LiAM was helping Amelie write her signs and set up a zoo. We had some lunch then watched the rest of Heartland Series 5. I had a bit of a rest through the first episode, then started making some pumpkin soup, LiAM helped me chop all the vegetables. Tony had a big long nap on the couch which he found very helpful.

LiAM and Amelie spent ages looking through the pictures in the African Safari book I borrowed from the library, discussing the animals and what they were doing - there are some incredible pictures in the book. Caitlin played on her iPad, and messaged with friends, then once it got cooler outside we all went out and kids lay then played on the trampoline. We came back in one by one and watched the end of Night at the Museum 2, then an episode of Heartland Series 3, by which time Tony was in bed, and I wrapped things up pretty quickly and went to be myself.

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