ANZAC weekend

After 2 1/2 weeks of break from our regular activities I'm feeling energised and ready to get back into things. It helps that Vintage is largely over and Tony is now home (and awake) in the mornings and evenings and on weekends. He had 3 1/2 days off over the Easter weekend and has had all 3 days of this ANZAC Day long weekend off work. He played and coached baseball yesterday but has been here the rest of the weekend and its lovely for us all to reconnect with him and for me to have a bit more conversation with an adult in my day.

On Thursday Caitlin went to her athletics carnival where she competed in the 100m, 400m, relay and triple jump. She was the only Under 10s girl from her school, so she spent the day with the girls from another school, its great that she can fit in easily with a new group of people and make friends so easily.  While she was there LiAM, Millie and I went to L's for the day, the kids played Terraria and watched Terraria videos, played Minecraft Mutants (a game they've all made up) on the trampoline, and played an imaginative role-playing game on and off all day.

Once we picked Caitlin up we took her straight to the Guides Hall where she was having a sleepover before the ANZAC Day March the next day. She and most of the other girls slept outside in tents - it was our first really cold night of the season - down to 1 degree! - but they all managed all right and I think enjoyed the experience.

After dropping her off, we went to the library to return books, borrow some more, and watch some more Terraria videos. Tony met us there and took Millie home while LiAM went to Karate for the first time. He really enjoyed it and fitted in with the 2 kids who were about his age. I was really impressed with the dojo. Its a multi-age class - kids and adults in together. Some of the training they do as a whole group, other times they break into smaller groups with older kids helping the younger ones, or those at the same ability level working together. LiAM was assigned to a 13 year old boy to be shown the basics over the next few weeks - and he learnt heaps. (The next day he showed Caitlin how to do one of the kicks he'd learnt. The next morning Millie (from watching them) showed ME how to do it). Caitlin is considered joining the Karate class as well - and so am I. It might be a good way to get fit again and learn something I've vaguely thought about for a long time... There's a few fears standing in my way as well that may stop me, but hopefully I'll be able to overcome them. The dojo encourages parents and kids to train together, so I would be welcome from their point of view...

On Friday morning, L and M elected to stay home with Tony while I went to Yarra Glen to watch the ANZAC Day parade and ceremony. Arriving there and walking down the street and settling in to the crowd I felt so grateful to live in a small community, where I know so many people and we all come out to join in community events. There were several hundred people watching the parade. The Guides were running a bit late and the parade started as soon as they arrived. The crowd moves along the street with the parade (which set a cracking pace this year, I found it hard to keep up) and we all end up at the Memorial Hall and the War Monument. The Guides stand around the Monument each year, and this year Caitlin was one of the four who stood guard on the four corners of the Monument, she was proud to have such a prominent part in the ceremony.

The ceremony was moving and thought provoking. A lot of focus on being grateful for the country we live in and for the fact that we are not living with war on a daily basis. Recognition too for those Australians who are on active service at the moment in other countries.

After the ceremony I caught up with a few friends I hadn't seen for a while, then went and picked Caitlin up from the Guides Hall. Home again for a quiet afternoon - I installed a new Minecraft mod for  the kids, which they played for a while, Tony had a nap then watched the ANZAC Day Collingwood v Essendon game (which fortunately Collingwood won!) and we pottered around, read books, tidied up a bit, oh, and I made Anzac Cookies. Millie and I popped into Yarra Glen later in the day and did a bit of grocery shopping and we came home and made nachos for tea.

Yesterday was also a quiet day at home. Tony left early for baseball, and we played Township and Candy Mania and Episode on the iPad, watched some DVDs (Season 2 of Full House, and the Ugly Duckling and Me), sorted through all our books to see if there are any we could donate to the stall I'm having for ABA next week (no kid's books were allowed to go, but I did find a handful of my books that I'm unlikely to read again) and then read a pile of the books that we'd pulled out, played the piano, made some rainbow loom bracelets, played Minecraft and Poisson Rouge, and the kids played a game where the girls are sisters called Sally and Rosey, and its their birthday today, so they spent hours getting ready for a party - they've made decorations and invitations and Caitlin is going to make a cake and toffee today and then we'll all go to the birthday party. It will be especially fun for Millie I think as she's really starting to hang out for her birthday which is still about 6 weeks away - this might ease the frustration of waiting a little. We also played a fun game of Chinese Whispers at tea time - most of the sentences made it fairly intact around the 5 of us, although a couple got mixed up in a hilarious way.

Train set

Liam and Millie are playing with the train set. 

Millie had been sitting at the computer when the screen saver came on, and she saw a photo taken by Liam of some of the trains, and she asked if she could play with it now. I got it out and quickly set up a basic loop with a bridge in it, got out some of the trains and then she was happy to play by herself while I ate some breakfast. While I was setting up the loop, she put some animals in the middle 'They're in a field'. When Liam got out of bed about 20 minutes later he went straight to join her.

A few minutes ago Liam decided a river would be useful so he asked me for something blue and flat. I gave him a pale blue baby wrap which he said would work. To set the river up the way he wanted it, he needed to temporarily get the animals out of the way and I heard him say 'Millie is it OK if I move these for a minute? I'll put them right back once I've set up the river'.

Its so great when I hear them developing the skills that will help them in relationships of all sorts as they get older. I've modelled that kind of speech as often as I can, I've suggested using sentences like that at times when they do act without thinking of their siblings, and although it doesn't happen all the time, its encouraging and affirming to hear and see that the kids are learning to think of others and to be kind to others - without having to be reminded or having been shamed or punished when they forget.

Now he's built a bridge over the river, called it the Sydney Harbour Bridge, run over to check with me that trains do go over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which led to a discussion about all the ways that you can cross it - walking, riding, driving, in a train. 

Its not even 9am and I feel like we've already covered enough areas of learning to make today feel joyful and abundant and successful.

Helping each other

We had a lovely quiet day at home yesterday which was just what I needed. I've got the sore throat and cough that the kids had during the week, and on Saturday I felt terrible - after a day at home yesterday I felt much better.

Caitlin was practicing her skipping with a skipping rope on the trampoline. She drew up a grid to record how many jumps she managed with each attempt, and developed notation to show whether she was jumping forwards or backwards. She had about 40 attempts and managed between 0 and 95 jumps with each go. Millie wanted to join in after a while so Caitlin found her another skipping rope and tied knots in so that it was short enough, and then demonstrated how to skip. Millie happily jumped up and down on the trampoline, waving the skipping rope up and down, and was thrilled that she was skipping.

When we came inside Liam was playing Minecraft and Caitlin wanted to have a go, so Liam showed her all the new things he'd learnt to do since list time she'd played it, so that she could do them too. They played together on the ipad for ages.

I really love how easily and willingly they all offer to help each other and how well they work and play together.