Olympic tabloid sports day

It was an athletics kind of week! Since only the grades 3-6 participate in house athletics in was important to include the younger kids in the fun too. With the olympics on it seemed only appropriate for the school to use them as the theme for the tabloid sports morning. 

There were a whole range of countries that the kids were randomly divided into, and yet somehow I had one kid on team Canada, and one on team Australia! Ironically our Aussie family was divided up the same way....I see a pattern here!

So Friday morning the kids checked in in their classrooms and then gathered together in their respective countries. With a genuine Canadian in the house, it seemed only appropriate that team Canada should carry in a huge flag!

The host country Team Australia was looking pretty good too in their green and gold!

The morning was really well organised with heaps of fun activities like bean bag toss, kicking a soccer ball through a course, hurdles, a ladder race - all super easy and fun for all ages.

And the end of the games:

Gold - Great Britain
Silver - Mauritius
Bronze - CANADA!!!

It was a cold and blustery morning, but the sun was shining and all the kids were smiling and having a good time. It's exactly as the Olympics should be :)

House Athletics

Winter term at school brings winter house athletics! 

The kids are broken up into 4 houses here at school. They all have names, but really all you need to know is that they each have a colour - gold, red, blue and green. For house athletics the kids dress up however they want as long as they are in their house colours. 

It took days to amass a collection of yellow coloured items, and then you discover all your friends have the same shirt lol!

Then they all head out by bus to the local track and spend the day competing in all those activities you remember from your childhood like the 100m sprint, shot put and triple jump. The kids scores are recorded and they also get participation points for their house. 

Given the rainy cold weather we've been having, it was a beautiful sunny day and Gold House for the win!

Tyler the Rock Star

Tyler has been taking advantage of the in-school music lessons offered this year. He had a choice of piano, guitar or drums. Of course he chose the drums.

He absolutely loves it. Our friend found some spare drumsticks for him and a practice pad, and honestly, there is scarcely a moment he isn't practicing. Also at the same friends house is a set of electronic drums like he practices on a school. They got a great video of him one night a couple of weeks ago.

The mandatory instrument of years 3 and 4 here is the recorder (aka instrument of torture). Tyler had to start with the year 3's as he had never played before, but quickly moved through all that material and caught up with the year 4's.

There was a recorder concert during Friday assembly at school the other day and I was told I had to be there to watch him "rock the recorder" lol. Although he did fantastic and we were totally proud, as one parent put it, no one "rocks" the recorder unless they're using as a stick to hit someone or something!

For your viewing pleasure I've included 2 short clips of the concert. Believe me, you don't need the whole song to get the idea!

Hannah goes to Canberra!

The first week of August was a week that Hannah had been looking forward to since before we even arrived in Australia! It was the week that all the 5/6 classes were headed to Canberra for a week on camp. No parents, just teachers and classmates. 

There were a few stressful moments in the weeks before camp as a gastro bug made it's way through the primary grades and up to the senior classes. I can't say that there weren't a whole heap of moments where I thought about just shutting her in her room for a few days before she left so that she wouldn't miss out. Instead she went to school under strict instructions so not touch anyone, let anyone touch her, no using the drinking fountains, no licking of anything, and of course the obsessive use of hand soap and hand sanitiser was completely sanctioned. Tyler was under similar instructions in an effort to get her off to camp happy and healthy.

The day came and started at stupid o'clock with a drop off time of 6:30am. That is one independent girl we have, she almost forgot to say good-bye to us before she got on the bus!

We only saw the one photo of her all week, so there were a few moments we thought she may have holed up at the high commission trying to work out her dual citizenship, but it turns out she was just super busy! In the few days they had they hit the Australian Institute of Sport, the National Gallery, Old Parliament House, the Royal Australian Mint, New Parliament House, Questacon, the Australian National War Memorial, CSIRO Discover and more....

Tyler would never admit to it, but as much as he enjoyed having us to himself all week, he did miss her. He took up the responsibility of keeping her left-behind guys company while she was away. It made for a rather crowded bed, but he took his job very seriously even read to them every night. This kid cracks me up!

Then before we knew it, the week was up and she was home, tired and a bit grimy, but home.

In just a couple weeks time it'll be Tyler's turn. He's not quite as independent so it'll be a great opportunity for him to check out the world without us. I may need kleenexes!

2016 Ice Hockey Classic

I know, I know, I've been terrible at getting some posts up about what we've been up to. I'm afraid that we've settled so well into our Aussie life that what might be interesting to all of you is really just a part of our regularly scheduled life! Starting with this post, I'm attempting to catch up a bit.

Back in June, Scott and 7 of his friends headed into the city to catch the Canada vs. US hockey game. Now for us Canadians, simply saying hockey implies the one great sport we all know that is of course played on ice. However here, we refer to it as "ice" hockey so as to distinguish it from what we would call field hockey.

The boys headed into the city for what we assumed was going to be a raucous night.

First things first, Scott unpacks his giant Canadian flag and informs the person taking tickets that he himself is Canadian and has brought all his friends to the game. This immediately gets them moved from the last row of their section to the front row, centre. Honestly all that boy has to do is smile and he gets whatever he wants! Before he knew it the flags were going up and it was time for the national anthem. O Canada!

 Canada soundly trounced the US 8-2. Exactly as it should be!

I'm told there was no fighting, no crazy hard checks and no drunken fans got thrown out of the game, which by Canadian standards is mildly disappointing. They still look like that had a great time! 

And it wasn't near the late night we thought it would be! One of the wives was nice enough to go and pick up the whole crew in the city around 11:30 and by all accounts they were all up bright and early the next morning!

Also of note, in a truly Canadian move, Scott caught sight of a young Aussie fan at the game sporting a Vancouver Canucks jersey and gave him the flag as a souvenir! Who knows where that kid is keeping it now, it was a huge flag!