Slipping, slipping. Not quite back in the habit of posting every day here. Mustn't miss out on Sunday. We did our work in the morning and of course went off to Nippers, and this time I took the camera so you can see what they get up to:

First, photo on the beach as it's the last day before the holidays, then up to the Baths

   

Next parents make a ring in the pool and kids swim round, and round, and round again. Non kept going till the very end, lots of them had given up.

   

after a quick warm-up cuddle, it's surfboard time!

  

After boards, diving under hands in the little pool

 

... no they're not line-dancing, really.... and Non and Jaymie

Dolphins in the distance (see the fin?) and Sophie, Jaymie and Non (and Daddy)

 

Santa is Mobbed for Sweets

Then heads out to sea with kids

 

The way Santa comes in Australia



So there we are, as you can see we had a rather nice time. By the time we got back home it was nearly 1 o'clock - luckily we'd had the Sausage Sizzle before Santa so we were all set for the afternoon. Rolled around recovering, and put on an early dinner so we could go out to listen to carols in the park. Now, this was not just yer average gathering in the local square, as we were expecting (or I was, certainly). This was a VAST area by the lake, and I don't know how many but there were certainly thousands of people there, with huge screens at the front, speakers blaring, everybody with camp stools, a cast of local pop 'stars', the works. The downer was that everybody was a bit of a frump when it came to singing along, so despite the vast crowd there was barely a murmur (which the presenters interpreted politely as being 'relaxed' rather than apathetic), but we yelled along to a few of the livelier ones and the Littles was dancing and enjoying being jiggled on knees for a long time. At 9 o'clock they finished with some really rather spectacular fireworks, and the Littles was suitably wowed. Staggered off home to bed without much further ado.

we were at about the mid-point here, there was a whole load of people behind as well.

  

Lake and Stage ('cause you've proabably never seen a lake or a stage before) 

  

More Tree and Lake (getting darker now)

   

Monday was not so great, possibly because of the late night, possibly it was just an off day. Littles fuffed her work in the morning, then took an HOUR in her room, putting on her socks, taking off, putting on, taking off, putting on, taking off, absolutely ad infinitum. Now, she's been chronically slow in getting ready for anything, and purposefully driving me mad in the process - I hate it. So this day I didn't urge her on, just kept popping in and telling her the time, and what else she had to do before going to school. For an hour, and she was still there with her socks, saying they're not comfortable. (For the record, all her socks are carefully vetted to fit beautifully and easy to slip on and off. I threw out any that didn't meet the criteria). The depressing part is, that after an hour I finally put her over knee and gave her a whack, and told her that if the socks came off again she's get another one. It worked. Why would it have to come down to this? After that of course she still had a mass of things to do like loo, teeth, put on sunscreen and mozzy repellant, shoes (it all takes time) and she ended up being 20 minutes late for school. I just left her to it. Arrived snot-filled and flailing. Now I don't know but have a feeling that possibly at this point (when everyone was ready outside with their chairs - it was prizegiving day) that she might have realised this wasn't quite the most pleasant route to go down. I don't know but I think I saw a flicker of 'oh shit' go past there. In any case, she joined the queue and got on with it. This morning (so far) she's got dressed without a murmur, brushed her teeth on her own, and is sitting at table doing her morning work very nicely and carefully... and seemingly enjoying it. How long it'll last is anyone's guess but one step at a time. Even one morning is something.

'Little Drummer Boy' performance - that's right, ignore the audience but grin like a tiger at the camera

Something must have been shocking... and getting her Kindergarten graduation certificate

   


Now, after this, it was prizegiving - which went on for EVER. They give out a lot of prizes, which is good because lots of kids get recognition, but boy it all takes a while. I took a couple of pics and will pop them up once they're downloaded. The Kindy kids 'sang' the Little Drummer Boy as an interlude mid-way... I've never heard a quieter drummer, I can tell you. Still, there was some murmuring to be heard, which might or might not have matched up to the words.

After that I went out and did mass-shop for the Xmas pressies for the Littles: with Wednesday being the last day of school there'll be no further opportunity to shop in private. So there we are, actually they're all still in the boot of the car because I've got nowhere to stash them. I think I'll have to wrap 'em and send them off to the lab until the big day or something.

So there we are. Oh, I never wrote about Saturday, did I. Well in the morning I took the Littles to the pool and she swam about for an hour and a half with Jenna (who comes for her swimming lessons on Saturdays around that time) and they dived and raced and floated and flailed with great gusto. After that we jsut lounged about, I think the previous week had been quite tiring and we were all rather ready for a bit of a laze. Oh, talking of tiring...

On the Friday  (I think it was Friday) the Mr had a department-type conference in town, we dropped him there in the morning and he didn't come back till late. Well, I went to bed, and then worke up at 1:30 and he STILL wasn't in bed so went downstairs, and there he was at the dining room table drinking water and flicking through the web. Ah, had a good time? Oh yes, yes, got a little gosspip - and then said well I'm going back up see you in a minute.  .... At 3a.m., still no Mr, and I haven't been able to get back to sleep. Finally go back down and he's STILL sitting there, drinking water and flicking through the web. WHAT are you doing?? Ah, yes. Thought I'd drink some water. Finally he comes up and hits the pillow, goes striaght to sleep. I'm wide awake by now. After another half hour go downstairs and drink tea and flick through the web. At about 5:30 finally get to sleep on the sofa. At just gone 6 the Littles wakes up for a pee, and then at 7 gets up properly.

In the morning, when the Mr finally emerges at about 9, I query why on EARTH he would want to sit up until 3 a.m. before coming to bed. Well, quoth he, mildly, I felt a bit drunk so I thought I'd sit and drink a bit of water. Hmph. Then he went on to tell me a bit more about what they'd been doing, and in the process mentioned that there had been a FREE BAR. Anything you want. Beer, wine, whatever. AH!! No wonder! All was clarity. It must have been a miracle of balance that he was even vertical, let alone able to speak. Free bar! God knows how much went own the hatch. I wish I'd known at the time. It's just that I'd already had a few very late nights in the run-up to that (website stuff and then something else, can't remember what) so I wasn' tin much of a state to cope with being up again. Getting old, you know.

Must stop here, the Littles still has uncombed hair and she doesn't need to be late again today. Love to all.