Amita is back at school

Here's Amita on her first day back at school. This year she is in grade 1 and has settled in nicely with her new teacher and friends. Lizzie on the other hand is missing her play buddy and keeps asking me to play doll house with her.

Amita received an award on parade. 

It says: For consistently being a responsible learner who follows all the school values. Amita you are a very respectful class member. Keep up the fabulous work.

Christmas and New Years

Christmas was so good this year. Nice and relaxed! Which is just the way we like it. We woke up and checked out our goodies from Santa and then had a yummy breaky of coco-pops, croissants and mangoes. Christmas, being on a Sunday this year meant that we could get dressed up in our Christmas dresses for church.

 Here are the girls obliging me with a pose under the big tree outside the chapel.

Once home it was time to put baby Jesus in our nativity (a new tradition we started this year). And then we opened our presents. I know it doesn't look like it but Lizzie was super excited to get a Star Wars play-dough kit.  

Amita was so happy to get a Harry Potter book. We have been reading it together at bedtime and are almost half way through.

I can't remember why they were hugging but it's such a cute photo.

Here's my crazies! We had a delicious lunch/dinner with turkey, ham and salads. Poor Steve had only just got his braces on 2 days before and was struggling to eat. He was grateful for the soft potato salad. After Steve set up our new Xbox we got to skype our extended families and wish them Merry Christmas.

Here's just a quick pic from New Years. We stayed up to watch the kid's Sydney fireworks and had some fun with sparklers.

And this is a picture I just found after Amita hijacked my camera. 😁

Camping trip to Hervey Bay

We have just spent a week camping at Hervey Bay. Steve and I think we have found our camping style and we call it 'Camping with Facilities.' I liked having a camp kitchen, showers, bathroom, laundry and shops close by so I didn't need to stress about anything. There was also lots of interesting things to do around town with the girls so they didn't need to be entertained by us so much. I got an awesome king single size air mattress, which meant I actually slept well for the first time while camping. It makes a big difference when you're well rested. Unfortunately Steve and Lizzie both had the Flu but they soldiered on and we had a great time.

Amita and Lizzie are going to share their camping experience now.

We're inside the tent while Mum and Dad were setting it up. We had to stand in the tent because it was really windy and we didn't want the tent to blow away.

I liked flying the Butterfly kite and I had to run in the right direction to make it fly in the air.

Daddy caught me from the wave.

I got a towel and got a cough. I was sad.

I collected shells on the beach to make my sand-castle tower.

We were making sand angels. It was so fun.

I buried Sleeping Beauty in the sand. I made her into a mermaid. 

At night we played in the tent. Lizzie was throwing her toys at me.

This is me (Amita) at the Jump Park. I did a flip into the big white pillow. I also did the big obstacle course and I was very brave because I had to do a big jump from on top of a wall. There was a wall made out of trampolines and I liked crashing into it.

Lizzie liked jumping on all of the trampolines.

 This is Lizzie and Dad playing checkers. Later Mum and I played and I won! I trapped Mum's piece so I could jump over her.

My family went to the China gardens. It was so pretty. 

This is my family.

I can see me doing a funny face ~ Lizzie.

I am sliding on the little slide. (This is at the free water park in Hervey Bay - we loved it!)

Lizzie is standing on the stingray and I am standing on the octopus' head!

This is me running through the water fountains.

I was doing a funny face with Dad. 

We found Santa at the shops and took a photo with him. I told Santa I wanted a lot of stuff but Santa said we'll figure it out ~ Amita

I wanted a doll ~ Lizzie

We went on a riding animal. When I started it moving Lizzie fell off the back but Daddy caught her. So Lizzie went on the front of the Angry Bird. 

We played giant chess near the park. I got the most pieces out and Lizzie stole my Queen.

End of Year Celebrations - The Dance Concert

Amita was a wonderful dancer at her concert. She was always smiling and had lots of enthusiasm! Here are some photos and videos from her concert. 

My favourite dance move of the night is the hip wiggle right near the end.

She was very spoilt and received a certificate, medal and trophy for being a shining star!

Steve was a shining star too! He took care of all the lighting and sound for the concert. 

Lizzie showed off her skills during intermission too...

End of Year Celebrations - End of Prep

My little preppy is going to be a big grade 1 next year! She is so excited to be able to have free roam of the school at lunch time. Amita did extremely well with her report card. She is top of her year with reading. At the end of Prep they are expected to be at a PM level 5 and at the end of Year 1 they need to be at level 15. Amita is at level 20! There are only 30 levels for reading.

The Prep cohort put on a show for the parents and sang 'Summer Holiday' for us. Amita is a little groover!

Here she is getting her graduation present from her teachers. 

End of Year Celebrations - Gymnastics

The girls have finished gymnastics for the year. They have worked hard and really enjoy going. Lizzie is devastated that she has to wait another 8 weeks to get into the gym. Amita is going to be able to try out for the WAG 1 level class (this is the competitive stream of classes) as long as there are vacancies and Lizzie is being moved to the Senior Kidzgym class next year.

I'm also getting into the gym and will be coaching WAG 1 and 2 classes.

Amita on the bars - this is her favourite apparatus.

Lizzie on the rings.

They both received a certificate and medal/ribbon. 

Christmas Decorating 2016

I was feeling particularly festive yesterday so we put up our Christmas tree a little earlier than usual. The girls did not mind one bit - though Lizzie was a bit sad that there were no presents under the tree this morning.

Here is Lizzie showing off our Snoopy Christmas decoration - I remember this one from when I was a kid. 

Amita the Christmas Fairy trying to fly away. 

Lizzie and Dad put the star on the tree.

We have glass sliding doors that face the road so I got some liquid chalk and we made a Christmas mural for our neighbours to enjoy. 

Here's Lizzie drawing her bit with the famous 'Buckle Concentration Tongue' hanging out. 

The finished product. It's almost like a Look and Find picture. Can you spot a gingerbread man, a gingerbread girl, baby Jesus, an elf, Santa - whose hat looks like a candy cane,  Humpty Dumpty (Lizzie went a bit off the Christmas theme!), a vampire and Daddy with crazy hair?

We are trying out a new tradition of learning about and adding a new person to our Nativity each week. Last night we added Joseph. We were also having meat pies for dinner and it seems that Lizzie has put the two together. Whenever she tells me about the Nativity story, she says Mary has a big tummy with a baby in it and Joseph (Dofes as she pronounces it) has a big tummy from eating pies and bananas!