Awards nights

After a teary goodbye at the airport as Adam went to Brazil we launched ourselves on the week ahead and what a week it was!

On Monday morning we travelled into the city for T to complete his first piano exam. Ruth (his teacher) was there with several other students who all passed their Grade One exams! Well done T! We are very proud of you and all your hard work this year!

On Tuesday it was E's 13th birthday so we celebrated having another teenager in the house.

On Wednesday night we had the first of Iona College's Award Ceremonies at QPak at South Bank. This one was for the junior school and T received an award for Grade 5 Drama. Well done again!

On Thursday night it was the senior school's turn and E received a Bronze Academic Award and L received a Silver Academic Award, Academic Effort Award and Christian Leadership Award. I was soooo proud of them all!

E went to a Young Men's Deacons camp on Friday/Saturday and went to Coochiemudlo Island off the coast near Straddie. He had a great time and was absolutely exhausted when he arrived home in the afternoon after all the water sports. No photos unfortunately but imagine him with a pink nose and looking very tired!

We have kept in touch with Adam this week on Skype and it is great to see him in Brazil. There have been a few problems with the aeroplane (in particular the paint job!) but hopefully they will get away on schedule. He is enjoying the experience but is very busy getting everything organised. They have had some time to sight-see though and he spent a day at Paraty soaking up the sun on Saturday so we don't feel too sorry for him!

Poor tooth fairy!

The tooth fairy was stretched to her financial limits this week with three of the boys losing their teeth! E started everyone off with the first lot of extractions in preparation for his braces, walking out of the dentist surgery on Tuesday afternoon minus two pre-molars with a rather shocked look on his face! Poor boy! He was extremely brave and by the next morning he was fine and went of to school without complaint. Two down , two to go!


J was next with his front tooth falling out on Wednesday at school after a lot of wiggling and T finished off with the loss of a baby molar that had been flipping around for days on Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say the tooth fairy was cleaned out by Thursday morning and hopes that she can save up in time for E's second lot of extractions in a couple of weeks! (Especially given the $$ spent getting them taken out in the first place!)

On Saturday we had a party to celebrate E's 13th birthday (a little early) and a "slide night" to relive our NZ trip with the Douglas'. Adam won't be here for E's actual birthday so we had a mini one to celebrate having another teenager in the house!

On Sunday we had the Manly Ward Primary Presentation which went off well and J and T delivered their parts very well. I was called as the new Primary President which means that I am now in charge of the children's music, sharing time and Sunday school. I have two great counsellors, Laa and Alyson and I am excited about the year ahead.

That afternoon Adam flew out to Brazil via NZ and Chile. It was a bit sad parting at the airport but he is going to have a fabulous trip bringing another Embraer back to Australia. (We can't wait for him to return though!!)

Beautiful spring!

This week E found out (much to his dismay!) that he has to get braces and 4 teeth removed. He insisted that he wouldn't care if he had crooked teeth when he was older, but we begged to differ! Trust us E, we wouldn't be paying the $$$ for them if we didn't think you would change your mind one day!!

Adam and T went off to the Iona grade 5 school camp this week for three days of action packed fun. They went to Australia Zoo, King's Beach, did camp craft, survival exercises, played mugby (rugby in the mud), did tie-dyeing, sock puppet making, you name it! Adam drove the school's 22 seater bus (his free ticket to ALL the camps!) and couldn't believe that after all that, the boys still had some energy left on the last afternoon for another trip to the beach, before returning back to school on Friday.

The next morning we found out, after a visit to our family doctor, that T had contracted an infection through a blister on his foot. He went down-hill kind of fast so we knew something was going on but fortunately he responded well to the antibiotics he was given and returned to full health again by Saturday night! We are always very careful with these types of infections after Dad's brush with Golden Staph several years ago.

It was a beautiful day here on Saturday and while T rested, L played golf and Adam studied for his sim check next week, I took M, J , E and two friends down to the wading pool for a spring swim.

Ethan dropped a crab in the pool and couldn't find it again!

L was tested this week to see if he knew his 25 scripture mastery scriptures from this year's Seminary class. There has been a group of about 17 youth studying the New Testament in Manly Ward and he was the only one in his class to know all 25 from memory! His teachers (and us!!) were very proud of him for his first year of seminary and he was awarded a little black hymn book by the Bishop at Friday night's graduation party at Sizzler. (Well done L!)