Celebrations

There has been a lot of celebrating going on in these parts the last few weeks.

Firstly, a special little "Chicken-Whisperer" turned 8.

All she wanted was a Bird and more Blyton.

This is "Magic", a green and yellow Budgie. He is a young male as they are apparently easier to train than females. I'm not convinced this rule operates in the 'people' world. He is quite delightful and only makes a racket when the vacuum cleaner is going, which is not as often as it should be at the moment but at least my sanity will be saved :-)

She has been delighting in Enid Blyton books for some time, mostly early and first editions I pick up for a song at second hand bookstores. However, for the sake of completion I splashed out and bought her the entire set of "The Secret Seven". To my detriment though. Halfway through the first book, she comes out and tells me these books are different, that they talk differently and are set in the future where there are cars and battery torches. She prefers the older editions that haven't been changed or 'updated' to suit our modern times. It seems her school teacher would also agree about a return to the older editions. At the parent teacher interview last week, we were shown some of her creative writing and the teacher was very impressed with sentences such as this:

"Oh my oh my!", said Susan and her stick quivered as she heard the peculiar sound.

There was vanilla cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. We were two candles short but I found two tealights to make up the short fall, which would have been a charming addition had they not been of the toxic Citronella/Anti-Mosquito variety. 

We also baked cupcakes to celebrate the occasion with the classmates. She said they had to be gluten free, sugar free, wheat free, colour free, dairy free, egg free and taste free to accommodate one class member with a very unfortunate allergy. That all sounded a bit hard so I sent some regular cupcakes along to school with an apology to go with the sugar-free snake for poor Johnny.

We celebrated with a gaggle of gorgeous 8 year old girls for afternoon tea followed by Disco Bowling. I'm sure I was still playing musical chairs and pin the tail on the donkey at my 8th Birthday Party but times are changing. Anyone else feel like 8 is the new 13?

We also celebrated the end of a successful Winter Sports season. I hope I don't sound like a bad mum for having a small excitement burst at the return of the Saturday sleep-in. 

And then last Sunday we celebrated Father's Day. There were handmade cards and gifts to open and a casual morning spent at the beach. Just the way we like it.

Finally, we are celebrating Spring!

The jonquils are on their way out and these are the last of my orange-centred Daffodils. I never know what to do with the last ones - leave them in the garden to admire, knowing they won't be replenished or pick them for the kitchen table?

In theory, by the end of this Season there should also be another family member joining us. But then again, it could well be a Summer baby. We'll have to wait and see.

I'm looking forward to seeing some more colour in the garden and the Vegie Patch produce it's first crop. 

We are also celebrating the end of another School Term and I'm so looking forward to these next two weeks of School Holidays where we can all relax after a busy Term.  

With all this celebrating going on I'm all partied out!

Hope you have a great week ahead!

What's Santa To Do?

The kids have been asked what they would like Santa to bring them for Christmas this year, bearing in mind that we are on the road with limited space and Santa has limited funds this year.

The little boys would like a teddy each, Blue Eyes would like a Boomerang and this is the letter that has been sent to Santa from our 7 year old:

What do you think the consequences will be on Christmas day?

a)    There will be in tears when Santa will not be able to provide her first and third choices;

b)   She will be grateful that he could provide at least her second choice;

           c)    She won’t really care because she is a cheeky Minx who does not really believe in Santa and has therefore picked the first and third choices to test him; or  

               d)   She simply has high expectations of Santa and has somewhere along the way learnt that flattery will get you everywhere.

What do the kids really think?

We are excited.

The kids are excited.

Our Tassie friends are excited.

To be honest, we haven't stopped banging on about our beloved little Tassie since we arrived in Sydney 18 months ago and so our Sydney friends and extended family are happy for us too.

Miss Fancy is looking forward to being with her old friends and having space for animals.

Blue Eyes is mostly looking forward to the dirt hill. I'm sure we could have arranged a pile of dirt for him in the backyard here at a substantially cheaper cost than an interstate relocation but I understand what he means. Lots of space with dirt, rocks and trees is the ultimate playground for boys.

The little boys were 18 months when we left so I doubt they would remember any details but I know they will love being there.

But it got me thinking. Now that reality has set in and the cardboard boxes are being filled with all their possessions, what do the kids really think about leaving the life we have had here for 18 months. We have made some wonderful memories here and to them, 18 months is a huge chunk of their life. It's a big call to uproot them even though I know it's the right decision for us. They have become quite attached to their little friends, cousins and extended family.

I think kids can be good at keeping up appearances. Even the resilient ones. Especially when asked direct questions by adults like, "So, what would you think about moving back to Tassie?" or "Are you excited about moving back?". They feed off our excitement and intuitively know that we would want them to be excited too. These sorts of questions don't really provide little children with the space to really consider what they think. These types of questions are almost more of a statement than a question. I do genuinely believe that the kids are excited about this new chapter but despite my best efforts to find out what the children are really thinking, I've been on the lookout for other unprompted clues.

And today, right there in black and white is the clue I've been waiting for. A picture from our 7 yr old spontaneously shoved under our bedroom door. No questions. But a big answer. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful cardboard box free weekend!