First day of school and losing teeth.

Annmarie started Year 1 the last week of Jan! All went well and she is happy to be back at school. 

Oh this picture.

She started back up on a Wednesday, so it was a nice short school week. We went for a after school swim at the beach that Friday and it happened to be low tide. Always awesome when you can time that.

 Ben misses Annmarie when she is at school and pouts after we drop her off, it's pretty cute.

Then the following week Annmarie lost her upper tooth, her two top teeth have been wobbly forever. Jamie pulled it out, I couldn't look, and Annmarie was happy to have it out.

 

Then a couple of days later her other tooth went. Jamie pulled this one out as well while Skyping with Grandma and Papa. I still giggle a bit when I see her smile. Oh I'm going to miss those baby teeth.

So back to school and losing teeth, it's been a big couple of weeks for that girl of ours.

xx

5 things

Let's start with Annmarie.

1.  She completed her first year of primary school - kindergarten.  She had a great year and the best teacher. It was an adjustment (for all of us) and there was plenty of drama a long the way, but overall it was a success.
2.  We kept the extra curricular activities to a minimum this year - swimming and nippers are the two things she participated in.
3. When I asked her what her favorite things to do are and she said; playing with friends, making things with the beads from Ikea, riding her scooter and the ipad. I asked her; what about swimming and she said "we do that all the time" with a eye roll. 
4. She has become a pro at Go Fish (the card game).  She can't hold all the cards in her hand so we have to set up a little block-aid for her, but she's fierce.
5. For her Birthday she flipped back and forth with having either; pies, tacos or sushi for dinner. She went with pies.

xx

Now this little man.

1.  He's a mamas boy.
2.  Bugs, dirt, garbage trucks, trains, dinosaurs, water - obsessed.
3. He's a mad man on the scooter. Santa got him a balance bike for Christmas thinking he would love it like the scooter, but he pretty much wants nothing to do with it. Annmarie likes to potter around on it, but it's like five times too small for her.
4.  He still has a mean appetite and if he does skip a meal or not eat a lot, he'll always, always make up for it. 
5.  He has a temper. I guess the books would call him spirited. He's a bit self absorbed.

xx

Annmarie is SIX!!!

Annmarie turned six a few weeks ago now - on the 11th of December to be precise.  We all know I haven't been the most timely blogger, but that's life. So let's just go back a bit and remember the fun we had.
 
For her actual birthday, she went to school and had cupcakes delivered to her classroom from the Canteen. Yes, I could have done them myself, but it's really a win win situation for all this way. After school we picked up meat pies per Annmarie's request and waited for Dad to get home. We opened some pressies and headed to Clareville beach for a swim and picnic. It was a beautiful night.

A couple of days later we had a Birthday Party at home. It was crazy and fun and more crazy. There wasn't a particular theme to the party, but we made bracelets, played a couple of games, danced, had a barbeque lunch and of course had cake.

I ended up putting together this video because I didn't take a lot of pictures, but Jamie took some video (he's such a Dad). And Annmarie requested the song.



We love you too much Annmarie!

Nippers

Annmarie started nippers at the local beach the weekend we got back from the US. It's a great program that teaches children about surf awareness. It's pretty low key at this age and they keep it fun and simple. Annmarie is going along with it right now, the thing is she's not very keen to go in the water right now, because the water is still pretty fresh (cold) - she is not a fan of cold water. Thankfully, they are not in the water all that long. But it's good for her to understand the temperament of the sea, especially while we are living here. That's what makes this program so great is that they start teaching the kids that while the beach is a lot of fun, there are a lot of things that you need to be safe and cautious about. She seems to enjoy most of the activities they do in the sand.  She is pretty wiped out by the end, but loves getting a sausage when its over.  The program runs over spring and summer with a break around the holidays, so we'll see how it goes.

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Caps. Here they jumped into the water at the rock pool and had to collect tennis balls and then try to climb back up to the side.

The girls were split into two groups and they had to run down to the shore and collect a bucket of water and put the water into a bigger bucket...the team with the most water wins.

Sausage sizzle.

Relay racing.

More running - here you need to pick up the flags in the sand, they take away one or two until the last girl is standing. 

Good old fashion tug-of-war.

Girls vs. Dads

Paddle

Athletics Carnival, Surry Hills and Misc.

Annmarie participated in her first Athletics Carnival through school. It was held at the Sydney Academy of Sport. It was pretty low key for the Kinders, the message being to just go out and have fun and introduce them to lanes. They ran one 70 meter race and they didn't give out awards or make a big deal out what place you got. Annmarie claims she got second, but Jamie thinks it was more like third. Unfortunately I didn't go because Ben was home with his man flu. Jamie said she did great, she stayed in her lane and ran right through the finish line. After the K's did their race they played games like egg and spoon on the infield while all the other years did their races.

Jamie, Ben and I headed into Sydney last Friday because I needed to link my visa to my passport. We are going on a 'holiday' very soon - Bali!! It will be an adventure to say the least, but a place we really want to go to while we are still here . Anyway, we went to Surry Hills for lunch and came across this awesome park - Prince Alfred Park and Pool. It was an incredible sunny day.

 Ben liked the park, but was most interested in watching the airplanes and the trains.

We then stopped for Tacos at Mexico-Food and Liquor and we were quite impressed. It's hard to find good Mexican food around these parts.

And in other stuff:
We introduced some Aussies to s'mores. 
I made a curry (it was process) with the help of Curry Traders and I'm hooked and can't wait to try others.
And most days at 4:30 pm you can find Ben looking for buses around the bends.

Lately

Ok right, it's been awhile, like a month. So I'll just ramble and list some of what happened in July.

School Holidays -Annmarie was out on School Holiday's for the first two weeks of July. We didn't do much. Slept in, made pancakes for breakfast, played with friends and visited Dad at work. It was nice not having to live by the school bell, but we were all happy for school to start back up.

Annmarie's Teeth - A couple of months ago Annmarie's lower two bottom permanent teeth started coming up behind her baby teeth. Also known as shark teeth (Dr Google). We let them be for awhile to see if the two baby teeth would loosen and nothing happened; so we took her to the dentist. The dentist wasn't too concerned with them at the moment and told us we (and by we I mean Jamie - he took her) could wait a bit longer to see if they would fall out naturally, he could refer us to a peds dentist or he could pull the two bottom teeth. Right then and there Annmarie said she wanted her baby teeth out, so he pulled them. He numbed her up, told her he was going in with some water, but gave her shots of Novocaine (she claims she didn't feel the shots)! And just like that he extracted her teeth! She was a total champ. Girl will cry over writing a letter backwards, but having her teeth extracted, no big deal. I'm pretty sure if I would have taken her to the appointment, I would have said we'll just wait a bit longer and I certainty wouldn't have been able to see him extract the teeth like Jamie did. She even went to a birthday party right after. That evening the tooth fairy left her two, two dollar gold coins, she was thrilled. Sorry no picture, seems a little invasive.

Here are some random photos from my phone over the school holiday.

Walk/Hike - We went on this little walk down the road from us that leads to a waterfall. It's about 1K to the waterfall and Ben walked/ran almost all of it. It was a beautiful little walk.

French Knitting - Annmarie is really into French Knitting. Here is a link to it if you want the DIY. It basically makes a really long cable and I have no idea what you can do with it.  She learned how to do it at school. She is really into at the moment and it's a great way to kill time, versus TV or the iPad. 

Gross Motor - Annmarie's primary school has a great outpouring of parent support. Parents volunteer for literacy groups, math groups, computer time, gardening and others. Jamie and I try to do our bit and we have been helping out with gross motor. Once a week, weather permitting (it's outdoors), different little stations are set up that work on, balance, dribbling, eye hand coordination, etc. It's complete chaos. Kindergarten teaches rock, seriously. We've been doing it all year, but I've gone to the last two they've had this term and I leave with my head spinning and sounding like a five year old Aussie - it's not cute. 

Open Day - At the end of the month there was a open day at school. Jamie and I visited Annmarie's classroom and looked through her workbooks and saw all her art projects on the wall - she was so proud.  Then there was a little concert; all the years did a little performance and the kindergarteners along with their year six buddies sang The Silly Postman Song.  Afterwards, the parents were able to stay for morning tea and buy treats from the canteen, which consisted of sausage rolls and meat pies.

Man Flu - Ben got sick at the end of the month. Nothing a little babbyccino couldn't fix, well for 5 minutes at least. Ben is a bit dramatic when he is sick. Thankfully, this one didn't last long.

We also went out and saw Ben Ottewell of Gomez - so good. Enjoyed rainbows and sunsets and of course, lots of coffee. Oh the coffee (and wine), that gets me through the snotty noses, Annmaries' dramas, Bens' dramas and all the not so pretty stuff.

 xx

Random Phone Snaps

1. Play after school.
2. Saying hello to the chooks at Annmarie's school. Ben loves them. They roam all around the school and AM tells me they are always hanging around when they have morning tea and lunch. #freerange
3. Babyccino time.
4. Path into school.

 Facetime, it's just so cool.

Enjoying the Military Tattoo festivities in Avalon, which included a American Huey chopper, Ben and Annmarie ate snags (sausages), and we listened to bagpipes.

1. Peppa Pig trance.
2. Annmarie rocking the hike to the lighthouse.
3. Morning sunlight.
4. Double rainbow.

Barrenjoey Lighthouse

On Sunday we ventured up to the Barrenjoey Lighthouse. It's a 1k hike up to the lighthouse and it is all stairs. Annmarie rocked the hike and didn't complain once, we are so proud of her. Keeping her chatting I think was key.  Jamie carried Ben in the Ergo. Here are the snaps.