Tom's kindy held a graduation ceremony this week for the children moving to big school next year. Jules was able to get the afternoon off and Tom was very happy and proud to have us both there. The ceremony was a little bit farcical with "opening remarks" followed by an "inspirational note", the children then sang Advance Australia Fair (we tried not to notice that they didn't really know the words!), received their certificates and then sang "we're graduating now" which included choruses: we'll all make lots of friends and our teachers will be nice.
John Lowe arrived on Wednesday to stay with us for a week. He's been working in Adelaide and had a spare week so decided to spend it to Sydney which he had never previously visited. Luckily he managed to bring some decent weather with him and has made the most of being out and about exploring Sydney on foot. Jules took him out for the twilight race on Friday which he thoroughly enjoyed and on Saturday they took the speed boat to Sydney Fish Markets for lunch and to pick up some fish for our dinner. We had the Wakes-Millers round who gave Tom the most fabulous birthday present - Hex bugs and a track - which the 6 children played with very happily for over an hour. Hex bugs are the boys answer to Zhu Zhu pets - they're tiny battery-operated bug looking things that zoom around changing direction when they bump into something. Bels showed the insight that only a mother of 4 can show and bought a pink bug for Tess, even though it wasn't her birthday, so that Tess and Tom wouldn't come to blows. The kids can't get enough of them and I regret not being more aware of them prior to my christmas shopping.
The weather this weekend has been true Sydney summer weather - at last!! - and we have made the most of it. On Sunday we went up to Pittwater on the speed boat and after some pottering around house-gazing we met up with the Rumbolds who were out on their new boat for a picnic in a quiet cove. We moored the 2 boats up together and had a wonderfully relaxing time with the kids first jumping as high as they could off the 2 boats and then swimming off to explore the nearby creek. The ice-cream boat made an appearance right on cue and John agreed that he could see the many attractions to living in Sydney.
My new oven was delivered on Friday and it is a complete joy. I put both ovens on high for 2 hours to get rid of the new oven smell and I could not hear a thing - I can't believe how quiet it is! I did try to take a photo of my blueberry muffins which were the first thing I cooked in the oven but I couldn't quiet get the picture to work - suffice it to say that the muffins were a triumph, browned beautifully and evenly on top. It's still early days but I think I chose well!!
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