Gold medals not just confined to the Olympics

It's been a big week with Jules turning 40 on Thursday.  John and Rae bought Jules a swag for his birthday - he has wanted one for at least 2 years and was delighted with it.  He and the kids set it up downstairs to try it out and he's hanging out for the next farm trip so that he can use it for real.  At the moment Tess is sleeping in it in her bedroom - it was the only way we could get her to temporarily move out of the bunk beds she shares with Tom to try and catch up on some sleep (Tom is a very early riser which doesn't work well for Tess).  

Photo taken by Grandpa Mark and Mandy

We all got up at 5.30 on Saturday morning to watch the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.  I think I cried almost the whole way through - it was so fantastically put together, very clever and with lots of humour - we loved it.  Grandpa Mark and Mandy were there in person and sent us through a number of photos and then phoned us at the end of the ceremony barely able to speak due to the amount of cheering and singing they had done!  


Tess' netball on Saturday morning was a very exciting match with all the parents cheering and shouting from the sidelines.  Tess spent one of the quarters as Goal Shooter which is quite unusual as she generally plays defence.  However, her height is a huge advantage and she scored an extraordinary goal at a difficult angle quite far away from the net.  One of the mother's pointed out that I appeared more excited than she by the goal.  

We've talked for ages about getting the kids a motorbike for up at the farm and we finally decided to take the plunge on Saturday.  Craig, Jules, me and the 5 kids headed out west to a large bike shop and spent the next 3 hours there working out which bike to get and then fitting out all the kids with the necessary safety gear.  The one we've bought is the one Tess is on - it's got a 50cc engine and Tess, Tom and Hunter can all easily put their feet flat on the ground which hopefully will make it a bit safer for them to ride.  We're now desperate to head up there to try it out!  

Tess in her band uniform

Tess has been playing clarinet in the junior school band since February and it is astonishing how the band can actually make quite a pleasant sound after such a short period of time.  The school band program is a very busy one and they compete in a number of festivals.  For the one on Sunday they played Beethoven's 9th symphony (well an excerpt from it!) and Lullaby and they were brilliant which resulted in them receiving a gold medal - big cheers all round!