State Nippers and growing with a teenager

It was a big weekend for Tom with State Nippers up at Swansea Belmont, two hours north of Sydney.  Tom has not been as committed to Nippers again this year - he felt too much pressure after having done so well at State last year.  As a result he didn't get into any of the finals but he had a lot of fun hanging with all his friends - it's such an amazing community and he knows so many kids on the northern beaches as a result of being involved.  Jules was up there too doing water safety and looking after Tom.  

Swansea Belmont Beach

 Nipper dads: Nick, Jules, Matt

Tom doing something impressive

Tess and I stayed at home and had a little holiday without the boys to look after which mainly involved eating lots of carbs and chocolate mousse.  We went shopping on Saturday which, as usual, was rather lacklustre - we managed 3 shops and then went home.  On Saturday night I had just sat down to watch the film Australia when Tess came running upstairs and asked if she could go out.  Go out?  At 6.30 on a Saturday night??  My first instinct was to say don't be ridiculous but I do have to keep reminding myself that she is 15 now and going out is normal.  In fact, I've been quite worried about the fact that due to her anxiety she doesn't go out that often as she feels safer at home.  After careful questioning I discovered that she and a girlfriend were going to hang out at Balmoral and play basketball with a couple of boys.  We agreed that I would drive her and the boy who lives close by to Balmoral so that I could vet meet him and reassure myself that he was a fine upstanding lad.  She also needed to keep her phone data on so that I could see where she was using "Find my iPhone" (how did our parents manage without this feature?!) and she and Archie were to be back in Seaforth by 10pm so I could pick them up from the bus stop and drive them home.  It all worked perfectly which was great but I'm worried that this could mean an end to any social life for us on a Saturday night, or at least a "new and improved" social life that involves zero alcohol!  

Our local excitement on Saturday was a helicopter landing at our local dog park as a woman had fallen off a cliff whilst out walking and the helicopter delivered the doctors to look after her.  I'm pleased to report that she was fine.  

Jules and Tom doing their "homework" on Sunday afternoon.