Alexander the Great

We've been playing Civilisation V (or as the cool kids call it, Civ V) non stop since Christmas Day (a strategy turn based game involving conquering the world starting in about 4000BC), so it seemed appropriate to go and see the Alexander the Great exhibition at the Australian Museum.

Declan, in particular, is still very very into Greek myths and history, so really enjoyed being able to tell us all about the background to the various statues of greek gods we saw (impressing a passing bystander by his immediate identification of Dionysus, for example).

The exhibition itself was pretty impressive, although some of the exhibits were generic finds from the time period and location (sadly no actual armour worn by Alexander).

It was really interesting to see how much influence he seemed to genuinely have had on the course of history. And the boys are at a great age to see an exhibition at about the same pace that we would like.

Bike riding gets harder

Now that we live in Crows Nest (which, given the name, is at the top of a hill - about 100m above sea level) it is a bit harder to cycle in to (or more to the point home from) town.

But we've done it a couple of times now, and are getting better at it. We have a route along footpaths, once we've got past Milson's Point, which is fine at weekends, as not many people walk around on weekends.

Declan at first thought he couldn't make it up the hill home, but with the judicious application of water, he's fine now.

Christmas Cake decoration

While down at the Grandparents, Callum and Declan decorated the Christmas cake (as well as the gingerbread houses). Since it was 22 December (one day after the world had been due to end, according to a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar), they both chose an apocalyptic theme, with Callum creating a mushroom cloud, and Declan decorating his with "good morning" - an ironic comment given that the morning wasn't supposed to exist.

Restaurant reviews

Now that we live in walking distant from many many restaurants, we've decided we need to try a new one every time we go out. We had our first try today - not too challenging - a burger place call Moo. Everyone agreed it was very tasty, although for the first time ever, the boys decided that the children's meals were a bit small (despite being for the under 12s).

The restaurant next door was Persian, with other options just across the road being Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai. 

Merry Christmas

We've had our first Christmas in our new house, which certainly worked well.

Callum and Declan now officially know that Santa doesn't exist, but they still got stockings as soon as everyone was awake. Declan was very taken with a robotic fish (having asked for a real one) and Callum was very taken with the prospect of new computer games. After breakfast, there was more - new computers to put the games on (which were then shown proudly to every visitor), and then lunch with assorted family members.

The other very popular present was remote control cars - which was the main thing this house lacked - every house with a big room should have remote control cars. Hours of entertainment.

To cap off the day, Angela Rob and Tom came down from the mountains and stayed the night, and the boys had a great time playing various combinations of computer games and remote control cars.

Mosman High update

Callum went to Mosman High on Thursday (the day after school finished) to do a maths test to see where they should put him for maths. They called back on Friday, to say they would like to put Callum into Year 9 maths, as long as they can sort out the timetabling issues (currently he'll miss a bit too much english, but they reckon that can be fixed).

Callum is very pleased that he showed what he can do, as are we.

Gingerbread houses

Callum's house

The boys had a visit down to Grandma and Grandpa last night to make ginger bread houses (and to be generally sociable).

The doorbell game wasn't played as much as in previous years, as I think both grandparents and grandchildren are getting a bit sick of it.

Declan's house

But it sounds as if much fun was had by all, with the boys arriving back this afternoon, grandparents in tow, having walked up to Kirrawee station and then caught public transport all the way here. The gingerbread house on the left is Callum's in the style of the traditional house. On the right is Declan's. He's tried for a crocodile, dragon and snake theme (not sure how visible that is). There is a snake with eggs at the front on the left, and a crocodile on a frozen lake on the right.

Last day of school

Callum and Declan have now had their last day of Cammeray Public School.

Callum got his uniform signed by his classmates, as is traditional, and all the Year 6s went through an honour guard of the whole school - an arch of hands from the year 5s down to the Kindys (although the Kindys just did high fives, as they were too short for the Year 6s to get underneath their hands).

Declan got a special laminated piece of paper signed by all his friends, several of whom signed "goodbye and hello" as they will be going with him to Neutral Bay next year.

Black belts

Callum and Declan are now officially black belts in Tae Kwon Do. Here they are celebrating with two of their fellow qualifiers last night. To qualify, they had to learn a bunch of different patterns, and do some free sparring with some of their fellow qualifiers (for some of the time they each had to spar with two others).

They came home last night very pleased with themselves.

Nerf wars

Before we moved in to our new house, we had an enormous empty space, that was just begging for a nerf war. So Callum and Declan each organised a team of kids from year 6 and year 4, to have an hour and a half of nerf fighting. In the end the Year 6s won, because they played more as a team, and used a bit of intelligence rather than just blasting each other.

Evan turned out the major loser, though, having to spend an hour and a half in an echo-ey space with 14 very excited boys shouting at the tops of their voices.

He looked shaken when they got home that night.

Room decoration

Now that we are in our new house, Callum and Declan are very taken with the responsibility of having rooms of their own. Before we moved in, Callum made a complete plan of his room on google sketchup, trying to decide exactly where to put his four pieces of furniture (bed, desk, bedside bookshelf and blanket box).

And since we moved in, Declan has decided he needs a rug, and pictures on the walls. He was all set to go down the road to a Crows Nest rug shop,

"They've got a 90% sale on, Jennifer, we'd better go there before it finishes!"

before I broke it to him that it is traditional for rug shops to have permanent sales. He's also been checking out Monet prints on line. He's still keen, but realises that it is probably not the most important thing for our new house. And besides, yesterday he brought home the artwork he made this year at school, and he's decided that should go up first.

Jingle medals, Jingle medals

Callum shows off his loot

Last night was A night, Cammeray Public School's annual awards night, and the boys made out like bandits. Callum won the school debating prize (which includes a perpetual trophy and medal), the Maths Olympiad prize, a medal for the robotics team, and the most exciting, the prize for top mathematician in the school (which puts him up on the Honour Board in reception).

Not to be left out, Declan won an academic award for his class, and also the prize for the robotics team.

Evan's robotics team congratulates him on his medal

And because it was our last year at Cammeray, they took the opportunity to give Evan a medal of his own for organising the robotics team, and all the other things he's done at Cammeray over the years.

As an aside, I was quietly pleased that out of two hours of awards there were exactly two awards for sport, with the prominence going to academic awards, arts, and citizenship.

The boys were both thrilled, with Callum still bubbling with excitement this morning.

O Tannenbaum

Declan has been singing Christmas carols all day, testing the acoustics of our new house. So it is only appropriate that we put up a Christmas tree this afternoon, finding ornaments we has last used three years ago.

Here are Callum and Declan showing off their handiwork.

End of year dance

It seems incredible, but Callum has 8 days left of primary school. To celebrate, they had an end of year dance. Callum even danced with me!

Callum looked very grown up, and despite Evan wearing a matching shirt, they looked great together.

Here they are, when we got home.