Chowder Bay Picnic

It was a hot, but beautiful Sydney day today, and Jodie and Angela suggested a picnic at Chowder Bay. In the end we had a reasonable complement of people - Jodie, Chris, Aidan, Emma, Angela, Tom, Jennifer, Zoe, and me, Callum and Declan.

I think we would have had to get there at the crack of dawn to get a parking place, but by 11 we were camped on the grass, with a bit of shade, and a full set of children jumping repeatedly off the pier into the water.

Much swimming and mucking about in inflatable boats was had by all, including Nick P, who joined us with Roxanne and Luke for a little while towards the end of the day.

None of us seem ridiculously sunburnt (which is almost miraculous for such a hot day), but I think the boys are tired enough to sleep well tonight.

Pavlova for Australia Day

In our Saturday dessert tradition, we decided to make Pavlova, since it is Australia Day on Monday. Here it is in its brief moment of glory before we demolished it.

Note, for future record, we also watched the movie Snatch, which went down quite well.

Sailing lessons

Declan has had a whole week of sailing lessons this week. He's enjoyed sailing with his friend Nick, so had a week of learning properly so he can skipper the boat.  Nick was an instructor for the last couple of days, so they got to go out together, which was quite fun.

Sadly putting Declan in charge of his own sunscreen did leave swathes of skin unprotected (a full day on the water in a Sydney summer is probably the most extreme test of sunscreen application) so his face is a bit patchy red, at the moment, with patches also on arms and legs.

Declan found it quite tiring (there is quite a lot of swimming after capsizing) but enjoyable, and is certainly keen to keep doing it. This illustrative picture is from last year, but it doesn't change much!

Evan's surgery

We interrupt this blog for an Evan update. Evan had his knee surgery today, which appears to have gone as well as it could have (so far).

He appears (touch wood) to have no repercussions from the anaesthetic, and not to have too much pain from the operation itself.

Callum (in Declan's absence at sailing lessons) has been trying to think of everything he can do to make Evan's life a bit easier.

Callum tests the intercom system

This picture shows him testing the intercom, so that Evan can call for help any time he needs it.

Full home made dinner

Declan has been agitating for some time to be able to make our own pizza. So we made pizza for dinner, and lemon cheesecake for dessert.

Although Declan very much enjoyed making the pizza (including making our own dough) he agreed that store bought pizza is probably better if you don't particularly want to make your own. The cheesecake, though, was popular with all.

I think we watched one of the episodes of Sherlock, rather than a movie.

Letter from the Premier

New Year Measurements

As is traditional, at New Year, we measured the boys. Eleven days late this time, as we've been away.

Callum has shot up to 159 cm (only 4 cm less than me) and 43.8 kgs, which puts him just over the 50th percentile for height, and well under for weight and BMI.
Declan is 149 cm (10cm less which is the most ever) and 41.9 kgs. That puts him 59th percentile for height, and a bit more than that for weight and BMI.

It's funny, that in a year when Callum has shot up, and Declan hasn't, Declan is still at a higher height percentile (for his age) than Callum is.

New skills on holiday

You can read all about our holiday on our other blog. For this one, I'll just report on the new skills the boys have learned - ice skating and cross country ski-ing.

Callum and Declan skating in Lapland

Declan declared himself an expert on ice skating on the first day, after he managed to get all the way around the rink without holding on twice in a row. Callum took longer, and only figured out his balance when we went iceskating in Lapland. There, the rink was a deserted flooded football field, with nothing to hang on to (but luckily snow to crash into if you couldn't stop).

Neither one is going to win any prizes for grace or speed, but they can both get around without hanging on to the edge.

Everyone learning to ski in Tallinn

And in Tallinn, Bob treated us all to cross country ski-ing lessons, which we built on during our time in Lapland. It was hard work, but both Callum and Declan by the end were quite capable of a 4km ski with a bit of undulation.

Dressed up boys

We had a double booking in the last week of term - Callum had his school award ceremony, and Declan had his farewell dinner dance. Fortunately they were within a block of each other, in Mosman, so we were able to see the relevant formalities at both. They dressed up for the occasion and both looked very smart.

Declan's farewell to primary school

Declan ready for his dinner dance

Declan finished up primary school on 17 December, and there were a few formalities. First, he had a dinner dance with the whole of year 6, plus "graduation ceremony". He looked very smart.

Walking through the school farewell

Then the whole school lined up at the end of the last day to farewell the year 6s - for the older kids they walked through arched hands, whereas the kindies just did a high five.

Jumping off Balmoral Pier

And then finally they went to Balmoral beach and jumped off the pier in their now redundant school uniforms.

Declan and Nick show off their Certificates of Graduation

Movie night for the record

We watched the movie Malcolm (quite amusing to see old fashioned technology looking quite high tech) which we all enjoyed.

The previous day, our dessert making (hampered by jetlag, but still delicious) had been a vanilla cheesecake.