A fun run

I signed Callum and Declan up for another Sri Chimnoy run this morning - 4K in Leichhardt. It was very cold, so we had to warm up by standing around the pancake place again.

Both boys did very well, with Callum coming second in his age group, and Declan beating his previous best time by more than 2 minutes (despite having had his appendix out in between.

Maths exams

Callum is now starting to get to the serious part of doing Year 11. He had half year exams for 2 and 3 unit maths last week. They count towards the assessment part of his HSC, so the whole school was pretty serious about the exams.

Callum got to take the day before each exam to study at home, and was quietly stressing about them. He thinks he did well, but the proof will be in the results.

Declan got the results back from his half year exams also, and his teacher said that his scores were very good. Not quite as good as his second place  in first term, but still very well and he definitely fits in the class.

A very sillly movie

On Saturday night, we decided that after a hard week for many of us, it was time for some comfort food and movie watching. So we watched Yahoo Serious' Young Einstein, and made bread and butter pudding.

Very tasty, and the movie was a lot of fun, too.

Bonus Movie

On Friday night, as there were no grandparents, and it was pouring with rain, we decided to watch a bonus movie - Oceans 12. Enjoyable, even if it didn't pass the Bechdel test.

For dessert, Declan treated us to muffins he had made at school in Foodtech (which were very tasty, possibly partly because of the belgian chocolate choc chips he had thoughtfully bought on the way that morning).

Star Wars reprise

Last Saturday, Evan went out to play poker, so the boys and I decided to watch something Evan has been refusing to watch; Star Wars, so that we are entirely ready for the release of Episode 7 in December. After some discussion, we decided to start with Episode IV, as we couldn't be bothered with the first three movies.

It held up surprisingly well, with Callum constantly exclaiming at the number of pop culture references that originated with that movie.

For dessert we had a very tasty rhubarb pie, with home made pastry.

Sleepover party

In the final event of the Festival of Declan, Declan had a sleepover party with his new Mosman High coterie last night (Jack, Finbar, Gabe and Cain). Unsurprisingly, he is very tired today, but happily, they were so civilised that we got a good night's sleep.

They didn't bother with organised activities, just went straight into nerf warfare and then computer warfare, with a break to watch The Princess Bride, a movie that Declan was determined to introduce to his new group.

A good time was had by all.

Festival of Declan

Declan's birthday this year has conveniently fallen on a Saturday, so this year's Declan festival is just a weekend. Last night we had uncles and grandparents over to fawn over Declan (and ply him with presents) which he enjoyed, making off with items covering all of his obsessions - Dr Who, sharp things, and in a triumph of present making - a piece of chocolate technology!

He is pictured with his dirk, preparing to stab a grandmother.

Today he is having his Mosman High friends over for a pizza and computer gaming sleepover, and has been receiving new games electronically from various friends all day.

At 12, Declan has made another leap of maturity by going to high school. He has happily settled in to making new friends, talking to teachers when he has to (to organise his year 9 maths, for example) and getting even more interested in the world around him.

He, as Callum does, loves the lack of uniform at Mosman High, and has carved out his own niche of pop culture t shirts to wear every day.  He loves technology, and programming, Dr Who and science.

We are gradually weaning him off only reading Tolkein - he recently branched out into Cory Doctorow and John Green, and admitted that Silmarillion wasn't the most interesting book ever written.

MC for the grandparents

Declan was chosen to be the MC of the grandparent's day show at Mosman High School - a showcase of year 7. They quite nicely chose Declan, but gave him something different to do from Callum (who also featured).

Declan basically ran the show from the front, introducing all the acts, and even managing to get a grandparent up from the audience to talk about his school days.

As you can see from the picture, he needed a box to stand on, but otherwise managed the whole thing very maturely.

New menu item wonton soup!

While Declan was flying, Callum decided to finally make the dinner he has been threatening to make since he learned the recipe in Year 7 - chicken wonton soup. It was delicious, and surprisingly filling, for a soup, especially because it also came with rice noodles.

Evan and I both commented that our food tech equivalent didn't teach us anything nearly as useful.

We didn't make dessert - that seemed like too much, particularly as we had watched our movie (Catch me if you can) the night before when Declan was out with his friend Jack (for Jack's family birthday dinner).

Declan flies

Declan's friend Jack had a very cool birthday party - he and a few friends went flying at ifly in Penrith.

He had a wonderful time, and actually went all the way up to the roof - 15 metres above the floor. Partly because he had done it once before (in Montreal) he also got to go first.

Weights and measures

As is usual on a birthday, we have measured the boys. And for a change, we actually did it on a birthday!

I was quite looking forward to this one, as I thought Callum might have overtaken me. He hasn't quite. According to our measurements he is 163.5cm, which I thought was taller than me, but back to back I've still got a few mm on him.

Declan is 151.5 cm, and and both Callum and Declan are now at the 60th percentile, roughly, for height, which means that Callum has had a bit of a growth spurt in the last four months - by eye he seems to have grown the most ever in four months.

Science comedy

Slightly experimentally, we booked a completely grown up stand up comedy show a few Saturdays ago - Robin Ince, who is the comedy half of the Infinite Monkey Cage, one of our favourite podcasts. The show started at 8, so the boys were a bit tired, but Callum found pretty much every moment hilarious.

Declan doesn't laugh out loud nearly as much, but he said he had a great time, too. They were pretty tired by the end, though, it finished at 10.30, with Robin Ince clearly capable of keeping going for another few hours.

Parent teacher for Declan

Evan and I went to Declan's first parent teacher session at Mosman High last week. It was good to see that all his teachers knew who he was, and seemed pretty happy with his performance. His science teacher (followed closely by his maths teacher) was his biggest fan, and we were happy to hear that he seems to be doing fine in maths, both socially and academically.

He was described by one teacher as "able to talk the hind leg off a donkey" which was mostly a positive comment! The only slight negative that anyone could come up with was that he doesn't much like writing at length - his written work doesn't reflect how well he can talk and his general knowledge.