Back to School

The kids were excited to be heading back to school.  On Sunday afternoon, Natalie dressed up in Hayden's school clothes and got herself all ready for school.  She knows just what is needed!

Monday night we had a back to school dinner with a couple of special treats - soft drink with dinner and pavlova cups for dessert.

Tuesday morning the boys woke even earlier than usual and were dressed for school before 6am!  They were so excited!!  Let's hope that enthusiasm and excitement for school continues, though we could do without the sub 5am wake-up...

 Hayden is in a grade 1 class with the loveliest teacher.  Miss Sutton is just delightful - imagine your ideal early years teacher and she is it!  She's just young and this is her second year at Capella.  They do activities with the Prep/1 class and there is an equally lovely teacher in there (whom, incidentally we kicked out of this house:( But she is just an older version of Miss Sutton).  I am very excited for Hayden to have such a great teacher.

Lachlan is in Grade 3 with Miss Kemp.  She is another young teacher who came to Capella a year ago too.  She is so softly spoken and quiet and seems really nice.  Lachlan was really pleased with her and reported at the end of the day, "she doesn't yell at all!" 

Both boys had an excellent first day.  Miss Sutton was pleased to report that Hayden had earned 2 stickers and had mingled well.  Lachlan played games with the Chappy and some other kids at lunchtime but couldn't remember anybody's name.  

Some different things at Capella State School:

• They have "Brain Break" at about 10am where they take a quick break from lessons to eat a small piece of fruit / vegetable in the classroom and go to the toilet.  Then it's back to lessons.They play first and then eat at both lunch breaks.  The boys seemed to enjoy this.

• There is no playing before or after school.  Anyone at school before 8.30am sits very orderly under the covered area.  When the bell goes at 8.30am everyone puts their bags in racks and sits in lines outside their respective classroom.  There is a rule of no playing on the playgrounds both before and after school.  We used to stay on the playground till about 3.45 at Marshall Rd State School...

It was Elliot's first day at school too! Here he is coming home from his day.  It seemed to go well after he managed to sort out a technical glitch of his computer not working.  He is a power point king so this was kind of vital.  Well done Elliot!  

Moving on....

2 weeks ago (can't believe it's that long ago) we said goodbye to our Brisbane life!  I've lived in Brisbane for 29 years, with 12 of those in the Coorparoo / Mt Gravatt area.  Moving to "the Bush" is going to be a big change, but we are super excited for our adventures ahead.

Lachlan's class in Holland Park ward.  There's a couple missing here.

Natalie's Sunbeams class in Holland Park ward.  Hayden was being uncooperative so there's no photo of his class :(

The kids went to Nanna and Pop's while we watched the packers box up our house.  Actually, I got to do a few bits of packing to feel useful.  Then I started the cleaning...

Here's some of the boxes awaiting the removalists the next day.  A funny note: on our estimation of boxes we had previously said there would be about 10 boxes from the kitchen.  There was in fact 22 boxes just from the kitchen!  

It got a little hairy for a while, but these masterful packers managed to squeeze it all in. 

Goodbye Blaine St.  We've lived in this house for 6.5 years and it has been a great house for us.  There are lots of great memories in this house.  

• We brought our second child home to this house
• Elliot walked to uni  1km from here every day
• Lachlan started kindy at Mt Gravatt
• We brought home a little sister here
• Lachlan started Prep at Marshall Rd State School
• Grandpa injured his shoulder requiring surgery after a fall on our path
• Lachlan and Hayden both learned to ride bikes in the top of the street outside our house
• Hayden started kindy at Hollaand Park kindy
• Hayden started Prep at Marshall Rd State School
• We've all had 6 birthdays (bar Natalie) at this house and 7 Christmases celebrated here
• There's been numerous milestones achieved here.  As I looked around the house I could remember places where funny things had happened - Hayden trying to bungee jump off our porch, Lachlan driving his little "big red" wiggles car around the courtyard and learning to talk in his cute little voice, Natalie lying on her blanket in the loungeroom with her brothers fawning all over her - memories in every room.  It's the end of an era - a new beginning and a new career!

Finally the big day arrived!  The kids were very excited to be going to their new home.  

Natalie enjoyed her first flight.  She went to the toilet 3 times, ate lots of lollies and only whinged a little.

The boys sat in front of us and were well entertained with their electronics.  Lachlan was a little worried but soon felt happier after take-off.

They were extremely happy to see their Daddy at Emerald airport and deliriously happy to see their new house.  An update on that coming soon.  We were not so happy about the oppressive heat that met us.  Ugh!