Juliets school visit

Friday 21st November
Today was an exciting day. Juliet had here first school visit. It almost didn't happen, as there was a planned teacher strike for today. The notes went out yesterday saying there was no school. At about 9pm Ruth called me to tell me that she heard on the news it was cancelled and schools would be open. The boys weren't to impressed but Juliet was happy about it.

There are about 10 children starting school with Juliet. The school has spilt them up for school visits. Juliet has only one other child with her which is a girl she isn't really friends with. Juliet goes to Ruthie's class for the visit though so at least she has someone. Although it was no help today as Ruthie had an appointment so wasn't at school. The other kindy girl wasn't there either, probably because of the strike that was going to occur. The class only ended up with about 6 children in it and that included Juliet.

The teacher, Mrs Woods, asked the only girl there to help Juliet. So Juliet made a new friend. She was there for recess so Rory and his friends went and spent time with her. What a nice brother helping his sister settle in. She doesn't really need to much help around the school though as I was pregnant with her when Rory started school. So she has spent a majority at the school doing drop off and pick ups.

Crossing the road to school.

Looking around the class and deciding what to do.


Making a new friend and settling in.

Anabelle's baby blessing

Sunday 16th December.
I had spent the last couple of weeks looking after sick children. Between gastro and colds Damien had also been on the west coast trip. At 2am it was my turn. I woke up feeling dizzy and unwell. Within half an hour I started spilling out (as Charles puts it). It was a struggle to sleep the rest of the night. I was a bit worried as Anabelle was having her baby blessing that day. Nanna and Grandad were over from Tweed Heads so I didn't want it cancelled but I didn't want to miss it.

The wonderful missionaries came around and assisted Damien in giving me a blessing. I spent the next couple of hours resting while Damien had meetings. The children were pretty good in the morning at helping me. They behaved while getting ready for church.

I was able to go to Sacrament meeting and watch Anabelle's blessing. I even felt 100%during it which was said in the blessing. After Sacrament meeting I felt lousy again and went home to rest again. (The blessing had told me I needed to rest before the gathering after church.) I hadn't been sick since about 10am but still felt very flat. I had very little energy. Mum (Kathy) was a great help. She had aloud us to have the gathering at her house and then also made sure food was out. She stepped in and took over in a very positive and helpful way. I don't know what would have happened if she hadn't.

Here are some photos of Anabelle in the family blessing/christening gown.





As you can see Anabelle had conjunctivitis as well.

Busy day

Saturday 15th November was a busy day for us. Damien had decided to go to the first Temple session for the day. He tells me that it was a full session. There were only a few seat left and he was the last person in making him the last one out. As a result he got home later than normal.

Next on our list of things to do was getting some stuff for the next day, Anabelle's baby blessing. We had to drop the stuff off at Nanna's house. We then headed straight to Salisbury Christmas Parade. We had told the kids we would take them as we missed the one in the city. Here are some photos of our time there.

Our family waiting for it to start.

If you look carefully you can see some Star Wars character. This includes some clone troops, some Jedi and Padme.



What would a Christmas parade be without a Scottish Band

and a few Santas. (We didn't get a photo of the real one)



It was a bit long for some of us so I took Charles and Juliet to get their face painted nearby. Isiah came just a we got to the front of the line. By the time their faces were done it was time for Santa.


Charles the lion is the king of the jungle so you better run away and hide...

Juliet as a pretty pink fairy.

Spiderman, spiderman no-one can like a spider can...



We had to leave straight away and head straight to a Pilkington family gathering at Jenny's home in Semaphore. It was great to catch up with Charni, Jenny, Karen, Nanna, Grandad and anyone else I missed. The children had fun playing with each other while the adult mingled and chatted. It was a exhausting day for some members of the family as you can see.

My little lion cub sleeping soundly.

My fairy must have sprinkled fairy dust on herself.

Even spiderman needs to sleep.

Some how Anabelle managed to stay awake the whole way home.

It takes more than that to get Rory to sleep.

Sports Day

The boys had Sports day last Friday. So of course I had to go and watch. I dropped the boys at school and had to rush back home for the camera. When I got back Juliet and I noticed a calf running across the oval. It was so weird. It ended up running down the road and of course I didn't think of taking a photo until it was to late. The classes were getting into the team colours while this was happening.

Auntie Ruth was kind enough to bring coloured hairspray for the boys. Unfortunately little Ruth isn't in the same team as the boys. Auntie Tamera, Auntie Sarah and Nanna also came to watch some events. They wore both yellow and blue to support both the boy's and Ruth's teams. The boy's team is called the Comets and Ruth's team is called the Suns.








They always start the day with the health hustle. This year they did the Nut Bush City Limits. Here is a photo of Rory doing it.








They then do the team cry. They are scored on this and have to try and out do the other teams. The Suns won this (Ruth's team) and the Comets came second (the boy's team). You can see here how much effort Isiah put into it. Isiah has the white strips on the bottom of his shorts.

Damien was lucky enough to get some time off to watch some of the events. We spent the day going between the boys events and I occasionally saw Ruth's events (her class was two events in front of Isiah's class). I think I spent as much time looking for them as I did watching them. It was fun none the less.
There are some more photos of the day.

Isiah doing the tunnel ball.


Rory playing some sort of hockey game. He is the one in the middle of the photo.


My favourite the parachute.


Charles was unimpressed with being at school all day.


Sarah enjoying time with Anabelle.


They get the pre-school children to race first, so this is Juliet in this race. Juliet has the purple jumper and blue pants.


Rory was one of the representatives for his team in the relay race. He came 6th place. Rory is the one on the right.


This photo is just so Tamera doesn't feel left out.


The junior primary events end at lunch time but the primary children go all day. It was nice to be able to just sit and watch by then. At the end of the day the Suns won with Comets coming second. The boys weren't impressed but at least Ruth's team won.

Summer Soccer

Well the soccer season finished at the beginning of September. We had decided to have our Saturdays back to do things around the home. The next thing I know Isiah's coach was putting a futsal team together. He asked Damien if Isiah could play and of course Damien said yes. So our Saturday mornings are busy again. For those of you who don't know what futsal is, it is an indoor version of soccer. His first game he was the goalie. He impressed me, he stopped well over a dozen goals. From memory the other team only got 5 goals which I think is pretty good as he doesn't play goalie often. One of the other mums said we should probably keep him in there.

Rory was invited to play indoor soccer (different rules to futsal)with some school friends. So of course we ended up saying yes. He plays Monday nights in Modbury. His first game was last week. It was very exciting as Rory scored his first goal. He has been playing soccer for 4 years and has never scored a goal as he is more a defender than an attacker.

On top of futsal and indoor soccer Rory, Isiah and Juliet play/practise 5-a-side soccer on Wednesday evenings. I think we are more busy now with soccer than we were during soccer season. I can only imagine what it will be like when Charles gets bigger.