Eli's Topic Talk

Proud of my boy....

Bike Ride round Lake Tuggeranong

'Round, round wheels go round and round
Down, up pedals, down, up, down
Well,gotta get across to the other side of town 
Bfore the sun goes down'

So said Mungo Jerry.

We headed out on our bikes to Tuggeranong Lake during the (long) weekend. It was a lovely ride round the lake - a flat and pretty easy 6 or 7km.

Audrey had some new wheels - I bought both the kids new (second hand) bikes last week, but Eli preferred to stick with his older bike (he's still an inch or two shorter than his sister).

Both the kids are still fascinated with Pokemon Go, so we headed out in earnest to catch Pikachu (the cute yellow one). In the end - although we spoke to a couple of ladies who claimed to have sighted several by the scout hut we didn't find any before the battery on the phone conked out. The news of their potential sightings meaning that the kids urged me to go back again before too long.

Audrey on her new wheels

Swans - not Pokemon

Total Eclipse of the Heart

For much of the childrens' school careers I've been waiting for the solar system model. It hasn't come home yet, but Audrey's class is currently investigating eclipses and so I couldn't resist the opportunity to help her model this. 

It simulates both lunar and solar eclipses (depending on where you hold the torch/sun). It was great as Audrey got really involved with making it and painted the earth and the moon and helped fix up the base. She also researched and put together a list of facts. For example did you know that the moon goes anti-clockwise round the earth.

The model in all its glory

The sun's rays blocked by the moon.

The sun, earth and moon (with Mars in the background)

Sunny Sunday afternoon on our front lawn

Winners are grinners

The kids entered a Father's Day competition at the local markets last weekend and they rang up the next day to say that we had won. There was quite a pile of entries in the box so it was quite an achievement.

You had to write (in 25 words or less) why your Dad deserved to win, the prize was $100 of meat and $100 of beer for the winner and a 2nd prize of a meal voucher for $100. Audrey's entry was;

I have a Dad called Trevor,

Who I will love forever.

He makes me grin.

I hope we win.

Then we will have dinner together.

It was all her own work and she sat and studied it for quite a time in order to cut it down to within the 25 words (it's exactly 25 words). Eli wrote a lovely poem too - it began "I love my Dad, although he is mad"...

It was funny collecting such a vast amount of meat (especially as I confessed to being vegetarian) but the kids will dine out on fine (organic) meat for several weeks and my freezer got a well-earned clear out in order to make space for it all.

Possum in the shed

Our shed is often a sanctuary for native wildlife. A pair of blue-tongue lizards were nesting somewhere near the front of the doors and there's a possum which regularly seems to spend the chilly Canberra evenings in there. 

I went to pull the kids bikes out this morning and saw this possum looking down at me. I tried to coerce it out (with a broomstick) but then saw it had a baby clinging to its back (sadly not in the picture) so I left it alone. 

I'm not sure how they get in (there is a smallish hole in the back which is where I think they enter/exit). I checked this morning and she was gone.

Audrey's 9th Birthday

The birthday's are rattling along now. I can't believe our little girl is already 9.

Audrey wanted desperately to have a group of friends for a sleep-over (but I couldn't face it!) so in the end we opted for an afternoon ice skating at the nearby ice rink. Audrey and her friends got along ever so well and there were no broken bones to report (just a fair few blisters from the dodgy hire-shoes)

It's funny(?) listening to the girls natter on, and listening to what is important to them. Eli managed to fix up a play-date with a couple of his mates away from the girls (so it worked out perfectly for everyone!)

Here's a few pictures of our afternoon. I really missed Amy today, not least as she would have helped clear up :) but also because I know she went to extraordinary measures to be at Audrey's 7th birthday. She would have been so amazed to see how big her little girl has become.

Audrey's 'Total Girl' magazine cake

The gang in skates