Another fun weekend in cold, wet Sydney

Third (and last) entry for this busy week.

Saturday saw another win for James at soccer - 3-1 with James scoring all three goals.  Despite the very cold start to the day and light drizzle the Wildcats played well and all had a great time.

Around 10:30am the rain really started to pour.  By 1:00pm my soccer game was in doubt, as we walked on to the pitch and realised the water was over our ankles there really was no choice but to cancel.  So no soccer for me this weekend.

The girls spent the afternoon making biscuits while the boys lazed and played games.

On Saturday night Craig, Lisa, Hunter & Fletcher joined us for dinner.  We once again tried to make the perfect winter stew (this is a life long quest of Emma & I).  This time we went for a variation of a recipe in a 'Kids Cooking Book' and the result was (we think) rather good!  Ask Emma for the recipe if you are interested.

Despite the rain James still played AFL on Sunday after which we all went Rock Climbing.  For over two hours we climbed up various rock faces some harder than others and had a great time.  This is an excellent activity for the kids and one that we will definitely be doing again.

Ken

BHPS Open Day

As mentioned in the earlier entry the kids had their School Open Day on Wednesday.  I've just found a few video clips on Emma's camera.

James - is part of the story of The Hungry Caterpillar.  Olivia is doing some sort of Japanese dance/exercise routine.

Enjoy.

Reading in Class 1R

I worked from home on Friday and took advantage of the fact that school is just around the corner.

I joined Class 1R for an hour to help with reading, writing and some arithmetic.  Each kid had to write a story about what had happened during their School 

Open Day earlier that week.  James wrote a two page story about how his class had performed the Story of the Hungry Caterpillar.  James was a narrator and his piece was about how the caterpillar built a cocoon and stayed inside it for two weeks.

After writing their story we did a short arithmetic quiz (James got 10 out of 10) and then we did some reading.

At the end of the hour a selected table (plus James as his dad was there) had to stand up and read out their story.

I was a very proud father that morning - James is doing very well at school and really enjoys each class activity.

Ken

More about the Mice

It's been a wet and wild weekend here.  All soccer cancelled so we did a bit of shopping and crazy golf instead.  I'm heading of to Perth tomorrow afternoon (work) so this weeks Blog entry is on Saturday.

The kids are both well but a little tired from endless sport, school and constant colds & sniffles that we all seem to be unable to shake.

Emma is a little weary today.  Last night we had a wine tasting for 15 people.  I had the fun job of choosing the wine and being the 'wine expert' for the night.  We got through 10 wines, 2 beers and 2 vodkas.  I could tell that Emma had been enjoying the first 6 wines as she swore blind that the $20 vodka tasted better than the $70 vodka - she was in a minority of 1.  She did do better than our friend Nigel.  Our first round was Champagne - Nigel confidently told everyone that the first wine was Moet & Chandon, no doubt, he could taste the quality and was experienced with good champagne.   I took great pleasure informing him that he had just been drinking a $7 bubbly from New Zealand.

Generally most people preferred the more expensive wines although I have to say that whether they were cheap or expensive, good or bad - every bottle was empty by the early hours of this morning.

More soon.

Ken

Sport, sport and more sport

A typical week in the Reid household involves a fair bit of sport.  The weekly schedule is as follows:

• Monday - Gymnastics for James & Olivia
• Tuesday - Soccer training for James and Ken
• Wednesday - Ballet for Olivia
• Thursday - Soccer training for James AND Swimming training for James & Olivia
• Friday - AFL training for James
• Saturday - Soccer match for James & Ken
• Sunday - AFL match for James

I am tired just from writing it all down!

This weekend was (as usual) a great success for James but less so for Ken.

The Seaforth U7 Wildcats lined up against a team from Wakehurst on Saturday morning at a respectable 10:00am.  After a slow start the team got into their stride and ended up 11-0 winners - with James scoring 3 or 4 (we stopped paying attention once they were well ahead).

I kicked off at 1:00pm also against Wakehurst.  Playing Centre Forward I had high hopes of a few goals to secure our first win of the season (so far we have played 6, lost 5 and drawn 1).  A great first half saw lots of chances but their goalkeeper combined with my lack of accuracy saw us going in 0-1 down at half-time.  The less said about the second half the better.  Suffice to say none of the team were happy with the final 0-7 score line.  We do however still manage to enjoy the post-match beer and reflect that with an average age of 45, we should just be happy that nobody dies during the match.

Sunday morning was AFL.  8:00am start for James and the Manly Bombers.  Despite the early hour (and 9 degrees!!!) James had a great game - scoring in the first minute of the game and then dominating the centre and forward areas from then on.  His only bad moment was a few tears following a kick in the face (accidental).

To top it all off James and I then spent the afternoon with 15,910 other people watching Manly trash Parramatta in Rugby League.  Sitting in the sun (21 degrees this afternoon) watching rugby was a great end to the sporting week.

And what of Emma and Olivia?  Well a quiet weekend for them involving putting up curtains, playing with friends and a short cycle for Emma - plus lots and lots of cheering on the sporting men in the house!

Sailing Champion

Emma took part in the Manly Yacht Club Marathon Race a few weekends ago.   This is a race that starts in Manly (near the Ferry Wharf) and winds its way down the harbour, around each island, under the Harbour Bridge, round Cockatoo Island and then all the way back.

The winds were fickle - strong at the start, dead in the middle and light at the end.  After a bit over 5 hours Emma and her crew crossed the line and, on handicap, were the winners!

Emma sails 2-3 times a month on our yacht - Okavango Delta - pictured below.  The picture is looking back towards Manly.

Three blind mice.....well two to start with

Somehow a short trip to Warringah Mall yesterday to get a new soccer ball ended up resulting in two new additions to the Reid family.

Alex (black) and Lilly (white) are mice.  The cage shown in the photograph is their new home.  

After 24 hours James has lost interest but Olivia is still playing with them.  Emma has the task of the weekly cage cleaning.

Ken

Mothers Day

Its Mothers Day today in Sydney and for some unknown reason Emma decided that rather than have a long lie in bed with breakfast and pampering she would rather get up at 7am and head to Sydney for a 4 km run in the freezing rain.

It felt like Scotland here this morning.  Cold wet and fairly miserable (actually still about 16 degrees but we are really, really soft after 10 years in Sydney).

At 9am Emma, Kim and Deb set of to the cheers of the kids.  Some 25 minutes later they crossed the finish line - a bit warmer and a lot wetter. 

After a shower and coffee we headed to Sky Phoenix Chinese for Yum Cha.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum_cha .  Finally the dads felt that it had all been worthwhile as we tucked into plate after plate of delicious pork balls, prawns, noodles, spring rolls and last of all mango pancakes.  Even the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

As you can tell I've given up on Emma's blog and launched a take-over bid!

Ken