Where's Wally?

james and his friend Jed at the School sports day.

Oliva at the sports day.
Crab Race.
Olivia showing off her soccer skills as part of the Where's Wally Treasure Hunt.
At the end of the Treasure Hunt the kids had to do a handprint and write down their team name.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My wonderful wife volunteered a few months ago to organise a School Treasure Hunt. After many, many hours of planning and organising - the event was today.

The theme was "Where's Wally" - and the published of the Where's Wally books provided lots of pictures and stuff for us the school to use.

Almost 600 people joined in - making it the largest single event ever organised by the school. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, 21 degrees and we all had a great time. The Treasure Hunt involved running around Balgowlah Heights for 90 minutes following clues, finding Wally pictures and making your way back to the school. The kids loved it and the clues were pretty hard -so the adults also enjoyed it.

After the Hunt I somehow ended up on BBQ duty for an hour - so I now smell of sausages and fat.

Emma is relieved it went well - she did an amazing job. I think they raised over $5,500 which is not a bad effort for an afternoon event!

Other than Wally, it's been the usual busy weekend. We have some friends from Noss Mayo staying with us this week - they have kids the same age as James & Olivia and the kids play with them whenever they spend time in Devon. Sanchia, Geoff, Oscar and Ilana will be with us for a week - which the kids are loving.

For some reason I decided to make up for the lack of soccer yesterday (season is finished) and go for a 90 minute bike ride through the bush. Great exercise but my legs still hurt.....

While Emma was away - Ken & the kids played

Emma and her friend Kirsten treated themselves to a weekend in the Blue Mountains - children free and full of good food and late mornings.

While the ladies were relaxing I had a hectic weekend with James & Olivia, which involved:

• Rock stars
• Rock walls
• Rock caves

After the compulsory soccer matches on Saturday (James lost, I won) we headed to the local shopping centre so the kids could spend their pocket money. James was sensible and only spent $7.50 out of his $15.00 of savings. Olivia does not like too worry too much about the future - she spent $11.00 - which was a $1.00 more than she had! James & Olivia have very different approaches to money.

The big kid (me) spent this and next months pocket money on Band Hero for Wii.

Band Hero consists of a drum kit, guitar and microphone. The Band Hero game requires 'the band' to play along to various songs - it gives you guidance on what to sing, which drum to hit etc.

Here is Olivia singing David Bowies classic "Lets Dance"........

On Sunday morning while James played AFL (see dirty legs above), Olivia and I had a pleasant breakfast in Manly. The hearty breakfast prepared us for the Rock Wall challenges of the afternoon.

Indoor rock climbing is a big hit with James & Olivia - although Olivia does tend to get scared once she is about 4 feet off the ground. James was a little cautious until he realised there were lots of girls from his school there - at which point he starting getting to the top of all the climbs as the girls cheered and waved at him.......

There is also an 'indoor cave' - basically the kids climb into a hole in a wall and 5 minutes later appear out of another hole - sweaty and happy. Olivia did it with a torch, James went without. I was VERY concerned they would get claustrophobia and I'd have to crawl in after them - but thankfully they were fine!

Sports update

Sport dominates our weekends - this weekend it was two soccer games, swimming lessons and an AFL match. Last weekend it was 2 soccer games, swimming lessions, an AFL match AND a tennis tournament.

It's tiring just thinking about it.

While at the moment James is leading in terms of sports participation - Olivia is not far behind. In addition to swimming and gymnastics - she is starting tennis lessons this term and next year netball begins. Netball on Sydney's Northern Beaches is serious stuff - over 1,000 girls turn out every Saturday morning at Curl Curl Park to play - it's mayhem - but Olivia is looking forward to being part of it.

So, this weekends sports results:

1. Seaforth Wildcats U8's - won 5-1 (no goals for James but a great game)

2. Seaforth Over 35's - lost 0-4 (obviously no goals for me)

3. Manly Bombers U8 AFL - won easily (James scored 4 goals and got man-of-the-match).

Other than sport....this weekend did involve Dinner at Manly Pavillions - an excellent new restaurant in Manly that we have now been to 5 times in 3 months.....a long walk along the beach this morning and some gardening. Despite being 29 weeks pregnant Emma still got stuck into the garden and spent two hours weeding. I discovered that when cutting branches of a tree - don't stand underneath the branch you are cutting......

Olivia and her friend Kayla during a recent zoo trip.
I discovered this on Emma's camera this evening - no idea why Olivia has the make up on - but I liked the photo.
James playing in the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament - over 40 kids, James got to the 1/4 finals finising 6th. He was put out by the eventual winner.
James at the Father & Son tennis tournament last week - concentrating hard on his backhand.
Olivia pretending to be angelic.
Another shot from the Father & Son tournament - James beat me 7-6 in a thrilling match.
James dancing at the Balgowlah Heights Primary School open day this week - the sun came out and the kids put on a show for all the parents.
James at AFL this morning. He is about to do a great defensive clearance.
And here it goes!

Relaxing weekend at home

A relatively quiet weekend - due to torrential rain during the week all kids and adult sport was washed out so instead it was long lies, shopping and walks.

On Saturday evening we had Kim, John, Stuart and Quinn over for dinner. We went retro and had Fondue - which went down a treat with the kids. Much to our suprise the kids could not get enough of dipping their bread, apple, chorizo sausage and potatotes into the cheese -although it seemed to quickly become a case of who could drop most in the pot as they enjoyed doing the forfeits. Forfeits included telling a joke, doing a maths puzzle, doing a cartwheel etc.

Today we decided we needed to work of the kilo's of cheese we had consumed so after waking up at 9:30am (I love it when AFL is cancelled) we headed down to Manly for a walk across North Head - starting and finishing in Manly.

It was a glorious winters day - sunny and warm in the shade but a little cooler when the breeze hit you.

This afternoon James and I played golf (along with Matt, James and Harry). James had a solid game with a few pars - he was probably more consistent than me....

We ended the day with dinner (Veal Ragu) and then a game of darts. Darts is the new family sport this week - James loves it and the fact that after every shot he has to do mental arithmetic makes it perfect. Just ask him what 201 less 53 is and he'll get it right every time. Follow up with "You've got 28 to go - which double do you need?" and he will know the answer. I did not realise that darts could be so educational until now.

More next week.

Ken