Mean and keen what a load of rubbish

You know, if I was going to offer advice to my kids about what they should look for in a partner, it would be this: Choose someone who treats you well.  Sure, you can be led by whether they knock your socks off with their charm or looks or wit, or the fact that you have a whole host of mutual interests, or even by what they do for a living.  But if they don't treat you well, with respect and kindness in good times AND in bad, then you should tread carefully and for gawd's sake don't have kids with them.  (Fixit treats me well.  Our relationship is not perfect but he and I always try to remember to treat each other as we'd like to be treated and so far it is working.  My friend Mavis, whose husband left her while she was having chemo for her secondary cancers ie Did NOT Treat Her Well, said to me Fixit cherishes you and my husband doesn't cherish me.  That was why it was a relief when he left her really.  But I think I'll always remember what she said.  Kindness and cherishing, you don't grow sick of them.)  There.  That's my two cents for the day.  I reckon if I look back on 2011 I'll remember it as the year of worrying about my family and of how they were treated.  I hope in 2012 they move on to better times.


















Meantime: Happy Birthday Nell. I may have a present for you soon...  you know, maybe.  When I get my act together.  Which I definitely don't at the moment, as evidenced by my signing up to go away with Jen, Astrid and Nell for an escape to Bendigo, only to realise catastrophically late that it clashed with our school fete.  So now I can't go away with the girls because rule number one of primary school is thou shalt do thy fete duty.  I was really looking forward to Bendigo too, seeing the wedding dress exhibition and having fun with a lovely bunch of women.

I do literally feel like a juggler who is starting to drop her juggling balls at the moment.  I probably need to write lists or something, otherwise I'll behave like a lunatic when anything is added to my load.  Like for instance, I gave myself a stress headache doing my turn of the catering for the Climber's Cricket Team.  It all turned out fine in the end and there was enough to eat, they all seemed to like it and no-one got food poisoning.  But my stomach was in knots and my back was in spasm that day, and to have got myself into such a state about a bit of extra cooking is ridiculous, and only happened because I'm worrying about other stuff.



This is why it's been All Quiet on the Blogging Front.  But anytime soon I'm going to blog about Flat Stanley, Oliver! and the cool extra job I've been doing.

Open Mind Fiesta 2011

My tap school has been performing at the Open Mind Fiesta, which raises awareness about Mental Health, for the last 5 years. We were delighted to be asked to perform again this year in the new location in High Street Preston.  We took to the stage at 1.30ish on Sunday and we were a hit, if I do say so myself.  How could we not be, we had the unbeatable combination of adorable children and tap-dancing!



My sister, who's been staying with us, came and took some rather lovely shots for us with her fancy cameras. 



These 2 were taken as we warmed up in the church square, I love the light in them.

 

This year I invited my adult students to perform with the kids, and 5, count 'em, 5! were brave enough to join us. One of them said later that it was the best thing she'd ever done and that the high she felt as she walked off stage was better than anything! Love that.



In time for the performance, I'd just done a print run of new shirts, featuring the fabulous design work of Shannon aka Aunty Cookie.  You can see how ace they look in these photos and everyone loves them.  They are selling like hotcakes.



All the tappers did a wonderful job in their class numbers.  The babies were super cute with their rendition of The Pink Panther, and my sister fell in love with the Junior Shuffler's routine to Feist's 1,2,3,4.



Cherub's class reprised their famous Goodies routine with their usual aplomb.



Climber's class were a sensation with their tricky a'capella number, followed by a little bit of solo work.  Here's Climber caught mid-air doing his speciality: wings!



The best part of the show was definitely the big group number at the end; it's not only a great fun dance, it also has some vocalisation in it (they have to say Whoo! at regular intervals) and that brings a whole new energy with it.  It felt great.

 

Thanks to all the gorgeous tappers who came along and shared the tapping love.  You are the BEST!

Exterminate

Hello.  My house is full of my extended family til Monday, I am doing an extra job as well as my normal teaching, school is back on for my kids as are all their extra-curricular activities; in short, it's a bit of a madhouse. Can't read anyone else's blog let along write my own, so here.  Here's some Dalek art for you. 



When Cherub focuses on something, he really focuses on it.



He was drawing Dalek after Dalek and then looked to me for inspiration, asking what colour he should do this time.  Hmm, I wonder?  He also drew a bonus cyberman in my picture.  I'll be laminating this one.

Eightness, MkII.

So I've missed posting about the Cherub's birthday by a week, but what with school holidays and now my sister and her kids staying with us, I just haven't had any quality time on the old computer.  Anyway, my baby is now 8, which is quite big really.  See?



I think he had nice celebrations. The weather was bad so we couldn't do the pizza in the park he'd requested, so instead we had Nell and Jenny's mob over to our house for pizza and birthday cake.



Then the next morning we went and saw The Smurfs movie with his 2 best friends, followed by some playtime back at our house...



... and more birthday cake.  It was all great fun.  I love the 2 little boys he is friends with, and they were delightfully cute at the cinema together.



Then at the end of it, on the Sunday evening, Cherub seemed deflated, and confessed that he felt slightly disappointed with it all.  I think I remember the same thing happening to Climber at around the same age, where expectations of how ace the birthday is going to be were not met by the reality.  He and I had a little chat as he had his bath and I tried to give him a sense of being grateful for what he did get instead of thinking about all the things he didn't.  That approach seems to have worked for the Climber, but they are very different children, so we'll see.

While we're here doing belated birthdays I should mention the other Libran celebrating in our house: Mister Fixit.  He and I were able to go out to dinner together that evening because my sister kindly did the babysitting honours, and we had a lovely time.



And there was, of course, cake, and lots of willing blowers to help with the candles.

September Hols

The September Holidays means going to the Royal Melbourne Show for us.   As ever, our rules for the Show are:

1. Get there early, go home early.  The later you stay at the Show, the uglier it gets, frankly.

2. If possible go with friends.  (This year we hooked up with my friend Jenny and her girls.)


Jenny's girls are standing here with Fixit and Cherub, Jenny seems to have avoided my camera, although that might be her foot.

3. One showbag is plenty, and doesn't mean we don't love our children as one bogan commented to us a few years ago on the train-ride home.  Seriously, I don't get the multiple showbag thing.  It seems so greedy!  Surely one bag of treats, be they toy or sugar, is enough for a kid?  A bag of treats is great, why would you buy them 5 (or more) bags of treats?

4. Children must pat animals before being allowed to do any carnival activities. The Show, after all, is about bringing the country to the city.


This chook pretty much fell asleep on Climber's lap, which made him feel very special.


The kids loved patting the cats, and also watching the playful antics of some nearby silver bengal (I think) kittens.


 
 This very impressive turkey was wandering around the poultry shed like he owned it. He wasn't keen on kids coming up behind him, which is fair enough. Tail like that, we were surprised he could even tell if he had stalkers.


 Fixit and Climber, aka the family irongutses, brave the Techno Jump, while the rest of us waved at them.

5. (a more recent rule) I must have a go on the Giant Slide.



... because it is SO MUCH FUN!



Full photo set here.