In May from June

In May, Climber went off to camp twice.



The first one was music camp. Climber and most of the music kids he knows are 'novice' musicians, and as such weren't eligible for Music Camp yet, but Climber attended because of being in the choir. This meant he didn't really know the other kids at camp well enough to feel comfortable, and although he had a bearable time, he was I think a bit lonely and came home looking and feeling fragile.  If he didn't like his choir teacher so much he might have ditched choir by now, but I hope he stays with it because he has a nice singing voice.



The other camp was the Year 7 camp, which had been postponed due to the industrial action in Term One.  Owing to this and availabilities of theatres and camp locations, the rescheduled camp clashed with the Music Concerts, so on his second night of camp, Climber was bussed back to perform with the choir in the Strings and Choir Concert, and then went back to camp that same night, had his last day at camp, and then came home and performed flute that night with the Bands concert.  I missed the Strings and Choir concert because I was teaching, but man, the Bands concert was excellent.  The kids in the Intermediate and Senior bands were so impressive and inspiring.  I feel very happy that Climber is getting to do music in such a great school program.



All of these camp/concert shenanigans involved a fair bit of organisational gymnastics from Mister Fixit and me (who both work nights), not just to get a parent there to watch with Cherub, but to make sure Climber got to the theatre in a clean and sweet-smelling state with the things he needed, like his flute and shiny shoes. We were all exhausted by the Thursday, and I gave the kids the day off to recover.



In May, Cherub's class was asked to reprise their rendition of Thriller for the school's AGM, which was exciting BUT clashed with Climber's Band Concert/Return from Camp.  I explained to Cherub's school about the clash and asked if Thriller could be scheduled as first item so that Cherub and I could race to watch Climber's show straight afterwards. The teacher's initial response was that if not, maybe another child could take over the role of Michael Jackson? Obviously I am far too much of a Stage Mother for that to be an option, I mean surely there is only one Michael Jackson as far as 4A is concerned. So I set about organising a babysitter who could take care of Cherub, just in case.  As it turned out, the Principal, very kindly, did rejig the running order to accommodate me, and Thriller was the opening act, done and dusted by 6:50pm, leaving Cherub and I plenty of time to make it to  Climber's concert in Moonee Ponds by 7:30pm.  Cherub was very good again, and managed a creditable moonwalk despite performing on carpet which is not slidy enough for really optimal moonwalking.



In May I celebrated National Tap Dancing Day on the 25th by teaching heaps of gorgeous children tap dance. (It was Saturday, we were there anyway, but we did celebrate - I made them pose for photos with me.)



In May we received our school photographs. The High School went the bog-standard school photographer and we got bog-standards pictures.  But the Primary School went with a local woman and I just love the beautiful shots she took of Cherub and his class.



See the difference?



In May, we did a lot of throwing out.  Old tellies and computers, old clothes, old potties and strollers.  We were holding on to a lot of crap, stuff we felt we needed to keep "just in case", because our finances had been so tight for so long. (I don't know why we were hanging on to the potties though.  Maybe we were waiting for a poor friend to have a kid so we could pass them on? Or maybe they were just in a cupboard I didn't open very often.) Anyway, Fixit is a qualified mechanic now, and it won't break us to buy new stuff where required.  So out it all went, and it felt really good. Clothes drawers are in good order and clothing that was never worn has been passed on to the opshop. Shelf space has magically become available.  Somehow all this virtue resulted in me going out and rewarding myself with not one but two brand new pairs of winter boots at the 25-percent-off boot sale at Myer.  I haven't owned winter boots for nearly 20 years. Here are the workaday, standing around at soccer games pair. Very comfortable, and a zip at the side so I don't have to undo all those laces. The other pair is more posh.  I may wear them to the theatre.