February from March

Somehow February skipped by, with all of its back-to-school-and-tap madness, without making a mark on the blog.  So before March marches out of control, here's what went on in the last month or so. 



Climber started Year 9 and Cherub started his last year of Primary School.  Talk about grown-up.



They seem to have settled into their new year at school really well, despite Cherub being separated for the first time from his lifelong best-friend. They are doing well with it though, and it's quite sweet to hear them discussing with each other what they've been doing in their different classes when his bestie comes over for a regular Thursday afternoon play.  Probably can't call it a play anymore. Sniff.



Tap started back too, and is going really well. Good class numbers, excellent retention of current students and quite a few new faces too.  The tap-kids and I are madly getting ready for another performance at the Merri Creek fete. We're all very excited!



Climber got targeted by an unknown German man via his Instagram account and received some disturbing private messages which made me feel ill when I read them.  Not that there was anything highly explicit, and my feeling now that I've calmed down is that the sender was not an experienced predator and could possibly have just been a young gay guy trying his luck, but it's so hard to know who someone is just by looking at an Instagram account.  However, it is absolutely clear that Climber is only 14 years old when you look at his profile, so there is still a high level of wrongness, and the guy has been blocked, and other preventative strategies put in place. What I took a lot of comfort from, once the shock died down, was that Climber just thought the guy was being stupid and inappropriate and either said repressive things like that's none of your business or just didn't respond.  He is an awesome kid.  I worry so much about the corrupting influence of peers and internet and high school, but time and again Climber's true character shows me I needn't.



Fixit knocked down our cubbyhouse, seeing as how the only family members who used it were Fixit (for lawnmower storage) and Basil (for mid-afternoon catnaps).  I do feel a little bit sad, but it had to be done.  We've been looking around for a new place to live, but not with any luck so far.  We did find something which I thought was perfect, but they didn't even ring up our referees so I obviously need to work on how we present on a rental application form. Possibly we need to lie?  I don't really know how these things work.



We went to the zoo in the school holidays with Jen and her girls.  We rode our bikes there which made it even more fun. There's a lovely bike path the whole way there.



I took this photo against the seal window. 



Climber has grown so much since the last seal window shots in 2013.



We went Socceroo crazy during the Asian Cup, and were rewarded when Australia was crowned champion.  The final match was an absolute killer, it looked like we were going to win and then the North Korean team equalised with 1 minute to spare, forcing the match into extra time.  Cherub wept until the moment that Australia scored their second goal.  It was his first ever experience of putting his heart totally into a team and then finding that they could let you down.



Cherub has had his last ever primary school camp.  He had an excellent time, but was so tired when he got home Wednesday night that he didn't fully recover until Saturday.


Before camp


After camp

He also had his final primary school swimming carnival. Previously he has elected to specialise in breaststroke, but I wanted him to enter the other events just to see how he performed after all these years of swimming lessons.  He decided to go against this request, and I roused on him when I turned up at the carnival and found he was still dry; so having missed the chance to see how he'd do in freestyle and backstroke, he gave butterfly a go and got 3rd place. He also received 2nd in breaststroke and 2nd in the diving.  I just wanted him to enter to see how he went, not for ribbon glory, but I suspect having seen the rest of the field in the 12-year-olds, his attitude cost him a backstroke ribbon at the very least.  Anyway, the day after camp he represented his school in the breaststroke at the Zone Carnival and finished a creditable third in his heat.



I came home from tap on February 14th to find this lovely surprise on my pillow from Mister Fixit. I had forgotten it was St. Valentine's Day so I was even more gratified. Didn't have to hint or anything.



Fixit and I attended his cousin's wedding down at a winery on the Mornington Peninsula.  It was a very pleasant day, although it did seem a shame to be the designated driver at an event where the wine was likely to be very nice indeed!



Fixit's good shoes fell apart (the soles suddenly started disintegrating everywhere) so he had to leave the wedding between ceremony and reception to find a local shoe store. I think this is indicative of how little Fixit wears good shoes, but he should be set for a while now.



I made a wearable muslin of a 1950s style tea dress with princess seams, in preparation for some dressmaking at Crarf Camp, and I'm very pleased with it. The Tiny Tappers were very impressed, and somewhat distracted, by my Winnie-the-pooh dress when I taught them this week.  I sewed an invisible zip for the first time, not wholly successfully, but good enough for a practice dress.



And although there's more to be blogged, I am off to Crarf Camp tomorrow - yay!- so I will have more to say when I return.