In Australia they do things a bit differently as far as school vacations are concerned. The Christmas/Summer break is only for 6 weeks. Instead, they spread out some of the breaks throughout the year. The school year is broken up into 4 terms and between each term they have a 2 week term break. So Ella and Amelie, having had just 3 1/2 quick weeks of school here, are now on a 2 1/2 week break (9/25-10/14)!
On the last day of school they had another amazing assembly with the theme of "Dancing with the Football Stars" as the following day was the Australian Rules Football Finals. It was performed by the 7th grade and they did an excellent job. There were all different dancing numbers performed by groups of either girls or boys. They had 3 judges: an Australian, a French and an American. The American judge was very loud and obnoxious (that's our reputation around the world - aren't we proud??!!). Even though it was absolutely hilarious, I couldn't believe how mature and coordinated these kids were (even the boys) and what a great job they did. I wish that I had video taped it. Ella got a Merit Award this time for "Promoting the children's interest and understanding regarding the life cycle of a garden snail". Totally sounds like Ella doesn't it? I was so glad she got one because Ella, who usually is the one to shine in the eyes of her teachers, was feeling a bit jealous of Amelie who had gotten 2 gold slips and 1 Merit Award. For those of you High School Musical 2 fans, Amelie and Ella got a great kick out of Amelie saying "I got a gold slip and a merit award and, golly Troy, I've only been here for 2 weeks...uhn, uhn!"
After school we went to a playground/park with a bunch of other families and celebrated the beginning of break. All the playgrounds here are amazing. I can't believe that my 9 year old daughter, and her younger siblings, can happily spend 2 hours at the playground playing on the equipment. Also, every playground here has tables, some sort of covering from the sun (usually sails suspended overhead) and BBQs. Every BBQ looks like a big rectangular block with a flat stainless grilling surface and is hooked up to propane. When you click it on it will stay on for 20 minutes and then shut off automatically. You can then restart it if you need more time. When you're done you clean the surface for the next people. It's amazing! This way people can get together all the time for BBQs and you don't have to clean your house to get ready... The US really has some things to learn from the Aussies.
Ella and Amelie were invited to a birthday party at the Dark Zone where they have laser tag. Amelie was a bit intimidated by the whole thing so she didn't do it, but Ella loved it!
We also went to the Perth Royal Show by train. This is an annual "show" which is a bit like an upscale county fair. "The Smoke Free Perth Royal Show is Perth's biggest community event attracting 400,000 visitors from the city and the country every year. With a rich history spanning 170 years, the Show is an iconic social and cultural event which showcases WA agriculture, small business and entertainment." It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun. A big attraction at the show are the "show bags" which are either "lolly" (candy) bags or theme bags. Ella got a lolly bag, Amelie got a littlest pet shop bag and Pieter got a teenage mutant ninja turtle bag. There was a petting ring where Ella was in her glory. She was petting a calf who then relaxed so much that he lay down and proceeded to fall asleep with his head in Ella's lap. She just sat there for half hour. There was also a tent set up by the Australian Navy. Inside it was one of the MK 48 torpedo that Rob has been working on with the Australians! There happened to be a guy who just entered the tent when we did who started up a conversation with Rob and had all kind of questions for him. It was really cool for Rob to be able to answer all his questions (without giving away any classified info, of course...haha). At the end of the night there was a big show in the middle ring (where they'd had horse show jumping all day!) with BMX bikes and motorcycles. The motorcycles were going up these huge ramps and then jumping 50-70 feet to the next ramp. They did all kinds of tricks in the air like handstands, holding on with only one hand and the rest of their body flying off the bike and doing back flips with their motorcycles in the air!! Pieter got so excited over this that every time they did an amazing trick he had to hug both Rob and me. He didn't know what to do with himself. We missed our train stop on the way home because we didn't know we had to hit the "open" door button to get off. Fortunately the next stop wasn't far and the return train was on the next track, unfortunately, in my haste I slammed Pieter into a flower planter. He's fine now:)
We had a nice breakfast at Zephyr's on the Swan River with the Duncans. There is a great playground right next door, of course, so the kids ran off to play while the adults got to hang out and chat. I love the ages of our kids that they don't need us on top of them all the time anymore. We biked to the East Fremantle Oval where the Sharks play Aussie rules football. Rob's bike has a tandem hitch for Pieter. When we got there it turned out the Mushens were playing today. See attached photo. We won, by the way.
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