Sailing with the Pirates!

This week we went on a pirate ship cruise around the harbour. IT WAS AWESOME! The kids worked on their costumes for about a week before, and were so excited when the day finally came! We were all pirates except for Mary who dressed up as a princess to see if they would make her walk the plank!

The cruise was for 2 hours. We learned how to:

• Talk like a pirate
• Did chalk drawings on the deck
• Steered the boat
• Ate a pirate lunch
• Hoisted the sails
• Went on a treasure hunt and found chocolate gold coins
• Scrubbed the deck with sea water and brooms
• and learned a pirate song... I seriously think Stan was the only one singing along!

Waiting for the ship!

Getting ready to board

All the pirates getting on

The ship and the harbour bridge in the background

Raising the flag

Stan and Thomas sword fighting

Pirate Olivia

Drawing on the deck

Before we raised the sails

Thomas coloring on EVERYTHING other than the deck

A quick family pix at the head of the boat

Some of the spread, they did a BBQ but you can see the shrimp and other seafood here.

Olivia helping to steer

Mary steering!

Thomas taking over the wheel...he was the most into it

End of the treasure hunt. It was down in the bottom of the ship, they had to pull up the floor boards (where there was an X) and follow a map!

Olivia scrubbing the deck

(they would throw a bucket overboard and then poor it all over the floor and clean up the chalk!)

At the end all the kids were certified pirates and we went home! It was a perfect fall day, and a great way to spend one of our days off for the Easter school holiday! Best of all, the outing was FREE- last of our red balloon gift cards from PwC...about to expire!

Cost of living!

Recently I had a friend comment how jealous she was that I get to live in Sydney, Australia. I realized my blog only ever covers the upsides to my town but there is one BIG down-side, which I have been meaning to highlight. This is "the cost of living!" They say the three most important things when considering a house are "location, location, location"....the problem with Sydney's location is that there is the ocean on one side and the blue mountains on the other side, so the only place to build is UP, or to split up a house into a duplex (or smaller).

To give you an idea, I have put up a few current examples of what I would pay for my very first starter house in Oz! In"ok" neighborhoods--skipped the posh and ghetto areas!

First, Mosman.

Pro: A great suburb on the north shore (where a lot of white people are) and kind of by the water..... Con: really compact with busy streets and nowhere to park in front of your own house. Although an affluent area, there are houses on top of houses.

Cheapest house on the market (3 bed, 2 bath) - $1.1 million (O and you only get half the house...it's a duplex --see the fence? :-)

Suburb #2- Killara.

Pro: Best public school in the city (but most don't go to public schools after elementary school), and right against a rain forest...think of all the wildlife :-) Con: 1 hour commute each way.

Cheapest thing on the market...an apartment (3 bed, 3 bath). Here is what they have been reduced to sell at: NO. 58 : $1.25 Million only, total size: 387m² on title, NO. 59: $1.3 Million only, total size: 388m² on title

It looks so clean and NEW....

but do you know what I could get in Great Falls Virginia for 1.3M?

Suburb #3 Hornsby

Pros: Lots of LDS...so we wouldn't be in the Korean ward anymore :-) Cons: Yucky town, over an hour commute, completely away from EVERYTHING....toured an apartment there once and the guy had been killed in his living room!

Cheapest house: (I think this is in a trailer park) $575,000--So I guess that is a better ball park for a first home hu?...just never thought my first home would be a trailer ...CRY!

Suburb #4: Concord

Pro: This is where we live (in an apt) so it is familiar, 20 min commute to the city. Italian part of town so we learn it in the schools! Con: No young families, Korean ward--difficult to fit in, and the industrial side of town (inner-west), eager for a change!

3 Bed, 1 Bath...$1.1Million

Laughing b/c this looks like a dirty starter house in Provo...but here it would be my final dream house!

So.....I might stay in an apartment FOREVER ($600-900K for our little unit)!

So seriously friends....DON'T BE JEALOUS!

Aside from housing I came across this article about how Sydney has the worlds highest parking fees. It is true, once I parked to go to the aquarium and after 3 hours I owed $75.00.

Good thing we have credit card parking meters!

To attend public schools I pay $5,000/kid/year. Private schools are around $20,000+/kid/year and the majority of the middle and upper class attend private schools from year 7 up to year 12. All of the sudden the 5 year gap between children makes sense. Most people admit to having planned this spacing b/c they can't afford high school tuition for more than one kid at a time.

The average petrol price is $1.43/ liter there are 3.7 liters to a gallon so our petrol cost $5.29/ gallon. And guess what the Aussies do not complain. We drive a 5 seater (yes it is tight with three kids) but I don't think I could afford the gas if we upgraded to a van.

A little icing on the cake: Tithing is not tax deductible in Oz and taxes are HIGHER than the USA (by about 20% on average).... so factor that in on top of it all! :-) Don't worry once the USA has socialized meds your taxes should increase by about 20% too...

Soccer Season

So in Australia, soccer season is during the FALL! In order to compete on a global scale everyone has to be competing at the same time right? This is Olivia & Mary's first year (last March Olivia was undergoing her kidney operation) and the year before we were fairly new to Oz and Olivia was in kindy...I just didn't get my act together! It was now or never as next year, for Olivia, you have to audition! Mary is starting about the right time (mostly drills and games which are less competitive). Olivia has an ID card to make sure she is in the right age group, with people signing carbon papers regarding who scored and which team won; with supporting signatures for both teams....she is 7 years old! Yeah for joining a league hu?

Above is Stan carrying Olivia back to the car...she got kicked down the leg with a cleat! Below is Stan & Olivia during a water break. Olivia's team has no subs so she was running the whole time!

Some action shots!

Wish I knew who this girls parents were...it is a sweet action shot of her with the ball!

Olivia is on a mostly girl team (which she loves) and although Olivia is small, she is the fastest one on her team. This is her first season and she has NO footwork but with her speed she has potential to excel quite a bit this year! I am just excited to have her running around!

Miss Mary at her first game (the only girl on her team).

One main reason I love soccer is because it has pulled the sporty girl side out of both of them and squashed the dance, gymnastic, princess side that they both insist they want to nurture. SCORE! Keep you posted on the season (Marys team won 6-0 (one kid scored all the goals) and Olivia's team lost 1-5).

April Fools...a Summary!

Every year I completely forget April Fools Day. I am always so disappointed the next day when I realize I forgot to pull a prank AND that I fell for everything! Ugh! This year I somehow remembered a couple days early, had some free time and did some Internet searches for good pranks to pull! It was great, and I fluctuate between giggling about it to myself for a couple days and feeling like I should grow up for next year.

So below is the summary of the day:

First I started the day off telling Stan it was way later than it really was. He jumped out of bed, got dressed in 20 seconds and I would have let him run out the door, but since he is on a client site right now he has a taxi pick him up. He grabbed the computer to order a taxi and I had to fess up to the real time... as it would have been starring him right in the face! April Fools!--luckily he was a good sport, and had heaps of free time for the rest of the morning!

Next I got up to make breakfast for the kids...green eggs and ham! The kids just gave me a weird look, asked me what happened to the eggs and ate the bacon.

After breakfast I posted my usual pregnancy announcement on Facebook and my blog (I admit I should shake the joke up, but it works every time!) I had only a few people catch on (only in-law relationships on both sides--way to go Katie and Sonni), and Stan was so horrified he made me fess up around 5:00pm publicly instead of getting to wait until the morning! :-(

After breakfast and blogging I got the kids "ready for the day"....by telling them in was Saturday! Te-He!! Olivia got dressed out for her very first soccer game and Mary got ready for a birthday party. I somehow talked Mary into wearing her school uniform to the birthday party (so the mom would know she was part of the group) and then dropped the kids off at school! Olivia was horrified! In Australia you wear the school uniform (green) so showing up in her florescent yellow jersey and cleats/ shin pads was the WORST joke ever!

I planned on just dropping the kids off and picking them up from school but the joke was partly on ME as it was a school assembly for grand-friends in honor of Anzac day and so Olivia had to sing in front of the parents and grandparents of the whole school. Because of this assembly, the faculty members of the school didn't think my joke was very funny either! LOL!!

Right about now Olivia is fuming...they made her sit in the back behind everyone and not with her friends because she was not wearing the uniform! If you click on the picture it will upload on your screen and you can see the horror!

....So I caved in and changed her really quick before the assembly started (yes, I had a uniform in my purse just in case she (or I) couldn't handle the joke).

Mary is right along the microphone--see her?

After that, we proceeded through the assembly and class visits.

Here is Olivia showing me her school work!

Mary and her best friend Georgie, while I visit the kindy classroom.

Olivia's Anzac Day project (the Anzac bridge out of paddle pop sticks). The Assembly was on behalf of Anzac day (A battle fought during world war II where Australia & New Zealand joined together to fight against Turkey. Unfortunately,the Aussies & Kiwi's were completely wiped out). A lot of kids still have grandparents or paraphernalia from the battle so it was put on display.

After the Anzac day assembly I went home, cleaned up, and checked on my blog and FB account! :-) After school we had swimming lessons and the girls and Stan were so mad at me that we decided to call it quits and went out to a movie. Rango-it was OK....and while Stan tried to get me at least once, like "O- I forgot my wallet, or I left my keys in the car"...I never fell for any of it and had mine on me so it was no big deal! Sorry Stan!--maybe next year :-)