Tenilles Visit part 2

Tuesday and Wednesday Tenille and I spent in the Melbourne CBD. 

We trained into Flinders Station,

 saw Federation Square, 

and Saint Paul's Cathedral, 

had lunch along the Yarra River, here we came across some bells that would play songs-

walked over to the Rod Laver Arena (where they host the Australian Open), 

scoped out the MCG (where they host many AFL (Australian Rules Football) games. AFL is a mix of soccer and rugby!  

On the second day we walked up and down Collins street for the boutique shopping. 

We also walked China town for some cheap souvenirs,

visited Stan's work and rode the City Circle (which is a little tram (similar to one's you  would see in San Francisco) which goes around the  major streets in Melbourne.

In the evening Stan met us for dinner on Lygon street, which is a series or Italian family restaurants famous for great food and reasonable prices, and waiters who will stand outside their shops and talk you into coming in with free desserts or drinks. It can sometimes get very exciting if there are multiple restaurant owners outside all at the same time!

Tenille's visit Part 1

A  couple weeks ago my little sister Tenille came out for a quick visit during the American "spring break". We were lucky with timing and weather. She arrived on a Saturday morning and it just so happened to be a 3 day weekend (labour day), so I left Stan with the kids, grabbed a beach tent and we headed out to Wilsons Prom (a national park just two hours south east from Melbourne). It was the last week of summer and around 80/90 degrees the whole time.  

Once we were up in the park we ran out of petrol and decided to head back to the city to fill up. The petrol stations were closed until morning (it was maybe 10:00 pm) so we decided to camp out on a nice patch of grass we found next to the road. By morning we realized we had slept out on someones lawn (seriously we were next to their mail box off the side of the road. I expected Tenille to be exhausted after her 24 hour flight and able to sleep anywhere but she was up most of the night listening to the Australian wildlife (kookaburra's sound like cranky monkeys in the early morning), and there were a couple wallabies jumping around our tent between 2-4:00 am.

Although this is a one step pop-up tent, we apparently struggled setting it up in the dark :-)

After the sun came up, we ran back to fill up with petrol and then drove back into the national park. We spent the whole day on the beach, running/ working out, boogie boarding, tanning, reading and listening to music, talking and I have to admit (especially since Stan had the kids) it was an actual sisters trip/vacation!

Here we are after a hike looking at the sunset-

Here we are at squeaky beach 

Here we are watching the sunset-

After watching someone dislocate their shoulder, Tenille wanted to try sand-boarding  down this hill on a boogie board. She was successful...and we scored someones boogie board!

After the end of three days at Wilson's prom, we started driving back to Melbourne, and decided to stop off at Phillips Island to see the Fairy Penguins run from the ocean to their burrows at the Penguin Parade. 

It never gets old and Tenille has always loved wildlife (budding biologist) so she enjoyed it more than the average tourist! :-)

We got home around midnight, Thanks Stan for taking the kids!

Student Council & Valentines Day!

Last year Olivia ran for Student Council, and lost. She was the new kid who moved in 4 days before the school year started. Her teacher said "good risk-taking" which is kind of an understatement when you come home from school and realize no one voted for you but...YOU :-)

With one year under her belt, Olivia has risen to the top. Things kids made fun of her for on the excursion bus (like her American accent- they would imitate it really loud from the back of the bus) she has turned into a strength. Below is her campaign speech, which she gave in front of her new year 4 class. 

 I wasn't sure how it would go over, but she WON by a large majority- and the class is actually giving some American traditions a go :-)

For Valentines day, the task of each person doing a Valentine for everyone in the class was a bit daunting. There are no little card packs in the grocery stores here and Valentines is not really for kids, but for adults. In addition, Chinese New Year always overlaps with Valentines day and with a very large Asian population here in Oz, Valentines takes second place.

To ameliorate this dilemma,  the teacher decided they would put names in a hat and each person would draw one out. The name they drew out was the one person they were supposed to be nice too on Valentines day. Olivia got her friend and not the boy who is mean to her (aka- the boy who has a crush on her), so she was very happy.

When the kids got home from school- we had a Valentine in the mailbox from Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Tengelsen. They were the little Valentine cards sold in the American stores that I had tried to describe to my kids. They were over the moon to see what they looked like and I was happy to see one too!  Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

For my Valentines, Stan sent me long stem roses with a beautiful card- his cards are always the best! Happy Valentines day!

Swim Carnival

This week Olivia had a swim carnival for the senior school (grades 3-6). When you are new to the school you are assigned a house (yes, just like Harry Potter) and every time there is a school competition, you barrack (cheer) for your house team. Olivia was assigned Mackie, and her houses colour is red. So she is under the red tent.

 Here are Olivia and Maddy (Olivias BFF) all ready to support their house...and sit next to each other at the same time! ;-)

 Olivia took second place in the 50 meter free style for her grade.

 Olivia also signed herself up for the noodle race

 If you enter in the 50 meter races doing an actual stroke (not a noodle race) and you get a certain time, you can qualify for regionals, to then qualify for state. So these are the Elementary school competitions, but they are taken quite seriously  by some who want their kids to get sports scholarships to private schools for high school.

 She took 1st place. She was pretty proud of herself, but I explained that those races are for kids who can't swim so next year let someone else win that race and sign up for the backstroke or breath stroke etc.

Good job Olivia- nothing like a day in the sun for school!

First Day of School

Our first day of school came a bit fast this year. My dad had been in town for most of January, and the week before school started we decided to take a quick trip (4 days) down to Tasmania for the Australia day weekend. When we got back we had 1 day to prepare for school and with an empty fridge and laundry to catch up on we did most our school shopping later in the evening. Thank goodness Aldi's is open until 8:00 pm and Kmart until 10:00 pm...everything else closes at 5:00 pm in Australia so my shopping choices were limited BUT sufficient! 

Our plane left very early on Tuesday morning (we had to get the kids up around 5:30 am) so Tuesday night they were ready to go to bed early (8:30 pm)- This couldn't have been planned better as the summer holiday resulted in a lax bed time routine, so the kids actually got to bed at the normal time the night before school started!

In the morning Olivia was the first one up and dressed and very excited. This year Mary has officially outgrown Olivia (two years apart) and Olivia is dealing with it the best way she can...by going on her tip toes in all of the picture.

 Mary-Adelle (year 2)

 Olivia Sue (year 4)

 Mary and Olivia

 Better lighting away from the door... All of Australia is in a flood zone and Melbourne is in a drought...so excuse the lawn we have water restrictions :-)

 Finally one with Olivia on her flat feet! 

Mary and Olivia bike to school together in the morning and afternoon. We live 6 blocks from school and since two of the three kids have to be at different places at the same time we are excited the girls can get to from home to school on their own.

 Mary walking in to her new classroom for the first time!

 Mary meeting her new teacher and seeing who is in her class!

Mary got a very nice teacher. She reminds me of 'Miss Honey' from the Roald Dahl book 'Matilda'...She will be perfect for Mary. Olivia got the blond teacher who wears hot pink and does first pumps...I think Olivia will be in heaven!  Both girls loved their first day of school, but I am wondering if 5 weeks is long enough for a summer break! I guess it is our trade off since we get 3 two week vacations throughout the school year(one in spring, winter and fall)... in addition to our summer vacation. I JUST DON'T WANT SUMMER TO BE OVER!

Australian Open

Last year when I moved to Melbourne, my dad came to visit me and watch the Australian Open here in Melbourne. It was fabulous. We had great tickets, saw amazing matches and it was 10x's more exciting to see the matches in person than to watch them on TV.

This year my dad came out again for a visit, which was timed perfectly with the Australian Open. We were able to go to the open during the prelims but the semi's and finals, we were going to be in Tasmania. 

So our first match was a girls single match. 

This year we were able to Marion Bartoli (french ranked 11th) lost to Ekaterina Makarova (Russian, 19th).  

The Bryan Brothers (identical twins doubles partners): Bob and Mike Bryan (USA, #1) beat Cipolla and Seppi (Italy). 

During these matches, there was a group of 4 guys who had made 1 minute jingles about the Bryan brothers (mostly about how awesome they were) to popular songs and they would sing in between matches. At the end the Bryan Brothers threw them some towels!

 After that match we saw Evgeny Donskoy (Russia) vs Kei Nishikori (Japan).  There was a huge Japanese crowd with this guy. I was barracking for the Russian.