School Photos and Reports

They are so gorgeous and not only do they get their good looks from their mother they get their brains too! Ryan's report was stunning! He got all highly Competent and Established results. For half way through the year that is awesome. He only got Developing for using finger spaces and full stops and taking responsibility for his own behaviour. (Throwing himself on the floor and crying "I can't walk! My legs don't work!" as he tends to do when things don't go his way!) Which we would expect to be Developing! His teacher is thrilled with him and we cant wait to see how he goes for the rest of the year!

Matthew's report was good. It is hard because his really was good but Ryan's was stunning! We know you shouldn't compare but gee it's hard! It is also really obvious they both have different strengths and weaknesses. Matthew excels socially where Ryan is just starting to become social. So for Matthews results he got a varying array of Beginning, Developing and Established. His strengths are numeracy, french and physical education. For his A to E reports he got C's for English, HPE, Maths and Science and a B for French. So we are very pleased with his work. His teacher raves about him so we are very happy with that too!

Julie.

Julie is Ben's Playschool teacher.

Anyway, this evening the smoke alarm went off (I was making toast!). So I decided to use it as a learning experience and asked the boys what they needed to do. Matthew got on his knees and evacuated to the nearest door. Ryan followed, however this task was exceptionally difficult with his hands over his ears. Ben stood there screaming "We need to call Julie. She knows what to do!" Apparently I don't know what to do because Julie hasn't taught me and knowledge only counts if it has been taught by Julie! And Julie is the only one who has ever done a fire drill with him!

Jump Rope 4 Heart. I promised you plenty of bang for your buck!

Today was the much anticipated Jump rope for heart day! The boys have been fund raising for weeks now. And practising their skipping! Unfortunately Ryan has been sick with a hacking cough for the last few days. He really wasn't well enough for school so I only took him in for the skipping part of the day.

First of all there was rotations of different skipping activities. Rye had a go at the big rope. He got up to 8 skips in a row!

But he decided turning the rope was more his style!

Ben had a go! I unfortunately missed the knot he tied himself in just after this move! He completely tied the rope around his legs AND arms!

He eventually made it over the rope, kind of!

Matthew took it really seriously!

And we all know to concentrate really hard you need to stick your tongue out! He gets that from his Grumpy!

Matthew in action!

All three in action (well Ben cracked it because I wouldn't skip with him anymore!)

And now the really good bit......the videos!

This child will go far!

Ben: What are you looking at?
Me: You! What are you looking at?
Ben: You.
Me: Why?
Ben: Because you are so pretty!
Me: I love you Ben!
Ben: I love you too Mummy!

Minus 5

We have had sub zero temperatures every morning this week in Canberra. So far (an we are only in the second week of winter!) it has been the coldest winter since our very first. Which consisted of several minus 8's and one day it was still zero at midday!
This morning I braved the cold and took a chance with Jack Frost to get some photos.........

My beautiful flowering hedge probably wont flower after this!

The steam rising from the fence as the frost melts and the metal starts to heat up.

Aren't the crystals of ice sparkling in the sun pretty!

The whole fence is covered with ice, even the side panels!

Cleon and Michelle's bulb garden. Bulbs need cold earth to flower. I think they are getting it! Should be a bumper spring!

Our front grass. We had a very mild autumn which meant we had prolonged autumn colour. However the cold has hit so quickly we haven't even managed to rake all the leaves yet!

My creeper viney thing out the back.

The whole yard was crunchy! Even the dirt patches!

I don't think Ryan will be riding his bike too soon!

The sun rising over the frozen earth!

Cleon and Michelle's garage roof is usually red NOT white!

Google

Yesterday I found Matthew sitting at the computer. This is not unusual. The unusual part was there was no screaming at the screen whilst playing some silly game. This morning he was perusing pictures of whales. When he saw me he called me over to show me what he had found. He had up pages and pages of whales. He clicked through a few, telling me the name of the whale (like Orca not willy!). I asked him how he found them. He rolled his eyes at me and said "Google" (I'm sure you can all imagine the tone of his voice as I'm sure everyone has used the same tone when their parents have asked something stupid!). I then asked him to show me how he had done it and sure enough he just types (with one finger stabbing mind you! So male!) "Whales" into the search engine! So of course I asked him how he learnt that. His first answer was that he just knew it but it turns out a friend from school showed him!
I can't believe how quickly he is growing up! I cant believe how smart he is! We need to hurry up and get some filters on the computer!
It gets even better. Running in the door after being shopping with his Dad, Matthew burst in shouting "Yay, time for more research!" His nerdy father couldn't be more proud!

Hmmmmmm

Who thinks from the new look of my blog the cold is currently on my mind?