Season Ends on a High Note

Miss I's netball team, STPNC (St Therese's Parish Netball Club) Gold Stars, played one of the best games I've seen this season, if it wasn't for roughly a 30% height disadvantage they may have even had a chance of winning.
Seriously, check out the height difference in these pictures!
Talk about a challenge, first they had to be able to see around Gigantor #1 to know where to pass the ball and then had to pass the ball precisely enough to stop it being intercepted by Gigantor's team mate, Gigantor #2. 
The girls worked really hard - taking their time with their passing, chasing down loose balls, manning up like they were wearing velcro and with the same enthusiasm from the first whistle to the last siren.  Such great attitude and determination from them all and not one word of a whinge!

Backyard Stoush

Since we moved in we have noticed a few cats hanging around, rather big cats to be precise, but in the absence of any noticable territorial marking smells we haven't bothered too much about it.  This week we decided to pay particular attention to the new neighbours and have counted 4 of them. 
On sighting we usually run outside yelling and hissing to scatter and deter them but last weekend I suggested that we should see if they seemed friendly at all - big mistake.
The very next day after said experiment I caught one of them abluting in the back corner of our yard so I immediately returned to charging at them growling and hissing.
On waking this morning, 2 of them were hunkered down in the not so recently mowed back "lawn",  maybe fantasising that they were African lions on the plains, strange choice though given it hadn't stopped raining overnight and was < 10 degrees outside.  We observed them for a moment but then I couldn't resist charging at them again to see what happened.
The pair of them ran straight for, and up, the back fence, not a bad feat for what I originally thought were some over loved pets.
We watched eating our breakfast quite leisurely as they faced each other off for @ 15 minutes, eventually Mr Grey started to back away.
I got bored with the stale mate so charged at them again, they both leaped over the fence and disappeared.
So, I think I either need to get a dog or a nerf gun...  figure the latter might be quite a bit less maintenance and expense, any suggestions appreciated.

 Round 1

 Round 2

 Round 3

A Little Olympic Inspiration

Every week I drag myself and my progeny off to swimming lessons, they don't particularly like it and whilst I don't mind it in a "something a mother has to do" kind of way, it is one of the more tedious hours of my week.
We have no expectations of our children ever being olympic swimmers, that will never happen if only because their mother struggles to rise before the sun does, but feel that they should be confident swimmers as we like to take our holidays in warmer climates, preferably near a beach or a pool.
This week I had the pleasure of the company of my beautiful friend C, who also happens to be Miss I's Godmother, we'd spent the day doing grown up things and she hung around for some family time.  So whilst my kids are slogging it out in the pool we were yacking away on the sidelines and I totally missed my youngest swimming her first full lap unassisted...  Mother of the Year award coming my way!!!!!
I didn't feel so bad after my little swimmer was so impressed with her achievement that she didn't bother to collect her certificate until I reminded her.
Very proud day though.

100 days

Doesn't seem like much in the general scheme of things, but when you're celebrating your first 100 days of school it's a pretty big deal according to St Therese's Preps.
The countdown clock has been on since the beginning of the year and they have been preparing and rehearsing since the end of last term.
Invitations went home and when the day finally arrived they were all super excited.
Parents arrived to be greeted from some very fine Year 5 hosts at the door, we were given our instructions and told where to sit, then the stars of the show arrived all dressed up and ready for action.
We were treated to some fine speeches, lovely singing, beautiful decorations and very funky dancing. There were also activities to do with the children so they could showcase just how much they have learnt in 100 days.
Pretty impressive was the general consensus and lots of fun too!

Straight from the Horses Mouth

Rather than write my own blog entry today I figured I would just post what the subject wrote about the matter herself.  We think she was very proud of her achievement yesterday, actually we know she was, the humongous smile on her face that is still there today gives it away!

Trying to smile with a mouth full of snakes.

The Face of Evil

Dr Evil that is!  Our fish formerly known as Speedie has earnt himself a new name.
Following the departure of his long time partner and the grief of a little girl, we welcomed a new member into our family (as featured in one of my original posts) probably a little sooner than would be the social norm.
Unfortunately Carrot was only with us for a week, I suspected that my misunderstanding of how long the bag containing the new fish should float in the bowl to acclimatise for was to blame, but she came good for a few days and then again, there it was, dead fish laying at the bottom of the bowl.
Fortunately the pet store has a 14 day warranty on fish and kids being kids they were keen to restore the balance of one fish each in the bowl and off we went to the pet store to make good our purchase.
Then along came Bolt, she was spritely and introduced into the bowl within the 15 minute guideline she was zipping about all over the place... and then we noticed, Speedie seemed to be trying to play Tiggy with her.
We kept our eye on the situation and Bolt seemed to be holding her own, but Speedie wore her down, the plant wasn't big enough for her to hide in and his pestering was relentless, before we knew it there was another victim laying at the bottom of the bowl.
So Speedie is to be known for the rest of his days as Dr Evil and will have to serve out his time in solitude, no more taking our chance with pet store warranties.

Not for the Squeemish

This is tooth #37. After @ 35 years of loyal service she turned to the dark side and became a bit of a problem. So devious was her behaviour that even the medical profession didn't believe the pain was her doing. After many dental and specialist visits, and even an MRI, the truth was discovered and it was in fact 2 cracks in her exterior causing the problem. My only option was to terminate her service and so I made an appointment to have her extracted. 
She didn't go down without a fight, splitting into 3 pieces in a last ditch effort to beat the extractor.  Her final attempt to divide and conquer was no competition for the man with the big pair of pliers though and her crushed and bloody carcas lay in pieces on the stainless steel tray - defeated.
So now, 5 days later, she is gone but certainly not forgotten as I am still sucking down painkillers, hopefully tomorrow I will feel a lot better about my dearly departed ex-servant.

My Little Monster

I'm not quite sure how this came to be but Miss I loves Lady Gaga, she has both her cds and listens to them all the time, has done since The Fame first came out.  So when her Australian tour was announced I was pretty sure that concert tickets would make a fantastic present for her and a bit of motivation to get a fantastic first half school report.  I did actually question whether it was a good idea to take her on the basis of age appropriateness but in the end I was glad I did.
The build up to the concert wasn't so much of a fuss, nor was the choice of outfit for the night, but as we approached Rod Laver Arena, the excitement was clearly evident.  Forging towards the gates with 2 of her friends, they almost left us for dead. 
People watching as we made our way to our seats was great fun, and as it is with kids they have no shame in pointing and shouting "check that one out!".  Fans had gone to great lengths to recreate the Gaga look and it made for interesting entertainment.
I had been warned by fans that had seen her last concert that it was a bit raunchy so I had purchased tickets a longgggggggggg way back to try and water it down a bit, second row from the back to be precise.  The binoculars kind of put paid to any impact that might have had though, every time I looked over to see if she was dancing she had the binos glued to her face and was taking in every detail of the concert.
The next day she gave D the run down of which songs were/weren't sung and when in the concert they were sung and which costume she was wearing when she sang them, it actually surprised me the level of knowledge she had in regards to all songs from both albums and their title and lyrics.

The next day she appeared with this stuck to her face with sticky tape, took me a while to figure out what it was, see how you go (not the 5c, it's there for size reference!)

The binoculars work so well that she thought Lady Gaga had a microphone stuck to her face and this was her version of it.