Holiday Highlights and one Lowlight

We spent the first week of school hols schlepping across the city and up the freeway to North Beach Baptist's holiday King's Club program, "Out of this World". The kids loved it, and we were able to take two kids form our church along on three of the days as well. Sam was able to join in for the first time, attending one full session and two half-sessions as he found the overwhelming noise of the all-in kids sessions, which had lots of singing, a bit overwhelming. It was also a good change to grab a free cuppa and some cake while I did my pre-reading for Trinity, worked a little on something I am writing for another blog, and caught up with some mums I know from when NBBC was our church.

We spent the second week mostly at home, with the kids taking turns to use Mathletics or Reading Eggs with my closer-than-usual attention to see how they were going. I have made a deal with Joshua and Anna that they have to earn a certificate (1000 pts) for Mathletics each week before they are allowed to play any computer games, or visit other sites they are interested in. This morning Joshua earned 450 points, so the target is well within their reach. Abigail and Samuel have to work on Reading Eggs before they can play computer games.

We also watched a few movies: Rango, which made me ask myself "Is this a Christian parable or a Christian parody?" and Ramona and Beezus, which taught the kids to use the word "bilious". Played loooots of Lego, particularly Star Wars. Closely averted Jeff spending just under a thou on 2nd hand Lego on ebay (phew!) and played with mooooore Lego. Went to several birthday parties. I enjoyed sitting in the church service through the entire thing two Sundays in a row as our Missions Committee ran a holiday program for the kids on David Livingstone and I wasn't part of it. It was lovely to partake of holy communion again! The cousins and Auntie Carla came for a visit. The kids also had a playdate with some kids from church while their mum babysat our kids so Jeff and I could attend a Work in Progress seminar at Trinity comparing John's gospel with the Synoptics, which was very interesting.

We caught a train into the city to buy a birthday present for Uncle Michael and stayed for a short visit to the Art Gallery. We love spending time there looking at the exhibits and talking about them. In the main foyer this time was an exhibition of four metal sculptures and a painting of the sculptures. It was only when we looked closely at the painting that we realised it was of the sculpture figures, and then we began to find out which sculpture was which figure in the painting. The kids thought that was a great puzzle.

All in all, a lovely holiday. But what was our one lowlight? The trip to the emergency dept yesterday afternoon to get Abigail's head stuck back together. Part of a disassembled bed frame fell on her at a friend's house and we made the dash to PMH where she was seen and sent home before Jeff had time to take the other three kids home for a quick bath each.(The silvery gleam is the glue.) Abi's fine now, just a little bit sookier than usual, and upset because Anna got to play at Kidzland today rather than her, since she isn't allowed to bounce for a few days. So instead, I'm off to cook a pineapple upside down cake with Abigail to cheer her up.

They'll be back at school and child care tomorrow. :-(