Sports Day 2012

On Friday the kids had Sports Day at school. Normally we have it in 4th term, but this year they changed it to 1st term. All the of my children are in the green team named Coombes.

They started the day doing their team chants and a health hustle. They then went around to all the different events with their teachers.  They had lots of fun and did really well through out the whole day. Of course they were all in different events, in different places all at the same time so Haylie and I spent a lot of time going between the events to watch the kids do different things.

Vortex Throw

Frisbee (Discus)

Long Jump

Accuracy Kick

Hurdles

They even let Haylie have a turn on the Hurdles

Obstacle Course

It was freezing cold on Friday and we even had a bit of rain, but it wasn't enough to dampen the kids enthusiasm.

By the end of the day though the kids were very tired and worn out!

Amie's New Dress

A couple of weeks ago we discovered that Amie had grown out of nearly all of her church dresses. Being just after Christmas there wasn't lots of extra money lying around to go buy her one so Mum suggested that we make one. I looked through all my patterns and found a cute, but simple one. Then I looked through my stash of fabric and found one that I liked.

Here is the finished product.

Amie loves it and so do I. It is made of cotton so it is nice and cool for summer. It looked a little plain so I added the buttons on the front and the sleeves.

I also added a ribbon to tie in a bow at the back. This actually worked out perfectly because the dress is a little big and it pulls it in nicely.

I also added the lace around the bottom hem which I think finishes it off perfectly.

While making this dress I have decided to use this same pattern to make Amie's Baptism dress. Mum has some nice white fabric left over from making all of our wedding dresses, so we will be using that. I'm so excited to move on to making that dress.

Of course the other girls also want a new dress made my mummy so I went out a got some more fabric but haven't had chance to put them together yet. I'm hoping that when the kids go back to school I'll have the time to do those too.

I also want to thank my mum for helping me with the sewing. She did a couple of the trickier parts, including the zip! Thanks Mum!

(Sorry all the pictures were taken on my phone)

Where have you been?

It's been so long I almost forgot how to blog! But I'm back and hopefully I can catch up a little bit.

The month of December was crazy. The kids finished school which meant class parties, Christmas cards, bringing lots of things home and getting reports. They all did a fantastic job this year.

 Lachlan really like his teacher and enjoyed doing lots of maths and science. They studied rocks and minerals at the beginning of the year, so now Lachlan has an ever growing rock collection and will tell anyone who will listen lots of interesting facts about them. He also got very interested in space so he got a telescope for his birthday and enjoys looking at the moon and planets. He is one of the fastest readers I know! He loves to read and I'm constantly looking for something new for him to read. When he went to the States with Buzz in the middle of the year he got a series called, "Tennis shoes among the Nephites." He has also been reading a series called 'The 39 Clues." Those books are a bit thinner and so it only takes him a day or two to get through each one. He already had the first three and got the rest (11 books in total) for Christmas. He is already up to number 10! I love that he loves to read! I will often find him in his room laying on his bed or sitting in his bean bag for hours reading!

Amie also did a great job at school this year. This year reading finally 'clicked' for her and she has been blazing through the reading levels and gaining confidence in her reading ability. Amie has always loved to do art and craft and that desire to create has gotten stronger this year. Both of her teachers have commented on how neat all of her work is. She is an amazing drawer, much better than I'll ever be. She won a prize around Easter time at school for the Easter egg that she coloured it. It was pretty amazing the details that she put into it. Amie is also very much a social butterfly and loves to have friends around. She has one friend at school in particular that she is very close to and I'm glad she has that friendship!

Caitlyn went from Kindy to School in the middle of the year and enjoys it a lot. She had a fantastic teacher and had enjoyed learning to read and doing homework like Lachlan and Amie! Caitlyn is my helper and is always cleaning up when no-one else will. Caitlyn also really loves to sing. She can often be heard singing in the other room and often asks me to turn the radio up in the car so she can sing along. She has missed having her cousin Zoe around for the last six months. They love playing together and having sleepovers. It will be great to see them together again!

Haylie has grown up so much in the past year. She went from being a toddler to being such a grown up little girl. Since all the other kids are at school all day she has been my little buddy. She loves to go to the shops, visit Grandma and help me around the house. She is such a cute little character. She says the funniest things and has such a funny attitude. She loves to have time with just me but she looks forward to playing with the other kids after school each day! It is going to be really weird for me because Haylie starts Kindy in February. She starts with just one morning a week until May and then she will go four mornings a week. It is going to be really weird to have all this time to myself each day. Haylie is really looking forward to going to Kindy. She got a new bag for Christmas and she also got a choose a new lunch box and drink bottle like the big kids. She asks me every day if it is a school day today. She is going to be really upset when the kids go back to school on a Monday, but she doesn't start until the Thursday!

We are looking forward to a fantastic new year with lots of adventures, changes and new things to experience!

Sports Day

Today was sports day at the kids school. Last year they didn't get to do sports day because it rained, so they moved the day and it rained again, so they moved it and it rained again and then school finished for the year. Because of this the kids were extra excited for sports day this year. The weather was forecast for showers, but not until later in the day. As it turned out the day was great and it didn't rain until about 2:30pm when they were all finished! It was Caitlyn's first time participating in sports day and she was very excited. The kids were all in the same team named Coombes (Green).

To start the day the kids all got in their teams and did their team chants. They were very creative and got everyone excited. They then went with their teachers around to all the different events.  Because I had three kids there I moved around the whole day trying to get pictures of all of them doing all different things. Unfortunately I didn't get to see them do all the events. It was lots of fun though and Haylie was a great little cheerleader!

Here they are doing the Long Jump! I love all of their faces. Such concentration!

Here is Caitlyn doing some kicking

To kick the ball you have to stick out your tongue! It just works!

Amie did a great job in here race. She looks like she is having a great time. It's funny because in all of the pictures the girl in the right of the photo is looking towards the other girls and not where she is going!

Next Caitlyn's class head to the obstacle course. It was so funny watch the little five year olds trying to remember and then do all the tasks along the obstacle course. Their attention span isn't very long so while they were waiting for their turn they would get very distracted!

Lachlan having a turn a kicking the ball!

Amie doing the hurdles!

Caitlyn doing the sprint. . . . . . . slowly!

Lachlan sprinting. He tried really hard, but I don't think we are great runners in our family!

But he had fun!

It was a great day and I'm so proud of my kids for putting in 100% and giving everything a go.

I had to leave before it finished but the kids told me after school that their team didn't win but the got the award for the most sportsmanship behaviour!

Sunday Thoughts . . .

As is common on a Sunday evening the kids are all in bed, the dishes have been done and Buzz and I are sitting down at our different computers tinkering away.

Today at church it was the Primary children's turn to do their Sacrament Presentation. The kids were very excited about their parts and the girls wanted to look their very best. They chose what outfits they would wear and then we spent some time straightening or curling their hair. 

When we arrived at church they went off to the primary room with the other children to get ready. Right before the meeting started they all walked in and took their seats. As Amie and Caitlyn walked past Haylie saw them and wanted to go and sit with them. When she realised that she wasn't allowed she started to get very upset. We told her that she could go and sit with Poppy, who was also sitting on the stand, but she didn't want to and she soon decided to sit down with Buzz.

 As the sacrament was being passed I noticed how quiet it was. Our ward has about 40-50 primary aged children so this was quiet a feat. All of the children did really well. They sang beautifully and remembered most of the words. That was really nice to see because up until a couple of months ago I was in there teaching them all the songs. Nicola did a great job with them and they sang wonderfully.

 Caitlyn, Amie and Lachlan all did really well with their parts. They spoke clearly so everyone could understand what they were saying. The only problem was that they were sitting on the other side of the pulpit so I couldn't really see them. It was a special presentation and you could definitely feel the spirit there.

Next year Haylie will be in Sunbeams so she will get to sit up on the stand as well. It's actually a little bit scary to think that next year all of my children will be in primary and be in the primary presentation.

I'm so proud of all of my children and I love them so much.

I love this girl!

I love this crazy girl. She is so full of life and loves to make others laugh. Buzz calls her 'Beans' because she is often jumping and dancing around like she is full of beans!

Amie loves to create things and can often be found at the dinning room table making something. Painting, gluing, sticking, beading, folding and cutting she loves it all. But probably her favourite thing to do is draw. She is really good at it and I love seeing what she has been working on. I can do lots of other crafts but drawing is not one of my strong points.

Yesterday her Primary teacher came up to me after class to show me what Amie had done during the lesson. They had been talking about Enos and she had asked them to draw a picture. This is what Amie drew.

It's not a great photo of her drawing but you get the picture. I think it is fantastic. I love the palm trees and I love the details in his face with the beard and headband. He even has his bow on his back.

She definitely has a talent for drawing and I hope she continues to grow and develop it.