Back to previous page
Late January the school year started again. This leads to above average anxiety as not only are all classes rehashed every year - there now five class in each of the bottom four years - but Piet also went to senior primary school (bovenbouw), which has different break times, as otherwise the school ground gets too busy with 700 pupils. Piet was really happy to be reunited with his previous year's teacher, miss Green, and to still be in the same class as his best friend Phoebe. Emma likes her teacher, miss Dunn, and didn't mind no longer being in the same class as Katy and Tiggy.
On Friday morning in the first full week of school, we celebrated Piet's eighth birthday with presents in the morning and pancakes for breakfast. Piet was happy with his new scooter, which he has been using a lot since. We have roamed around the neighbourhood in the evening or scooted to the beach for a quick play in the morning. The hexagon domino set was immediately played with too. Juultje was happy scribbling on one of the cards. After school, we went for ice cream with school friends.
Science party
On Sunday Piet had his party. Theme: science. A
scientist came around for a series of experiments, including
snow,
bubbles in a liquid and expanding tablets, which shot little tubes into the air. For this experiment, we needed
safety goggles. Piet had his party in a picnic area near
Manly dam, a nearby lake. Mum had cut two types of melon into balls, allowing the kids to make their own
molecules with toothpicks and melon balls. The
periodic table birthday cake got the
thumbs up. A pleasant
eighth birthday party.
Emma proudly shows off the dress that mum used to wear when she was little. Piet had his yearly swimming carnival at school, which involves swimming a few laps and hanging around the pool the rest of the day. Piet only swam one lap breast stroke. He came fourth out of eight - we were all proud.
With the usual group of friends, we went camping at Bonnie Vale just south of Sydney for a (short) weekend. For us, it is doable because of our camper trailer. Juliana feels she is part of it, although some older kids without younger sisters do like to play with Juultje as well. She will sometimes follow the other kids around and sometimes leave them alone. We did a little treasure hunt.
