Whittlesea Podium

At a recent staff meeting it was suggested to Peter that he could make a first/second/third sports podium for the upcoming school sports carnival. Peter rose to the challenge and over two weekends it came together. The important factor was the OH&S so he did all he could to make it strong enough and even have non-slip strips on the platforms.

Whittlesea Castles and Cars

A good number of kids had a kit to work on last Woodcraft Club. The choice was a castle or a car. Peter had assembly instructions to minimise the amount of times he had to explain. The older kids got it. The challenge were the 5 and 6 year olds. Somehow most castles were assembled in the time and they were proudly taken to class. Peter was happy enough with the outcome. The castles were easy enough to build and looked interesting when finished.

Piper Over

It was nice having Piper for an overnight stay. We watched an old VHS! and went out for a cafe treat. Lucky the heads had been cleaned on the old VHS player. It was a relaxing time and we were blessed that she was able to create a visit again using public transport.

Waiting for the train

Going Mexican

It was one of those special nights. Bec and Gord's gift to all of us was a Mexican Eatery in Croydon. The food was scrumpsous and the company very precious. The camera misbehaved and even after some computer editing of the images the results did not scrub up well. The lighting in the restaurant contributed to the camer's manic problems and so the pictures all have atmosphere, very much like the place itself. The place was called Carlos Cantina, on Maroondah Hightway. This was one of the few times that our three children and their partners and grandchildren were all together. This may be one of the last times before the Funks leave for Canada. Then it will be a rare event indeed.

Jas's attempt at an optical illusion. Impressive.

Kids Overnighters

It has been a very full weekend having our grandsons sleeping over. We did just about everything on the family agenda: board games, super-nice food, Lego constructing, trip to the thrift shop, slurping smoothies at a cafe, playing micro-minni-golf, swinging in the park, DVD movies, bed-time stories and Mother's Day family gathering to finish it off. Great memories. Great company.

One of Jet's drawings one of hundreds of pages

Tallarook Excursion to "Creatures"

The Arts Centre in Melbourne made a adaptation of the 110 year old novel "Dot and the Kangaroo" by Ethel C. Pedley, called "Creatures". Peter remembers reading it when he was in grade five. The recent Tallarook Primary School excursion to the Arts Centre brought back the memory of it all those years ago. The adaption was very creatively done through ribon hanging/swinging (and all that) and with voices being made by others (to allow the ribon climbers/swingers to focus on their acrobatics). The kids loved the lively presentation. No photos were allowed of it so describing ribon acrobatics by adding a visual example from elsewhere (last picture) was needed. There were three "prepared" heavy duty ribons suspended from the rafters of the stage area and they were used in lots of different ways. It looked like fun. The rendition brought the old story alive, so much so that Peter will look about for a copy of that book to reread it.

Afterward the school was given an excursion of the Arts Centre. The room with the half million glass marbles (from Mexico) was a "hit". The backlit walls make everybody feel like they were on another planet or another dimension and inspired everybody to soak it all in.

An example of ribon hanging/swinging/even dancing...