AJR graduated from Primary School

Whew it has been a long and exciting year for AJR. Last year of primary, and a graduation to finish it off. In the morning there was a ceremony celebrating all the achievements of the kids in year six.

A CD presentation where each child talked about what they thought about coming to school in Kindy (mum is scared, I am excited/scared) and what they thought about when returning to school in year six (good to be the leaders, good to catch up with friends, only one kid admitted to hating having to come back). After the ceremony we were all invited into the year six area, for morning tea. One of the special things that happened was that Debbie their teacher in Kindy and her first year of teaching was back to see them graduate, we all thought it was fantastic to have her come to say goodbye.

Here are Debbie, Clem, AJR and Isa with their graduation bears.

There was a lot of talk about what everyone was wearing to the graduation (mostly by the girls) and AJR thought that they were over the top in what they wanted to wear and how much it was going to cost. The day before the graduation he decided that he had to have something new after all - luckily the shops were opening late for the pre-Christmas rush and so we were able to find a nice white shirt and black slacks!!! I am sure he will wear them again sometime.


ready, steady, go!!!




Party time

Let's finish 2007

Before we get into the new year, there are a number of events that I will share with you.

In November we celebrated 50 years of married life for Barb and Al, JR's parents. We all travelled to Newcastle, about 500KM away. The roads are improving all the time (combined with lead feet) and we can get there in around 4 hours and 15 minutes on a good run. This is exactly what we did on the Friday night. We were running late, as usual, and did not get away until 7.30ish. I rang the hotel to let them know that we would not arrive until around 1am, instead of the 10pm that I had enthusiastically suggested earlier in the week. After a very short break of around 20 minutes, we arrived at the hotel in Newcastle at 12.15am. JR's brother and sister were staying in the same hotel. You will be pleased to know that our trip back took over 6 hours due to bad weather.

About 10am JR went over to the club where the celebration was being held in order to help set up. The kids and I walked up to Charlestown Square, looking for breakfast. We found Darby's pie shop, (a legend in Newcastle) where everything sells for $1.00 - what a bargain huntress I am. Armed with a variety of pastries we caught up with JR and went over to Barb and Al's for lunch, where everyone else was already gathered. It was lovely to catch up with Pat (who I had not seen in a long time), as well as brothers, sisters and cousins. 3pm and most of us gathered at the pixie photo shop in Myer's for a family photo shoot. We have bought a couple, although we do not have them yet. We went straight from there to the Kahibah Bowling Club for the party. We ended up driving over, which was good as we were able to run back to the hotel at least twice, for different people and different things. It was an excellent party and Barb and Al enjoyed themselves, which was fantastic.
Here are the photo's:

The happy couple

The speeches

Megan, Nicola, Mick (Megan's boyfriend), Cathie and Damian

Cutting the cake

Great Aunty Amy and Barb (Amy made Barb and Al's first wedding cake)

Stewart (Jim) and Dorothy

JR, Cheryl, Jim and Elyse

Brothers in arms
sing an ode to Scotland

Place mats depicting events of 1957

Welcome to 2008

Hi there,

for those of you wondering where I have been, I am now back! Over the next couple of weeks I will update you on various happenings over the last few months! Yes I have finally removed the Christmas counter as well - what was I thinking?


Cheers,
Mondo

New Era

A change of the guard in Australian Politics.

If you are interested in what happened in your electorate or other election news check out the ABC election site. I have to say that the MonashMob were very happy about the outcome on Saturday.

The country is watching the fallout with interest. Howard should have stepped down 6-12 months ago, and had the pleasure of choosing the timing of his exit - a major reason why he did not step down, was his desire to host APEC in September, a chance to be on the world stage for one last hurrah!!! I wait with interest for the biographies that will undoubtedly spring up from everywhere. Here is a short overview of John Howard's career in politics.

Costello says he won't stand - I am not convinced that he ever really wanted to be Prime Minister, and more sure that Tanya was not all that interested. Certainly it seems he did not have the support of his party to move to this role. Having said that he has been a major force in politics (like him or not) for the past 13 years and now is the time to make choices about what he does next, he owes the party nor the country anything.

Mark Vaile, leader of the Nationals and Clare Martin, ALP NT Chief Minister were the casualties yesterday. I watched Mal Brough's speech accepting defeat and felt for him. Although I do not agree with his politics nor the NT intervention, it was clear he was trying to make a difference and he was distressed that he was unable to continue, for that I admire him. It will be interesting to see what happens today.

The Democrats are no more. It is a sad day when a whole political party fades away.

It is good to see that the last Labor PM has got a lot to say about the results of Saturday, Paul Keating .

Now let's see where Rudd will guide the country - watch this spot!

Oz Politics

You may want to check out this blog site - at least until Sunday!

Oz Politics

Great analysis, not biased and useful if you like or want to follow the political world.

Millie's birthday

November 12 is our Millie's birthday.

Yesterday AJR made a packet vanilla cake with 250g of crispy bacon in it, for Millie. Dog chews were placed onto the top to make the candles. Millie woofed it down!

Old Parliament House & New Parliament House

During the school holidays we went to both Old Parliament House and New Parliament House.

Here is a photographic record of this adventure.

View to Old Parliament House and Mount Ainslie




Who is that masked man

Would the realPrime Minister of Australia please stand up
Prime Minister's Office in Old Parliament House

Very rude boy!

New Parliament House

Entrance way

Obviously the presentation is riveting

Senate

House of Representatives

In the canteen

Cockington Green

In the school holidays we went to Cockington Green.

Some people and frogs did not want to leave

Floriade 2007

First a picnic lunch in Commonwealth Park,
near the playground equipment.

Then off to see Floriade - the theme this year was
Aussie Myths and Legends.

Dame Edna Everage built out of a mower
was one of the highlights for me.
However I only saw it later when
the creator was taking it home
at the end of Floriade, hence no picture.

While these were some of the highlights for the kids
All photo's courtesy of CJK

Election 07

Hi
Just found this great resource on the Election 07 from Google - check it out. I found it while surfing this site John Howard is too old.

Enjoy!