Our Abbey Road

One of Mark's dream realized.  I knew there was a reason we had 4 kids. 

Jan 2012 Holiday at Nelsons Bay

We went away for a few days to Nelsons Bay. It is about 2 hours North of Sydney. Well 2 hours unless you have your son drive. Tim is on his learner's permit and the law is learners must complete 120 hours driving with a fully licensed driver. They also have stricter restrictions like maximum speed limit is 80 even if the posted speed limit is 110 like it was for us on our way to Nelsons Bay.

We met up with some friends who were also there on holiday and because it was raining we all went bowling. Now Tim has been going on about how he's not very good. He gets gutter balls and his high is around 60. We all laughed and thought easy! we can all beat him. Think he hustled us as you can see by the scoreboard he got a Turkey!!!

The surrounding pictures show the kids (Meagan was on holiday with D's family) and Mark sandboarding and having fun at the beach.

Meagan and Demetris

Meagan and Demetris (or D as we like to call him) have been going steady now for almost 2 years. They met while they were both working at EB Games however neither work there now.

D is a manager at Freelancer. I will have to get more details from Meagan, they have told me what he does but I just don't understand it. :)

Meagan is working full time at a research lab until school resumes at the end of February. She will be starting her Honours Chemistry program this year.

2011 Photo with Santa

Erika, Aimee and their best friends having a photo with Santa. This is a big thing for us as Erika has always been to afraid of taking a photo with Santa from a very young age.

Erika's Cookies

Erika is very creative. She loves to draw and design. These cookies are the result of her efforts.

Aimee's Yr. 6 Farewell

Aimee with some of her friends showing off all their beautiful dresses and smiles.

2011 Aimee cutting Anniversary Cake

Aimee and her Co-Captain, Nathan, about to cut the Anniversary cake. Also in this picture is the first Captain of the school and their current Principal, Mr. Miller (far right). Aimee is dress in those clothes because she is about to jump on stage to perform with the school's dance group.

2011 Action Dance Concert Awards

Erika and Aimee had another fantastice year of dance. Aimee brings home Outstanding Junior Dancer Award which also includes a scholarship which will pay for 1 dance class in 2012.

Aimee's 12th Birthday Party

Aimee had a birthday party this year at our local park. She invited 16 of her closest friends.

Here is a snapshot of her playing one of the party games - worms in the pie, first one to eat all 3 worms hidden underneath the cream and "dirt" without using their hands is the winner.

Aimee was really giving it a good go but she didn't win. They all enjoyed throwing the pies at each other afterwards more.

Weird coincidence

I have found proof my brother, Hung Cho, can be bought and quite cheaply too! Haha.

Feb 4, 2011 Penno Swimming Carnival

Erika entered the following events with the following results:

100m freestyle: 4th in her heat; did not make finals
100m breastroke: 5th overall
100m butterfly: 2nd overall

Erika will be a reserve for the butterfly event in the upcoming Zone Carnival.

Jan 31, 2011 First Day of School

Tim is now a Senior student (grades 11 & 12) so they get to wear navy blue shorts and/ or pants with the same white shirt as previous years but they are now required to wear a light blue school tie everyday.

Erika started High School this year (grade 7). She is a bit nervous so it helps knowing Tim is there looking out for her.

Aimee is the last one in primary school and this is also her last year in primary school (grade 6). She has a full year ahead of her as her duties of being School Captain begins.

Jan 27, 2011 Launceston, Tasmania

We are at Hollybanks Teetops Adventure in Launceston, Tasmania. Mark and the kids are ziplining from tree to tree hanging from a cable. Obviously that is why I am not doing it and Meagan is visiting her father's family in New Jersey so she's absent too.

There are 7 runs with the shortest being about 13 metres ( 42 feet) and the longest 400 metres (1312 feet) and the highest height being 90 metres above the ground.

The girls have a friend who went a couple of weeks before and Aimee loved the idea so much she kept asking and asking if we could add that to our "things to do list". We gave in and on the day drove 2.5 hours from Hobart to Launceston just for this adventure.

The day turned out to be one of the best days the kids had in Tasmania. Even Erika who started the day a bit nervous raved about how much fun she had. And Tim who had voted from doing the 3 hour bike run down Mt. Wellington admitted he had a grand time.

And yes, that is our little Aimee hanging with her legs above her head. She was the smallest and lightest so she got caught doing the "walrus" a couple of time. Basically because she was so light, she didn't have enough momentum to reach the next platform so she had to try and thrust her body forward to advance herself.

Flooding

http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter.htm

Thanks everyone for all your concerns. The Loves are safe and well. The flooding is happening to the States north and south of us.

Check out the linked photos of the affected areas.

Love to you all.

Kids screaming about spider

Coming home from the movies we have picked up a hitchhiker. Imagine this spider circling the outside the car while you are driving.

See posted video of kids screaming.

Dec 8, 2010 Year 10 Formal

Tim and his date, Alissia at the pre-formal gathering at Alissia's grandparents house.

High Schools here have a formal in year 10 and year 12. These are similar to our proms back home. The main difference is here the students can only ask other students from year 10 from their own school to be their dates, so on the night only the year 10 students from their school attended. The exceptions are of course if you go to a private all boys or all girls school.

The reasoning behind having the dinner/ dance in these years is because a fair number of students would leave after year 10 to pursue a trade.

Recently the laws have changed and students have to stay in school till at least 17 years of age.

Alissia and Tim are not dating for any who may be curious to know. They are just very good mates.

Dec 10, 2010 Graduation Dinner/ Dance Ceremony

Erika and her friends looking beautiful for their Graduation Ceremony.

Nikki, Abbey, Hannah, Erika, Jaime and Hayley in order from left to right.

Talent Quest 2010

This is Aimee and her friend dancing to Pump It. This is their 3rd year in a row entering a dance they have choreographed themselves. Jaime is a year above Aimee so for 2011 Aimee will have to find a new dance partner as Jaime will be starting high school along with Eri.

Presentation Day December 8, 2010

What a great awards ceremony.

Erika:
Academic Achievement (2 awarded/ class)
Sports Representative (10 awarded)
Citizenship Award (2 awarded)

Aimee:
Academic Achievement (2 awarded/ class)
Top 25% Math Olympiad
2011 School Captain (2 captains; 1 boy, 1 girl)

November 2010

Tom Jordan, one of the stars of "As the Bell Rings" similar to the US show "Saved by the Bell" is one of the singers in Schools Spec 2010. Tom made their day judging from the huge smiles on all the faces.

School Spec 2010

Erika and Aimee are pictured here outside the Sydney Entertainment Centre, aka SEC. Their school dance group audition and 12 of the 26 dancers were invited to participate in Schools Spectacular. School Spec comprises of 3000+ students from public schools in NSW.

These students showcase the talents of singing, dancing, acting and playing instruments. Our group was part of a larger group called "The Dark Side". They wore white jumpsuits and had a fleuro greenish yellow backpacks and represented the ghostbusting crusaders from the movie Ghostbusters.

You know you are old when your kids have no idea that "Ghostbusters" is a movie. We bought the movies to educate our kids.

Maths Camp - November 2010

This is not really the picture from Maths Camp. I did not take one so here is a substitute picture from a few years ago.

Every year, 2 students from 5th grade are chosen to go to Maths Camp. It is a 3 day, 2 night trip where 80 5th graders, who have shown an apptitude for maths, gather and do fun math-y activities.

The children are put into groups for most of the activities and Aimee ended up with 3 boys and 1 girl, Olivia. Their group was called Fibonacci. Olivia got sick, threw up, and went home. At the next group activity, Aimee was excited to hear they were going to be joining groups together to form bigger groups - yay, more girls, she thinks to herself.

Her goups was joined with a group consisting of 5 boys! She is too young to appreciate it now; however, their group was the only one to successfully complete the assignment.

Halloween 2010

Halloween Down Under is much different from Halloween back home. You have just as much chance of receiving blank stares as you will of getting some candy. It is a very, very, very small community of children who practice this "pagan" tradition. It is starting to become a more accepted tradition, meaning the candy companies are jumping on the chance to advertise and sell more candy. Unfortunate for the people who live in the nearby housing development as the annual Halloween tradition of candy collectors has congregated pretty much in their area. No one comes to our house or the houses on our street.

Here is Aimee (center) and Erika (right of center) with a few of their friends about to try their luck.

Some unusual items the kids have received are: granola bar, can of coke, apple juice, chocolate coins, packet of chips and the ultimate no no - candy that is not individually wrapped!

And would you believe we even let the kids eat them.

Hy's Belgium Adventure August 28-Sept 15 2010

I am visiting my sister's family in Belgium. Mark has some workshops he needs to attend to complete his online course requirements so I am assisting in caring for their daughter, Hannah. Hai's Mark not to be confused with Hy's Mark. A couple of days after landing, Hannah started school. This is a big thing for her as she is not yet 3 (turns 3 on the 15th Sept). Not only that but she is going to the local school where they speak Flemish. Flemish is a dialect of Dutch. We (mother, father and I) are all nervous for her. Her first 2 days were great. She doesn't cry and goes off to play with the dolls each morning. This is so easy says Auntie Hy.

4am Friday morning. I am jerked out of sleep by this shrieking and screaming. I think Hai is being attacked. I run out of my bedroom (downstairs) and promptly slip and fall against the wall. I don't see anyone or hear anything at this point. I go back and grab my glasses and go upstairs. I see little Hannah and go pick her up. Now I hear sound from downstairs and go down and see Hai in the kitchen. She tells me we just got robbed. She calls the police. Here is what I think happened:

Hannah wanted milk. Hai said no go back to sleep. Hannah insists on milk, Hai offers her water which she already has next to her bedside. Hannah demands milk. Hai gets up to go to the bathroom to wash out sippy cup before refilling it with more milk. Hai sees a light moving around under the door of Mark's office (room next to her bedroom). A strange man then comes out of the office. Don't know why but Hai's first thought is 'Hy invited some guy over, maybe to fix something'so shes like "Who are you?" Then her brain wakes up a bit more and realizes that Hy wouldn't do that especially not at 4am. She then demands "WHO ARE YOU?" He puts his finger to his lips and goes "Shhhh". Hai starts yelling at him, he quickly moves down the stairs, Hai throws Hannah's sippy cup at him. (Hannah is very upset her mom did this) This is where I come in as Hai is yelling and screaming at this point. What happens next is robber jumps out living room window, Hai jumps out after him. She is in her t shirt and underwear running down the street. She follows him to his getaway car where his partner is waiting. They jump in and take off. The few seconds this takes, Hai is memorizing their plate number.

The robbers had drilled a hole (will try to get picture from Hai) under the latch and released the lock. The locksmith says they were professionals as they were talented enough to only have to drill 1 hole in the exact spot.

So this is the reason why I am missing some pictures. They stole my camera which was in my purse which was sitting at the kitchen table. They almost got my purse which ended up on the ground outside the window. This would have been very bad as my passport was in it. They did rifle through everything and only took money and the camera. Hai has replaced the camera with a spare she had so I'm good for pictures now. Unfortunately they got away with some jewelry though not expensive in value meant a lot to Hai as mom gave them to her. I think Mark is still sorting out what is missing as he was still away at his workshops for a whole week after the incident.

Needless to say I contributed not a lot to this incident. I only have a pretty sore back, neck and knee to show for it. It would have been great to see Hai hurdle the window though. She is also sporting some aches and pains. Overall an experience I don't recommend to anyone.

August 20, 2010

Oops this one is out of order.

As before, Erika and Aimee both won their classroom speech competitions. Today they competed against all the yr 5 and 6 students. Last semester they both got to this level but not to the next level of representing the school. This time Aimee apparently does an amazing job delivering and wins first place. Her topic was "Most Important Invention" and she decided on the toilet. During her speech, Erika burst out laughing and the other students were like "why are you laughing, haven't you heard this so many times already?" Erika shakes her head no. Aimee had kept her speech a secret as she suddenly developed this shyness in practicing her speech at home in front of her family. Erika's speech was on one of her favourite topics; chocolate. She found the subject too daunting until she narrowed it down to a specific topic; Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Hmmm, do you think passing them out to her classmates help her win? They are not sold here so they are a bit of a novelty.

August 22, 2010

Sorry, I won't have any pictures for the next months worth of news. You will find out later why. :)

Today the girls had their Grand final soccer game. They played the Ravens who we have never won against, only lost and tied. It was a very energized match with the other team hungry for the win. They had the advantage most of the time but our defense (led by our own, Erika) worked extra hard and fended them off. There were some very close moments when they had great shots at our goals but our goalie was also on fire (it was her birthday so she had something to prove) and blocked all attempts.

Our mids and strikers had a bit of a tough game finding it hard to push the ball up the field. With the persistance of our shortest player (Aimee), who worked around 2 of their defenders then with a perfect pass to her teammate who power kicked it straight into the goal. We won 1-0. The girls were ecstatic.

What next Tim?

Tim got stung by a bee this past Monday. I shoulda taken a picture to show everyone but it is not as impressive anymore. It was pretty big, so big we took him to see the doctor. I was fine to let nature take its' course but Tim was worried his finger was going to burst, his words. Anyhow I have since learned I am supposed to SCRAPE the stinger not pull it out.

So last month concussion, this month bee sting. Do you think it has something to do with middle child syndrome, seeking his parents attention? This is what happens when you have 3 children: Meagan, Tim and the Girls.

August 12, 2010

What would Uni life be without at least 1 TOGA party?!? That would be my Uni life, I don't remember ever being invited to one. But, no matter, it only took us less than an hour to work out how to make a toga out of a bedsheet. Yep, UTube baby. As you can see, Meagan and her boyfriend, Demetris, are excellently draped with no pins showing. They are ready to party on this windy, winter night whilst I am at home, tucked into my little corner all warm and cozy.

Wednesday 11, 2010

Today the girls got to wear mufti for their excursion to Eastern Creek - TechnoPush. TechnoPush is the Aussie version of a Soap Box Derby. The kids in years 5 & 6 have been busy designing, gathering materials from council cleanup (curbside garbage) and building a pushcar. Erika's design was voted the best in her class, which they then used to build the car. In 1 race, Aimee's team was coming in first, then they had troubles with wheels getting tangled with an oppositions car which then made then end up last in the race. Erika's team came first against Aimee's team when they were put in the same heat in the Endurance catagory. They had a great day out of school. Hmmm, they seem to have a lot of those.

August 3, 2010

On the same day of the Knockout Basketball game, the girls also performed their school dance for Open Day. Open Day is the day parents, friends and relatives can visit the school to see band, choir and dance performances. The classrooms are also open to visit and check on your child's progress. The local paper, The Hornsby Advocate, also stopped by to take a picture and it turns out it's of our dance group. Erika and Aimee are in the front left side next to each other.

August 3, 2010

The girls made the School Knockout Basketball Team. Unfortunately they got knocked out their first game. Erika fouled out of the game and Aimee played with a sprained ankle which I didn't know about so I am yelling from the side "Come on girls, you can rest later!"

Whoops :)

Oak Hill 41

Thornleigh 33

July 26, 2010

This is the Area Athletics Carnival held at Sydney Olympic Park. This year Tim is represented his Area in 100m hurdles, 100m, long jump, 200m hurdles, and 4 x 100m relay. He didn't perform as well as in previous years, we think the Taco Bell tacos he had in Phoenix didn't help any. The only event he will continue on in is the 4 x 100m relay. Their team came in 2nd which qualifies them to compete in the State Competition later on this year.