July 7, 2010

All of mom's kids visiting her in Hospice. This Hospice facility was researched and found by Hai. It is the newest Hospice of the Valley so everything is clean and sparkly. The room has a nice setup with a built-in bed and a very comfy leather recliner. It also happens to be very close to mom's house so convenient to get to as well. Once mom was settled and that took a few days to work out, she was comfortable and entertained with visits from her numerous family members.

July 5, 2010

Flying first class,
up in the sky.
Drinking champagne,
living the life.

Here we are on our way to visit Grandma Thuan. The only available tickets we could get with Marks Frequent Flyer Points are First Class tickets. OMG First Class. I was very nervous but soon got over it. Here you can see us enjoying the First Class Lounge. We had breakfast: Aimee - pancakes, Erika - scrambled eggs and hash browns and I had the full breakfast; eggs, bacon, toast and pancakes. After breakfast we went to check in at the spa but unfortunately they were all booked out. No worries, we hung around with the girls playing games on the computer and helping themselves to the kid sized sodas. I had a capuccino and texted the kids. We were getting our oven fixed that morning. When it was time to board the plane, the receptionist came over with our boarding passes to let us know it was time to go. How good is that? On the plane there are only 14 seats and on this day only 7 flew First Class. We had a dedicated flight attendant for the 3 of us. He was very nice and saw to our every comfort. Aimee had 3 hot chocolates and was the only one of us to change into the First Class PJ's we were given. For dinner, Aimee had polenta lasagne, Erika had sirloin and mashed potatoes, and I had some fancy duck. This was after our starters: canapes and a pureed tartlet. We had our choices of dessert. The girls had ice cream and I had a sampler of everything. After that we stretched out on our flat bed and got some shut eye. The 14 hour flight was too short!

July 3, 2010

Here is my son on his way to the hospital. Things are never quiet when you have 4 children involved in so many activities. On this day the girls are performing at the Sydney Opera House for a dance competition. Mark and I decide to go to Tim's soccer game as we had attended the Glen Street Dance Festival the week prior. Same dance. Anyways we are at the soccer oval, one of the farthest away we have been at and I am enjoying my breakfast: a bacon and egg sandwich. The boys have been warming up. I get up to get my book from the car and as I come back to the oval I notice 1 of the boys is laying down. I then notice Mark kneeling beside this boy. I look around at all the boys and realized that is MY boy lying down, not moving on the ground. I think to myself, yeah he is mucking around, faking it. But then he doesn't move and doesn't move. I still don't think it is anything serious as Mark is helping him off the oval. I start to worry when he is set down and he still hasn't moved much. We were lucky to be on this far away oval as there is a fire brigade next to us. In fact it is them who is serving the food and drinks as they do every Saturday to raise money for their brigade. We were so lucky that on this day an Inspector and Captain happened to be visiting this brigade ( I think brigades are made up of volunteers so they are not the same as a fire station). These 2 very nice men performed first aid on Tim. They kept him warm and placed him in some laying down position (forgot the name). They talked to us and kept us calm even though Tim was not moving and couldn't really talk much. As you can see things turned out ok. He did not injure his neck or spine and we only had to stay in hospital for a few hours for observation. Coincidentally the ambulance guy in the picture is the brother of the Inspector. We overheard them talking and squaring out costs the alcohol for a party they had the other night. :) Only in Australia!!

July 1, 2010

These are some of the photos taken at the Glen Street Theatre Performance. Glen Street is a dance festival held at the end of 2nd semester every year. It is not strictly a competition but there are judges who will pick some of the best dances to compete in a state competition later on in the year. Aimee's costume is pink which you can't see since she is wearing her jumper. Erika looks like a model posing in her green costume. Jamie is a very good friend of theirs and she is wearing the orangy yellow dress next to Erika. They perform a bollywood style dance to the music of Jai Ho. Aimee and Jaime were chosen to be dance captains this year, the first year to have dance captains. They had the highest marks during the auditions. This is a school dance group not to be confused with Action Dance where they also go for dance lessons.

June 29, 2010 Joeys vs. Thunderbirds Grand Finals

Aimees' Thunderbirds (yellow jersey) played Erikas' Joeys (blue jersey) in the Grand Final match on June 29th. These 2 teams are arch nemesis of each other. The Joeys have the advantage of height. They are all in year 6 whereas the T-birds are all in year 5. They are a well matched team and from my unbiased view; Erika and Aimee are the best players on their teams. Ok so maybe I am a bit biased. Aimee played the whole game, the only 1 on her team to do so. Erika was sick and we warned coach she wasn't feeling well. Anyways for the time she played she made 5 or 6 of the shots. Joeys won again 16-10. Just realized I forgot to mention this is their basketball game. They play basketball through the Thornleigh Basketball Club. Each semester is a season so the Joeys vs. the Thunderbirds have met each other in the grand finals a few times now with the Joeys walking away with the trophy.

June 10, 2010 School Knockout Soccer

On this day, our girls school knockout soccer team smashed the opposition 4-nil. Aimee plays striker and made 2 of the goals. See center picture Aimee getting high 5. Erika dominates as sweeper and keeps all the balls away from our goal. This is the first time our girls school soccer team will advance to round 5. If they win they advance to Area Knockout Competition.

June 4th 2010

This year Erika and Aimee were picked to be in the speech competition. Each class in years 5 and 6 pick 2 boys and 2 girls. Erikas' speech topic was 'When Does a Migrant Become a Citizen' and Aimees' was 'Religions and Beliefs'. They both did a wonderful job delivering their speeches but in the end did not get picked to advance to Zone (District).