School Ball

Lilly's school celebrated it's 150th year in 2003. As part of the celebration they had a school ball. They brought in a dance teacher who taught the children different dances (line dances as well as some ball room dances). This tradition has continued every other year since then. Which meant . . . Lilly got to participate in the school ball!

So each week in the first term of school, Lilly had dance class. She was never really able to tell me what she was learning, although she could kind of show me.

The actual ball was set up like a dance recital. All the parents sat around the dance floor with all the kids sitting on the floor (in their Sunday best). The classes would get up one at a time and do their dance and then sit down.


It was adorable!! I would love to post a video of one of the dances but I would feel comfortable posting without permission from all the other parents. You'll have to be happy with the pictures of just Lilly.


They also had family dances where the parents were invited to dance with their children and learn some of the dances. In addition they did the Macarena, the Hokey Pokey, Chicken Dance and The Time Warp. It was kind of like being at a wedding without buying a present . . . and no dinner.

I Want to Catch a Smile

I'm trying but he's sneaky!

Apples, Apples, Who Wants an Apple?

Seth took a bunch of pictures of our apples and I was determined to edit them and wow you. But I have a sleeping baby in my arms and I'm still learning the editing stuff. So, you get what I have at the moment. Maybe I'll do something with them the next time I'm hands-free.

Can you find the pear?


Can you find the Lilly?


Seth said to do a silly face . . .

Autumn Activities

I used to look forward to the yearly field trip to the apple orchard. We always got to bring home apples and maybe a small pumpkin. There were donuts to eat and some apple cider for sippin'. I miss those days because there aren't any apple orchards close by and it's not something people do in these parts. BUT, we played the exception to the rule card and we went apple pickin'.

Seth's co-worker's parents own an apple orchard and seeing how it is the end of the apple season, we were invited to check it out. The trees are mostly empty now but every once in a while, we would come to a nice looking apple (one that the birds and bugs had not seen yet). We were told to take whatever we could find!

It was a great day for apple picking. The weather was just a little chilly but the sun was shining and we found lots of apples.

These used to be used to measure the amount of water the 'farmers' used to water the crops. This year there was so much rain the farm only had to be watered twice.


Lilly sized tree:


Lilly sized apple:


Seth sized apple:


Adlai sized apple:


Rows and rows of trees:


Jolie sized tractor:


Tomorrow we'll show you what we got!

One Month for Boy 63 Months for Girl

Adlai Goes to the Big City

Ok, I didn't take any pictures of Adlai but it was his first tram ride along with a million other firsts. While on school holidays, Lilly has been hanging out with a good friend from Prep. So we took the two girls and went to the city. Seth took the week off to hang out with us and he did go in the city but he ran some errands.

While we were at the Melbourne Museum, Lilly got to hold a Leaf Bug.


We went to the State Library to check out an exhibit and ran into a couple of Lilly's soccer teammates. At least the exhibit we went to see was about illustrations of children's books. So while the kids were running around looking at the pictures, I wasn't too worried about them running over some old ladies with their weekly shopping.

My Knitting Adventure

I thought it would be cute to be able to knit scarves and hats. So the best way I knew how to learn was to join a knitting circle. And join one I did. Well, it wasn't all that I thought it would be but I love it! I'm the youngest one (I brought the average age way down when I started) and the purpose of the group is to knit blankets for a charity.

So I was instructed in casting on and doing a simple knit stitch (forgive me if my vocabulary is wrong, I just do what I'm told). I just did the same stitch over and over and made strips of these stitches and then put all the strips together. All the 'wool' (aka yarn) is donated so I just used what was available and since I didn't know any better, would just grab random stuff.

I may have made the ugliest blanket (although my friend says she is working on that title now) . . .


but it is amazingly warm. The blanket is laying on my bed but it is folded in half. One of the ladies in the circle took the blanket and crocheted a border around the entire thing. I'm sure that helped it out a lot.

I have knitted two scarves. I need to dig them out and take a picture. Lilly grabbed one and the other one I'm hoping to make a matching beanie. I'll keep you updated!