Term 3 Happenings and some BIG NEWS!

It's nearly the end of another term here in Australia, and my, what a busy one it has been! As usual, I cannot believe how fast time flies.

This term started out crazy busy for us. The kids and I arrived back from Canada on the last Friday of the winter holidays, and luckily we adjusted quickly to the time change. Jet lag is always easier to manage when travelling east to west.

We jumped straight back into a busy month of curricular activities: Netball for Ella on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays, swimming for Ollie on Tuesdays, and gymnastics for both kids on Wednesdays. Andy also had three weeks left of his soccer coaching commitment at school, which means practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays plus Saturday morning games. 

On top of that I had a very "excursion heavy" first four weeks of term at work. I was taking kids to competitions and conferences two, three, and sometimes four times in a week. Lots of fun, but it's very full on taking kids out on excursions all day. Needless to say, the month of July was a bit of a juggle and a pretty tiring way to start the term.

July was also a very cold, wet month, which is always a bit depressing coming from the northern hemisphere summer. The days are still short and dark, with the sun setting between 5pm-5:30pm. We went to two light festivals in July to find some enjoyment during the dark period of the year. 

The first was the Glow Winter Arts Festival, held in Central Park in Malvern and organized by the local council. This the smaller of the two festivals we went to, and was a free event. We arrived just as the sun was setting and of course the first thing the kids saw was the big playground, which they ran straight over to. This is such a classic parenting moment: you venture out of your local neighbourhood for what you think its going to be a night of culture, only to realise your kids would rather just hit the playground.

As it began to get dark we managed to convince them to wander around the various light installations. Ok, I'll fess up: we had to bribe them with a treat from the food trucks at the end. Ah well, who doesn't love a hot donut from a food truck?

Our second light festival was a much bigger (and pricier) affair: Lightscape at the Botanical Gardens. I've wanted to go to this annual winter event for a few years, but always balk at the price. However I'd heard so many good things about it I decided we'd shell out the $144 for a family ticket at least once.

Luckily, I loved Lightscape, and I think so did the kids. We met up with my friend Betty and her two kids and had tickets for the opening entry time. We arrived early as there were many food trucks set up outside the entrance with pop up igloos to eat in, and most importantly mulled wine!

Lightscape followed a path throughout the Botanical Gardens with a huge variety of light installations. It was quite magical, and we spent about two hours checking everything out. 

Ollie in particular loved walking through these strings of lights. It was hard to tear him away, he just kept walking back and forth through them.

It also helped that there were more food and beverage stations along the way, which we of course indulged in, like the crème brûlée below. Despite the high price tag I would definitely visit Lightscape again!

In late August we had a week of unseasonably warm weather - sunny skies and temperatures around 20 degrees. This happens every year in Melbourne and is known as the "spring of deception". See below for a very accurate description of the seasons in Australia. 

The swooping, in case you’re not familiar, is the time of year when magpies (our black-and-white feathered friends) decide to protect their nests with dive-bombing precision. They’ll swoop at anyone who dares to get too close, and since magpies are creatures of habit with excellent memories, they’ll often pick the same nesting spot year after year. They can also remember people, so yes, the same bird could be coming for you every spring for 20 years! Wild. And trust me, these birds don’t mess around—they’ll get so close you can feel them brush your hair. 

Anyway, we enjoyed our spring of deception with some time down at the beach. We met our friends Sam and Fizz along the Mornington Peninsula where they live. It was great to spend an afternoon in the warm sunshine, digging and building sandcastles, and a game of sand rugby with the dads.

After the beach we went to their new house for dinner, where Sam cooked us an excellent meal. The four kids, despite not really knowing each other, got on great, allowing us some adult time to catch up. We don't hang out with these guys enough as we live quite far apart, but it's always so great when we see them. Sam and Andy studied at university together, so it's always special for us to hang out with people we knew from before Australia/before having kids!

We also met up with the van Beeks for a hike up the 1000 Steps in the Dandenongs. It's been ages since we made this climb, and the kids did very well. This is the kind of activity that only runs smoothly when there are other kids around. Had it been just our family, there would have been constant whining for the whole walk. But with Gemma and Archer to keep them company, everyone was pretty happy. 

This term Ella started playing the flute through her school. It's a fine balance between being supportive (playing a musical instrument is obviously great for kids), and being annoyed by the sound that currently comes out of the instrument. Every time Ella starts to play Ollie shouts "in your room Ella!" which is hilarious and I'm in agreement with Ollie. Is this what I put my parents through when I started playing piano? Obviously, yes, and this is payback.

Andy put in a good amount of time this term helping Ollie learn to ride a bike. He's finally pretty confident on the bike and I can finally see family bike rides in our future! We got Ella a decent bike for her birthday, so currently Ollie is just riding Ella's old bike, but we'll have to get him something decent to ride soon. (Sounds like a perfect Christmas gift!)

Book Week is huge in Australia and fell this term. Ollie's costume was easy, he wanted to be Spiderman, and we had both a Spiderman book and costume. Done. Here he is at school with his mates looking at his Spiderman book.

Ella had a trickier request. We'd been reading The BFG by Roald Dahl and she wanted to be the BFG. I'm quite proud of myself for actually doing a bit of crafting to put this together, which is well out of my comfort zone. Large felt ears on a headband, a paper trumpet, a case full of "dream jars", and a little doll to represent Sophie. Not bad right?! Ella was pleased with the costume, I'm a bit sad the only picture I have is the one below taken by a parent friend during the Book Week parade.

This term Ella also went on her first school camp! She had been looking forward to camp since the beginning of the year, so of course when it finally came around she ended up getting sick! The camp was two nights long in Waratah Bay, and on the second day I got a phone call from the school notifying me that Ella had a fever and I would need to go and pick her up. Argh!

This ended up being a 6-hour round trip drive in the rain. So yes, I did feel sorry for myself, but mostly I felt sorry for Ella as I knew she'd be sad she had to miss out on the last night of camp. However, when I got there I think she was feeling so poorly that she wasn't even thinking about her FOMO. 

The BIG NEWS I'm alluding to in the title of this post is that... we are moving to the Gold Coast in Queensland! Andy and I have talked about moving there for the last year or two, and finally decided to make an effort to look for jobs this term. We decided that if we found good opportunities by the end of Term 3, then we'd do it.

To be honest, I wasn't that confident that I would find a job I liked or was worth moving for. I love my current job and would need to be persuaded to give that up. However I've ended up landing a Senior Leadership role in a very good all-girls school that I'm super excited about. Andy has also just been offered a job at a different independent school, one where his coaching BFF Andy works... so he's elated to have such a good friend be a colleague next year.

We both have mixed emotions about leaving Melbourne but are excited about this new adventure. Also, this move doesn't seem quite as big compared to our other moves which were all overseas. The Gold Coast is a short 2 hour flight from Melbourne and I am sure we'll be back to visit regularly. Also, many people from Melbourne go on holiday to the GC, so I am sure we'll be seeing some friends up there while they try to escape the Melbourne winter. 

And that's a wrap! We've just one more week of Term 3 to go before two weeks of holidays. We'll be at home for this one - starting to organize the move, which will happen in the summer holidays.