Jayne's Birthday February 2014

I celebrated my birthday in February with gifts from my family, a cake bought by hubby Dwayne & a mid-week dinner at the Gab restaurant with my lady friends - very luxurious as there was no washing up or any kids around!!

            

Please come to celebrate…

Jayne’s Birthday

Wednesday 5^th February

At The Gab Café from 6.30pm

Buy your dinner, Bring your drinks, Cake provided!

It’s a Tropical Island theme…

think hibiscus, franjipani, thongs, grass skirts, laes, pineapples, ilan style…

 

January 2014
New Year, New School...

Milly has started in Year One this year!
We decided to move her from Tagai Primary to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH), the Catholic Primary school on T.I.
Here she is with Evy on her first day...

Milly is in a Year 1/2 composite class with a teacher & 2 part-time teacher aides.  The other classes are Kindy/Prep, Year 3/4, Year 5 & Year 6/7 = 5 classes in total.  The school also operates a campus on Hammond Island for Kindy - Year 3 students.  

There is a music, PE & culture specialist who provides the specialist lessons & Milly is doing swimming lessons as part of her school work, every Friday in term 1 for 1 hour.  The students attend services in the church on the school grounds several times per term & do religion & Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) as part of their weekly curriculum with their class teacher.  

There is a personal development / sex ed program visiting all classes in March to present videos & information on conception, birth, babies & puberty - different information for different age groups, of course!

Milly borrows books from the school library once a week to bring home & read with us & the tuckshop is open everyday for morning tea & lunch.  The uniform shirts cost $28.  The students wear a light blue shirt Monday - Thursday & a yellow shirt on Friday with their sporting house name & picture on it.  Children must wear shoes to school & keep them on all day & the 'no hat - no play' policy is enforced.

The atmosphere in the school is calm & respectful.  The bell is music rather than an alarm!  

Milly is enjoying the school very much & we are feel happy that we've made a good decision  as parents.

Dwayne's Birthday ~ 25th January 2014

Dwayne opening presents with the girls in the morning...

Birthday lunch...

 Then we invited other families to meet us at the Torres Hotel for an early Friday night dinner.

Dwayne and the dads took the kids across the road to Anzac Park for a play while the mummies waited for dinner to come to the tables at the Torres Hotel...

Milly's School Swimming Carnival

November 2013

Tagai State College - Thursday Island Campus

Interhouse Swimming Carnival held at T.I. Sports Complex & Pool...

Milly with her ribbon

Pre-Preps and Preps lined up for their pool noodle race...

Milly in action

P&C's Healthy Food Stall...

Kids enjoying the healthy food sold by Tagai Primary P&C

The P&C girls working hard.

A race in motion...

Lining up for ribbons & points after a race.

Camping at Bamfield, P.O.W. Island -->

We managed to fit in one more camping trip before the end of the school year...
* We went to Bamfield on Prince of Wales Island with 2 other families for morning tea & a swim in the freshwater waterhole.  The other families headed home for lunch & we set up our campsite just off the beach on the edge of the scrub.  There used to be 2 shelters visitors could use for camping or picnics, but an enormous tree came down in a storm earlier in 2013 & managed to crush both shelters in one go!
* It was very hot, extremely humid & raining on & off - so setting up was tough going.  The girls frolicked in a pool that got caught mid-beach when the tide went out while Dwayne & I huffed & puffed to set up our big tent & a camp kitchen.  
* We enjoyed dinner under the stars on the sand, toasted marshmallows in a campfire & slept with mozzies in the tent.
* Dwayne had to check on the boat regularly : a storm passed by out on the horizon as the tide was coming in so the waves in the little bay became quite sizable - & waves up here are never big!  He had to turn on the bilge pump at one point as the boat took in a few wave-fulls, but was otherwise unharmed.
* We had one last swim in the waterhole in the morning after packing up the campsite.  There had been enough rain to make the waterfall just trickle into the swimming area...very refreshing!

Everyone in the freshwater waterhole with the trickling waterfall in the background.  Bamfield, POW.

Our tent.  The girls.

The campsite with the squashed shelter in the background.

The girls and I having dinner on the sand.  Bamfield, POW.

The beach swimming pool - water caught from the receding tide.

Dwayne washing up in the collapsed shelter.

Dwayne's fire.

Marshmallows by moonlight...