Faction Carnival 2022

Today was our school faction carnival so of course we had to go all out. Red from head to toe, including hair spray, personalised hats, socks, tutu... the whole lot. Giles is our red faction and we have after today now won 5 of the 6 years of our time at ESPS. Pretty good colour to have been allocated I think!

I was decked out in red too as I was on canteen duty for the day, although spent the majority of my day selling sausages on the oval. No complaints here, meant I got to watch my kids and be amongst the fun.

Maddie and Ella had carefully coordinated their outfits, including their coloured visors which Hayley had even personalised with their names. Way too cute. 

Even their glittery parts were matching, chunked out with glittery gel. (This was not fun to wash out, but we got there in the end.)

There was an additional member included in the squad though, Maddie officially has a boyfriend as of the weekend, Jake Hayden himself, who would have thought? hahaha. Seems pretty pleased with himself though - and who wouldn't be, she's top shelf our girl!

Hayley did a hat for him too and they rocked them together for some photos. Cute as.

My favourite photo of the day though, was absolutely Ella's BeReal, with a stack of them from their year all in under the marquees at lunchtime. It's so cute.

Maddie and Ella have been friends since Pre-Primary. Hayley and I did some digging on our phones and found these. I love these carnival shots of them over the years. They are just the cutest.

Bookweek 2022

Well Bookweek is done and dusted for yet another year - meaning Maddie has just one left before she leaves primary school! What the heck - how did that happen? This years costumes by request were Ms. Marvel and Harry Potter.

They weren't too hard thankfully, although Madeline's did take a bit of sewing from Nanna. Thank goodness she was on hand to assist as I don't think it would have been quite as easy for me to modify it from it's original structure.

The entire get up cost around $15 as some of the pieces were used elsewhere as well.

Long sleeve t-shirt, over dress and bangles were all from the opshop at a total of approx $5

Tights from Kmart $7

Ribbons, mask and stones for the bangles from Spotlight all up about $5 

The blue top was a workout hoodie from Lorna Jane, cut and sewed to fit her. A bit of nail polish to edge the mask, spray paint on the bangles... some Converse we already had - done!

Joseph already had a white shirt, we already had a Harry Potter wand and robe, the tie is a Brisbane Lions one from the opshop in QLD, that has been used time and time again as a Gryffindor tie as it is not only burgundy, but has little lions printed all over it. $1 pants from the opshop, $3 shoes from Big W. Easiest costume ever! In all honesty, the hardest bit was finding the pants, which are ladies 3/4 pants with the button moved slightly. Perfect fit!

I love it when the costumes don't cost a fortune and the kids are still happy!

Here's a shot of Maddie's class parade in action... featuring her and Alvin the chipmunk Ella and Maddie's mate Jake, who she spends far too much time on the phone to, for a person that's just a mate. Hmmmm. Rumour has it he only dressed up cause Madeline was too. This should be interesting.

Anddd here is Joseph and his little bestie, Ella's sister Abby, who was Hermoine. Super cute! 

Bookweek 2022, we out!

Back to school 2022

Back to school today for these nuggets! After a long hot summer, with covid finally cracking the WA markey, it's masks galore and school time for everyone. They were so keen to go and I am so happy for them.

I love that they are so close. It's nice to know that they will always have each other if something goes wrong at school.

Madeline is off to year 5 this year and is absolutely thrilled to pieces as she managed to score the teacher she really, really wanted. She has had a lot to do with Ms. Berman in the past and is super excited as her dog Sasha also comes to school a lot, she is a therapy dog!

Joseph is really calm about school (this is wonderful for me!) as he has Mrs Southee, who was his spelling mastery teacher last year. He copes a lot better with people who are familiar to him, so that's an all round win.

Maddie is also playing flute this year which she is really excited about. I can't wait to see what's in store for the two of them. 

2022 - Let's do this!

Kids are vaxxed!

I am so, so proud of these kids for making a choice to get vaccinated for covid-19. When the option was released in WA for kids just a few weeks ago, they decided of their own choice that they wanted to. We talked about it, they asked questions and they decided that it was a good idea.

We live in an age where medical research is at its best and most refined. Within months of the covid-19 pandemic becoming huge around the world, a vaccine had been readied and was being tested for effectiveness. I'm not here to preach from my vaccine soapbox as I still firmly believe that people have the right to make their own decisions regarding their body, but I was ready and willing to protect myself and my family and other loved ones as soon as it was an option. The kids have watched me receive my doses and decided to do the same.

Joseph had his done today and was much calmer having already seen Madeline have hers done a few days ago in Ellenbrook. That was a good move obviously to have hers first.

Both of the kids took it really well, but were understandably frightened of having a needle. Madeline was the worst- she was shaking and crying and I felt terrible. I kept telling the staff that she wanted to get it and I feel like they all thought I was full of it. Baha. Thankfully she recovered instantly when she realised that it didn't actually hurt that much and only for a fraction of a second. 

Bless them. So proud. 

festive free dress 2021

it seems to have become a tradition at the kids school - where on the last day of school, they have what is known as "festive free dress" giving the kids a chance to wear their christmas shirts, santa hats and anything else they like. it's so fun!

these two love it and get right into it, so as soon as the christmas shirts appear in store i am straight onto finding them one to wear. joseph's ones this year were especially cool, a pizza triangle tree with "merry crustmas" and a gingerbread man with a broken leg that said "oh snap." maddie was just thrilled to get to wear the shirt again that nanna found her last christmas with the elf on the shelf on it. it's her favourite!

i was so happy to be able to get a better shot of joseph with miss salomon today too as last nights one was not his finest. we were soooo touched to see that she was wearing the earrings we had bought her from josph as an end of year thankyou gift. it was so special.

maddie's sweet little class. she is already wondering who she will be with next year, but only time will tell! 

 

esps open night 2021

one thing (in my opinion) that covid has changed for the better - is how the school exhibition nights are run. i actually love that we can walk around the school taking our time, chatting to the teachers and looking at everything the kids want us to see, instead of being given a short amount of time all in together as the kids gave a short performance. this way makes me way happier. much easier to be in multiple places and it all happens on one night instead of over a week, so i guess it's easier for the school too.

we love ellen stirling so much! i feel so lucky to have a place there, the teachers are amazing and the school just has a wonderful positive vibe. the school has been recognised for their teaching techniques and frequently have visitors observing how they can improve at their schools. i wouldn't want my kids anywhere else!

the kids love to show their work and walk us through showing us every little thing they did over the year

and of course having one last photo with their teachers before the school year ends. madeline had mrs foti this year and she has been wonderful, so lovely with maddie - she loved hearing about her dancing and adventures as she used to dance too. she will only be back for a few months next year as she is off to have a baby!

joseph was so so blessed to have miss salomon again this year. the school has offered her an associate principal position next year which is so exciting for her! she is an incredible teacher and i know joseph will be very sad that he can't have her three years in a row hahahahaha.

he has done so well this year and has really managed to come out of his shell under her watchful eye. i will be forever grateful for emma and her guidance, she completely changed the way he felt about school. some teachers are just perfect for some students and this was certainly the case.

the beautiful miss salomon. best of the best. ❤

maddie with her year 2 teacher miss stone and her year 4 teacher mrs. foti

 i actually cannot believe another year is over already! it seems to have flown by. one more day of school and we are done! crazy.

christmas class gifts - brownie trees

please allow me to introduce you to the idiot (me) who thought it would be a good idea to make these adorable brownie christmas trees for each child in my two (school aged) childrens classes.oh they'll only take an hour she said. she was wrong. 58 trees and 3.5 hours later, i was seriously regretting all my life decisions.

oh. my. word.

courtesy brownie recipe:

200g butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

2 eggs

1. preheat oven to 160 deg celcius (fan forced)

2. line a 20 x 30cm pan

3. melt butter and brown sugar in a pan gently over low heat until combined. do not boil

4. add cocoa and vanilla essence and stir until combined

5. add flour and mix well

6. add eggs and stir until completely combined

7. pour into lined pan and bake for 20-25 mins (in our oven - 22 mins is perfect!)

i baked the 3 trays of brownies during the day, that was not the issue. they were easy as anything. it was the decorating and packaging that got me.

step 1. cut each tray into triangle pieces, which actually takes ages just in itself.

step 2. pipe icing onto each tree in a tinsel kind of motion 

(icing is simply a mix of icing sugar, just enough milk to make it pipe-able but not enough that it won't dry, and a little green food colouring.)

step 3. add "baubles and stars" from any random supermarket sprinkle mix

step 4. add candy cane trunks in the base of each tree 

step 5: wrap each tree in cellophane bag, add individual tags (created with canva then printed off at our local harvey norman) and tie off, then curl ribbon ties.

would you believe this process took me three and a half hours?! i nearly died - mostly of tiredness because by then it was 2:30 in the morning. augh. but they looked amaaaazing and i was so proud of them.

and it was all worth it in the morning, because joseph took one look at them and said: "oh mum they are amazing! my class will love them." day = made. that is why we mums do stupid things like this.

merry christmas school kiddies! ❤

p.s. maddie has two lovely girls in her class that don't celebrate christmas as they are jehovah witnesses. we chose to give them something else instead, a handmade school tartan scrunchie with a non christmas label. respect for others beliefs, in turn brings respect for ours. 

esps discos 2021

the ellen stirling discos are over for another year. maddie and joseph have been to their separate sessions and danced their little butts off. maddie as usual loved hers and had the best time

and amazingly joseph had a good time this year too! considering last time he hid under a table for the whole thing, i was thrilled that he enjoyed himself.

especially when his teacher sent me this shot as proof! haha

these little girls have been friends since kindy and we've managed to get a photo of them together most years at their disco. i wasn't able to assist this year, but seeing as one of their mums is a teacher she snapped one of the squad and sent it to me. what a gem.

here's hoping this group is made of forever friends. ❤

sports carnival 2021

today was our annual school faction carnival. our kids are in giles (red) named after ernest giles. all our school factions are named after early australian explorers (the others are forrest (green), eyre (blue) and gibson (yellow)) and funnily enough, he was the only one i hadn't heard of. maybe that was meant to be so i had to do a little research. in our 5 past years at the school giles has won 4 of the 5 carnivals, so we were certainly hoping for another. our hoping paid off and that's now 5/6. boom. no wonder the kids love being in giles, they always get to brag about their faction winning.

this year was a little crazy overall... when julia went off to nz, she had made sure that the date they returned would ensure that even if they had to quarantine, that they would be back in time for her to be there for carnival day. well. the world had other plans. after a covid outbreak in nz just days before they were meant to fly home, they've been unable to get back into australia, let alone into western australia and are still there. so it was all up to chantelle and her assistants - me and iris. she carefully chose a menu to make it all work, including food for parents and the day went off without a hitch. we even had doug (which would have been doug and hayden...) out the back of the canteen cooking sausages to make hotdogs all day - and we sold nearly every single one! what a trooper he was!

it was so fun and well thought out, even down to having jelly and mini m&ms's available in all the faction colours - plus she decorated the canteen in all the colours too!

the kids were so chuffed... she really got that one right!

go giles!

and because her hair is of course not red enough, here we are spraying it bright red year after year.

and seeing as this kid loves red, he's stoked to pile it all on for carnival day. i especially love that he's wearing madeline's adult sized spiderman socks which covered his entire legs! 

i managed to see joseph's race by an absolute fluke of luck as i ran out to check when he was up. he was stoked to takeout second place in his.

he's not the best runner so he was in the last division, making it easy to place.

proud as punch!

 

maddie is a pretty good runner, so gets placed in the high divisions, which annoys her, because she never places - but still still ran well. she wasn't overly impressed to not place again this year, but there isn't much we can do about that. thankfully she still had a great day and they both loved seeing their faction take it home yet again. yay giles.