Maddie's assembly

Today Madeline's class assembly performance was on and I was incredibly lucky to have my parents here for the afternoon, so that I could leave Alex home with them and go and watch. Maddie was child 1 in the play - so the lead part and did such a good job! I could hear her clearly for the whole thing.

Then came the wonderful surprise of her receiving an honour certificate! Teachers normally give parents a heads up, but neither she or I knew it was coming. It's especially wonderful as it's her second for the year and generally you're lucky to even get one in a class of 32 kids! I was incredibly proud. To be fair though, they have a new teacher for semester 2 as their first teacher left to have a baby, so she probably didn't know she had already received one.

So lucky to be your mum Maddie!

As soon as I pulled out the camera bestie Ella turned up for photos haha

I love these two. They have so much fun together and I am so glad they are in the same class this year. ❤

 

ESPS Discos - Round 2 2022

Tonight was Joseph's turn for the disco, we spread them across two nights as we are such a huge school and break them into four sections, two grades in each.

So glad he is happy to be here, we have certainly come a long way.

Oh look it's Madeline living her best life and attending all the discos tonight as well cause mum is here and on duty.

What a life. Must be horrible.

I love that these two love each other. ❤

Not us sneaking Madeline's mate through the canteen entry so she could come and hang out with us again... 

Her sister is the same age as Joseph so they would have been waiting outside anyway until it was over.

Plus there was the added bonus of getting to hang out with one of their mates who is a grade below.

Joseph had a great time with his mates, until he had had enough of being sociable and went and sold drinks through the canteen window with one of the P&C mums.

Well - all done for another year, good times had by all. ❤

ESPS Discos - Round 1 2022

Madeline had her school disco tonight and oh my gosh what a party! I love her cute outfit, I find myself wondering on the daily why she gets to be so much cooler than me?

I especially love the little braid with the flower beads, even if it did take me forever to do and was a pain the butt. She's so flipping cute.

She and bestie Ella got settled in and had the time of their lives...

Including stealing my phone from my pocket to take selfies. She had to deal with me being there as I am part of the P&C and we run the disco.

I love that we manage to get one of these pics each year - these four girls were in kindy together and have remained friends ever since. That was 7 years ago and I feel like they are growing up way too fast!

As the night went on it got super dark in the undercover area, the only light they had was the light coming out the canteen window and a set of fairy lights hung around one side of the undercover area and they loved it! They danced around to the weirdest music... I was actually blown away at what they were getting into - The Never Ending Story and Running Up that Hill (obviously wayyyy too many underage kids are watching Stranger Things, heck no would I let my kids watch it) but they all knew Never Gonna Give You Up as well? So odd. They were fully moshing and screaming along to the lyrics. Good times.

It certainly was an awesome night and I am so proud of the P&C for making it happen!

We even got to use our Winter Wonderland decos again as it was the same theme! Classic.

Holiday fun at Mundaring Weir

I despair with children in the house with devices and am constantly trying to find a way to get them out of the house, so that we don't spend the entire holidays that way. Easiest way is to invite their mates so they bring the party along with them. I love Mundaring Weir, nestled in the hills, so todays excursion was out there with their sibling mates from school.

We parked at the top, bush bashed down to the weir...

and found this cute little cubby made into a fallen tree on the way...

Then had a wander across... side note, I don't remember it being nearly that high, but last time we came they were doing maintenance and we could only walk up to the barrier gates, not all the way across. 

We stopped at the cute little guard house for a picture of course. 

Then the kids took off across the walkway, running, of course, while I followed a bit slower. 

It's a long way down, with the most beautiful views!

On the way back, we stopped in at the Mundaring Sculpture Park, seriously one of the best parks around! The kids love the mix of play equipment and nature play and never want to leave, every time we go there. All 5 of them got to it, working out an obstacle course that even Alex could follow and played for ages.

Alex eventually got tired of them and ran off to chat to these little old holidaying men sculptures before we eventually headed back home. I kept asking him what they were looking at and he'd race back in front of them and say I don't know! I can't see it! Hahahaha.

Was a great day out with our mates ❤

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. ❤

disco time

schol discos are over and done with again for another year. the kids had a great time at madeline's segment, because joseph stayed and was happy to be with her friends but oh, he did not like his part. he can be erratically shy out of nowhere sometimes, which can be a bit of a headache for us - and the school disco was one of those occasions. 

from the time we arrived, i encouraged him to go and hang out with his friends, but he was having none of it. in fact, he went and found himself a comfy spot underneath a desk, where he could observe and not participate. he was perfectly happy there, unless someone came and spoke to him, or encouraged him to come out.

the sweetest part of the disco though, was watching his sweet friend mahalia come and ask him to come out. when he shook his head and looked at the ground, she joined him. didn't say a word, just sat by him and kept him company. it really warmed my mum heart. more people in the world need to be like that. not trying to pull people out of their comfort zone, instead joining them in theirs. what a lovely, sweet girl.

maddie's disco was a riot, my crazy outgoing girl is always in the thick of it and partied it up with her friends... and then joseph was all for it and danced about too

maddie and some of her little mates ❤

and her day one girls. she has been with these girls since kindy, so i am certain they will be friends for always. madeline, brooklyn, lara and sophie

here's a shot of them back in pre-primary, with their other kindy friend charlotte (who has unfortunately left us and gone to another school), but missing lara, as she was sick that day. it's amazing how much they have changed!

long live the primary school discos. 

mermaid cupcakes

i sent madeline off to class this morning with 23 of these decorated mermaid cupcakes for her "birthday." having her birthday mud july means she will never have her birthday during the school term, but she doesn't like to miss out on her special day with the class, so we always take her cupcakes on the last day before school holidays.

but. oh the drama. the mermaid cases and tails carefully purchased for this years party theme only had 23 cases inside...

the cakes did not want to stay in their cases and were moving all over the place in the trays...

meaning i had to actually trim them into a decent size for decorating. hahaha.

 

then my piping bag broke and icing went all over the place...

but we somehow got there. a generous topping of aqua cream cheese icing, a dash "midnight" sprinkles from the queen range at coles supermarkets and the mermaid tail on top? good to go. i was pleased with the end result and that's the main thing right? plus, i was  volunteer in the school canteen today and somehow walked past at just the right time as the kids came out for recess holding them. i got lots of compliments, so they obviously tasted okay. hooray! well. there's the start of birthday month for you miss madeline! 

the unicorn squad

some of the girls in maddie's grade at school have gotten together and formed a club that they refer to as the "unicorn squad." i'm not entirely sure what the point of it is, but i (along with the other mums) think it is adorable and love to see them having fun together. we walked to school with two of the other girls this morning and i couldn't resist snapping this picture of them, with their pastel backpack goodness, just before we reached the school. 

life is so much better with friends... 

and i am grateful every single day that she has good ones ♥

ellen stirling ps family fun night!

tonight was our school family fun night! once a year the achool p&c put together an evening with outdoor games, kind of like a carnival feel, along with a bbq to raise funds for the school. we didn't get to go to the last one and maddie was devastated, so we had our forms in well and truly before the due date this time around.

here's the kids showing off the sponsors sign, with the awesome contribution from woolworths (helped by their aunty dom) was proudly displayed.

we played ball in a cup (let's be honest, it was a kids version of beer pong and no one will convince me otherwise.) which the kids absolutely loved. one of the boys was absolutely amazing at it too... his parents will have to keep an eye on him when he is older!

pluck a duck...

which had cute prizes like stamps and pencils and stickers

and spun the chocolate wheel (sorry girls, whoever called it a prize wheel was clearly not from the country, that is a chocolate wheel. if you've ever been to any country show, it is a game run by the local lions club every single year) to win vouchers from the canteen, which joseph did and madeline was furious about.

and then had our bbq dinner, before waiting in the longest line of all time to buy an icecream from the van that had come along. alex was a champ and didn't get upset until it was actually time for bed, so we had an absolutely awesome night out. 

our school and local community is the best. we are truly so lucky to live where we do. ♥