Friday, February 6, 2015

Ethan starts school kindy!

This week was a big milestone for us, Ethan started the school based 4 year old kindy program! He has been very excited about "big boys school" for a while and we have been counting down since Christmas for this day to arrive! 

School in WA is a little different to what we knew from NZ, there are 3 year old kindy programs, 4 year old kindy programs, pre primary, then years 1 - 13. Entry into each "year" is based on when in the year kids are born. Ethan was able to start 4 year old kindy this year as he was born between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011 (so he will be one of the youngest in his year). For this kids form 1 July 2011 (not much younger than Ethan), they wouldn't be eligible for the 4 year old Kindy program until next year. 

Kindy at Ethan's school is a 5 day fortnight, so he attends every Thursday and Friday and every second Wednesday. His daycare also runs a kindy program, however at $100 a day compared with around $500 a year for public school, the choice was a no-brainer for Ethan to head off to the school based program!

Yesterday was Ethan's first "day" (it was only 8.40 - 11.00 - he won't have his full days until next week). Ethan was up in the 5's and school doesn't start until 8.40 so we still had hours to wait yesterday morning! But when it was time to go Ethan was pretty excited! 
 We tried to get some family photos but no luck of getting any nice ones as we actually didn't leave enough time in the end!
 Here Ethan is at the entrance to school, this is where he will spend the next few years!
Ethan was quite excited when we finally got into the classroom! I think that he was most impressed with the interactive whiteboard! 
 It seemed like I had barely dropped him off when it was time to pick him up again! But he had a good day and is looking forward to going back again today! 

Charlotte also went well (I was worried about the drop off and pick up times working with her sleeps. Yesterday she slept until 7.45, we dropped Ethan off at 8.40 - 9.00, came home and Charlotte was back down for her sleep by 9.25. She then woke up in time for Ethan's pick up at 11am. I was pleased as I didn't have to wake her. So all in all it was a successful first day!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

2014 in Review

Wow, 2014, what a year it was! It's great to look back and reflect on the year that was, although as a family of four now there's not much reflecting and pondering going on, I'm writing this blog in the spare 5 minutes that I have 10 days into 2015! Time is a precious commodity right now and it always seems like it's in shortfall!

So here's a quick rundown of what I remember from 2014 for you (in no particular order)...

In November we welcomed our darling Charlotte Rose into the world, she has been a delightful addition and has made our family complete.

In February Jason took the swimming world by storm, absolutely smashing his goals in the Rottnest Island swim.

Ethan celebrated his 3rd birthday with a very successful pirate party!

Ethan also completed his toilet training (apart from a small regression when Charlotte was born).

We had a great family holiday in Dunsborough (one which we hope to repeat many times over the next 20 - 30 years), we also got to visit Victoria for Jason's Dad's 60th birthday!

Jason and I celebrated being married 10 years (wow is it 10 years already!).

Jason carried on his sporting achievements with winning his water polo grand final again! Sport took a backseat for me this year being pregnant, but I did complete my 500km of pregnant walking challenge!

Ethan started swimming lessons on his own (no parent involvement) and quickly graduated from a yabbie to a barracuda!

Unfortunately, after many safe years, I was knocked off my bike while in the early stages of pregnancy. I stopped riding after that incident! The positive out of this accident was that it bought the car safety message a little closer to home for Ethan.

We replaced our brick patio with lovely new lawn and replaced our old mazda with a far safer and more reliable car; and

Ethan had a second set of grommets put in (just before Christmas).

So as you can see 2014 was another eventful year for us, we are thankful for all our family and friends for all the love and support we get, we are thankful for the opportunities presented to us and we are proud of the challenges that we faced and overcame.

Here's to a new and exciting 2015!