On Sunday afternoon Grace said to me, “Daddy, come spend some time with me,” and enlisted me to help dress her dolls and soft toys. Each of them had to have an outfit, which meant squashing and squeezing them into various beanies, onesies, and Barbie dresses. I asked Grace what they were getting dressed for and she said, “For school.”

Once they all had some form of attire she decided it was time for a photo. She then spent the rest of the afternoon on her own little mission setting up the photograph, and by rest of the afternoon I mean at least an hour (probably longer). She put them onto tables, moved them around over and over, brought other tables to the playroom, made sure that everyone could be seen by organising some height, and who knows what else. I just know that she disappeared into her own little world to arrange the photograph.

Of course when the photographer did finally arrive he complained about the light and helped her to turn it all around for better exposure.

Grace’s dolls, all ready for school

Don’t say cheese, eat cheese!

Eli is having a hungry moment. He’ll eat something (like the massive sandwich above), and then ask for more food a few minutes later and entirely consume that. Either his brain is working hard and growing as he adjusts to school, or he is having some sort of growth spurt (or building up reserves for one). He is just eating whatever he is given at the moment. In the mornings he’ll eat some muesli, and egg and slice of bacon, then go to school and eat breakfast with his class (which is oats, or an egg, or…I’m not actually sure what else). He is one hungry boy.

Grace modelling her new ballet jersey that Gogo knitted for her

Newberry held a fun family sports day this morning, with everyone from the toddlers through to the high school, the staff, moms and dads taking part. Well done to Matt, Kaley and the rest of the team for an awesome and fun morning.

Eli and Andrew off on their own race….even though they are in the same team

Matt the sports coach

Andrew, ready for the bike race

Eli doing his leg of the race

Go red team

Grace ran really well and was having so much fun she ran three times in the first race. She was much faster than I expected

The middle school kids do it in their jeans

The cheering moms

Dean coming in to tag the next runner

Ready for the over-under race

The agony…

…and the suffering

The moms’ ball and spoon race. Note that the facial expression is mandatory

The dads had to keep a grip on their balls. We all had our own style, this is my flap the arms wildly jump…

…and Richard’s penguin

Waiting for the next race

The water-passing-fill-the-bucket-as-fast-as-you-can race

We all seemed to have rough days in our own way today (like Eli hitting a wobble with school, and then also starting with a new swimming instructor….not a good combo), but Donné’s day was made brighter when she collected Grace from school.

Grace: Mom, I did another fruit bowl, but this time I drew all the fruit by myself. Nobody helped me. Does that knock your head off?

Donné: hearty chuckle

Grace: Mom, did it knock your head off?

Donné: more chuckling

Grace: Mom, why are you laughing?

Donné: Because you’re really funny.

Grace missioned off to the play room and nobody was allowed to come in – she was busy with a project and wanted it to be a surprise. After a long time she comes out with beautifully decorated crowns, one for each of us, and a severe need to take a family photo to recreate a picture she has on her wall. We got some family photos, but this is the one I love of the two of them.

These two munchkins really love each other

We were having supper, and Donné and I were chatting about something. We turn to look at Eli and see this…

He gives off a little snore, opens his eyes and gives a big smile, and we laughed away at our funny little man pretending to sleep at the table.

Second day of school went well. He was happy to say goodbye and go into class, and just a little bit of unhappiness at the end when mom arrived before Grace, which seemed to be more about what he thought was going to happen than anything else.

Eli started school today! He has joined Grace at Newberry, starting in the toddler class today. He has had a chance to get used to things, as we took him to the class a few times last term. He would go in for 10-20 minutes, and then come out, “All done,” and move on with the day. Along with this we also took a few opportunities to leave him with close friends. Those two things seem to have helped him to be ready, because when we dropped him off today his words were, “Bye mom, see you later.” He sat down, took out some work, gave us sideways hugs goodbye and got on with it. At the end of the day Lucy’s words were, “He fitted in like he has always been here.”

There was also a special moment when Grace went to his class at their break time to go and fetch him to play. Lucy said they had such joy on their faces when they saw each other and gave each other a huge hug.

My first day