SWIM

Since we moved here last April, both of the girls have been attending swim lessons on Saturday mornings year round with breaks according to the school calendars.  Emi is now in the water on her own (no more Mommy and me swim classes…sniff, sniff :( ) and Adalyn is working on backstroke, butterfly, freestyle, swimming with flippers and whatever else they try to teach them!  Watching all of the kids at these lessons is amazing and now I know why Australia has such awesome swim teams! (they start them young!)

BACK IN THE SADDLE

After almost a year of searching and finding the time, Adalyn is back where she loves to be…in the saddle!  We contacted the Australian Barrel Horse association and the majority (which isn't very many since barrel racing isn't a big sport here) of the people who do barrel race were an hour or more away from Brisbane. So, we just decided as long as she was riding somewhere and learning about the hows of horsemanship, she is now at an English riding center.  The people are wonderful and the guy who runs it has Texas roots!  (His father is from San Antonio AND graduated from A&M)  Small, small world!  Emi loves to go and watch her big sister ride and wants to know when she can start! 

Australian Sand Sculpting Championships

This past weekend we drove up to Surfer's Paradise (about a 45 minute to an hour drive) to check out the Australian Sand Sculpting Championship sculptures that were on display at the beach.  The sculptures were amazing!  It's hard to believe how intricate some of the designs were and there's no telling how many man hours went in to building them.  The theme this year was based on Fairytales and Mythology.  We checked out the sculptures and the girls got to make their own sand art hearts to take home.  It was a great outing…HOT but fun! :)

A and E in front of The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg sculpture

The Kirin….1st Place and won the People's Choice Award

Hard at work on her sand heart!

Scooping her sand for her heart

My favorite…The Trojan Horse.  You had to find 9 soldiers hidden within this one! 

The Billy Goat's Gruff

CHILD OF THE WEEK

The school year has been on for almost 5 weeks now and we get to brag a bit early on Adalyn this year!  She was named "Child of the Week" for her class for week 4 this year!  Her teachers (she has two this year) honored her with this award because of "her happy and enthusiastic attitude in all class activities and sharing her great ideas with classmates".  She was awarded a certificate at their weekly school assembly and a badge that she got to wear for the week.  We are all so proud of her!  She is doing fabulous in school and working so hard.