Feeling crafty

Yes! The girls were packed and waiting when I turned up on their doorstep and became quite impatient when Colin and I sat down with a coffee to chat with their mother!
Once we were on our way we called in to do a little shopping and I gave each of them three dollars to spend in the "cheap shop". It took ages to choose something! That made walking around the grocery shop far more tolerable for them! Unfortunately for me Woolworths had run out of their cheap bread so we had a second grocery stop this time at Aldi. Colin stayed in the car with the children while I went in. That way I was able to leave the car running and the air conditioning on! I gave a sigh of relief when I encountered several displays of Easter chocolates! It would have been difficult dragging the children away from them!
I did weaken at the sight of an Easter activity book for $2.99 and into the trolley two of them went!
Once we were home the girls were eager to get onto the activities.
Little baskets and models were made from the push out card shapes but when it came to the tracing I made thick card shapes from the designs and the children drew around them before cutting out the shapes from coloured copy paper.

Kayla is cutting and sticking the paper shapes she has drawn and cut out.
I was amazed at how long the children worked on these paper projects. They are quite difficult and involve a bit of curling and folding too but I only had to show them once and they were able to do it for themselves.
Here is what the girls are making.

Chantelle holds her paper daffodil for the camera. We had to stick a thin strip of firm card along the back of the stem because the flower was a bit heavy for it. The circle of paper is enough to make the daffodil stand upright.
Going to bed is not easy! It is half an hour since they were tucked in and goodnights were said and they are still keeping each other awake! They don't normally share a room but when away from home they are happier together! But for the fights over the bed clothes! I will go and settle them. They have another exciting day ahead of them for tomorrow.
AJ

Culture on the 'Coast

I have done so many things this past week that to write a story about what I have seen and done actually stops me in my tracks! Where to begin!
So to be feminine and non logical I am writing about today first!
It was a hot "summer" day today with the temperature over 30'C and the air was filled with the haze of smoke from grass fires (most likely the fire brigades burning-off the long growth as a safety measure)so wandering around was rather exhausting. But at the same time stimulating.
Today many of the different cultures that make up the people who have made the Gold Coast "home" had made a great effort to demonstrate either their dance, music or their foods. It was the Gold Coast Multi-Cultural Day.
I had barely managed to charge my batteries for my Nikon and my Bloggie camera after two days in Toowoomba but I was so pleased that I had made the effort. The colour and the sharing by everyone was wonderful to see. I stayed three hours and in that time I travelled the world!
I had actually arrived ten minutes before the first "show" (Three stages in action, non stop - and all free) and a brightly dressed Chinese woman encouraged me to sit down and she told me so much about the group she belonged to. It is a strange title for a group of dancers but I will share it with you - "Global Federation of Chinese Business Woman of Australia" (Yes, womAn not womEn)They practice a kind of Tai Chi and martial arts with swords that looks more like a beautiful dance than a type of aggressive attack/defence skill. I took some Bloggie of the sword dance so I will share it later on.

When the ladies posed for a photograph for a friend, of course I could not resist grabbing one myself! Don't they look gorgeous? The woman who was chatting to me is in the centre at the back, in green. Surprisingly most of them did not speak English at all.
When the performance had finished I made my escape (or I would still be talking to the Chinese lady!) and made a bee-line for one of the other stages. On the way I came across three little girls in yellow costumes. They looked so beautiful. I chatted to them and asked them if they were going to be doing some dancing somewhere soon. I asked if their mother's had done their beautiful hairstyles and the floodgates were opened! They turned around so that I could admire them all the better and showed off this hand movement and that dance position until I asked them if I could take a picture of them. I took one but the next thing was that three more children were called over - and then more, so I have three photos of these delightful children (different number in each!) who later were on stage demonstrating Indonesian Dance.

What surprised me was that some of them did not "look" Indonesian - but they may have either an Australian mother or an Australian father. (remember that you can click on the pictures to see them larger - click on the "back" button to return to this blog!) They did dance beautifully - I made a point of returning to the stage for their performance.
While waiting near a stage for a different show - it was an Indian song and music demonstration - I was joined by two little girls who had obviously been to the face painting. I can strike up a conversation with children very easily and these two were just so sweet. I asked them if they would mind if I took a photo of them since they looked so gorgeous and I asked them to put their heads close together and look at me - here is my lovely shot of them.

Don't they have the most beautiful eyes? The face painting is lovely too, not the mess that you sometimes find! I wish that I had found out if their mothers wanted a copy of this photo - maybe they will find it accidentally by finding my blog!
I have so much to share that I will be writing again tomorrow!
AJ

The camping bug

Recently Colin and I have been plotting and planning an outback trip with our eldest son Steven and we had been thinking about purchasing or hiring a four wheel drive camper trailer. Even if we did that there would still not be enough room for five adults (my sister and husband are considering joining in) so Paul dug out his family tent and gave us a demonstration on how easy it was to put up and how much room was inside it. This tent was used so long ago that Kayla, the five year old, does not even remember it!

I encouraged the children to help Daddy and Grandad put the tent up - Kayla put in a couple of tent pegs and Grandad pushed them in further and both little girls helped zip and unzip the doors and windows and roll up the screens and generally had a great time in this wonderful big canvas cubby house!

The tent has two rooms, one of which is small enough for a single sleeping bag and the children thought this was the best part especially when granny joined them in there and we all lay down and pretended to go to sleep! It was a shame we had to pull it all down again and pack it away!

AJ