Form Captain

No, you are not seeing a duplicate post......

Kennedy was elected as Form Captain today for Term 1 of the school year.    As mentioned in Carter’s blog spot, starting in Year 5, each class elects two Form Captains each term.  This is a big honor since you are elected by your classmates.

An assembly was held to present the Form Captains with their badges.

Kennedy was quite excited and is looking forward to a great Term!

Kennedy & Isabella Murdoch - 5K Form Captains

Kennedy Paige Hobson - Form Captain 5K Term 1 2012

Brisbane Roar

Brisbane Roar is an A-League Football Team based in Brisbane, QLD.   We attended our first of hopefully many games Saturday night after a great dinner at Vio’s in Paddington.  Brisbane Roar hosted Newcastle Jets but the score did not end in our favor, 0-1....maybe next time!!

Shorncliffe

Today we visited Shorncliffe.   It was about a 35 minute drive to the East.  Shorncliffe is located right on Moreton Bay.  It has a small beach area, a great playground, BBQs and a pier.   Although the weather wasn’t the best, we had a fun time.

Australia Day 2012

Australia Day (previously known as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day, and ANA Day)is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland.

Although it was not known as Australia Day until over a century later, records of celebrations on 26 January date back to 1808, with the first official celebration of the formation of New South Wales held in 1818. It is presently an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia and is marked by the presentation of the Australian of the Year Awards on Australia Day Eve, announcement of the Honours List for the Order of Australia and addresses from the Governor-General and Prime Minister. With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies the day is celebrated in large and small communities and cities around the nation. Australia Day has become the biggest annual civic event in Australia.

The girls had a day off from school so we headed to South Banks via train to attend an Australian Day Festival.   Unfortunately, we had have heavy rains for two days before and it was forecasted to rain, so the festival was canceled.   The day was beautiful and we still had fun on the “beach” at South Banks and a few drinks to beat the heat.

Happy Australia Day!

First Day of School 2012

The girls started back to school on the 23rd of January.

Carter-Year 7- Ms. Mitchell

Kennedy - Year 5 - Mrs Koh

Taylor - Year 3 - Mrs Howden

Here’s to a great year!!!

Australian Open 2012

One of the first things on my TO DO list when I found out we were moving to Australia was to go to the Australian Open......check!!!    It was AMAZING!!!   A co-worker of Troy’s lives in Melbourne and was gracious to let our family stay at his house.   Jussi and his wife, Kati, are from Finland and have two girls, Roosa-10 and Ronya-7.   All the girls got along great and we all had a blast.   Everyone went on Friday and we got a Grounds Pass.  The girls got several autographs of the players and got to see several matches and practices.  The highlight of that day was seeing the Bryan brothers play doubles.   It was a blast!!  

Then Saturday night, the adults headed out for the Night Session.   We were lucky enough to see Serena Williams defeat Greta Arn and also Lleyton Hewitt defeat Milos Raonic.  We had Centre Court Seats....it was super!!

Melbourne, Australia

In addition to seeing the Australian Open, we also got to see a little bit of Melbourne.

The night we arrived, our hosts took us to a nearby place where Little Penguins live!!!  Yes, penguins in Melbourne, Australia!   They are so cute.   Each night, about 1,000 penguins come out of the water and make their way into the rocks where their nests are located.   The girls loved this!!  The pictures are a bit dark because flash photography is not allowed.

Another interesting point we got to see were Beach Houses.   These Beach Houses are directly on the beach and start at only $250,000!!!   Unfortunately, they do not have water or electricity and you cannot sleep in them.  They are used to house people’s beach items:  chairs, BBQ, towels, etc.   Nice storage house for $250k!!

Brisbane International Tennis

About 4 hours after our trip home from the States, Troy & I headed over to the Pat Rafter Arena to the Brisbane International Tennis Event, part of the ATP World Tour.   We got to match the Men’s Final...doubles and singles.   For singles, we saw Andy Murray v Dolgopolov.   It was an excited match, even though the score did not reflect it.  Murray won 6-1, 6-3.