Happy New Year!

Sunday I was up at 8 and took Jack to Adam’s at 10. He spent the day with Adam. They went to Bounce camp while Stuart, Millie and I went shopping at the mall and ate lunch at PF Chang’s. Millie was such a delight to be around. Each child is pleasant when they have your total attention, I find. 

We went to Clare and Scott’s for New Years but were home by 10:30 pm. It was a bit of a boring night. We let the kids try to stay awake, but only Jack was able to make it to midnight. 

Monday morning we were up and lazed around until about noon. We then went to the rugby club for a swim. Stuart and I didn’t swim because our tattoos can’t touch pool water for a few weeks. Millie used her new mermaid tale that Grammie and Pop bought her for Christmas. She was a little fish!

This was what New Years did to this boy. Stuart found him on he sofa like this on Monday morning. Ha!

We ate lunch at the club and then came home. The kids played upstairs while I worked on my Lego, and Sean and Stuart watched a movie. The kids were back to regular bed time on Monday evening as Stuart and I started work on Tuesday morning. 

I attempted to go to bed around 9 pm to try to get a good night’s sleep before starting back to work. Unfortunately, the kids outside playing basketball were so loud, it was impossible. I went to security, yet again, to express my irritation that quiet hours were not being followed. I ended up writing an email to the security company. We shall see if anything comes of it. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep on Monday night. 

Tuesday I was at school by 8 am, but nothing really got started until almost 9 am. I did a bit of work that would be presented to teachers on Sunday, and then we all did some work on our overall school plan for improvement. During professional development days we are to work 4.5 hours and have a 1 hour flexible lunch. Most schools work from 8 to 12:30 and then let teachers go instead of having a formal lunch. My new principal learned the hard way that if you give an hour for lunch in the middle of the day, you can be sure of two things. Either people return late from lunch or people don’t return at all. At any rate, after Tuesday she decided we would have our lunch from 12:30 to 1:30. Good decision. Tuesday after lunch we spent time reporting out from our school committees. One day of professional development down and only 7 to go. 

Tuesday evening I did my Lego while the kids played outside. It was very relaxing. The kids came in the house and bathed.  Stuart made a steak and Stilton pie, and we watched Batman. The kids had been at Brian’s all day and Stuart had decided to take a day off on Wednesday to take them to Adventure Head Quarters. Child care is a bit difficult when your kids don’t go back to school when you do, especially since all of our friends are teachers.

Wednesday the Heads of Faculty that would present continuous assessment work for the term, worked on the presentation. I got home around 1:30 and the Internet was not working. There’s a monopoly on the internet service here so if it doesn’t work properly no one really cares too much. We are kind of at the mercy of the provider. 

Stuart and the kids got home just before 3 pm and I headed to my doctor’s appointment. When I returned, I bathed the kids and fed them. Stuart and I had a date night at Trader Vic’s. For Christmas, Sean gave us money and a free evening of babysitting. So we decided to cash in on it before rugby got back into full swing. 

Thursday we had a meeting that started 45 minutes late. It was materials that some people worked on last year. Because of our school change over, it was really quite irrelevant. But we all did the best we could to make use of the materials. Millie spent the day at her friend Ava’s house, while Jack went back to Brian’s. Cathy, Mandy, Stuart and I went to Chili’s for lunch and then we headed home to pick up the kids. 

Thursday evening I finished my Lego and the Richardsons came over for dinner. They actually brought dinner. We had chili and other leftovers from our refrigerator. It was a fun evening for sure. 

Clearly this is not the finished project. Oops!

Friday I was supposed to go to my principal’s house for brunch, but I just couldn’t be asked. We just laid around the house all day. The kids played outside ALL day. Keith and Ian came and spent the night with us. All children were asleep in the loft by 11 pm, and I was asleep shortly after that. 

No sleepover is complete without tattoos!

Saturday I made pancakes for the kids in the morning. The rest of the day was pretty chilled and then an early night was in store for the kids as they were starting school on Sunday. Stuart made homemade meatballs which were delightful, and may have solved my issues with not having a Bucca di Beppo at my doorstep. A great week with a beautiful ending.