Captains courageous

On Friday Marcus came home from school and announced that he was standing for house captain. He's in grade 6 this year, top of the school, and these kind of things will come up through the year. His good buddies Xavier and Ned were also standing. Ned got into minor strife for handing out lollies to the little kids.

We helped Marcus write a speech for today. Our neighbour Adrian is in Grade 6 at another school, and he was elected house captain last week. He had a cracking speech written down, which he gave us for inspiration. As Marcus's opponents were his good friends we suggested he say something like "All of these guys would make great house captains but I hope you'll vote for me".

The staff thought his speech was great - I think the magnanimosity went down very well. The students must have thought so too - he was elected! Lana from next door (the other side) was elected as Marcus's co-captain, so we have three captains in a row here. That is a lot of leadership crammed into one paddling pool.

Lana may regret some of her campaign promises. She undertook to pick up anyone who is struggling in the cross country run on her magic carpet.

Quiz champs

Marcus, Michael, Arianne and Lana took out the Tasmanian Grade 4 Trivia championship yesterday, in Launceston - organised by Epilepsy Australia. Michael was asked to fill in when someone couldn't make it, and performed admirably. Apologies for photo quality - it was held in a large dim basketball centre.

Radio snob

Lately, when Lana comes over from next door to visit, she and Marcus go into his room, shut the door, and she puts on the radio. She favours a hits 'n' memories commercial station. Wierdly, I associate the muffled sound of radio ads and Whitney Houston with car workshops. When I burst through the door to find out what they are doing, I half expect them to be degreasing an engine block or spray-painting panels. So far, no luck.

Michael plays games

Lana stayed for a sleep-over last night. In fact I watched the soccer from 5.15am this morning (see below) with Marcus and Lana beside me, sworn to silence. They made so much noise getting up that we were joined by Winston. Winston subbed in for Hattie, who had been on my lap but now left the field. I think she will be on board for the full ninety minutes against Ghana, though.

Last night after dinner Lana and Elf played the boys and I at Pictionary. It went fairly well. Michael is not usually very interested in organised board games, preferring to invent his own (such as Mrs Cat's Miaow Money). His drawings were very beautiful - this one for MIND was my favourite.

Between dinner and getting going with Pictionary, Michael asked me for a game of chess, for the first time ever. We only got about 3 moves each in before the scheduled Pictionary kicked off, but he was keen enough to insist that we continue it in the morning.

This morning we did resume, and he stuck at it right up to the point that he had just a king left, to my 4 or 5 pieces. Then he waltzed off in a huff. But - he had remembered the set-up, and all the moves. He listened to my advice and remembered it. He was patient. Best of all, as Elf was still asleep and I was trying to corral three kids and the dog in one corner, it kept him quiet for about an hour.

Once the huff had run its course, he was back at the board, setting it up again and then inventing some chess variations. He has now got out the chinese checkers (which he has never played, as far as I know) and is working on a version of chess using those pieces - eg purple is the king, red is the queen etc.

Carol practice

Marcus and Lana working on a few tunes after dinner last night, rehearsing for the school Carols on the Lawn this evening.

Double beetroot

Continuing Saturday: after the Salmon Ponds, Car A containing Elf and her parents travelled down to Carlton, so they could see our old house in its new riverbank setting, under new management. Car 2 (boys and I) came home. Sharyn, Lana and baby Millie dropped in on us at the beach house - they live next to the hole where said old house used to be. It is still a hole, but hopefully the slab will be poured this week. Things are moving s-l-o-w-l-y.

Anyway, its was great to see them. Millie is very cute and alert. Lana and the boys had a whale of a time on the trampoline and digging in the dirt.

Later that afternoon, Marcus devised a game involving bouncing a ball off the back steps. If you got it up one step, you got one point. Two steps, four points. Three steps, nine points. Nine points was called "double beetroot" for some reason.

2006 winds down

This year we are delighted to be at home for Christmas. My Mum and Dad arrived on the 21st, so the boys clicked into Christmas mode immediately. Marcus had his kinder breakup on Wednesday. We were hoping to find out who would be in his prep class for 2007 - perhaps a class list. All we found out was that he's in Red, so now we will need to do a bit of tentative networking over the holidays to see who else is.

I've already dealt with Roar's end of year party. I kept myself nice, so Elf could pick me up and take me to neighbourhood drinks at 124 Cascade Rd without scaring the children. There we sampled fine food and bevs laid on by Mark and Caron. I borrowed Mark's mower and gumboots and tamed the jungle of our remaining backyard. Guests arrived, wondering at the large hole and the strange man mowing around it. I clomped back over to Mark and Caron's and we explained the whole thing as best we could. One guest said she thought we might have a nice view from the new house, despite that stupid bloody big gum tree out the front.

Sharyn and Lana from No 120 were there. Lana will also be in Red, thank goodness. Lana, Marcus and Michael tagged along with the older boys who had decided to explore the "tunnels" (space under the house) for "treasure" (any old crap). It was getting quite late and dim outside, and was as dark as the deepest night under the house, but the kids were all cheerfully bumping into pillars, boxes and each other down there. Mark is with the Tas Fire Service and so there were hard hats aplenty. I hovered waiting for one of my kids to have a sudden panic attack/minor head injury deep down Shaft 11B but it never happened. Cameron, 8 year old son of wine-aficionado parents, emerged with a bottle of white wine, said matter-of-factly "Shiraz", and went back inside leaving it propped against the other treasure. I suggested we get a list of names and have the children tag on and tag off, but no-one heard me.

Fraught at the Big Pool

Elf volunteered me to take Marcus and Lana-from-next-door to the pool. They get on well so I was happy to give it a go. I was looking forward to having two kids with the same swimming ability - with Michael and Marcus I have to sit in the baby pool with Michael, trying to keep an eye on Marcus while he zooms around through the crowd.

I was only slightly apprehensive about the change rooms situation. My friend Rob takes his daughter into the blokes changing room, for now. I didn't really want to take Lana in, especially as with Marcus too it wouldn't necessarily be a straightforward in/change/out. Taking friends' kids to the pool is quite fraught, unless you are able to pick them up and deliver them back in some kind of supersize, extra-thirsty towel that doesn't get the car seat all wet. It's the undressing and dressing that makes me nervous in this day and age.

At the Big Pool there is a door marked Family Changeroom, which I always thought must lead to a corridor with a number of family changerooms. Surely there would be too much demand for them to have just one? Well, we had a pretty good time in the water, and when we got out found there there is only one family changeroom, and it was free. We had several knocks on the door while we were in there, so it seems to be in high demand. We managed the whole process without me having a panic attack or breaking any laws - although I am not an expert in this field.