School's Out For Summer...

Well, the school year is over. Prep is done and dusted, and we're into the first week of Hell... er..., sorry... the Christmas Holidays!

Six weeks of "I'm hungry, Mummy! Mum, can I have an iceblock? Can I have some fairy bread? Can I have a Nutella? An apple, a sandwich..?" It's only Tuesday, and already she's devoured almost an entire box of Tiny Teddy biscuits (which were bought as a treat), is about a third of the way through a 12 pack of individual Nutella snacks and has consumed more Zooper Dooper ice blocks than should be deemed necessary, considering the overcast (and therefore cooler) weather. Clearly I will need to buy another truckload of apples, and reintroduce her to stone fruits, now that they're in season.

This, from a child who has spent the better part of her life eating like a bird. I also know for a fact that she survived quite well every day at school on the two standard breaks, morning tea and lunch. So where has this sudden need to continuously graze come from? Maybe it's a growth spurt, but I hope it doesn't last. She's eating us out of house and home... and she isn't even a teenager!

Maybe I'll just have to sidetrack her with holiday activities. There's plenty of things she wants to do. The problem is getting her to understand that she has 6 weeks to do them in. We do not have to do every activity TODAY. We can swim in our pool any time we like. The park and duckpond is only 5 minutes away - she can even ride her bike there on the nice wide bike path. (Maybe we'll even get those training wheels off if she practices hard enough!) We can visit friends, have sleepovers at Grandma's and Nanny and Poppy's, do crafts, go to the movies... we just don't need to do it all right now, this instant.

Perhaps she's right though. All too soon it will be the end of the holidays and we'll be covering books, ready for Grade 1. Maybe we should be trying to cram in as much as we can.

Cheyenne's "Prep Graduation" photo.

(They didn't actually have a Graduation ceremony, this was just a posed shot included on the Powerpoint slideshow that each child received on a CD at the end of Prep. Kind of like a report card with photos. Excuse the grainy quality of the image - we didn't get access to the originals. I just copied it "as is" from the slideshow.)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I can't believe that it's December already! This year has really flown past. Cheyenne only has one more week left of Prep and then she's on Christmas holidays for six weeks! Six weeks! OMG!

You can tell it's that time of year. All around, friends and family are off to watch their kids in Christmas concerts and sports carnivals. Two weeks ago it was our turn. Norris Road SS had their Music Gala concert, and as Cheyenne has been a part of the Junior Choir, we went along to watch them perform two songs.

Let me put this into perspective for you. For most of the year I had no idea Cheyenne was even going to choir practise. Sure, it was mentioned in the school newsletter early in the first term, and Cheyenne told me that she had gone at lunchtime one day with some of the girls in her class, but that's about all I heard of it until the end of term 3. Her teacher let me know that the Junior Choir were going to be singing on Parade that week. This was news to me, since Cheyenne hadn't said a word about it. Occasionally we'd heard her singing the same line or two over and over, but when we'd questioned her about it she'd just said it was a song they sang at school.

We found out she was a part of the Music Gala in much the same way. About a week and a half before the Gala I found a book of Music Gala raffle tickets with her name on in her "information pocket", and, according to the newsletter, only students performing in the Gala would be given them to sell. So I asked her, "Cheyenne, are you singing in the music concert?" She just rolled her eyes at me and replied "Ye-es!" Did it occur to her that maybe she should let us know in time to buy our tickets? Clearly not. Never thought I'd be thankful to get raffle tickets to sell !

I asked her what songs they were singing, so that I could look up the lyrics and maybe help her practise before the concert. Turns out they were singing Colour My World (the old Petula Clark classic) and Louise - a children's song about an elephant. Cheyenne didn't seem to be very sure of the words to this and it isn't one I'd ever heard of before, but even I knew that "Down in deep blue Africa, by the shade of the boo-bah trees" couldn't be right. Africa isn't blue and I don't think there's any such thing as boo-bah trees... except maybe on Telly Tubbies or In The Night Garden, lol.

Now, the internet is a wonderful place... just about anything you're searching for is only a click or two away... except if you are trying to find the complete lyrics to songs out of the ABC Sing books! Clearly the copyright is closely guarded. I did manage to find an index, which told me that Louise features in the 2005 edition... and, miracle of miracles, it also listed the first line!
Turns out the lyrics are as follows: "Down in deepest Africa, by the shade of the bongo trees, lived an elephant, her name it was Louise. Louise was very fond of an elephant named Joe, and every night by the pale moonlight, he'd serenade her so - Louise, Louise, come out from under those trees! Don't give me none of that bunky bunky, I wanna hold your trunky trunky. I love you so much, I wanna hold you so much, my Lou, Lou, Louise!"

OK, it's a lot cuter when sung by a choir full of Prep - Grade 2 kids, all doing the actions. I really wish I could upload the video clip here, but as it is of the whole choir, not just Cheyenne, that just wouldn't be right.

Steve and I were such proud parents though. :-D

Christmas is definitely sneaking up on us. We haven't put our Christmas tree up yet, but Cheyenne has been madly running around wrapping tinsel around the railings. There probably won't be any left to actually go on the tree, lol.