Teddy Bear Picnic

 Today is Faith's last day of preschool.  She is on to the bigger and better world of kindergarten.  To celebrate the end of the year, Faith's class hosted a teddy bear picnic for the families.

 We played a game like duck, duck, goose only it was teddy, teddy, bear.  The kids didn't quite get it. Anyway, it was lots of fun to be with Faith on her last day.

 This is Faith's teacher Merrin.  I think it's funny that at Faith's school the kids call all the adults by their first names, even the principal.  

Shelley is another teacher who helped in Faith's class this year. She had such a fun year and is so excited to be in kindergarten.

Year 3/4 Party

 The boys in years 3 and 4 had their end of year party at the Canberra Institute of Sport and Aquatic Centre. It was the coldest day we've had in a very long time so they were lucky they got to go to the indoor pool.  

After swimming they had a sausage sizzle lunch back at the school.  This is James with his fourth grade teacher Mrs. Garven (pronounced Gahven).  Only one more day of school!

Cockington Green Garden

 We had a Groupon to Cockington Green Garden that expires soon so the girls and I took Grandpa to visit it with us. We had never been here before. 

 It is a garden full of miniature houses and people and cars, etc. 

 A cricket game.

 A church.

 A soccer game.

 We liked the international section the best even though they didn't have any miniature buildings from America. 

 The windmills of Spain.

 Working the train.

 Masada

 Petra in Jordan

 Inside they had two doll house displays.  I'm thinking it was a great idea to leave the boys home for this one.

 We finished the day with a train ride.  Kind of  like the Casey Jr. Train in Disneyland going around Storybook Land :)

Carols Service

 Tonight at St. Christopher's Cathedral, Canberra Grammar's Junior School held their annual Christmas Carols Service.  

 The Cathedral is beautiful.  As soon as Faith walked in she yelled, "Hey, that's Jesus up there!"

 The organ loft at the back of the Cathedral.

 When we arrived, the place was packed.  No seats anywhere.  We were standing in the back and a teacher motioned for us to follow her because she had shifted the boys around up front and made room for us. So there we sat right on the same bench as the back row of singing boys.  We had a great view of James.

 Since we were sharing the pew with some of the boys singing, I sat right next to a boy who got up to sing with the choir.  I wish everyone could have the experience of sitting next to Robert in a Carols Service.  That boy sang with more gusto than any singer I had ever seen.  I wanted to film him and put him on YouTube, but that would be too obvious since I was sitting right next to him :)

It's our second Christmas down under, but it's still hard to get used to the hot weather at Christmas.