Award at School on Friday

Scout got awarded a banner at the school assembly on Friday, her 5th one (or maybe her 6th). She got it for having 45 stickers and you have to be good or helpful or in the right place at the right time to get a sticker.

Shaking hands with the Tess, the school captain.

On the back row with the other kids getting their fourth or fifth banners.


Checking that they spelled her name right and that it was really hers.

Next Dance Update

At the Energy Express Eisteddfod held this weekend, Scout performed a couple of times.

• Saturday night, the Junior Jazz group performed Starsky and Hutch and won 1st place against 16 other competitor groups.
• Sunday morning, she performed her jazz solo, Zoot Suit Riot, and won 1st place.
• She and Aoife performed their contemporay duo, Adiemus, and they won a 1st place.
• And tonight, the Contemporary group performed Carmen and won a 1st place.

All in all, quite a haul for her dance school and her jazz and contemporary teacher, Miss Dale.

Time for the School Fete!

Today was the big day -- the school fete is finaly here! Here are two of Scout's friends, Maire and Issy, on the day.

And Scout's regular crowd: Scout, Jess T, Issy, Maire, Annabel, Jess G.

Part of the fete was a bunch of rides. The big slippery-dip was very popular. And we all know that what goes up ...

... must come down ... here are Anabel, Maire and Issy.

... and Jess T and Jess G.
The Faces -- Scout, Jess T, Jess G and Zoe.

Abby lost her battle with the wind -- well, her brolly did.

As part of the rides was the ever popular ferris wheel.


But it wasn't all fun and games. Scout did help out with the games with some of her other friends.

And there were pony rides, very popular with the Saddle Club crowd.

And what would the school fete be without a performance by the Senior Band? They joined the Junior Band for a joint performance of 'Born to be Wild', complete with costumes fitting the occasion.

Photos for Year 6 Farewell

Every year, Scout's school has a going-away dinner in the school hall for the Year 6 students before they all go off to high school next year. It is hosted by the Year 5 students and their parents. As part of the school tradition, at the end of the dinner is a slide show of photos of each Year 6 student, starting with some of them when they were younger and finishing with their Year 6 school photo.

A note came home asking parents to send in photos on CD for this year's farewell. Scout was in an immediate panic that I was going to send photos of her as a baby, naked for all the world to see. What self-respecting parent would let an opportunity like that go by?

I put three photos on a CD and then put the CD into an envelope and sealed it up to keep it a surprise and to prevent a certain blonde girl from looking at them before her teacher, Mr Mitchell, got them. She was in agony.

I saw Mr Mitchell that morning and told him about her angst. Seems that he told her later that he wasn't sure that he could use the photos without blurring out parts of them. Her agony continued, much to her friends' delight (and her own).

Unfortunately, while I was showing her some other photos, she saw the ones I'd scanned for the Year 6 Farewell, so that bit of fun is over. She's relieved, of course, and was pretty chuffed with the photos I picked.

In this one, Scout's only a couple of weeks old and celebrating her first Christmas.


As you can tell, she's a bit older in this photo. I think that the teddy sitting next to her is still wearing the same outfit, complete with a pair of Scout's socks and undies.


Moving on a couple more years and here she is at Floriade down in Canberra. From the missing teeth, she must have been in Kindy. We had been listening to the soundtrack to Cats in the car on the way down and, what do you know, they were performing Cats in a big black cat-eared tent just over the road from where this was taken. While it's OK to sing along in the car, my biggest challenge was to get her not to sing along with the music during the show.

She's still a cheeky thing.

Dance Update

As her first job, Scout is helping the ballet teacher with the little kids on Saturday mornings. She helps with the Grade 1 class (kindy kids & Year 1 - 5 & 6 year olds) and Grade 2 class (Years 1 & 2 - 6 & 7 year olds) and gets extra pocket money. Her friend Aoife (pronounced 'EE-fa') helps with the other Saturday morning classes for the 4 & 5 year olds.

At the East Hills Spring Festival held this weekend somewhere out west, Scout performed a couple of times.

• The Contemporary group performed Carmen and won a 1st place.
  
• The Junior Jazz group performed Starsky and Hutch but didn't win anything.
  
• She performed her jazz solo, Zoot Suit Riot, but didn't win anything.
• She and Aoife performed their contemporay duo, Adiemus, and they won a 1st place

And she has her first touch of sunburn of the summer on her nose after spending WAY too much time in the pool at a friend's house yesterday.