OLYMPIC PARK

This past weekend, we took the kids over to the Sydney Olympic Park to see some of the venues from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  Our main destination for the day was to spend sometime inside the Aquatic Centre.  They have developed a lovely waterpark inside the centre in addition to the HUGE Olympic size pools.  The girls were so excited to go for a swim.  It is winter here and we are missing the HOT, summer-like weather.  They have been desperate to throw on their "swimmers" and jump into a pool.  They swam for 3 hours and were completely exhausted when it was time to go home.

Is that Tom over there?  Oh no, it is NOT.  Tom (Twiggy) is much thinner, he has hair on his head and not so much on his chest - LOL!

Look at those happy faces!  They swam their guts out.  As we were getting ready to leave the aquatic centre the girls wanted to take their picture with a World Champion Swimmer.  They did not realize until they saw for themselves how tall champion swimmers are.  We had a great time and look forward to going back to experience more Olympic adventures.

Apparently Grace won GOLD with her OLYMPIC swimming SPIRIT! 

BUSH WALKING

Last weekend, Tom wanted to take us bush walking in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.  Bush walking is what we would call hiking in the States.  There are so many places that you can bush walk around here.  It is beautiful and the girls were really hoping to see kangaroos in their natural environment.

We packed up the car and drove down the road to the National Park.  We went on June 10, 2013 which was a national holiday around here.  We were celebrating the "Queen's Birthday."

When we arrived in the park there were many trails that we could take to experience a "bush walk."  I suggested that Tom pick the trail for us thinking that it would be an easy leisurely experience - remember, it was a holiday.  Little did I know that he chose a moderate to STEEP bush walk.  It started out easy and then got quite hard pretty quickly.  I keep asking him, if it was going to lighten up and he just smiled.  Claire promptly responded "mom just think about all of the toning your gluteus-maximus is going to receive."  I am so glad that my girls know how to look on the bight side of things.  :)

We hiked up the hill and hiked down the hill as we absorbed all of the beautiful bush.  We came upon a beautiful bay call "Apple Tree Bay" and were able to catch our breath as we basked in the sun sitting on the dock.  It was absolutely stunning... (The hike was worth it - don't tell Tom!)








After our quick snack and sun-bathing in the beautiful bush, we had to return to the car.  This meant hiking back up the hill.  As Tom says, what goes up must come down.  Away we went.  The girls did NOT see any kangaroos, they must have been off celebrating the Queen's Birthday.

To finish things off, we went to dinner to celebrate with the PERFECT British dish, Fish and Chips!  It was delish and we felt quite royal!  Thanks Tom for the bush walk - Cheerio!

 The only wild creatures that we saw...an enormous ANT HILL!

FREE RANGE

Claire with her cousin Tucker - March 2013 Virginia.

As we were preparing to move here, I had been told and saw firsthand on our "look see" trip that children in Australia are very independent.  They travel great distances on public transportation WITHOUT their parents.  They ride buses, trains, walk to and from public locations beginning at very young ages.  Tom says that some train stations look like they are crawling with ants (children) as they gather to get to school in the mornings. 

I was not that TYPE (loose & carefree) of parent and I knew that moving here would stretch my comfort zone in more ways then one.  I did not know if I could do it because I have been the kind of parent that does not let my three daughters out of my sight.  They have been glued to my hip since birth.  We have only had them sleep at someone else's house (other than family) one time when Tom and I were on a house hunting trip years ago.  I guess it is safe to say that I have deep seated control issues.  :)

So, as you can imagine, moving to Sydney where children travel on public transportation in the BIG city regularly has been a little overwhelming to me.  Claire walks to the train station each morning and boards a public bus to travel to school.  The first week of school, I begged her to text me when she got to the train station and to send me a second text once she made it to school.  She looked at me as if I was insane that I would be so worried.  She kept telling me that she was 14 and a Freshmen in high school.

In preparing to move here, Claire did a lot of research about Australia and learned that it is a really SAFE place to live.  So when I was acting a little nuts about all of the texts I was asking her to send me...she began to quote statistics regarding her safety in this BIG city.  We finally agreed to a compromise.  She agreed and that she would text me when she got to the train station in the morning and again in the afternoon when she arrived back to the station.  However, I knew that I needed to get control over my ability to let go - if just a little.

I remembered a book that one of my friends recommended to me titled Free Range Kids.  I immediately picked up a copy and began reading.  Basically in the book, it states that if you never give your kids the opportunity to be independent, they will lack confidence and struggle to do things that might be hard or out of their comfort zone.  Tom and I are trying really hard to raise confident, strong, happy, and independent women.  We want them to feel like they can do really difficult things even if they have never done them before.  We want them to go out into the world and BE CONFIDENT.

I am promoting confidence and independence at home BUT, I am scared to death to let them out of my sight for fear of what might happen in my absence.  My actions did not really match my expressions about the importance of confidence.  

So I determined that I was going to start to let them have a little more freedom.  It has been hard and liberating at the same time.   Little by little, I have been adjusting (let's be honest - it has only been 9 weeks but who's counting).  However, last night I was THROWN into the deep end.  Claire was invited by our Bishop's daughter (Head Pastor of our church) and a few friends to ride the train to downtown Sydney, have dinner in the city, walk around and see some of the sights and then ride the train home at 10 pm. They were going to be with a fairly large group of friends.  Claire felt like this was her big chance to break free and test my new found philosophy.  I could not believe I was going to do it....but, I did.  I tired to think of every reason as to why she could not go but, I knew it was TIME to rip the band-aid off and start putting into practice all I was reading.  

Claire left the "nest" and I survived.  She had a wonderful time.  The group of kids that she went with were very responsible and she loved the independence!  Confidence and Independence are beginning to grow here in Australia for all five of us.  :)

I am so thankful for wonderful friends that share their wisdom and parenting advice with me.  It helps to make me become a better mother.  I am hopeful my three beautiful girls survive all of the mistakes that I make along the way.  Claire is really thankful for my awesome friends--Thanks Sara B. :)

She is so happy about the new INDEPENDENCE - look at that smile.

VIVID

Here is the gang after their bellies were filled.

Last night we headed to downtown Sydney to watch VIVID.  It is a festival that they do in May/June here in Sydney to get the Sydneysiders (the locals) to come outside.  It is winter around here and many Sydneysiders just like to stay inside because it is cold and rainy. 

So last night we decided to brave the rainy wet weather and headed to the city.  We rode the train from our local station to Circular Quay.  The plan to get Sydneysiders out in the winter must be working because it was CRAZY nuts down there.  It was similar to the amount of people that you would see in Washington D.C. for the fourth of July.  However, it was a bit more interesting because people were carrying umbrellas as well.  

Beautiful lights are projected onto Sydney's landmarks.  Each landmark's light show runs on a loop and last about 15 minutes.  It is really cool to sit in the Harbour and see the lights.  Those white tiles on the Opera House come in pretty handy as they project the lights perfectly and the images look like you are staring at a movie screen.

The girls were excited to go however, my kids were really hungry by the time we left our house.  Our plans were to get something to eat when we got down there however, as time wore on I knew that we needed to eat.  Grumpy, grumpy children started to appear so we decided to stop halfway at a HUGE mall and get something to eat in their LARGE food court.  In Australia, many shops, malls, etc..close at 5 pm.  It pretty much becomes a ghost town around here after five except for restaurants.  I googled the mall and it said that the restaurants would be open until 9 pm.  So we exited the train and walked into the mall where we soon learned that everything was closed.  I thought I was going to be tarred and feathered by my famished children.  They were so upset and I thought this night might have been a COLOSSAL mistake.

I did not give up and kept walking in the mall until I came upon a local sub shop that was preparing to close up but agreed to make us some dinner.  After our bellies were full, our moods began to improve, we boarded the train and went to the festival.  The girls loved it inspite of the rain.  It is an AMAZING experience.  One that they will remember for a long time.  Thanks for the entertainment--Sydney!  The Opera House was our FAVORITE as you can see from the many photos below.

Here is the link so that you can see it for yourself.  http://www.vividsydney.com/