Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas ... we certainly did, and a great New Year's too!
Sooo ... rewind to where i left off .... Nov 08':
The SCRAPBOOK'n'BITS retreat was a fantastic weekend ... lots of fun, great to catch up with friends (including some new ones). There was lots of scrapping and lots more talking and way too much eating thrown in amongst the mix! LOL!
I hosted a 'Make & Bake' workshop whereby be handmade buttons & embellishments and baked them. These were then used on the Journal book we made and little cupcake album. Here are some pics of my example projects:
The day after the retreat Blake left for his Yr6 Canberra Excursion ... there was a lot of anticipation and excitement for this excursion ... this is the grand finale of excursions that everyone looks forward to at the end of their primary school life [apparently] !!
We were at school at 6.15am ... bright & early, the kids were buzzing with excitement ready & raring to go!
Blake had a great time and even come home with all of his belongings i sent him with ... amazing!!
The excursions was followed by the end of year school Christmas Concert:
The funny things on their arms was part of the character for "7 Emus running" in an Aussie version of 'on the 12th Day of Xmas!
For me the concert wasn't just about the event on the night, it was a huge reflection on how quickly Blake's infant & primary years have flown with this being his last Concert and how it seemed like only yesterday he was one of the tiny Kindy kids doing their cute little act!
Our next event was getting down to the serious end of business ... the Year 6 Graduation & Farewell mass.
What a beautiful night (also a little sad and lots of reflecting once again). Blake was presented with his Graduation Certificate (a terrible pic i know but the lighting in the church just didn't agree with my camera) ...
and we as a family were presented with a commemorative candle (as this was our last year as a whole family with St Joseph's) which is a symbol of keeping our light burning brightly for the next phase of our journey .... a lovely touch!
Then there was "the last day"!
This is a very social day for the Yr6 kids and at the end of the day the whole school forms a circular guard of honour and the have a "clap out" ... everyone claps and cheers as the Yr6 kids make there way through and leave primary school for the very last time ...
Of course it was only appropriate to take a photo of Blake & one of his best mates, Matty!
This pair went to pre-school together, were the only two went from their pre-school to St Joseph's together and now they are off to high school together.
Here is a photo of their last day:
In comparison to their first day (photo a little hazy cause i cropped it from a LO photo).
and that was the end of the school events .... my little boy (who is now my big boy ... but will always be my baby) is now off to high school [sigh] !
With all the school events and Christmas parties, social events etc our poor old Christmas Tree only went up one week before Christmas [ooops] ... but at least we got to do our traditional little family night and we videod the ritual which i will add to my collect from previous years (we have done this every year since Blake was born and have a dvd going through the years of erecting & decorating the Christmas tree) ... mmm, there's that reflection thing again!!).
This year our new special decoration was all the way from Disneyland ... a 2008 Christmas Ball ... a token to remember our holiday!
As per tradition, Blake added the final touches which included our personalised Christmas balls that i handmade/handpainted way back on our first Christmas!
As i mentioned before, we had a great Chrissy, New Year's was lots of fun (with about 20+ friends coming to our house for lots of drink, food & Singstar fun!!)
In between all the madness, i did get some scrapping done ... i made calendars for our friends this year in place of sending them Christmas Cards ... here are a few pics:
So here we are at 2009 ... can you believe it!
If you are still reading this post, let along still visiting this sadly neglected blog .... thanks for popping by!
Have a great week, keep smiling :O)
5 comments:
Julie, the commemorative candle that Blake's school has given to those parents who finish their association with the school, is a beautiful touch. I'd like to know a bit more about it as I'm the Parent Leader of my children's school and it saddens me to see parents who have given of themselves to the school leave without a parting gift. Could you please give me some more information. Thanks.
So glad you had a lovely Christmas.
yay, you're alive and well :) - glad to hear that you had a wonderful Chrissy and New Year.
This year is going to be a different one for you - Blake a high school student!!!
Wishing you all the best for a great 2009.
Happy New Year & welcome back to blogland Julie...I was starting to wonder where you've been.
Best of luck to Blake starting high school...it's such a big step!....for mum's & dads too! lol. It's even scarier when they're at an age that they can leave school & start working...it means that they're REALLY growing up.
Wow...Blake's off to High School...he sure is groeing up!
Glad you had a great Christmas, and hope that 2009 is a good one for you!
Chelle Xx
P.S - Love the Calendars...I did them for the Grandparents this year!! :)
So nice to see your back in the land of BLOG.
Sounds like Christmas and New were good times in your house.
Ahhh Grade 6 graduation it comes around way to quickly doesn't it. good luck to Blake for starting High School.
Cheers
Leeanne xxx
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