Aboriginal Art

As we are hoping to head over to Aussie for a month, I have kind of been mixing things up a bit with our Australian studies. I would like to visit a few places so have brought some subjects forward a bit so that when visit some places on my list, they will understand it better and the excursions will give it more meaning.

So this week we jumped ahead to doing some work on the Australian Aboriginals. We read a couple of books, had a discussion on the Aboriginal people and culture. We did not get into it to deeply as we will save that for later when we have more time and then we followed that up with them looking at some aboriginal art online and then doing some by themselves.

 
I left them too and came back in a wee while later and this is when the mummy fail moment happened. I told Agent Smelly how awesome the whale she was working on was looking (Bottom right corner) ... she pointed out that it was a lizard. Oh dear! You would think I would know better! I did love her fireworks at the top.

The Fashionista has drawn a snake with some patterns. They really enjoyed making these and are keen to do them again.

Then Agent Smelly came out like this ... they decided to start painting themselves for a Corroborree. I do love it when they do crazy stuff like this because they have been inspired by something we have read or done!
 

A Visit to Guides in Melbourne, Australia

Agent Smelly had to write an article for our local Guide magazine to earn one of her badges, so instead of me blogging about the same subject I decided to use her article ...

OUR VISIT TO GUIDES VICTORIA

On the last week of last term my sister, The Fashionista, who is a Guide and I, were in Melbourne, Australia on holidays. Mum arranged for us to go visit a nearby Guide Unit. We met up with the Faulkner Junior Guides (Brownies are now called Junior Guides in Australia) for a campfire along with another Junior Guide group from Brunswick.

First we played a couple of games and then we sat around the campfire and sang some songs. We had to hold it indoors because it was really, really windy in Melbourne that night.

The leaders made us some hot chocolate and we toasted marshmallows over a candle.

 

Then we looked at each other’s uniforms and they asked us lots of questions about Guides in NZ. They also gave us some SWAPS to bring back to our Guides and we gave them some that my sister’s patrol had made.

We made lots of new friends and we hope to visit them again.  See if you can spot my sister (who blends in a bit in her blue Guide top) and me in my easy to find pink brownie top!

Agent Smelly
TK Brownies

Before we left for Guides I took a picture of the girls in their uniforms with their Gramps and Grandma.


Both girls had an enjoyable time with the Victorian Junior Guides and do hope to catch up with them again on another visit.

LEGO in Australia

Both my girls absolutely love LEGO.  I mean what's not to love, I still enjoy getting in and making stuff too. I find there is something relaxing about building something with little plastic bricks that interlock. In fact some of the LEGO that my girls play with are mine from when I was a young girl.


In the last year or so LEGO brought out a girls series called LEGO Friends. This is so great because many of the LEGO sets are geared towards boys. They did bring out the Belville series a few years back and I did manage to purchase a few pieces of that but now that they are older they have been saving to get the whole Friends series.


Whilst in Melbourne many of the stores are having massive mid-year toy sales so the girls were able to use some of the Australian birthday money that they had been sent in the past year and saving. As they like to play with them together they often go halves in the bigger items. So today, together they purchased the LEGO house. Agent Smelly's birthday is in a couple of weeks so I was able to get some extra pieces to put away for her which she is so going to love!

Agent Smelly really enjoys building the pieces and enlisted her Gramps as her helper. She would tell him what part she needed and he would find it.  I am pretty sure they both had a great time putting the house together. He said to me that when we were younger he remembers mum spending a fortune on LEGO (yes they were even expensive back then!) and thinking she was mad but, considering how much my brothers and I and now all the grandkids have played with them that they would have had to have been the best value for money toy that we had possessed. My parents in fact still have a huge bucket of LEGO's at their house for the enjoyment of the grandkids.

Off to OZ

Today we left for Melbourne, Australia. We hadn't intended on going to Oz this year but one of my baby brothers, Mr Plod, asked me to be god-mother to his absolutely gorgeous 18 month old son although he offered to have a proxy, I just wanted to be there in person on this special day.

The girls outside a duty free store at the Auckland Airport before we boarded our Arab Emirates flight. This is the first time we have flown Emirates and we were really looking forward to it, especially after hearing such positive things from people we know who have flown with them.


Once we boarded and the captain started speaking he announced the languages that the attendants on board spoke in case anyone needed any help with translations, etc. I was blown away by the number of different languages he reeled off. I was wondering if he was every going to stop. In our section we were looked after by a beautiful Mediterranean lady, a stunning Irish lass and a very elegant British fella. Nothing was too much trouble and they were delightful with the children.


As soon as we were able to, we had our individual TV's on. I watched "They Bought A Zoo", with Matt Damon, which I highly recommend and the girls selected "Chipmunks Chipwrecked". Once they finished, we were able to select some TV shows to watch; they had the biggest choice of shows to choose from. Agent Smelly started to get a bit wriggly towards the end of the flight so I showed her the games section on her console pad and she was in heaven. The Fashionista soon noticed and started playing them too. All the choices made the flight go in the shortest of times. 


I really liked their chairs too. Not only do they recline but the base slides forward so they are sort of like a recliner. There is nothing like a comfy chair on a long flight.

The girls were so happy with their meals that they asked me to take a picture of it for them. The had spaghetti bolognese, salad, pudding, a bread roll in the shape of a mini loaf and a water. Added to the tray was a snack boxes, that could be removed and saved for later on. Inside the box was a bag of shapes, a plastic container full of mini M&M's (this Mama's fave!), a juice box, a muesli bar and a kit kat! It was a really impressive meal. I sort of wish I'd had the youth meal but, then I had the fish which came with prawns ... yes big juicy prawns ... Emirates I love you.


The girls have declared that we will never be flying with anyone else ever again and I am pretty sure they were serious!