NEW-BORN BABY TURNS SIX!!

Ah, 'tis true. Thomas Alexander is six years old. He's a lot more fun now. I see more and more glimmers of a sentient human being in there. He makes jokes that actually make sense (sometimes). He is reading more and more every time we turn around and continues to astound with Yoda questions like, "Can you count to one by infinities?" Maybe he's still so awful in church because he's a buddhist.
He officially passed his grade one advancement assessment with flying colors (!!), so he will proceed to grade 1 with his class in late January. I must point out, this is NOT skipping ahead. Although he has done terrific accomplishing so much in one quarter, he should be going on to grade 1 here, for his age. In August of 2011, when we come back to the US, he will be 3/4 through grade 2, but just starting start second grade in the states... we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it. I am just thrilled he is doing so well and loves school!
BTW, one question was: Which coin could buy the most lollies? Most kids pick the biggest coin. The Aussie 2-dollar coin is about the size of a nickel. He should get extra points for knowing what lollies are.
The festivities marking the turning of the six were many and varied. There were cupcakes for the class. I thought those balloon blowers were cute to stick in each, but didn't realize they honked. Can you imagine 21 kids with honking balloons? Cacophony is the only word for it. Good thing Mr. M has an unfailing sense of humor. He even tried to give Thomas 6 spanks "and one to grow on." Thomas escaped, but when was the last time a teacher could even playfully spank? 1970?
That evening, we had a few friends to Sammy's Pizza - sort-of the Chuck-e-Cheese of Alice Springs. They have an indoor play area with a slide and a network of soft, climby stuff. That's it.I must say, they're pizza is better than Chuck-e's and kids from 2 to 13 were happily playing and enjoyed their balloons and lollie-bags.
Thomas picked a Wall-E cake from Wendy's, which is Baskin Robbins. He has never seen nor heard of Wall-E to my knowledge. HOW does Disney DO that??
He had a wonderfully memorable and happy birthday. Now, I just have to deal with all the kids who want to come home with him to see his new toys. They're CRAZY!
(and I love it)

Desert Park

Now this a field trip. No going to visit the fire station. No seeing how the mail gets sorted.


This is an Aussie Field Trip, so bring water and watch for snakes!

First, Mr. M and Mrs. Mac gather everyone and their recess (that means snack) onto the bus. Mr. M is the teacher and drives the bus.
Off we go, kids! Here we are, kids!- about 200 meters up the road at the Alice Springs Desert Park. http://www.alicespringsdesertpark.com.au/
Since I was a helper-mommy, I drove Thomas straight there and he didn't get his school hat. He's the one in the tan with the attached fly net. All the kids thought that was way cool. Ah, to be six.

The park is a beautiful representation of various desert habitats - whether actual or created. There is also a Nocturnal House with bilbys, bandicoots, quolls, hopping mice and other really cute freaks scurrying about. Mid-way through our walk, we got to see the raptor show. These are the best-trained owls, kites and other birds I've ever seen.

They are PROS. Unfortunately, my camera skills are not nearly as refined and I mostly have pics of some guy standing in khaki shorts. The birds fly up at exactly the right time, show whatever behavior the guide is talking about, then disappear.

I promise, anyone who comes to visit us will see the Desert Park.



I think this is a black kite. Yes, they know it's brown.



They made some lush, tropical areas, too with flight cages of cockatoos, bush turkeys and

Look! A Kookaburra sits in an old... oh, nevermind.


We didn't make it to the kangaroo enclosure, the salt pans or the emus, but Mr. M says we'll go back before the school year ends in December. Wow, I hope grade 1 is this much fun. Ummm, for Thomas. Yeah.

Thomas: Geared-up and Gettin' Hot

So much to tell you about! I'm going to break it into several posts. Let's start with... Thomas! He spoke his first Australian word on Halloween. We were done trick-or-treating and were driving out of town to a star-gazing thing. We passed a really halloweened-up house and he said, "We should go back home and collect my pumpkin bag." Collect! They've gotten to his brain.

They've gotten to his body, too. His class and every elementary class in the school has had swimming lessons every day for the past 2 weeks. In nine classes, he's gone from a kid who screamed for a dry towel while getting his hair washed to swimming under water and retrieving toys from the bottom of the pool! I can't do that! Miss Taryn Nottle, the P.E. teacher at Living Waters school, gets all the credit. She spent her time with the kids who had the least experience and our Thomas bloomed like a waterlilly. Let him re-phrase that to, "I'm just like a boat now."

My aqua-aerobics classes are at this same town pool.
We set up one of those inflated-ring-topped waterbag pools in the backyard and we've all been enjoying it. Temps have already hit 105, but they hide the truth by saying it's, "42."

I think we'll spend a lot of time wet or indoors in the up-coming months.

It kind of messes with me to have people talking about spring horse race season and summer vacation coming up and Thanksgiving is around the corner and the stores have Christmas trees up.


Speaking of Halloween (I did up at the top, remember?), this is my friend, Renee.
How often do you think she gets to wear THAT vest?
Renee comes with Chloe, too cute in her handmade rainbow pony costume; also Ty, a Big Boy Thomas really likes and two teen girls who make great sitters.

Since this post is about Thomas, I guess I put them in to show we ARE making friends and even some little boy friends at school. No pics of them yet.
Oh, wait! Yes, on the field trip...