Christmasish time, no mistletoe, a little bit of wine.

A collection of mini updates:

Christmassyness: (In the last two weeks it has become Christmassy here which is nice)

- First we decorated our house with a combination of things we found in the cupboard and some nice seeds we painted to be Christmassy. 

-On Tuesday Charlie and I took the play-school children out for ice cream (They loved it although it took some getting used for quite a few of the kids, also it turns out wearing a seatbelt is very exciting thing, I realised this when there was a bus full of kids shouting "me belt, me belt" as I clipped them all in)

- On Thursday it was christmaspartytime at the play-school this involved music, hilarious dancing, snacks, presents, games and laughing. A great way to finish the term!

-One more Christmas related item! If you are reading this thinking, I should be Christmas shopping, I have a solution, how about choosing something from the project that is sponsoring our kids, here is their giftlist (www.threeeighteen.org)

Falling off bikes:
- this seems to be a new skill I'm developing!
- today was my 6th fall and the most impressive of them all. I was cycling back from a conference with some friends we had been through a few puddles and then I saw a nice big one and it didn't look too deep so I decided I could go through the middle, my friends needless to say didn't follow me. I ended up sitting waist deep in a very muddy puddle laughing a lot!  

School progress: (it's been full speed ahead, January here we come) 

- many pots of paint + many hours of painting = one finished school building woo woo! 

- lots of lifting + shifting = furniture being in place 

- measuring + stapling + hammering+ drilling + blue tac sticking =  it looking  like a classroom 

- moving resources + organizing things= its almost ready for the teaching to start

Wildlife: (I have included this mainly as evidence that there are no elephants in the garden/ a common misconception): 

Snakes : yes we have seen quite a few recently, although mostly harmless ones (1 in a tree, 1 in the grass near our house and at least 2 by the school!) , 

Beetles:  yes too many to count really lots with cool colours and even a Titan beetle (worlds longest variety of beetle.) 

Ants: yes of all different shapes and sizes always busy. I did get bitten by a very large one this week felt more like a bee sting! 

Elephants: nope none not one, ok, unless you are counting pictures or sculptures of them!? 

Rain : (I love it, this statement about rain may confuse some of you so let me explain) 

1 - it reminds me of being a kid ( I have enjoyed the adventure of running through the storms watching for lightning and getting completely soaking wet in minutes) 

2 -it makes driving more exciting (The huge puddles provide much entertainment while driving) 

3 - it's proper rain ( Firstly the drops are huge and they come down quickly, secondly it's still warm)