Christmas Surprises!

My pictures download backwards, if you know the reason for this please let me know.  So here is a run down of our very fun Christmas Day....Backwards.....  

Robs family came over to our house for Boxing day and helped us assemble our new trampoline.  We enjoyed a big meal and had heaps of fun with our little gang of boy cousins.  We laaaaahhve this trampoline and the boys jump off the tramp and into the pool and back again.  No other gifts compare.

At lunch at Robs parents house with all the boy cousins.  Karyn gives out Christmas sample bags, these are a hit. Robbie surprises us by loving a new green dress!  Yes, I said dress!  He wore it all day and looked every bit the beautiful little girl, including necklace and headband.  The whole family enjoyed the joke and he quite liked the attention and laughs it created.  It did however, confuse poor old Uncle Davie (who has Downs Syndrome) and had no idea who Robbie was when he kissed him hello.  When we told him it was Robbie dressed up as a girl he shot back "ooooh, I'll just call him Klinger then!" That guy from *M*A*S*H* that dresses up like a girl to get out of the army. A close up of our handsome young man.  Or as Rocci puts it the She-man.  Robbie had been talking about getting a dress for months and we are so glad he was brave enough to follow his little hearts desire all the way to the In-Laws house. Rocci enjoys putting his lego together.  This one has lots of men in it, a big plus for any lego ship builder of this age. A new home excersize machine that will enhance the rest of Robs gym work.  He Loved this! And his new electric razor.  The old one he got when he was 21 yrs old finally gave up.  Now he'll look extra buff and clean shaven. Robbie gets his own mobile telephone, with all the bells and whistles, this is the best for calling your girl friend.  She was the first person he called on Christmas day, I'll bet he doesn't tell her about the dress though. Rocci's favourite thing for christmas is a dress up.  He got this one and a batman suit.  Here he shows off the gun and his mobile phone, his is muuuuch cheaper than Robbies. The boys open their stockings on Christmas morning and love their novelty gifts.  A big favourite is the automatic rotating ice cream cone, you just stick your tongue out the the cone turns around all on its own.  The stockings were full of such great things that they didn't even ask to open the big presents until 9 O'Clock.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Happy Birthday to my favourite brother!  I think it is well known in our family that David is my personal favourite sibling (and lets face it, everyone's got a favourite).  And going by this picture, I always thought so too.  He is happy, easy going, stress free, eager to please people, easy to talk to and more importantly.....easy to love.  I couldn't let the day go by without wishing him a very happy birthday and express once again my excitement that he is bringing a new little mini-Dave to the family.  This miracle child is my tip to be the cutest Comber yet.  Look at that face, any replica of this would do me just fine.  Albeit a little chinesey, this cute little grin continues even in his old age.  Happy birthday Brother.  Lots of love from big sister X X X X X X X X X and hundreds more.

GRADUATION!

Grade 12 is not the only year you can graduate it seems.  With the introduction of prep, infant school, junior school, middle school, senior school, the ceremonies for moving onto the next grade include a big evening graduation.   So this year, I not only had to provide the school with numerous musical items for presentation at each graduation, but I had to attend a full week of "Special" evenings.  (I used up all my best outfits, my best songs and ran out of patience by the end of the week.)

Robbie graduated this year from grade 6 and is moving on to middle school.

He also sung at his own graduation with my little group of Grade 6ers.  They did a great job.  I was very proud of his solo part, but because I was conducting I couldn't have a proper mummy moment.  

(Tried to download video here.  Sorry it didn't work) 

Also graduating this year is Rocci from Pre-prep into Prep.  He sang with his class and was presented with his certificate.  It was such a hot day the kids didn't seem to enjoy it very much. But boy are we ready for 'Big School'. (Pictures are at the start of this page.)  But please, no more graduations.

BIG END OF YEAR CONCERT!

Presentation of flowers at the end. Big show finish Building to a crescendo

Keeley showing up a fabulous jazz number Robbie fitting in beautifully with the sopranos and loving it Rocci handed out programs and showed people to their seats.  Then beautifully ran up and down the aisle throughout the show, pulling the seats up and down, expressing his boredom and testing the students focus. (Mental note:  Every year is another year older!) My students performed last weekend at my big end of year concert to an enthusiastic audience of parents and friends.  Everyone did sooooo well, with some students even managing to bring extremely high performance techniques that showed a conquering of nerves.  They showed massive amounts of encouragement to their fellow performers, even giving standing ovations.  

We started the show with a mini musical showcasing excepts from 'Godspell' along with bible readings.  Robbie was the narrator for the show and spoke clearly, with good volume and from memory.  He didn't look nervous at all.  

Our concert included presentation of certificates to all students who took vocal and piano exams this year.  All of my students received Honors results and were extremely excited by the presentation.  There is always an award for the highest achiever in the exams out of all my students and this year I had a child awarded with 'First Class Honors'.  A very rare award for outstanding results.  She got 98/100.  Good girl.

The concert ended with a big group number that blew the roof off with volume and choreography, harmony and rounds.  Boy was the new music director impressed.  He even felt compelled to thank me and say gushing words of gratitude (which made me fake smile and hold back puke.)  but this was over shadowed by a beautiful presentation of flowers, giant card, gift vouchers and a big box of more gifts, and a lovely speech by two of my little stars.  Their generosity was such a surprise and their kind words I wish cherish forever.  What a great job I have that these little ones feel so compelled to show their appreciation so articulately.  It makes me want to teach them forever.