Don't Forget Your Toothbrush

Catching up on the past week...

Last Friday feels like a distant memory now, but the last day of school was a busy and significant day in the lives of the Cross children.

Starting at 8am we all went and watched the end of year concert at Tobi’s school.  His class and all the other grade levels dedicated their musical items to their school principal who, after many years service, was retiring and heading back to the USA.

The Grade 1 boys singing together.

It was a moving service and the children all demonstrated their love and best wishes to this much-loved leader.  The staff also showed just how much she meant to them too and I don’t think there were too many dry eyes left in the building by the finale.

After this finished, David headed in to ZOE and I gathered Spencer, Eliana and the Burmese twins that I have been driving to preschool this past month, and bundled them off with their teddy bears for their end of year teddy bear’s picnic.

I then raced back to Tobi’s school again to pick him up as his school finished at 11.30 for the last day.   Now officially a Grade 2 student, I left wondering, how is it that he is growing up so quickly?

After a quick bite of lunch, we chopped up some fruit for a platter, gathered the other items we needed and headed back to Spencer and Eli’s preschool for an afternoon celebration. 

Eliana, Spencer and the preschool teachers.

It was the last day of the first year that this preschool has been open, so all the parents prepared afternoon tea and put on a surprise celebration to show our appreciation to the teachers for a wonderful year.  Some of the mothers had organized a quilt to be made with all the handprints of the children who had attended the ‘first year’.  It was a lovely afternoon.  

The preschool class and handprint quilt.

Eliana has now completed the equivalent of Prep and will head in to Grade 1 in August when school returns.

Finally the end of the year arrived and all I felt like doing was putting my feet up and sipping a glass of cold iced tea, but then I remembered that we were going away for 6 days down south to the beach the next morning… and I hadn’t even begun to pack!!  

I knew David would be home late so it was all up to me.

After I had snuggled the kids into their beds I began the mad rush to get our bags ready.

By the time Dave got home, I was about to collapse, but the bags were packed, the house was tidy and our three excitable children had finally gone off to sleep.

And I was truly ready for a holiday!

These past five days have been just delightful.

We have been able to swim, relax, play, swim, eat, explore, swim, rest, chill out, laugh and… did I mention swim?

It’s been a gift.

It’s definitely been a vacation that we will remember for a very long time.  But, yes, the only thing I did forgot, in my rushed effort to pack, was in fact MY very own toothbrush!!  

Tomorrow we head back to Chiangmai.   We have Graeme Smith’s Australian team coming to visit ZOE for a few days and our final preparations to complete before we head back to Australia for 6 weeks.

Well I’m not going to sit here any longer. I am off to enjoy the last few hours of this gorgeous time away, the sun and the pool and my last chance to top up my vitamin D intake and UV rays before we hit the cold Melbourne weather.  Let’s just say, I’m hoping the memories of this sunny beach escape will be enough to sustain me through the chill!

And next time I’ll be sure to put my toothbrush in the suitcase first!