The other week Colin practiced with a local footy team. A couple of his friends play on the Clifton Hill club and one of the boy's fathers coaches the team, so after a little bit of prodding from yours truly he went for it and I went along for the ride. Of course, it happened to be one of the coldest and wettest nights of the winter so far, but he was game and did very well. He has really taken to the game as we've mentioned before and despite not having played nearly as much as the other kids, has a natural understanding of what needs to happen on the field. Combine that with the daily rigours of belting the ball around the playground at recess and lunch and he fits right in. On this night he even had an ex-AFL player helping to coach the side. In spite of all of this, he decided not to try it again, though he continues to enjoy playing on the courts of tennis and basketball.
Both Colin and Alex have had school assemblies recently and both have played a starring role. At each assembly kids from various classes are recognized with merit awards for doing something notable in class and both boys helped to hand out these awards. In Alex's case he got to do it with one of his best friends and he did it very well! In Colin's class, he also had a chance to dress up and present part of his unit on public speaking. He was way cool in trench coat and sunglasses and did his drama teaching father proud with a fine performance.
Last Friday was a curriculum or PD day so we took the opportunity to return to Melbourne's version of the Science Centre where they had just opened a Star Wars exhibit. Fortunately, a friend of ours offered to drive, (his son and Alex are good friends in the same class) and so we headed out over the West Gate Bridge to Spotswood and a rendezvous with Yoda and Darth.
The place was beyond packed and it felt like they had already started to suck the oxygen out within minutes of our arrival. After letting the boys run wild for awhile, it was finally our turn to tour the exhibit which turned out to be quite cool. Along with seeing real or replica versions of the costumes and props used in the various movies, there were a lot of opportunities to apply the technology to real learning. The boys played with a programmable robot while the rest of us wandered amidst the C3PO and Chewbacca models and when it was all over we miraculously avoided parting with cash in the grossly over-priced gift store.
On Saturday, we joined two families for an extremely generous farewell dinner at a local Italian restaurant - that was not La Porchetta. Linton has become quite good mates and running partners with the two moms and their kids are or have been in Colin's and Alex's classes at school. As a small gesture toward their friendship and kindness, Lint gave both women running tops from Canada's own Lululemon. While the adults enjoyed several lovely bottles of BYO wine over nice conversation, the six kids present were engaged in a high stakes round of Nintendo. It was perhaps not what we did as kids when out on the town with mom and dad, but then again, we managed to stay at the restaurant for three hours, enjoying the company of new friends and for that I am truly thankful for a little help from our electronic friends. More importantly, I am thankful for the warm gesture. Realizing we have made friends with people who care about us and who seem sad to see us leave is a very comforting feeling. They like us, they really like us!
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