Back to School

This year I felt like the holidays were 1 week too long. By that last week the children were crotchety and irritable and I was pulling my hair out. It was with relief that I packed their lunch boxes on Monday and waved goodbye at the school gate. They were all in need of routine, distraction and their friends.

All in all, though, it was a pretty good summer break. We managed to get out and about a fair bit, despite my unpredictable time table. A couple of weekends ago we caught the train to Sydney and went on a whirlwind tour of the Art Gallery, the Hyde Park Barracks and The Museum of Sydney. I got the kids each a "Kid's Passport", which is an initiative of the NSW government. It enables school children to get into cultural venues for free, so we used the opportunity and went to several places. At the Art Gallery of NSW we saw the Chinese Terracotta Warrior exhibition, which was amazing. I remember going when I was in about 3rd or 4th grade, when the discovery had just been made, so I wanted my children to see it too. Ruby was quite freaked out by them and was worried they would come to life if she looked away. Then we wandered through the rooms with all the old paintings in their massive frames. Paintings where the light seems so real you can almost touch it. Ruby took her little notebook and made sketches of the ones that caught her eye- the big dog sitting solemnly next to his dead master, waiting for him to wake up, (I told Ruby that the knight was sleeping), the little girl in the old fashioned clothes, but with a cheeky face, the Degas sculpture of a dancer tying on her ballet shoes.

Next we had a picnic lunch in the Domain, the big park that surrounds the gallery and then walked to the Barracks, which was originally where the convicts lived. This is a great museum for kids, with lots of interactive stuff, like dress ups, a treasure hunt and being able to lie in hammocks in the old dormitory. Then we walked down to the Museum of Sydney which is to do with the first colony at Sydney Cove, and how the city has grown and changed. We were very, very weary by the time we arrived home, just after 6pm, but it was a fun day.

I have another 3 and a half weeks before Uni goes back, and I'm again scrabbling to find before school care. One of my options that I thought I was going to have, from a conversation with someone at the end of last year is no longer an option, so that has put a spanner in the works. At least After School care is sorted, though with them going 4 days a week now I am not looking forward to the bill. But, there is nothing I can do about it, so there is little point in worrying. Things tend to work themselves out in the end, and the problems that seem so insurmountable often end up being small.