happy bday alex and ellie

It has been a while since our last post. With another big move half-way around the world in the planning, we have been quite busy. We had a fun Easter.  Not only did the bunny bring a huge amount of chocolate and eggs, apparently he also brings presents. The kids got more gifts to go with the presents from Disney and the presents Latha had waiting for them when we got back from Disney.  Perhaps the highlight was the princess swimsuit for our little princess. 

At the school fair Eric spent part of the afternoon in the dunk tank.  The kids enjoyed getting to dunk me.  The up side is the water was warm and it was nice and sunny out so I quite enjoyed being in the tank.  I had another birthday and my lovely wife took me out for a lovely dinner at Prime, the local Brazilian steak house.  It is a meat buffet that they bring by your table. That is just my thing and I enjoyed all the amazing meats that kept appearing at our table. We even managed to roll around the corner to TCBY for dessert.  TCBY is going strong here in the islands! There was a big function going on at the Governor's mansion across the street so we enjoyed our dessert with some live music.

With the movers coming in a few weeks, before either of the kids' birthday, Latha had to get them their large presents early.  (She insists on buying big!!) Alex has a red racing car that is battery powered that he can sit in.  He loves to drive it around the parking lot in front of the house.  Ellie got a new, very large doll house that she and Alex love to play with.  Alex offers to let Ellie drive his race car but she is too scared she says. We decided to have a joint birthday party as the presents will need to be packed and we will not be here for Alex's. We ended up with 30 3 and 4 year olds at the local indoor play area.  Alex and Ellie refer to it as the "Gym, Gym slide". It has a large climbing area with ball pit, video games and lots of toys. We have been to many parties there and that is where the kids wanted to have it. Emma went into super mummy mode in her planning. There were two pinatas, one "Cars" theme and one with Princesses, two cakes, one with a picture of me and Alex with Lightning McQueen from Disneyworld and one with Princesses for Ellie. Everyone had a great time, got lots of candy, ate pizza, chips and chicken nuggets and enjoyed the two cakes with fire on it! Ellie is such a princess she has to blow daintily so she had a hard time getting the candles out! There were the goodie bags for all the kids at the end of the party.  Emma demonstrated a new talent we haven't seen before as a kids party planner. The kids had a huge mound of presents so it is a good thing we had the party before the movers come.

Later that afternoon I went to do my first ocean swim race in 11 months. I have only been swimming for two months so was mostly going to look at the fishies and enjoy the snacks. There were about 178 swimmers for the 800m swim north along 7 mile beach from Governor's Beach to Public Beach. The weather was great and I really enjoyed the swim.  First and second place went to the Cayman's very talented Olympic swimming brother, Shaune and Brett Fraser.  At the men's NCAA swim championships just over a month ago Shaune was second in the 200 free and 200 IM and won the 200 fly.  Brother Brett was 7th in the 200 free.  They both swim for University of Florida and have swum for Cayman at the Olympics and World Championships.  For an old man I was not too far back in 18th place, 2d place in the 40-44 age group.  They had very nice trophies for the top 3 in each age group.  The youngest kids swimming were 8!  Alex and Emma were waiting in the water at the finish and Alex had a blast playing in the ocean with one of his friends who was there with mom who had just swum. With the advice of some of the swimmers from the pool, I have found a fantastic spot to swim in the ocean down near our house. I have now been to swim several times in the evening or early in the morning before school.  I swim from Sunset house north to Paradise then back.  This covers some of the best snorkeling spots on the island so it is a wonderful swim with lots to see and distract me.

Ellie has been sleeping in the queen bed in their room and Alex has been sleeping on his single mattress because it has a Lightning McQueen pillow, sheets and blanket.  Even with a large bed for a tiny girl, Ellie squirms around so much she falls off and lands in the middle of Alex's bed in the night. Alex usually ends up waking up crying because Ellie is touching him.  Ellie just sleeps right through and we have to put her back in her bed.  Last week we sold Alex's mattress so now they are sharing the queen bed. I feel a bit bad for Alex because Ellie takes up a huge amount of bed for such a small girl!

One of our big worries was our family member that won't be coming to Oz with us. Latha had said she would like to stay here and we have been fortunate to find her a job with a Canadian family with 2 year old twins and a third on the way in August.  They seem really nice and Latha has been over several times to help out and get to know the family.  We have all been for a nice BBQ one Sunday afternoon.

Last week the older kids (year 11-13) at school went off to begin their study leave, a British institution, as they get ready for their external exams. That means I now have a shorter teaching schedule, except when they all come in to get help.  That is giving me time to start wrapping things up and getting things organized.  There is a lot more paperwork involved in applying for my Australian visa than there was when we got my visa for the UK. We are excited about the big move and also overwhelmed by having to do this again after just a year.  One benefit is we still have things boxed up that we never unpacked!  It feels as if we are going home and the kids keep telling everyone they are going to Australia they are so excited. I will be in Minnesota with the kids for a few weeks over the summer as Emma gets settled in Brisbane.