Premontre Day!

At Kates school, there are Five houses - Kate is in Premontre. Today they celebrate with a day of fun!

Here is a little bit about the 5 houses:

	Xanten, near the Dutch-German border was the birthplace of St Norbert in 1080. His early life before his conversion was spent in this area. As such it holds a treasured place in Norbertine history. Xanten is also familiar as the name of our Performing Arts Centre. The Xanten mascot is a Tiger. Prémontré is the valley near Laon in France where St Norbert Established his first communities of canons and cannonesses. It was from these that the Norbertine spirit spread through Europe. While there is no longer a Norbertine community at Prémontré. it is the beginning of Norbertine history. This house name would be familiar to staff and students as it is the name of our Library. The Prémontré mascot is a Penguin.   After some years at Prémontré, St Norbert was made Archbishop of this German city and Primate (Head-Churchman) of Germany. In 1126 he also established a Norbertine community there, which had a high reputation for missionary preaching among the pagan people known as the 'Wens'. St Norbert was buried in Magdeburg, but at the time of the Reformation his body was taken to the Abbey of Strahov in Prague. The Magdeburg mascot is a Magpie.    The town of Tongerlo, in Belgium has a Norbertine Abbey which is the 'Grandmother' of the community here at Queens Park. Canons from Tongerlo Abbey established a community in Ireland, which in turn made the foundation in Western Australia. Tongerlo was established during the lifetime of St Norbert, so it has a strong tradition which is over 850 years old.Norbertines from Tongerlo have spread the spirit of St Norbert to Canada, Chile, Zaire, Ireland and England. The Tongerlo mascot is a Kangaroo.   Kilnacrott is a Gaelic (Irish) word meaning 'church on a hill'. It is the place in County Cavan, Eire, where Tongerlo Abbey established a community of canons in 1924. Holy Trinity Abbey Kilnacrott founded the Norbertine Community in Western Australia in 1959 when three Irish Norbertines arrived. The Kilnacrott mascot is a Crocodile

TEN on the TENTH!

We celebrated Ella turning TEN today with early birthday presents (before 6am) 

 

Breakfast at Sizzlers, followed by a swim (all you can do on a 41 deg day!)

There was a new doona cover, and a new pillow pet amongst the presents. Ella is a huge fan of pillow pets.

She also got this cool funky egg lights that changes into 7 different colours!

We had an early birthday yesterday afternoon when Ruby and Jonah arrived for a sleepover as we knew we wouldn't be able to do it with them today (unless they had cake for breakfast!)

Happy Birthday beautiful girl, we love you to the moon and back!
xoxo

Well done Ella!

In Ella's class this year, one student receives a certificate at the end of the day for good work over the whole day. Ella was so excited yesterday to come out with it. She is the 4th to get it in her class, and the first girl. It reads in recognition of"

"her huge effort in all lessons and her very neat writing"

Back to School 2013

Year 7

Year 5

Kate was a bit nervous starting her first day at High School, Ella was excited to get back to her friends!

Chooks!

I went outside this morning early (to beat the 35 deg day predicted) to clean out the chook house, then I decided to paint their door (and a bit extra) it was such fast drying weather it was a good opportunity. It looks so much better ! ( The cleaning got down as well :)

At the end of the day there was cold treats which they loved!

Last Week of Summer Holidays

It's been a particularly hot summer so far. I've struggled to keep the garden going and the grass alive. Our retic is on the blink, so is one of our air cons (the main one in the lounge room) . Thank goodness for the roller shutters (and ceiling fans) Seriously they are fabulous. They block out so much of the heat making Perth summers more bearable.

We are into our final week of the long summer school holidays. I am not quite ready for the girls to go back, they are nowhere near ready they tell me! I love having them home, they are such good company. I'm not looking forward to the routine, the rush in the mornings, the school lunches, uniforms and homework.

We have all had a good break though. Lots of lazy days with no rushing and no stress. To me this is what the holidays are all about. Recharging for the term ahead.

Beautiful buds on "Mother's Love"

The school uniforms are all ready to go. Kates stationery is done, we have picked up her Macbook from high school. Tomorrow we will pop into Ellas school and pick up her books and find out what class she is in.

The feijoa trees are growing well

When I can muster up some energy and the weather cools again, I will head out the back to tackle the poor neglected vege garden and other areas. There is alot of work to be done out there though, so it might be awhile.

Anyone know what this might be? I grew it from a cutting, can't recall who gave it to me!