Birthdays

Peet is 15 - my goal is to get him out of a flanno before he turns 16 - it's a lofty goal. That's a flourless chocolate cake, which followed chicken and broccoli for dinner.

And Jesse is 19 - and wearing the beanie I crocheted because Max and Louisa were sure she would be terribly disappointed if I didn't. That would be a vinegar cake with a white chocolate ganache icing - which followed salmon and salad for dinner.

We can't get enough of either of them.

Medieval Dance

The YSA had a medieval dance - Tom left early to set up so I have no photos of him - but here are Jesse and Alec.

18

Jesse is 18.

I said we could do anything she wanted for her birthday. (Actually I said we couldn't take the whole family to Laos and when she suggested a party I kind-of sighed and said ok.)

After a little thought Jesse said the thing she wanted to do most was for the whole family to climb Mt Ngungun - the smallest of the Glasshouse mountains.

I am not sure whether to be suspicious or flattered that not one of my family members - all of whom except Peet have climbed it before - thought to tell me it was really a bit out of my league.

I sent them on ahead and went on at my own pace. I made it - but it was a quite a climb. For me anyway - some of the kids actually ran up!

Jesse got her wish and successfully turned 18 with presents of a ticket to the Union test, vintage blue topaz earrings*, a book of course, Jane Eyre on DVD, a wallet from Lee & Joan and a bracelet from Anne.

(On the way down the mountain Thomas and Peet ran, Roger jogged, and Jesse and Louisa raced Max and Alec - through the bush. I was wishing I had sent them all with whistles and imagined how embarrassed I would be if we had to send out a search party.)

* Jesse does not approve of new jewelry -'no African is going to die in gold or diamond mines so I can look tizzy' were I believe her exact words. And then there's the water and energy issues - we can go on and on. Anne's bracelet is plastic which is preferable to precious metals and gems in Jesse's eyes.

School holidays

Stradbroke Island - which I'll post about as soon as I collect some of the gorgeous photos - and Sunshine Beach made for a beautiful school holiday.

We left Sunshine early though for Jess - who had to have a small but emergency operation to excise an abscess. Lots of pain, general queasiness, a general anesthetic and a couple of weeks of packing the wound. She's getting better all the time - and yesterday Peet pretended he had to stay home from school to look after her. They actually went to see Harry Potter - not many people in the cinema so Jesse got to lie down across five seats to watch.

Consensus of opinion from Roger, Jesse and Peet - Harry Potter was not bad - but perhaps not up to the usual standard - they are anxiously awaiting part 7.

Max and Jesse

Max and Jesse have a thing - almost every night Max drags his mattress into the girls' room to sleep on their floor and listen to Jesse read Farmers Boy. (Peet is beginning to feel left out.)They made matching wands from twigs they whittled and sandpapered. And when Jesse was staying home for a day to catch up on some sleep and some uni reading Max was thrilled. When I asked if he was going to school he answered 'No I'm more into writing so I'll stay home with Jesse and write a story.'

Phew

Jesse is home - she's been in Athens, Rome, Florence, Pompeii, Amman and Bangkok. A travelogue will follow - but she had a wonderful time.

Since she was in Amman in the middle of the whole Israel/Gaza conflict we were a bit nervous - and did consider re-routing her - but she's safe and sound and back in Australia where she belongs. Now we're just waiting on Tom.

Last week

Monday: Anne's birthday barbeque at our place with all her family in Australia.

Tuesday: Sydney for a seminar that was cancelled - so Sydney for some shopping.

Wednesday: Free night - except for a practice of the grown up play for Jesse

Thursday: Middle school Awards night - Peet was awarded a silver academic award - which means he got A's and B's only on his report card.

Peet was also announced as Middle School Vice Captain - cute. The boy captain is an African kid who is lovely - Peet says it's the flavour of the month - everyone wants to elect a black person.

Friday: Pine Christmas Concert. It was all a bit high brow for a Pine concert - really impressive singing of Christmas Carols from the middle ages, bongo playing and genuinely funny skits.

Then - in a return to true Pine style - the kids decided to do some unscripted skits. Each kid just picked what they wanted to be, thought of a general storyline then gave it a go.

Max was a dragon named Custard.

Louisa was a porcupine and Peter Pan. (That's Declan in her lap - he's 3 and his sister is at school - he just wanted to be on stage so Louisa had him sit on her lap.)

I keep telling Roger that he is the best costume maker in our whole family and he should make all the costumes from now on - he's not buying it.

Jesse was in the grown up play - a High School Musical/Hairspray/Abba Movie spoof. We don't have decent photos because she was dancing so wildly the whole time that all the photos are badly blurred.

That's Annabelle as the girl from HSM, Tildy as the boy, Josh and Fraser as the basketballers, Jesse and Patty as the nicest kids in town from Hairspray, Maris as the teacher from HSM and Tina as the piano girl.

And Peet picked up his new Tuba - shiny, gold, and huge.

Alec went to a party, and the rest of us went to Sunshine for the night - which was absolutely worth the trip - and back in time for a baptism on Saturday afternoon.

Jesse's Christmas article

Jesse was asked to write 600 words on 'Putting Christ in Christmas' for the Stake newletter - here it is:

My favourite Christmas hymn is without a doubt Silent Night. I love this hymn for
many reasons - one of them being its connection with history. I am a history
nerd, and so I love the story of how this hymn was part of the Christmas
celebrations in World War One. I am sure that you all know the story of how, on
December the 24th 1914, enemies came together to celebrate Christmas. There
are many different versions of this story, however all of these stories involve the
singing of Silent Night. I often think of what it would have been like to be one of
those soldiers and hear the words of this hymn slowly gaining strength across
the ravaged fields that lay between the trenches.

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace;
Sleep in heavenly peace.

It must have calmed the rushing hearts of those young men to hear the wonder
of Christ’s coming rising through the air on wings of song. I love the way that
this hymn focuses specifically on Christ. The Christmas of 1914 held very few of
the trimmings that our society gives importance to at Christmas - there was no
roasted turkey instead it was the luxury of a rabbit stew shared with the Allies
and Germans alike. The focus was on service that could be done for either side,
not on the decorations that adorned Christmas trees. This was a time when the
western world was predominately Christian, and this hymn would have reminded
the young men who heard it of the miracles that they had learnt from childhood.
It was a reminder of the love of our Saviour in a scene which appeared to deny
all Christian values. I can easily imagine the calmness that reassurance the
soldiers would have felt from this peaceful hymn.

Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight!
Glories stream from heaven afar;
Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour, is born!
Christ, the Saviour, is born!

I love this hymn because of the story that it tells - the story of the beginning of a
pivotal stage in the plan of salvation. It signals a coming of miracles and a
coming of redemption for mankind. I like to imagine, and indeed, join in the joy
that must have been felt in that Bethlehem field as the angels announced the
coming of the Saviour. I think of the sight seen by those shepherds and the
excitement that they must have felt, and I know that their joy was not about the
presents that would come or the celebrations that would come. Rather their joy
was about the redemption of the world. I like to think about the experience of the
shepherds in Bethlehem and the soldiers in 1914, who chose to turn their
attention to the Saviour and the love of our Father in Heaven who sent his only
begotten as Saviour of the world.

My favourite verse is definitely the last, it reads:

Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth;
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

This verse places emphasis on Christ as the redeemer of the world. The birth of
Jesus Christ, heralded by both angels and a new star, was indeed a miracle;
however it pales in comparison to the miracle that was to come with His
atonement. I love to sing the hymns of Christmas and participate in the nativities
and other festivities; I love the talks that are presented in sacrament meetings
that surround Christmas. However at times the clamour of the worldly trappings
become too much and it is then that I love to think of this hymn, and its meaning
in order to bring Christ to Christmas.

Formal

Another photo from Jesse's Formal - she actually likes this one.

Big Kids

We're reaping the benefits.

An apprentice carpenter comes in handy after huge storms cause the door to swell:

Jesse has finished everything for high school and has time on her hands - on the last day of school she went to GoMA with her friends and since then has been available for kitchen, babysitting and swimming pool duty. She is going to Toowoomba for a few days each week to work with Lee - which has Louisa breaking into tears often enough that Max asked 'why is it that everytime I go into a room Louisa is crying?' I just told him to get used to it!

Formal

We've had two boy formals - which involve a shower and a dry cleaned suit - and now a girl formal. It's a different event. Jesse was a dream - found the dress easily and on sale, had a pair of shoes already that were perfect, scurried around for earrings and a clutch on the morning of the formal and had Katymae come to do hair and makeup - and still we're exhausted.

And although it wasn't really much work - it was worth every bit of it a hundred fold because she looked perfect and felt lovely.

Jesse's friends are a bookish group and so there was very little formal organising until exams finished - but they made up for it once that last exam was done. Almost immediately at the close of exam block Jesse's phone started blipping with text messages and didn't stop till she arrived at the 'pre-pre' which her friend Sophie, who was also Nathan's date, held for just their little group of friends.

Corsages were a popular subject in the text messaging and Jesse was relieved that her date, Ben, gave her a wrist corsage rather than a pin on. Ben, quite seriously, plans to be Prime Minister someday and has promised Jesse an Ambassador-ship of her choosing. (France would be nice.)

Here's the whole group:

And the girls (Sophie, Jesse, Amber, Anna, Kelsey):

And the car group - Amber, Matt, Jesse and Ben - who went together in Joan's new Audi:

And finally Kelsey, Jesse and Amber - who will be going together to Athens, Rome and Amman in January.

Reading

When a new Harry Potter book came out we usually bought 2 or 3 copies - which avoided this:

This time it was Brissinger - the 3rd installment in the Eragon series.

Jesse's week

Jesse had a week last week - 3 big assignments - Ancient History on the Persian Wars, Modern History on US globalisation of Israel, and an integrated text story for English, as well as Philosophy and Reason test on religion at the end of the week.

The highlight was a Saturday spent at the State Library where she requested and was given a gorgeous old book published in 1867 that came to her encased in plastic and crumbled as she read it.

She made it - with a little help from her entire family - and came home on Friday afternoon to get ready for the YW's camp that night. She had just a few things to prepare for there too - a 7 minute talk (on time management - could that be any more pointed), a 10 minute devotional on the creation, a class on orienteering, and a batch of cookies to bake - as well as dinner to prepare for 15 people on Saturday night! And a costume for the Pine dance she was going to first.

Made it through that too.

Now it's school holidays and all she has to do is memorise 25 scripture mastery's for seminary, read most of the Old Testament and prepare her final essay for Extension English.

One wardrobe crisis down.

Jesse had the annual Priests and Laurels Ball tonight - which means we are on the good side of the first major wardrobe crisis for the year - the next being her upcoming school formal. She wore a collection of borrowed clothes and looked too beautiful for words. Just before she left she asked if she had too much makeup on - I couldn't actually tell she was wearing any so we added a bit more eyes and she was set to go.

Disclaimer: The following photo in no way reflects how beautiful she actually looked. This is probably because (1) she inherited her photogenic-ness from my side of the family and not from the Fulchers (sorry about that Jess), (2) she was cranky about having a photo taken and (3) I am struggling with taking a decent indoors night time photo.

Dwarfheroes

I came home from a temple recommend interview to find Jesse, Louisa and Max dressed as dwarfheroes (dwarfs with special powers) - quilts around their shoulder and boots.

Later that night when I told Max to go to bed he protested that he was writing - he was giving Jesse his '3 best Harry Potter cards' and had to write a note - it says 'For you !!! Look!!! In!!! The!!! Bag!!!'

Max loves exclamation marks. He was so proud because he was sure he had the spelling correct.

They are lucky little kids to have a sister like Jess who loves them and plays with them - and she is lucky to have little brothers and sisters who appreciate it so much.

Parent Teacher Interviews

This post will be nothing more than a recap of last night's parent teacher interviews at Kelvin Grove and is full of delightful things about Jesse & Peet and could be easily misconstrued as boastful and a bit annoying - so read at your own risk.

5 favourite moments:

Jesse' Ancient History and Extension English teacher - Adam Davey - asked if I had lots of teachers to see - I said that I must have done something right because the sub shop ladies who do the rostering gave me everyone I asked for (all 9 teachers) without a single break - to which Adam replied - 'well you're the Fulchers - Kelvin Grove Royalty!' Which left me a little lost for words and I quickly moved on - but on reflection I think it's because between all the Fulchers there have been 8 really nice kids go through KGSC so far - and there are 5 still to go.

Jesse's Core English teacher Kay Elsden was talking to some parents well into my ten minutes and they kept apologising and I wasn't worried - really I don't have much to talk to these teachers about - but when I sat down Kay apologised again and said 'I explained that it would be alright because my next interview is with the parent of the most perfect child in the school' - which must have just been lovely for the parents before me!

Peet's music teacher - Alisa Jones - said he is doing really well - even said that he is the most musically talented kid in the year 8 music program.

Cathy Beazley (Ron Boswell's daughter and Jesse's Legal Studies teacher) said she hopes Jesse never finishes year 12 because she so enjoys talking to her - I assured her that I can't wait till Jesse finishes year 12.

Finally - Peet's maths/science teacher - the much maligned Mr Di Leigge - was my most important interview - and my last. Last week he foolishly assigned the whole class 200 lines of 'I will not call out in class'. Peet was very upset and we had a series of conversations about this and Peet eventually decided to do the lines and I would talk to the teacher at Parent Teacher Interviews. I thought it was all going ok and I thought he was holding his own - he did start by saying that he wishes he had a class full of Peets - but after talking for him for a while about arbitrary punishment and manipulation of children he handed me an exam to look at and his hand was shaking - so then I had to spend 10 extra minutes telling him all the good things he is doing in class - and ended with him assuring me that the line writing will never happen again.

So in all just a really funny set of interviews and a really good showing for the kids.

Travelling

Travelling to and from the coast took a obscene amount of time this year - 2.5 hours up and 4(!) hours back. The kids like to listen to the commentary on radio station (B105) and the music on another (MMM) - so the flip between stations. As we were driving up listening to the commentary station a song came on and was left on for a half a minute or so till Jesse changed stations saying 'you can feel your IQ dropping'. Altogether too pop for her.

Skirmish

For reasons that I do not understand Jesse and Alec played Skirmish yesterday. It costs a fortune and they come home looking like they've been tortured in an Iraqi prison. The photos don't really show the extent fo the damage.

They had a group of close to 40 friends and they both say they had a great time.

Hair

Louisa is growing her hair in preparation for high school - in 2 years time - and has Jesse braid it on Sundays. This is a wise choice since I can't do hair under any circumstances. Don't really know where or how Jesse learned, but it's gorgeous to watch.

The Missing Link

Jesse claims that is what her english teacher will be calling her - this teacher taught Thomas for Extension English where he was a bit of a star, and Alec for the most basic English - where he was not a star (except that he was a pet because he's so nice). Jesse reckons she falls in the middle - hence the missing link.