Big Weekend

It was a crazy weekend. Full of good and important things, but crazy.

Wrestling
Saturday morning we left at 10 to take the boys to a wrestling practise/mock tournament on the north side of Brisbane (we're on the west side of Brisbane). It went about two hours longer than a usual Saturday training, but all the boys got two opportunities to try out their skills in mock matches.

Of course we've seen our eldest wrestle many times now, but this was the first opportunity for the younger two. The big surprise for us was how surprised the coaches were at our boys' skills, especially our youngest. The state coach came over and made some surprising predictions. They couldn't believe the boys had only been training for a few weeks.

Out of the six matches our boys were involved in, they won five and the sixth was a close match too. Our eldest won against someone who was 10kg heavier than him and a bit older. Our younger two surprised us at their application of skills that they've mostly only seen and the speed at which they worked. Although it is true that they've been well coached at home by their big brother as they've wrestled in our tiny Japanese lounge room over the last three years.

New niece
Just before midnight on Thursday night my youngest sister gave birth to her third child and first girl. This is the first time either of my sisters has given birth while we've been in the country. It was a great joy to go and visit them in hospital yesterday evening. My parents now have two grand-daughters, to balance out their seven grandsons!

Concert
After visiting my sister and newborn niece, we found our way to a concert. Almost accidentally I found out a month or so ago that one of our boys' favourite musicians. Sons of Korah, would be performing live in Brisbane, so I bought tickets, not knowing how busy this day would end up being. It was refreshing to sit and listen to Sons of Korah in concert for a couple of hours last night. We also bought some more of their CDs. Hopefully this will increase the number of songs we repeatedly hear our boys playing in their rooms.

Sons of Korah is an Australian based band devoted to giving a fresh voice to the biblical psalms.



Church
On Sunday morning we went to church, our home church. It was our fourth Sunday in a row there, and we're starting to feel more at home. What's been interesting is that our two older boys have expressed their joy at being in an English speaking service, and have been very engaged with the sermons.



University Open Day
After church we stayed only long enough to snaffle some morning tea and then headed off to the city to a university open day (Queensland University of Technology). It is a campus I've never been on. Despite being in the middle of the city it is surprisingly beautiful campus. It does help that they share a boundary with the Botanical Gardens and there is no fence.

We split up, with David taking our eldest to a Engineering seminar and one about course fees. I took the younger two, acquired a couple of free helium balloons, and we headed to the Art Museum to a very clever competition. They'd concocted a pretend art heist and we had to figure out who we thought had done it via various clues they provided. This proved a bit educational as I had to explain to my 9 and 11 year olds what "motive, means, and opportunity" meant.

After that we had a bit of a chat to an engineering club who make a small race car to enter into an annual competition in Victoria. Then we shot off into the park, for some much needed play-time for the boys.

Then we headed home, weary!

A half an hour later my other sister dropped in for a short while on the way back to her home in Toowoomba. She'd been visiting the newborn too. Wow, so much family! It's probably difficult for you to understand if you've always lived close to family, but we've gotten used to not seeing our family very often. Suddenly we're seeing them more often and that takes some adjusting too!

SO, that was our weekend. Phew! Lots of "play" and fun, but exhausting too.