Pretend Camping by the Beach

our tent!

To start the school holidays a friend from work and I spent the first 3 days "camping" at the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean in Bonny Hills (near Port Macquarie).

The amazing view! (at 7am)

our delicious dinner (except the veggies... they were realllllllly gross)

Of course this was camping in the loose-est sense of the word... yes we stayed in a tent. But in a caravan park with toilets & hot showers, and although we cooked a few meals on the camp bbq, we also spent some time in town eating amazing sundaes and pancakes.

the yummy sundae

mmmm iced chocolate with pancakes for breakfast!

How amazing are the clouds?!

It was absolutely beautiful! The weather was PERFECT and we had the most relaxing time. Such a fantastic way to unwind from term 3. On the first night the moon was incredible. It was massive and orange and reflected in the ocean & was 'right outside' our tent. We seriously sat on our air mattresses staring across the Pacific just in awe of God. (My camera did not do this justice! It was amazing! trust me!)

The incredible orange moon (use imagination when viewing this one)

Chilling on the beach

This bird kept us entertained for ages

Our adventures included walking the length of the beach (it took around 3 hours), a rainforest walk, art gallery, lots of crazy shops, a visit to the sick and injured koalas at the koala hospital, napping, and I read a whole book. I actually read 'The Shack'. It's been on my list of books to read for ages (and a lovely friend lent it to me months ago...).

Here are a few of the things I learnt from my camping adventure and reading The Shack...

• Nature wakes up way earlier than I like to
• You can't boil water on a barbeque
• I don't spend enough time outside
• I don't watch enough sunsets (or sunrises for that matter)
• Not much matters when you're laying on a beach or looking out at the ocean from on top of a cliff
• Rainforest plants are really violent (just in real slow motion)
• The ocean never stops (ok duh! I know this is obvious, but it actually overwhelmed me to think how many billions of litres of water were constantly churning in waves at the bottom of our cliff, I can't even fathom keeping the waves and tides sorted for one beach let alone the crazy billion-gazillion (really big number) beaches and cliffs and coasts around the world.
• Relaxing is possible
• Who cares if someone steals your juice
• God loves
• God's love is not conditional, even though it's so easy in my humaness to see it as conditional
• God's love is not hierarchical
• 'Truth' as seen by us is biased, flawed and too often ego-centric. What is true to me can change. God's truth does not change.
• It's not my job to judge
• Jesus' death changed everything
• We have been designed to live in community with God and each other
• Sometimes even the 'good stuff' in our lives needs to be removed for God to purpose something better
• God is 'especially fond of me'

To market, to market to buy... pretty much everything!

Well yesterday was Year 4 Market Day. I LOVE Market day!
Each kid had to create a stall & advertise and sell their product or service to the K-4 kids and teachers.

The kids (& their parents) came up with such amazing ideas! Everything from slime, cupcakes, catapults, to 'pay $1 and you can hold my rabbit' (such an ingenious idea!). Two girls made a 2 metre wide, almost as tall as me cardboard castle as their stand for their "playdough palace". I spent so much money! (I wanted one of everything...)

Well here are some photos of some of their exciting stalls and products...  

 It was such a great day! In less than 2 hours our 40 Year 4 kids raised almost $1000  for their graduation (which we'll divide between charity, a gift to the school & a whole stack of fun)! such a great effort!

My kids are amazing!

Toucans....

Well eight of my kids' paintings didn't sell at the fair. Five of them were gracious enough to let me buy theirs YAY! :)
I can't wait to stick them up in my house (I'm still deciding on the best location).

I love this one!

That's David Attenborough on the left...

The thing I love most about these paintings, and about doing art with my kids (and teaching in general), is that every one of these kids were given the same stimulus - they were shown the same pictures of toucans, they all saw the same demonstration and techniques, they were all given the same materials to work with... yet every single picture is so different!


I love that God has designed each one of us so differently, that even when we're given the same situation or opportunity or task, our response is going to be unique! Of course this means there's conflict and challenges, but also colour and creativity!




PS I did steal the idea for this art lesson from Deep Space Sparkle which is an amazing site!

Tomorrow is MARKET DAY! Each year (well every year since last year) our Year 4's have had to make a product to sell to raise money for their graduation activities. They get so excited about it! Each kid has their own little stall and sell to other Junior School kids and teachers. Last year we made over $1000 in an hour and a half! I can't wait!

In other news:
- 3 more of my kids have chicken pox :(    (they are so disappointed that they're going to miss Market Day)
- There's only 2 more days till the holidays!
- This week has been so much fun!