The Election

Everyone knows that I love skating. Most people also know that I love synchronized skating too. Well last year my friends and I were a part of the Aussie Skate Tiny Teddies mini-synchro team. That was until we graduated.

This year we have created a new team, a team of kids under 15 to skate in the Novice section. What is so different about this? Well, it means that we can compete in the state championships and maybe even in the nationals one day too.

Now that we are a really real team, there are also a few other important decisions that need to be made. Things like electing a team captain and choosing a team name and uniform, pretty full on stuff. It was all very formal, nominations for captain and vice captain had to be submitted, in writing with parents approval before the election.  Hailey nominated me as captain and I nominated her as vice captain.

Election Day was today. First up we had to vote for captain. The list of people nominated was on the whiteboard. Everyone was given a piece of paper and pencil to write down the name of the person they wanted to vote for. (Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I voted for me - I really want to be captain and I think I will do a pretty good job of it.) We waited anxiously as the votes were counted. Guess what... I won, I was elected to be captain :-)  I was presented with my captain's badge and did a little happy dance!

Next up we had to vote for vice captain. There were 4 people nominated and 2 people ended up with the same number of votes so we had to vote again. This time we had a result, my friend Hailey was elected as vice captain. 

We were both pretty excited. 

Together we will lead a strong team. Now all we have to do as a team is come up with a name, oh and a uniform too. I think I am going to be pretty busy!

Love Princess (Captain) George

Checking out the facilities

I am just about to head down to Icehouse from our new apartment.  I decided that I really should do a warmup before I hit the ice, but instead of doing my warmup at the rink, I headed down to the gym in our building with the rest of the family.  As they were checking out the equipment, I headed in to the off-ice room (other people call this the yoga room!) to do my stretches.

I can't wait to move in, then I will be able to practice my on and off-ice stretches all the time!

Love Princess George.

How to fill in time

When we were skating today, mum and dad decided to get out of the cold and go for a wander around Docklands.  Somehow that walk became them imagining what it would be like to live at Docklands and they had a look at a few different places that we could live in if we ever decided to move.  When they came back to collect us they decided that instead of going back to our own house for lunch and a rest before going back to watch the opening round of the hockey, we would go out for lunch together.  Of course they told us all about looking at apartments so we wanted to look at some too.  Next thing you know, we are wandering around Docklands looking for display suites to play in.

First stop was The Quays.  We pretended that we wanted to buy a 3 bedroom apartment.  Just our luck, there were 2 available.  We chatted to the sales person and she showed us all the cool things in the building.  We really wished that we were going to live there, it looked freaking awesome!  The apartments themselves looked pretty cool, all shiny and new, with our own bathrooms but the coolest parts were in the 'residents club' - there was a swimming pool, tennis court, gym, library and even a cinema.  Better yet, it would be ready to move into by the end of the year.

When we finished looking at the display suite, mum and dad reminded us that we weren't really moving to Docklands, that we were really just pretending.  They kept on pretending and went to another display suite - New Quay Promenade.  This time the building hadn't even been started and it was pretty hard to imagine living in a place that wouldn't be built for nearly 2 years.  We got to choose who would have each of the bedrooms, had fun exploring the kitchen and the bathroom on display, as well as looking at all the really cool pictures they had.  It looked pretty nice, but it didn't have a cinema so it wasn't as nice as the first one we looked at!

If only we could move in to Docklands, we could easily go home for a few minutes in between ice skating things without any hassle…
Love AJ and Milla

Splitting

About a kajillion years ago, back in the days that we were dancing, mum tried to offer us financial incentive (that means bribe us) to do the splits, telling us that whoever could do the splits first would get $10. I am pretty sure that she forgot about the promise she made but I didn't.

Now that I am a figure skater it is time for me to start working on my flexibility. Check this out... I can do the splits!

Dad couldn't believe that I could do the splits either!

Love a $10 richer (and a much more flexible than anticipated),
Princess George

PS - I am joining with IBOT (I Blog On Tuesdays!) for the first time ever!

Ice Ice Baby

I am so super excited, I have just come home from my very first private coaching at ice skating. My teacher, Amber, is awesome. She has given me a program (that is figure skating speak for a routine!) to practice and hopefully one day soon I will go in a figure skating competition. How exciting is that!

Well I have to go and practice some of my moves off ice!
Love Princess George

Hockey Camp in the Holidays

Now I had an awesome time hanging out in Yarrawonga but I had to come back last weekend because I had hockey camp.  I can almost hear you thinking, "What is hockey camp?"  Well it is a chance for me to hang out at Icehouse every day and play hours and hours and hours of hockey.  Pretty cool huh!

Ice time

I was there from before 9 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon.  When we weren't skating or playing hockey we would do all kinds of cool things like building parachutes for eggs, playing street hockey and even watch movies about hockey.  As a bonus, we kitted up and headed back out on to the ice for another game of hockey before we went home.  Not a bad way to spend my day!

Posing for a photo or stacks on the coaches?

I can't wait until next holidays when I can go to hockey camp again.

Love AJ Pickle

A Very NOT Typical Start to the Day

Now a typical school morning around here involves sneaking downstairs without waking mum and dad so we can chill out for a bit before the madness begins, having breakfast and getting ready for school.  We have given up on asking to watch TV because there is always something that needs to be done... Have you finished your homework... Have you tidied your room... Have you done insert something else really annoying here?

Well today was a school morning so you can imagine our surprise when instead of being told to stay in bed, we were told to be awake extra early.

There was no nagging to do homework or clean bedrooms, instead it was "Quick grab your skates!" and we were off to Icehouse.

On the ice with our friends

This is me doing the limbo backwards

Then, after skating around with friends and playing games, we were able to chill out and watch a movie.  

Watching Ice Age 4 on the ice

I won a copy of Ice Age 4 and other cool stuff.

All of this and it was still super early in the morning, before school.  

Oh and we were on TV too.  I haven't got a link to the actual footage, but this is us doing the limbo as Emma read out the weather.

Can you believe this actually happened?  I am still in shock about how awesome this morning was!

Love AJ Pickle

Record Attempt Update

So we joined in the fun for another attempt at creating the world's largest conga line on ice at Icehouse this morning.  Naturally being a part of the conga line, mum couldn't get her camera out and get some happy snaps.  Luckily the folks at Icehouse took heaps of photos and mum found this one on Facebook to prove that we were there.  Dad doesn't look too happy but he really was having fun!

Unfortunately we weren't all able to hold the conga line for the full 15 minutes (and I don't think there were enough people in the conga line even if it didn't keep breaking) to break the record but I did have fun. 

What I did learn is that trying to break a world record is seriously hard work, especially if you have to listen to this song over and over and over again!  

That said, I will go back next time that they try to break the world record.  Everyone always says third time lucky!

Love AJ Pickle

Conga Line

If the holidays have to come to an end and we have to go back to Melbourne, it is a good thing if there is something extra awesome to look forward to.  Luckily we have found something to do that will be heaps of fun, and could even break a world record!

We are going to Icehouse to try and break the world record for the world's longest conga line on ice!

We were at Icehouse last year when an attempt to break the world record happened but there were only 202 people taking part.  We had heaps of fun then and I am pretty sure that we will have heaps of fun again tomorrow.  Perhaps you will come down to Icehouse and join in the fun too.
Love AJ and Milla

(Almost) Record Breaking

What did you do today?  I tried to get my name listed in the Guiness World Records.  We all decided to head in to Icehouse to join in a conga line on ice.  Everyone that registered had to join in the conga line and skate around the ice for 15 minutes without letting go of the person in front of you and not fall over.  Now I know that I can skate for ages and ages without falling over but I wasn't too sure about mum and dad!

We had plenty of time to warm up before the record attempt began.  Instead of using this time to warm up with us, mum and dad used the time to rest and to get photos!

Finally it was time for the conga line to start.  We were in the middle section of the line - dad was first, then AJ, me and then mum.  It was actually pretty hard to skate so slowly and in a squishy line but I managed to stay up the entire time, and make sure that I held on tight to AJ.  It was easier said than done, I don't think mum actually skated at all, she let me tow her around!

Whether we broke the World Record or not, it was a pretty cool way to spend the start of the holidays,

Love Princess George

**edited to add - there were only 202 people in the conga line, not enough for a world record, we will have to go back next time they try to break the Actual World Record.

Crazy Busy Days

Saturday morning is normally the day that I hide from mum as she nags me to clean my room... put my stuff away... find all my dirty washing... when all I want to do is snuggle on the couch and watch tv. Normally my Saturday morning is really boring. This morning was different. Sure mum still nagged me to clean up and put stuff away but that was so that I could find my iTouch and a few bits and pieces to throw into a bag before we set off on an adventure or two.

I knew it was skating day for Milla and that we were going to visit some of mum’s friends at the beach in the afternoon but I didn’t know what we were doing for the morning. First stop was a complete surprise, we went into Southbank to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform with dancers from the Australian Ballet. At first I thought it might just be full of little kids and boring but I was wrong, it was great. The first solo of the day was the clarinet - the instrument that I play. He was much better than I am, I could almost hear mum (nagging) saying “One day you could play as well as that but first you have to practice!” She might be right and I might start to practice more, might (but probably not)!

All of the performances were really good but the best part was when Patrick the dancer snuck out in his tap shoes to make music. He would tap a rhythm and then the guy on the drum would copy him. They started off pretty slow, doing tap steps and making rhythms that I knew but got faster and faster and more complicated. Then the drummer made rhythms and Patrick copied them, it was awesome and he ended up dancing the rhythm of a drum roll!

My favourite musician had to be the guy on the Double Bass, he really had fun when he played, he was almost dancing in his seat as he played. He was really cool and fun to watch.

To be honest, I had heaps of fun at the performance and was lucky enough to have my photo taken with a few of the musicians and the dancers too.

Not a bad start to a crazy busy unexpected Saturday morning!

Next stop of the Crazy Saturday was to fill in time at Icehouse when Milli had her lessons and before we headed to the beach. Normally I don’t like hanging around when Milli has her lessons because only the people having lessons can go onto the ice but today because her lesson was at lunch time I got to go skating too. Not only did I get to go skating but I got to play with the giant snowball on the ice. Certainly much more fun than having to clean my room.

The adventure continued after skating. We grabbed some lunch from Costco and headed to the beach. All I knew is that we would spend the afternoon with some of mum’s friends, I didn’t know them but I knew that there would be boys to hang out with instead of just girls so I figured it would be fun.

Let’s just say that fun would be an understatement, I had an awesome time.

There were 4 other boys to hang out with, as well as 4 girls but the best part was that where we were staying was great, we were in the town but there was so much space around that we could be up the front building cubby houses and digging booby traps and the parents couldn’t even see us!

I think mum must have been having fun too because before she realised it, it was really late and we were ready for bed. Instead of getting back into the car and driving home, we grabbed out our ‘just in case we need them’ sleeping bags out of the car and went to bed. Can you believe that there was enough room for all of us to sleep in the one bedroom! Of course sharing a bedroom with 8 other kids meant that we stayed up really late and woke up really early to make sure we had plenty of time to hang out together.

We spent hours mucking about but even digging booby traps didn’t stop mum from making us get back in the car and heading back to Melbourne for another day of madness. I really wished that we could have stayed down by the beach to hang out with my new friends. Hopefully we can go back there again some time soon.

Love AJ Pickle