January 2012 Updates: The Unpacking Process: Days 3 - 7

Day 3 We had a big family trip to IKEA at Rhodes shopping centre. Hahgoot stayed at the kids’ play centre while we took Alma for the shopping spree. Afterwards we stopped for lunch at a Korean restaurant.

The girls found the Korean food interesting... the dessert was easier to handle – colourful macaroons!

Day 4: Gali and Niv were generous to suggest we leave the girls with them for the day, so we took the opportunity to build the girls’ basket wardrobes and keep unpacking books.

It was Australia Day, so we had a “celebratory” lunch together at their home in Concord.

Day 5 Spending so much time together in the tight conditions of the box-filled home was starting to take its toll on everyone’s nerves. So we took a break for shopping and a meal at Penrith’s Westfield. The girls’ moods improved greatly after I managed to connect the TV and DVD!

Enjoying another family dinner. Ah, the novelty of having bowls with food to choose from and not just warm everything up quickly in the microwave...

Barak spent most of the day building the new drawer cabinets for our bedroom (they were a lot more complex than anticipated). The gates we got from Debbie and Nadav did not fit (the corridor was too wide) so we bought new gates and at last Barak installed the one at the top of the stairs. Now we don’t need to watch Alma closely all the time when we are upstairs.

Day 6 We went out for lunch at a sushi train in Penrith. Funnily, the food the girls really liked were the fresh fruit! Top right: Alma eating raw salmon sashimi.

Having Alma on a lead in the shopping centre is like walking an over excited puppy... It’s the only way to travel with her currently, she won’t give her hand to anybody, she is very independent.

Barak worked very hard in fixing all the Billy Bookcases and attaching them all to the walls. The walls here are from a modern material; it’s soft like cheese!

As the school year’s start was looming, I started Hahgoot again on night time studies so she gets back into a routine (she needs some extra time to adjust to changes in routine). Barak was really enjoying his time away from work, despite the endless hard work at home. I think the girls were enjoying his company too!

Day 7: The girls kept themselves busy all day while Barak and I unpacked non-stop.

The girls helped Barak with the bookcases

Top middle and right and bottom right: I worked with Hahgoot on the topic of Tu Bishvat, a Jewish holiday about planting trees. She read and wrote stories in Hebrew. Bottom left and middle: Hahgoot did a workbook in Scottish Gaelic and wrote a list of words she found interesting and their translation to English. We have a very eclectic collection of books at home... So don’t ask how we got that workbook...

Before Barak went back to work he managed to install the second gate and help unpack a huge amount of books. In our next presentation: First day in Year 1, at Emu Plains Public school!