I made it to the twins’ school assembly yesterday. James’ class performed Shake A Tail Feather, which had the kids all bopping.

Maggie was awarded a certificate of achievement for being “a positive and exciting member” of her class.

It’s good to know that I’ve passed on my excitement genes.

However, it’s an important milestone in my life as well as hers, so it deserves to be noted.

As a parent there are mixed feelings about having one of your brood officially become an adult. We’ve successfully steered her through childhood and now she’s able to make her own way in the world.

It probably won’t sink in until she leaves home, which may not be for a few years yet (and we’re happy about that).

I’m very proud of Kathleen. She boarded in Mount Gambier last year to finish Year 12 and achieved an adjusted ATAR of 95.8.

This year she will study Archaeology at Flinders University and hopefully will soon get her licence.

Also today, I took younger son James to register at the Lockleys Football Club, where he will play in the under 9 competition.

His brother wasn’t able to play football at that age because the youngest age group in rural Porepunkah was under 13, and he drifted to soccer instead.

I remember playing mini league at Traralgon when I was eight and then under 10s for Southside.

I hope James enjoys his sport. It’s an important part of life.

This was the best effort, but most of the other 90 or so weren’t worth keeping.

Michael is playing for Glenelg in the Adelaide inter-association tournament, under 15 division.

Kathleen (left) prepares to skydive.

I had always wanted to try parachuting, but it has slipped from my list of things to do in the past few years. At the age of 17, my daughter has scooped me on one of my ambitions.

Kathleen said she felt airsick in the plane going up, but enjoyed the jump and the view coming down.

Kathleen in the air on a tandem skydive.

According to its website, the chief instructor has more than 34 years experience with the Australian Regular Army and is a former member of the Army Red Berets Parachute Display Team. He is also a pilot, display licence examiner, instructor examiner, and organiser and jumper of major corporate displays.

So if you decide to give this a go, you’re in safe hands.

Tandem skydiving is described as the easiest way to experience the fun and thrill of freefalling and parachuting.

The cost was $300, not including professional pictures or a DVD, which we couldn’t afford at this time.

It sounds like a lot of fun, and maybe I will add it back on the to-do list.

Kathleen returns safely to the ground.

Kathleen and friend with Maggie before the jump.

The route is 3.3km long. For about 10 minutes, the pageant took over the whole of King William Street from South Terrace to Victoria Square and Flinders Street to North Terrace.

Apparently it took 15 trucks to transport costumes, shapes, heads, bikes and props to Pulteney Grammar, the starting point, the day before the pageant.

The first pageant in 1933 had eight floats and four bands. The 2011 Credit Union Christmas Pageant had 63 floats and 15 bands plus nine walking sets, 10 dance groups, one DJ and three choirs.

In 2010 the Christmas Pageant broke the Guinness World Record for the largest group of carol singers. This year a new record was set for the largest gathering of people wearing red noses.

I wasn’t one of them, having an aversion to red noses, but the kids wore two noses each, not counting their own.

It was hot in the sun, but the kids enjoyed it. There was lots of noise and color.

Santa brought up the rear of the parade and got a big cheer. In Adelaide he is known as Father Christmas. Here is a short video:

He has also been enjoying backyard cricket and shows some raw talent as a bowler.

I think he might have inherited the stubborn genes from his grandfather, because I was never so wilful

Force was out of the question, of course, so I tried bribery. No more computer or internet until he goes to cricket. That means at least a week, or if he refuses to go next week and in later weeks, possibly until Christmas!

Obstinacy overruled logic as he stared fixedly at the television while trying to absorb the consequences and remaining resolute.

Resolute he remained. The kids’ computer has now been disconnected and Maggie can only play on the computer in my study, from which James is also banned.

Speaking of Maggie, the kids had school photos taken on Monday. Unfortunately, Maggie had a large bruise on her forehead from one of her many falls.

I’ll be able to brush it out in Photoshop, but sadly the prints will show the blemish.

Last weekend she entered her first competitive event, aged 7 (see video).

I’ve never really been into watching gymnastics, but it looks great from a participant’s point of view and I think it will do wonders for Maggie’s confidence.

It’s remarkable that young children can perform on the beam without fear and fling themselves around on the bars.

Funny about that. The boys gave up a shopping trip to stay at home and play on the computer.

Anyhow, Maggie was lucky enough to have her face painted for free in the mall, where a dinosaur promotion by local media was happening.

She looked really scary afterwards.

The picture was taken with my mobile phone.

Twins James and Maggie, aged 7, took a netbook computer to the match. They played games on it and listened to music.

When I was seven years old, the high-tech gadgets in our house were a television (black and white), a wireless (that’s what we called the radio), an LP player and (unusually) a tape recorder.

The tape recorder was a bulky thing with two reels. Dad used it to record and play some of his music.

We kids were allowed to play with it sometimes, but I recall that winding the tape was often a tricky exercise.

He plays at right full-back.