Easter weekend - Waiake Beach

At the Gala

My first chapter book!

Guy Fawkes Misery

Poor, poor Ted! For the last few days people all around us have been letting off fireworks to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they have been using Guy Fawkes Day as an excuse to let off lots and lots of fireworks. Fireworks can only be sold in the few days leading up to GF day, so there is a novelty factor. On Friday night Ted was frantic with all the explosions, trembling and hiding and eventually vomiting in fear. (Rich was quite surprised by this, saying personally he has vomited in surprise before, but never in fear.) Tonight Ted is calmer, but no less miserable. Let's hope things are quieter tomorrow.

Twice upon a time...

Charlie's homework last week was to incorporate his fifteen spelling words into a fairy tale. This is the result: Twice Upon A Time Twice upon a time, there were two children named Timothy and Tomothy. They were twins who looked identical except for their noses, which were very different. Tim's nose looked like a bent tree, while Tom's resembled a sick cat. They both had a birthmark on their foreheads which looked like a horse with a cloak on. Tim grew up being very nice to animals and children, while Tom grew up taunting animals and children. One day when Tim and Tom were very old,(about 33) a carriage arrived at their village. A fat man in armour came out of it and knocked on the twin's door. Tim opened it. The man said, "I'm the king, and you are sentenced to death for taunting animals and children." But before Tim could say : But I grew up being nice to animals and children and you're looking for my brother Tom, the king drew his sword and chopped his head off right on the spot. Tomothy was mocking a plant in the backyard during the king's visit, and didn't hear anything. When he returned to his house he saw the body of his sort of beloved brother. "The king has come for me." he said. "I must tell the king he has needlessly murdered my twin." When Tomothy arrived at the castle, he came to the king's throne room. The king took three looks and said "You look familiar, almost as if I have killed you before." Tom said "I am Tomothy, and I grew up taunting animals and children. You killed my brother instead of me." The king said, "Oh. That's right. Timothy had a nose like a tree. Yours is more like a sick cat." The king drew his sword and announced, "You are sentenced to death! Suddenly, in magic poof of mystical fairy dust, a fairy arrived in a chariot pulled by wolves leaving behind a trail of soggy golden fluffy stuff. The fairy came to Tom and said,"You have been a very brave boy. For that, the king will not kill you." She clapped twice and the king's head disappeared. The fairy then winked at Tom and rode away to some distant faraway land not in the kingdom anymore. With Tim gone, and the king killed by some fantasy lady, Tomothy was finally able to live happily ever after. And that's probably what he did. The end.

The duck costume

Some of these photos show the first time Josephine wore her duck costume in Utah in 2007. She has always loved it and worn it at every opportunity since then. This year she finally admitted that she could no longer squeeze into it, and passed it on to Adam. Can you tell which duck is which?

Adam

Sweet, funny, cheeky, smart, and so, so adorable...

Piano Recital

Grace and Jane performed with all the other students of their teacher, Fumiko. They did a fantastic job, and Fumiko wowed us with a piece of her own at the end.

Spring

Spring is here, and we are outside more and more. Today the girls ate breakfast on the table and then played underneath it in the evening. The days are gorgeous, though still chilly in the shade. We are all so happy the wild winds of September and October are over.

Brothers

I wonder if Adam would like a sip of my milkshake...

Thank you, Hamilton Hunters!

Hamilton Gardens

We had a fantastic weekend down at Hamilton with Robert, Chern and Torin. We spent some time playing in the Gardens and watching a mother duck with her 12 fluffy ducklings. The girls loved the riverside stage and put on an impromptu show.

Zoo babies

On Friday we went to the zoo and had a great time. There were babies every where - we loved seeing the meerkat, baboon and wallaby babies most. We also loved following the map to different animals and all the treats that mum brought along to ensure it was a smooth afternoon.

Family Photos

I am constantly on a quest to get a decent photo of all 5 children together. By decent, I don't even require all of them to be looking at the camera and smiling. All I need is eyes open and a neutral/normal expression. Here is a recent attempt. Sometimes I despair.

Sky Tower

Rich took a day of annual leave on Friday and led an expedition to the Sky Tower. In doing so, he allowed Grace to tick off three things on her "Things to do in the holidays" list. These included a visit to the sky tower, a ride on a boat and a long walk. Only five items left! All very achievable, thankfully.

Kids for Kids Choir

Grace performed again this year in the World Vision Kids for Kids Choir. Jane and Laura went to watch, and it was absolutely brilliant. There were 500 children in the choir and they sang a lot of old favourites. Amazing!

On a quiet afternoon

Book Week

During book week the girls had to go to school as a character from a favourite book. Grace went as Eddie, a girl from the series The Boys start the War, Jane went as Annie McCray, from Hip, Hip Hooray for Annie McCray, and Josephine went as the youngest princess from The Twelve Dancing Princesses, ie the only one with any sort of conscience or moral fibre.

Pampering

The girls do love a good session at the spa.

Dusk

J and J watching the sun go down.

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Well, hard to believe that our sunny little baby has turned into a beautiful 9 year old! She had a movie party, in which she and her friends created a movie together (yes, mum, I will get it to you!). It really was the best party we have ever hosted. Organised. Structured. Timed perfectly. Oh yeah, and Fun! As you may see, the tightly controlled aspect of the whole thing was particularly pleasing to us. This may be because it was not long after Jane's movie party, in which we invited all her friends over for a pajama party with a movie and popcorn. 40 minutes into the movie we had a horde of little people jumping on the top bunk, saying gleefully, "Let's play zombies in the dark!" Things have changed forever around here!

Drama!

Josephine has been loving going to her drama class. One of her friends has an amazingly talented mum who teaches drama and runs a class after school once a week for 6 year 1 students. Each week she gets some "homework" like learning a joke or describing a feeling or something similar. One day she came home and told us that she needed to practise miming feeding the dog. She was very adamant that she must follow the Four Rules of Mime. Only problem being she could only remember two of them. Somewhat baffled, we brainstormed as many rules of mime as we could. It was an exercise that stretched all of our capabilities. I believe her mime was considered adequate the following week. This photo was taken after the end of term clown party.

Kiwi Collage

Jane was very happy to have her collage of a Kiwi displayed with other art from local primary schools at the Albany shopping mall.

Netball

Grace had a great netball season. The Magic were a solid team and all of them played hard. Grace even scored her first goal! So exciting.

Walking and Talking

Adam is walking and running (only when going downhill so far) with great enjoyment and confidence now. He is like a little wind-up toy in that as soon as you set him down he is in motion. He has also learnt his first word: Yeah. He says it often and with much conviction and lots of nodding. Adam, are you hungry? Yeah. Adam, do you want to go outside? Yeah. Adam, would you like a bath? Yeah. Adam, do you love me? Yeah! Such an agreeable soul. We love him!

Lazy

Well, that is my only excuse for not posting anything here since July! Terrible. And so much has happened. We've had Grace's birthday and Rich's birthday, Adam has started walking, we went and stayed with Robert and Chern in Hamilton for a great weekend, all sorts of school events and Adam has started talking! Well, he says one word. But that is big news, and I have been very remiss in not recording it all here for the Grandparents. Will fix things now with the photos I have and get some more from Rich as soon as I can.

Cousins

It has been fantastic having Robert, Chern and Torin stay with us this week!

Jane

Grace at Pumphouse Theatre