Finding Hope

This year has been a year where we as a family have been exposed to the reality of mortality, in our own family and among our friends. Rich found this video about one man's story after surviving 9-11. It is a touching account about the possibility of finding hope after tragedy.

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Charlie is 9! Hard to believe my baby is dressing up as Brandon Flowers for GPK day. GPK stands for Growing Positive Kiwis. It's a program they have at school where the kids exhibit positive behaviour and are rewarded with celebration days once in a while. Charlie was delighted that his birthday coincided with both the end of term and GPK day. The theme was 'red carpet' and the kids had to go as a rock star or movie star. Charlie's favourite song is Spaceman by the Killers, whose lead singer enjoys wearing jackets with feathers sprouting from the shoulders. Gracie went as Mary Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. I suggested that she go as Laura, but she was very firm that she should be Mary, as Mary gets to wear her hair out.

Anyway, after a great day at school, we went out to celebrate the birthday at Burger King, and then came home for the alien cake. This was an easy one to make - it turned out very different to what I had planned - the four arms and wings I had planned were a bit too hard and had to be ditched, but no-one even noticed.

Josephine

My name is not Josie...it's Josie-aphine!

Jane is Four!!!

Hooray! Our three-year-old is now four! We love our Jane and hope she enjoyed her day today. Thanks for being such a sweetie Jane. We love you!

The Simpsons

Our lovely friends from Brisbane, the Simpsons, came to see us last Tuesday evening. We had not seen them for almost four years. They are here for a week or so, touring around seeing the sights. The kids hit it off and the grown-ups reminisced and caught up on what's hot in our respective households. Basketball is in, and so is heavily-guitar-oriented music. Friends like these make life nicer.

This is a lovely little video about a great father.

Four

Bath Art

A long time aficionado of paint, crayons, glue and modelling clay, Gracie has recently branched out into other methods of expressing her inner artiste.

Tunnels

On the Queen's birthday 2009 (Queen's birthday in New Zealand is called 'the Quin's birthday) we went spelunking at North Head, Devonport. We rugged up, got our torches and set out to explore the tunnels under the reserve, built to store artillery and ammunition at various times in history when invasion was not very imminent at all.Don't tell Mickey, but Charlie thought it was on a par with Disneyland.

A gorgeous day at North Head, Devonport

Netball

Last week Gracie was invited to be in the Year 1 netball team, as they needed an extra player. She played her first game on Saturday, and did a great job. Netball is not a game ideal for five year olds! The no stepping rule, the 3 feet rule, the complicated rules about where each player can and can't go on the court...pretty tricky, when you think about it. The predominant feeling amongst all the players was confusion, and amongst the parents, amusement. Gracie caught on pretty quickly though, and figured out that if you jump up and down a lot with your hands in the air it looks very much as though you know what you're doing.

One Sunday afternoon I took a nap and woke up very late, thinking (in some alarm) that the kids had been extraordinarily quiet and good at entertaining themselves. I went downstairs to find that a couple of ducks had waddled up to our front window. A very substantial part of a loaf of bread was missing and the kids were thrilled with their initiative in giving these ducks some afternoon tea. I was worried that ducks would be falling out of the sky their stomachs bloated with inordinate amounts of bread. However, it seems they survived that first feast, and since then occasionally drop by for some more crusts, to everyone's great delight. We've also had a hedgehog snuffling around out there.

Auckland Museum

We enjoyed the Maori cultural performance at the Auckland Museum very much. We learned quite a bit about Maoritanga. That's Grandma standing beside the tree.

Sky Tower

We finally made the trip to Sky Tower and took a 360 degree look at Auckland. If you look carefully you can see our house from here.

Wainoni Park with Grandad and Grandma

We had a lovely time with Grandma and Grandad at Wainoni Park in Greenhithe. The park features a slide designed with large bottoms in mind.

Cousins

We loved being with our extended family at Pah's funeral. Our girls were thrilled to discover so many little kindred spirits. This clip shows them preparing to pose for a group photo.

Pah's funeral

Pah

On 30th March, 2009, Rich's dad, Robert Keith Hunter passed away. He was a wonderful father, father-in-law and grandfather. We miss him, but are peaceful in the knowledge that we will meet again, and honoured to be a part of his eternal family.

Easter DVD

Rich has been helping with a campaign in NZ and Australia which is inviting people to request a free copy of this Easter DVD, 'The Lamb of God'.

Last weekend, this video was the number one viral video on the Internet. This was one of the most amazing talks we have seen on the Saviour's atonement.

Painting a School

On Saturday, Rich, Charlie and Grace helped give a local primary school a facelift. Around 600 volunteers from our area here on the North Shore of Auckland painted, weeded gardens, planted trees and generally gave the school a spruce up. It was a fun morning and we managed to get more paint on the walls than on ourselves.