Farmyard Party!

Josephine was thrilled to be invited to her friend Ayla's brithday party. They had a wonderful time with some visiting farm animals and a pony ride. Lucky! Thank you, Ayla!

Gracie's party

Happy Birthday Grace!

Josephine starts Kindy!

Josephine had a great time on her first day at Kindy. Policeman Pete brought Policedog Cody for a visit, and Josie got to have a pat. I was heartened to see that Policedog Cody is almost as excitable as Ted when it comes to meeting new people. He was not dignified at all, though he did manage to sniff out an old tennis ball that was hidden in the playground.
Josie slipped into her new role as Kindy girl with ease and enthusiasm.

PS This week (it's 21 August today) we learned that Josie is, um, asserting herself at kindy. Telling the big 4-yr-old boys to watch themselves. We're encouraging her to be kind and polite. On Thursday when Laura picked her up at the end of kindy, Laura asked her if she had been a good girl. Josie replied cheerily: "Yes! Only a little bit of meanness." When I asked her the same question at dinner, she changed her story a tad: "Yes! Only a little bit of badness."

Jane visits the zoo!

Jane and Laura had a great day at Auckland Zoo with the rest of the year 0 and 1 classes.

Beach Day

Saturday was a glorious day so we headed off to the beach for a stroll. Ted did a lot of walking/cantering/galloping and his fair share of social sniffing. We humans walked, drew in the sand with sticks, climbed rocks and met a woman from Vietnam. Beautiful day.

Golf day

Last Thursday Charlie, Grace and Rich played golf. After whacking 50 balls on the driving range to warm up, they played a delightful 6 holes before everyone got a little bit tired. Charlie hit some nice seven irons, hybrid drives and a corker of a sand wedge plopper onto the fourth green. Grace was the scorer and cheerleader. She also had a turn on the driving range and practice putting green. It started chilly, but we warmed up and had a great time on a glorious New Zealand winter morn.

Hiking on a sunny day

Saturday was a beautiful clear day, though very chilly. We went for a hike in the Waitakere ranges. We ambitiously chose the second shortest trail, which was 1.5km. This took us almost an hour, with the last 500m being extremely drawn out due to Josephine's 'thirsty legs.'

Charlie is 10!

Charlie had an awesome birthday - a quiet Saturday with basketball and bike riding, then a movie night with six friends. They went to see Toy Story 3 with Rich in charge. Charlie came home on cloud nine, Rich was a a little quieter than usual.

Josie and Laura

With Jane at school now Josie and Laura have a lot of time together. Here we are at the park near Albany library. There are ducks and swings and amazing things made out of old tree stumps.

Party!

More photos from Jane's last day at Kindy

Jane's last day at Kindergarten

Jane had a fantastic last day at Kindy. Turning 5 is a huge deal, because it means it is time to start school. Jane spent the morning creating a beautiful crown and playdough cake with her teacher, Mrs Dowdell. When it was mat time Jane sat in the throne and shared her memories of kindy with her friends and teachers. Everyone sang Happy Birthday, and said goodbye. We feel blessed that she has had such a wonderful time over the past year and a half, and that she has learned so much.

Room 8 Blog Launched!

Grace's class has just launched their blog - please check out it out here.

Silly Billies

The most remarkable thing about this picture is that Jane agreed to wear jeans that day.

Walking home from school

Our first Mandarin!

A little sour, but very beautiful!

Josephine at Kindy

Josephine enjoys dropping Jane off at kindy. Often the drop-off becomes something a little more...

Bake off

The kids have a funny habit of using the word "random." Examples are, "Just some random dog came along and said hello to Ted," or "There was this random boy at school." (This begs the question, are there organised dogs and planned boys out there?) Thus we weren't that surprised at Grace's reply when asked how she wanted to place the flowers and caterpillars atop her school bake off cake. "Just randomly."

Which look do you like the best?

As time passes after a haircut, Ted looks more and more like a muppet. He sings songs and has guest stars talking to him. Even though we appreciate the educational aspects of having a muppet in the house, there comes a time when Laura's dog hair-length threshold is reached. Such a milestone was passed this week. The pictures here show before and after. You'll note the muppet look versus the 1980s new romantic style. Do you prefer Ted as a muppet or Duran Duran lookalike? Send us your comments.