Diorama

Since we moved to New Zealand three and a half years ago I have been involved in the creation of more dioramas than in all the other thirty-five and a half years of my life! Why, oh why do teachers here insist on torturing the parents of their students with their fiendishly designed demands for dioramas? This project required Charlie to depict five of the challenges that early settlers to New Zealand faced, with, economic, cultural, environmental and social challenges all represented. Charlie chose to create a cemetery in which we have Donald McDonald (a playmobil fireman morphed with a pirate to depict a settler) contemplating the graves of his family. These include Doreen, his wife who died in childbirth and his son, Darwin, who died due to poor medical care (social issues), his brother, Jim, who died in a land battle with local Maori (cultural misunderstandings over property) and brother in law, Will, who died because he was forced to learn a new trade to earn his living and found himself to be not very skilled at whaling (economic challenge). Poor Donald has laid his axe on some nearby rocks for a moment (represents the thick bush needed to be cleared for farming - environmental challenge) to wallow in his isolation and homesickness (social). A very mournful but highly effective piece of work, Charlie!

More park pics

At the park

Rich is away in Melbourne at the moment and in an effort to retain sanity we all took a walk down the bush track to the park for a play and to feed the ducks. Ted was anything but relaxed as I insisted that he sit and watch the ducks while they were being fed. This is one of the saddest photos we have of him, I think. He is really, really wishing he could be in the thick of things. It was a beautiful afternoon and we played much longer than we planned and watched the sun set over Upper Harbour.

More birthday photos

Birthday Cake

When it was time for the cake we all sang Happy Birthday, while Adam chuckled away. He loves singing and music and always claps and bobs up and down. The cake was decorated by Grace and her friend Keita, and represented a TV remote, which is Adam's favourite toy.

Our Baby is One!

What a happy year. Adam turned one on the 13th of June. Amazing to think that it was a whole year ago that we were bringing our tiny little boy home and the girls were putting him in a cardboard box. We had a great day. Robert, Chern and Torin came up to celebrate with us. We turned up the music and did some dancing with balloons.

Gayna

Our friend Gayna brightened our day by dropping over on her moped and bringing a box full of fabulous shiny and swishy dress ups. Thank you, Gayna!

Sunday afternoon

This is a typical Sunday afternoon. While Rich and I steal a nap the girls find bits and pieces from around the house and create a cubby house or some other major project. Here we see the cubby house in the background with a drum kit in the foreground, created from table and stool, Ted's bowl and a box which should be full of musical instruments. No prizes for guessing where the musical instruments were stored while their box was co-opted.

Adam

Adam continues to thrive. Hard to believe he'll be 1 in a couple of weeks! He is great at getting up stairs and onto the couch now, and eats everything - gobbles up his peas and corn. He is practicing his walking holding onto someone's hands, and loves it, even though it looks like his legs are made of spaghetti.

Mum, I touched an All Black!

The day after cross country, the Westpac helicopter flew into school and landed on the oval, bring it with it Jerome Kaino, an All Black. After a great presentation about the job that the rescuers do, Jerome handed out the certificates for cross country. Jane was thrilled to shake his hand, though she had never even heard of him before! And yes, I need a better camera!

Cross Country Competition

It was a beautiful sunny day. Josephine had a wonderful time, smiling and waving for the whole length of the oval while all other runners passed her by. Jane, on the other hand, knew that her best friend Logan would come first and was determined to come second.She was so proud and pleased when she made it! Grace had a great run too, even though she was not feeling 100%. When I hugged her after her race I could feel her heart pounding against my hip.

Strike a pose

We were in the park the other day and saw a wedding party arrive to have their photos taken. We were quite fascinated watching the bride pose, and we noticed that the photographer kept getting her to stand with her back to the camera (or walk away) and then turn her head dramatically over her shoulder. Grace decided that this was an excellent idea and took it on board, encouraging others to do the same at every opportunity.

Similarities

Here is Adam with Eamon, his cousin, or as we say in NZ, his cuzzy-bro.

Group hug

Thomsetts

We were all so happy to see the Thomsetts for an afternoon last weekend. They were on their way back to the airport after Richard had run the ultra marathon in Rotorua. (Still haven't gotten over that.) They are all looking fabulous - can't believe Eamon's only 10 weeks old and he's been to New Zealand twice! You are amazing, Claire-Mary!

Every where I turn, there's a baby!

Adam is into absolutely everything now - the doll's house, the tupperware cupboard, and yes, even the dishwasher.

Milford Reserve

We had a lovely Saturday out at Milford Reserve, eating fish and chips and playing continuous cricket.

Robert

Great news! Robert, Chern and Torin are coming to New Zealand! They are going to manage a motel in Hamilton and we are sooooo excited! We had a lovely (but too short) visit from Bert as he checked out the possibilities, and the kids loved hearing his tales of childhood pranks. He entered into the general silliness that goes on around here (including watching a dance in which Jane played the reclusive letter D and Grace the extroverted W) without a blink.

Standing up

First Day of School

The girls had a great first day back at school. Josephine told me her day was "really cool." Just realised I haven't taken a photo of Charlie in his new uniform - will fix that asap!