Easter Holidays

At school before the end of term, the kids had to design their own Easter hat. They then were able to wear it in the Easter hat parade. Anna-Maria is developing a creative streak. She loves anything arty. Colouring, drawing, crafts. She spent a long time cutting out shapes to glue onto her hat.

I thought I would include a few pics of the what the kids have been getting up to over the holidays. It has been great only working 2 days a week and spending lots of time with the kids. They have been pretty busy, going biking at the local skate park, body boarding at the beach, reading and watching Lord Of the Rings and Huckleberry Finn, and generally having a good time being together.

Ella-Rose is such a cutie. She makes me laugh with all her little antics.

 So the kids got a book out from the library and wanted to make their own potato and carrot chips (crisps). Well they were very enthusiastic about peeling the veggies and even more enthusiastic about eating them.

 Why do we have tyre tracks in our garden???
Ask Tane. He and the kids decided to wash the car in the garden while I was at work. The problem was, they left the car there afterwards, to sink into the lawn. We had to get friends to tow our out of the sticky mud. At the end of that, the car was heavily covered in mud and Tane took it down to the garage to give it another wash.

While I was getting showered and dressed, Anna-Maria was entertaining Ella-Rose by pushing her up and down the hallway in her toybox, toys included. Ella-Rose loved it.

Last night we had chips, pies and mushy peas for dinner. Anna-Maria did 'thumbs up' (see photo below) and said "Thanks for the dinner mum". Joseph quickly followed of course.

The kids also wanted me to put the pics on which show them running around the house with undies on their heads. I told them i had to save some in reserve for their 18th birthdays.

Worth Waiting For

This is one of our kids favourite little movie clips they love to watch on Sundays... they also want us to do this for them... so it is in the pipeline for one of our family home evenings.
It's never too early to start talking about temple marriage with our kids. This video gives them a sense of the temple being something very special.

Enjoy.

Awards and bombs

Anna-Maria is at the stage where she is taking everything in and asking lots of questions ...
what does accurate mean?
 what does mercy mean?
what does appreciate mean?

In family scripture reading we were discussing Matthew 16:27

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.


We talked about how we will be rewarded when Jesus comes again if we choose the right.


The next day, Anna-Maria said "I can't wait till Jesus comes so I can get my award".




Today I was singing the word "Beautiful Zion built above."


Anna-Maria asks "Why did Zion build a bomb?"

Anna-Maria's first day of school

Anna-Maria started school on Friday... funny day of the week to start, but that's what they did. She was so excited about putting her uniform on and was ready as soon as she got up... and trying to get out the door with lunchbow in bag, and backpack on by 7.30am. When we got to school she could hardly wait to get to her class - she had an extra 30 mins after the boys started school.
When we went into the classroom, she played blocks and did a few puzzles and settled in nicely. She had to find her name, and wear a badge with her name on.

Also Joshua has started trumpet lessons. He was inspired to play the trumpet after watching Elder Groberg on 'The other side of Heaven'. Now all the kids want to learn the trumpet too!

Joshua's surf lesson

Joshua had his first 'Faith in God' activity day yesterday. They were learning to surf. Our branch president would have Josh in the water helping him get started out on the wave for a few turns, then he would give the other valiant (Lizzie) a turn. They both really loved it. It was also Lizzies birthday, so there was a cake and a bit of a birthday celebration afterwards. Joshua has really enjoyed getting out into the water this summer, mostly on his bodyboard, as he only got given a proper surf board towards the end of the summer holidays... He is giving it a go, though and is very keen and determined. I'm sure in a few more summers he will be a lot better than where he is now. He's also learning the power of patience and determination.

Here is one of the clips I managed to shoot of Josh, not one of his better attempts but I always managed to miss those.

The other kids played on the beach, Joseph  was playing some kind of army game, and was very intriguing to watch his little antics.
Ella-Rose as usual was loving it at the beach... She is a little water-beach baby.

 Anna-Maria found a little stick and started writing the alphabet in the sand... the kids learn everywhere and are so self directed... I love it.

Mess-maker number 4

I caught Ella-Rose, doing this. Aaaaaahhhhhh!
What a little monkey!! And she wouldn't smile for the camera either.

She can also be a pretty messy eater.... mmmm porridge for breakfast. But oh so cute.

Ella-Rose's 1st Birthday

Happy first birthday Ella-Rose. Wow. It seems only yesterday that I was pregnant with you and so eager for you to be born. What a blessing it was when you were placed in my arms. You are a beautiful little blossom, getting so cheeky with your cutie little teeth.
Mummy and Daddy love you so much.

We had a combined birthday party for Ella-Rose and Mathias as they both turned 1 within a week of each other. We had a BBQ at the beach. There was a pinata, the kids enjoyed collecting all the lollies.
Ella-Rose kept crawling into the sea and would get bowled over, but would just keep on going.

We like these beaches better than the ones in Rarotonga... except there is no reef to snorkel.

When it was her actual birthday, she had another cake. Lucky girl!

 Eating her yummy cake.

Ella-Rose got a swing for her birthday... You can see she loves it a lot.

Anna-Maria ballerina!

Anna-Maria had her 1st dance concert this weekend. She was sooooooooooo excited all day long waiting for the evening to come. She tidied her bedroom, and the boys bedroom, sorted all the books on the bookshelf so that everything would be tidy and we could all go to the show. In the afternoon we went shopping and bought some hair mousse and detangling spray so we could make her hair all pretty.
She had her hair half-up/half-down and she wore and pink leotard sewn into a dress with her expensive ballet shoes. It was covered in sparkles which she loved. She got to wear 2 little flowers in her hair.
At the theatre we had to go down the lift into the dressing rooms in the basement. There were 22 little girls performing. They were all so cute.
They went up onto the stage and had a practice, then back downstairs to wait and do some stretches with the bigger girls.
Anna-Maria was at the front right in front of where Tane and the other kids were sitting (on the 2nd row).
They did a dance to the music from Aladdin "A whole new world'. They started off lying on the floor and then gracefully sitting up and moving their arms, then standing up and doing demi-plies and points and twirls.
She was a star, and everyone in the family were so proud of her.

The second day she performed again, this time she did even better - I think because she knew what would happen when the curtains came up. At the end of the performance her teacher and the principal of the dance school gave all the girls a trophy each. Anna-Maria loves it and couldn't wait to come home and show it to the boys and daddy.

Anna-Maria is such a cutie, the other day she declared "I am the boss of my bedroom" (which she shares with Ella-Rose) "... and she (meaning Ella-Rose) is just the kid"

Ella-Rose took her first steps!!

On friday night we watched a 'Herbie' movie. Tane picked the DVD up cheap at a garage sale and the boys really enjoyed it. They love that crazy slapstick humour and were cracking up all the time.

We watch our DVDs on the laptop and Ella-Rose's favourite past-time is to crawl over to the laptop and bang on the keys while we are watching a movie. Then usually Anna-Maria grabs her and takes her to the back of the lounge. She then crawls back towards the laptop and continues to bash the keys.

When she was standing at the laptop, she turned around and tried to take a few steps forward... and then bump back down on her bottom. Of course we tried to get her to do it again but she just kept sitting down. I don't think she even realised what she had done. And she has not done it since of course.

Saturday morning we went to some garage sales. We got a christmas tree... Tane asked me why I wanted one... I just rolled my eyes... His family was not very big with traditions like birthdays and christmas or at least he can't remember... not like my childhood memories. . They were full of memories of our family traditions.

Joseph bought a light saber with his pocket money and Josh bought a wooden out-rigger canoe, complete with a sail. Joseph had bought a wooden ship last week so it looks like they are getting a collection. Anna-Maria got a Dora the Explorer game.

This evening Tane moved the lawn, while Anna-Maria and I mulched our plants in the garden. I think about 80% of the seedlings we planted are surviving.

Anna-Maria has been doing school visits... which is just spending half an hour in the afternoon at school to get familiar with the school. She has to do an assessment at the end of January so they can place her in a class and starts school early feb.

Today Ella-Rose has been especially grumpy... poor thing. I noticed tonight that she is cutting her first tooth.

Here is a vid of Ella-Rose taking a few steps.

Life in Australia

Beautiful weather, beautiful beaches... We are staying in a beautiful house... right across the road from the kids school.

Price-wise, things seem to cost the same as in NZ, except you get a nicer house for the same price, and if you are earning more, then comparatively things are cheaper... so are for us... and many other kiwis who come over.

One thing we have noticed over here is the standard of education is so much more advanced than NZ.
This has become startlingly obvious in just a few weeks at the difference in schoolwork that Josh was doing in NZ compared with here. Back in NZ he was doing 12 + 4 etc, but here the children in his class... which is a mixed class of children his age and a year younger are doing sums like 572+ 346. They also have done a lot more advanced work telling the time and using money... so Josh (and to a lesser extent Joseph), have a wee bit of catching up to do, but they'll get there soon.

Anna-Maria however will be off to a flying start... she has already got a lot of basic words and maths facts sorted out and she is so excited about starting school in the new year.

I am enjoying my job, but they keep changing my roster. Initially I was working 32 hours a week... but in december they have increased it to 44, and they seem to have rostered me to work every single weekend between October and December. I am going to try and talk them into rostering me sensibly. In the meantime, I have been looking into GP work for when my contract ends, and Tane has a few more weeks to wait for his practicing certificate... He is then going to apply for legal aid status and look for a job...

The kids are enjoying life here. Yesterday they found we have a large lizard living in our garden. I thought it was a snake, but Tane assured me it wasn't. Today straight after school we went to the beach. The kids loved it... Tane tried to teach Josh to surf... then Tane had a surf. Joseph and Anna-Maria played in the whitewash. All the kids dug a series of channels and holes in the sand, which Ella-Rose loved crawling into and sitting in. As we were sitting on the beach I said to Tane it feels like we are on holiday and yet we aren't. It's just the beach is so close we can be there in 5 mins after school is finished. We got home around 5.30pm and would have stayed longer except Ella-Rose's teeth were chattering and she was getting cold.

The girls and I went to Bunnings Warehouse today and bought a spade, compost, and plants (capsicums, red onions, hot chillis, cucumbers, coriander and tomatoes). So tommorrow we have to get out in the garden and finish preparing the vegie patch so we can plant them.