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.