Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone. Today was one of the best Easter's we have ever had. Last night, Tane and I stayed up late and made resurrection eggs. We got little plastic eggs, and placed scorched almonds in them. There were about 20 of them, but in 12 there were pictures of items that represented part of the Easter story.

Resurrection eggs Courtesy of Scrapping Suzie QTT

Tane got up early and hid them in various locations around the garden, along with one larger egg for each child and a few marshmallow eggs.

The kids were up at 6.30 am and came running into our rooms pretty disappointed that there was no Easter eggs on their beds. We suggested  maybe they were in the garden as maybe the Easter bunny was too busy to come inside. The kids went outside and just kind of stood there for a while... there were no Easter eggs in sight.

All of a sudden Anna-Maria bolted to an upside down bucket and flipped it over. Sure enough, underneath were 2 little plastic eggs... And the game was now on... all of a sudden 4 children sprung into action, running all over the front lawn trying to locate more eggs.

Anna-Maria looked in the mail-box and to her surprise there was the first large egg. She was so excited, but the others became discouraged. We suggested that maybe there was more than just one large egg... so they carried on looking, finding the other large eggs in the bushes, the pumpkin patch and the woodpile.

 Ella was fascinated. Even when the bigger kids had enough of searching, she went back outside with a mouth full of chocolate in search for more eggs.

When the kids had gathered up their stash, they proceeded to divvy it up and opened all the plastic eggs to reveal the scorched almonds and the little pictures. As each picture was numbered and had a scripture reference, we could share the Easter story with the children as they ate their Easter eggs.

After dinner... a yummy cold roast chicken and salad, we sat down together and watched 'To This End   was I Born'. Anna-Maria showed a rowing understanding of the gospel as we discussed the movie. She said it made her sad that Jesus died. But then she said, but if he didn't then we would not live again after we have died. Such simple truths from her little mouth.

Celebrating Easter... the Resurrection of our Saviour was really Special!

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.

Holiday in Paradise

We had the most amazing time in Rarotonga... We were just getting into holiday mode and then it was time to come back home.

The kids were really excited to be going on the plane and enjoyed carting their own suitcases onto the plane. We touched down in Raro at about midnight.

Aunty Hoana & Kiana were there to greet us with a lei each.

We drove home in their truck... the kids sitting in the open on the back which they enjoyed. Then they had a drink out of a coconut... and off to bed.

At first Terani and Alia were shy of us... but it was so good to stay with them as they got very familiar with us. We went to the beach most days and went snorkelling, swimming and kayaking.

Ella enjoyed eating the sand

 Joshua found a hernit crab. The beaches were full of baby ones but this was the largest one we could finde

We went to a place called Fruits of Raro where we could feed the fish and they came right up around our feet.

 Anna-Maria with her cousins Terani and Alia

Snorkelling on the reef was lots of fun... There were so many fish and coral and starfish to see. Tane were right out to the edge of the reef and he even saw a turtle. Joshua really enjoyed snorkelling.

 Races on the beach

 Anna-Maria and Terani both 4

Terani had her 4th birthday while we were gone and we were able to celebrate her birthday with her.

On our last day our friends took us to a place called 'Black Rock'. It is on the movie 'The Other Side of Heaven' - the place where a baptism takes place. Tane and I wanted to go snorkelling together... which we did and really enjoyed as our friends looked after our kids. We saw lots of different fish and clams, kina... We got right up to the whitewash on the edge of the reef... it was high tide so the water were pretty rough so we turned around and headed back. Ella had woken up though while we were gone and was crying when we got back.

The kids had a really fun time jumping off Black Rock into the water. As it was high tide when a surge of water would come in it would push everyone through the channel between the rock and the shore... the kids had such a fun time. The only problem was... the holiday seemed too short as it was time to leave before we knew it.