Looks more like dancing?

Mummy is confused - it is karate tonight or dancing ? A photo can tell a different story !

Sleepover with Charlie : 27/6/09

Well this was a biggie .... Josh has slept over twice with Malcolm & Jill and loved it .... but never with another child. Charlie however is 12 years old! Josh adores Charlie and has always gravitated towards the older children like Enzo - maybe because he feels so safe with them and of course they spoil him! We are all very fond of Charlie, he is such a sensible, kind and caring boy and if I could advance the years by 6, I would feel very proud if Josh was like Charlie. Well, you wouldn't believe what Josh wanted to pack in his bag, anyone would think he was going for a month !

We met Donna & Charlie in town for an early supper and then Josh went home with them. Well, he had a ball - they stayed up until late, played Monopoly, played computer games, hide & seek, read stories to one another, had hot cakes & milo for breakfast and just had such a special time 'hanging out' with one another. Josh even made his own bed (now that's a first - Mummy thinks we will now try that at home!). Mummy & Daddy enjoyed a late night in town and a wee sleep-in the following morning - oh bliss ! However, we did miss Josh .... very much.

Sol turns 6 - happy birthday Sol

Sol's birthday party was held at Junglerma - phew what a busy afternoon there, it was hard to keep track of our group! However, they all had a huge runaround and lots of fun. Mumm even went on the bouncy slide! All the kiddies got a watch in their goodie bags - Josh couldn't believe it, now he just needs to learn to tell the time !!

Mud ... glorious Mud

Yes, boys will be boys !

Yes, we dusted off our hoofs and the Mustangs went back into the mud this morning - I heard one coach of an 8-year old team tell them all to 'drop and roll' - I kid you not, they all had to lay down in the mud and have a roll BEFORE the game! One kiddie wasn't keen and the coach literally picked him up and laid him down in the mud! Oh dear, is that what we have to look forward to ?!?!?

Boggy underfoot, but otherwise another perfect day for 'footy' without a breath of wind but rather crisp ! And the after-match report ....

For the second week in a row, the Mustangs passed really well, and always looked for the pass. Almost always, there was a Mustang on their tail, and it made for a great game to watch. Three times they caused a turnover by ripping six times, and the opposition didn’t do that once. With the outstanding ripping display, and the great passing, it was one of the most exciting games to watch the Mustangs have played.

Joshua Turnbull played his usual game. Today he focused on defence – the game needed that as the opposition had some pretty fast runners. Anyway, Joshua rose to the challenge and ripped no less than 7 rips today. Awesome Joshua.

Dig it in Josh - and run !

Josh hugging a .... tree - no it's a Tui Beer goal post padding!

Memories ... laughs

Every night before we go to bed, Daddy and I tell each other all the funny and cute things that Josh did during the day and sometimes we just laugh and laugh. He can be so much work and keep us so busy, but he is so worth it...and it helps that he is so jolly cute too (well we think so anyway)! We always talk about how we can't imagine life without him...actually, we can't even REMEMBER what it was like before Josh! (what did we do with our time???)

Happy Birthday Mrs Whitehead

Joshie's teacher turns 30 tomorrow- oh to be that young again ! So this morning Josh put together a home-made card for Mrs Whitehead and we wrapped up a gorgeous wee soap and a photo frame. Happy Birthday dear Mrs Whitehead - only 7 more sleeps and we lose you to Australia, that will be one very sad day indeed ...

Now is not the time to tell you that Josh was talking about your red hair last night - he said that it was orange, not red, and that if you put a light bulb on top of your orange hair, you could be a strobe light at a party. Mmm, not quite the image you perhaps see yourself in !!!

Roll On ... End of Term

Sadly the "wheels fell off the bus" today - well Josh's bus anyway. We had tears at school at pick-up time; we had tears at home - quite simply nothing could go right for the poor wee man. Roll on end of term - only one more week to go. So we had a quiet time after school and spent about an hour in a warm bath playing with his cars and lego helicopter which he was determined to test to see whether it could float! A yummy warm dinner, a glass of milk and .... lights out, goodnight Kiwi.

Josh Bikes to School

Josh loves biking to school and we have decided to start doing it more often - it only takes about 5 minutes - or at Joshua's speed about 3 minutes! Josh feels like one of the 'big' boys when he parks his bike alongside all the others.

After school Mummy biked down to meet Josh and together with another wee friend Curtis, we all went for a long bike ride along the beach, down to the jetty to check out who was fishing and back to the park for a play. The day was still gorgeous with blue skies but crisp and cool and the light on the hills was quite stunning - we do live in such a lovely part of the world!

Teacher/Parent/Child Conference

6pm Mummy Daddy & Josh all headed down to school to meet and chat with Josh's teacher to discuss how Josh is doing with his learning and how best we can all help him in making further progress. Mrs Whitehead started the meeting off by telling Josh he looked very spunky in his good trousers and shirt - good start! Josh told her that he was wearing his 'party' shirt !

Josh was so proud to sit down and take charge and show Mummy & Daddy all his books and his work. Mummy felt quite a pang of pride when she saw his handwriting book which was very neat and tidy with good spacing and well-sized letters. Mrs Whitehead said she was very happy with the progress Josh is making, especially with his reading and writing. At the beginning of this term Josh was reading at level 8, and he is now on level 13.

Mrs Whitehead observed that Josh is a 'young' 6 year old but that he is maturing nicely and is coping better with the rough & tumble play that some of the boys are inclined to do. He is working on some little friendships and is a caring and popular member of the class. He still struggles a little with others coming into his personal space but is trying very hard to deal with this.

Our goal is to work on Joshua's spelling and Mrs Whitehead gave us some really positive ideas on how we can turn the learning into fun activities and the spelling becomes more of a by-product of the fun.

Here is a wee peek at some of the artistic work that Josh has been working on in the past term ....

A caterpillar on a leaf

Josh's famous picture of his undies !

My Daddy & Me - whoa, love your orange duds Daddy!

Studying the old & new - Joshua's 'new' remote control

Studying the letter E - Daddy & Josh made a lump of chEEse out of some wood, drilled holes in it (that was the fun part) and painted it yEllow

The letter S - Mummy & Josh worked on how many S words there were in space

Day off School Mid-Week

A day off school for Parent/Teacher/Child conference - and on a Tuesday ! Josh thought this was great, and as our meeting at the school was not until 6pm we decided to make the most of the day .... we went into town to see the Formula 1 display at TePapa only to find we were a week too early! Never mind, we then ran (yes I mean 'ran') from there along the waterfront to Ferg's Kayaks & Rock Climbing. We joined up with Fionn and a few other class mates and spent the next 2 hours rock climbing. Josh has always excelled in rock climbing but this time surprised us even further by climbing up a free-hanging rope in the middle of the room - he crawled up it just like a monkey and then waved from the top !
On from there to have a play at the park, home to drop off Fionn & Tom and then back to Variety Sports for an hour.













I know the question you are all asking .... was Josh tired after all this ? NO !

Speech & Language Tuition

Well, thanks to Sara, we have got the letter 'L' nailed - now we are onto the letter 'R'. Being able to correctly sound out and pronounce words will help Josh considerably with his reading and writing. And, of course, we are forever working on Josh's eye contact - this picture shows brilliant eyes!! Thanks Sara for your kindness and patience with Josh, he trusts you and truly enjoys his time with you - and he learns !

Karate Kick

Josh loves action and movement - consequently he came alive when they started doing Karate kicks at practise tonight. Here we have 2 photos - one before delivering the kick receiving instruction, and the second one shows Josh actually kicking - the photo is blurred because I swear he attacked the punching bag so fast! Mummy thinks we need to work on less speed and more technique - no doubt that will come in time !

Time for more exercise

Forget the southerlie, forget the cold - let's go biking and swimming ! Yes, call us crazy but we all love our exericse on the weekends.





And you ask why ... mainly because we have so much fun together but also because this is what we hope for at the end of the day .... a tired but happy little boy ... sleep tight zzzzz

Gorgeous LouLou turns 3

Well Mummy Sarah did it again - another stunning birthday party, this time for Olivia (or Loulou as we call her) who turned 3 today. Mummy Sarah was very clever and invited some older children for Loulous's older sister, Georgia. So we had a real mix of ages from 1 years old up to 7 years old - and plenty of them! Loulou had a 'pink ballerina' birthday party and although Josh did not wear leotards or a tutu, he certainly joined into all the dances and party games - dance freeze, the limbo, pin the tutu on the ballerina, split open the pinata etc! We had a lovely time.

Happy birthday sweet Loulou - you re such a gorgeous little girl, full of energy and mischief, always happy, very bright and knowing - and a real little bundle of joy - and

you give the best cuddles !

Dr Hudson is slowly recovering

Dr Hudson is so VERY happy to be home and it is amazing to see what love can do. Hudson is having oodles of cuddles, hot water bottle massages, weetbix and warm milk for breakie and then a warm vege & rice casserole for dinner; not to forget the whispers of love in his ear - over and over again.

We all know the journey back to full health is going to be a long one, but we are starting to feel a little more positive, mainly because Huddy is looking so much happier.

Huddy with rasied leg to reduce the oedema - and who says he wasn't listening to the vet when he said to keep the weight off the leg - no wonder Huddy now has a doctorate !