Playdates

A busy social life for Josh after school this week - playdates with Fionn and Freddie and of course variety sports with Ryan. Joshua has way more playdates than Mummy & Daddy at the moment !

The end of the Season

We had our last game of rugby today, followed by prize giving and then Coach Kevin put on a Mustangs muster party - phew, a full day of rugby !! The Mustangs had a great season - we played 17 games, won 10, drew 4 and lost 3 - not bad !! Just watch this space for next year - for the first half, we play touch and then tackle - oh dear !!

"Joshua's best game in 2009 was against the Johnsonville Force on Saturday 18 April. He had the perfect all-round game, topping the rip count at 5 and caping it off with 3 tries and always following the ball carrier"

My Mummy & Me

Well .... I have had a few comments like ... "where is Cherry, where is Mummy". As I am normally the one 'behind' the camera, Daddy insisted that he photograph us today posing but with our eyes closed - who looks the silliest ???

School lunch-box baking

Yes, it's that time again when Josh and I 'hit' the kitchen. It was slightly more civilised this time as Josh only got involved in the icing and M&M toppings!

Josh's favourite cookie is ... the traffic light cookie. A few weeks ago he asked me if I would make them again as we hadn't had them for a little while. When I asked him why he liked them so much his reply was (for real!) .... "because no-one else has them and it makes me feel special"

Well ... I melted ... and suffice to say I will now make traffic light cookies for evermore !!

Soul-mates

This afternoon we all went around to Soul's house on the beachfront. We had a lovely walk along the beach .... we played tennis (mind you I think they had more fun hitting the ball over the fence into the neighbour's house and climbing over to retrieve it) and then went home to have Mexican tacos with all the extras. Fem & Bart were amazing to watch in the kitchen - they should seriously open up their own cafe ! We were very spoilt and 'waddled' home feeling very full and happy. Josh and Soul are establishing a special little friendship as well.

More Mountain Biking

Peter was running another 2-hour mountain biking class this morning so there was no stopping Josh. It was wonderful to see his little surge of confidence when he arrived and recognised a lot of the equipment and structures from last time. There were only 4 in the class so the attention each child got was incredible. Peter was very complimentary about Josh who helped Peter set up and dismantle at the end of the morning - but also loved putting together his own obstacle course (there goes that builder/engineer/architecture 'thing' again!). Peter said he couldn't "believe the progress that Josh is making and how he always manages to stay in the centre of the obstacle tracks"

Another campfire ...

A beautiful day .... and a perfect evening to walk over to the beach laden with all we needed for another barbeque/campfire but this time sharing the magic with Sarah & Andy, Georgia & Loulou. We spent a few hours rock climbing, building the campfire, cooking sausages, visiting the caves, games on the beach, toasting the yummy marshmellows - and trying to avoid the smoke in our eyes from the campfire !

And Huddy-4-legs swam ... and swam ... and swam; munched on sticks; begged and drooled over everyone's sausages - nothing new here !

And then a walk home in the dark along the beach with the children having heaps of fun with their torches.

Josh & Georgia buried themselves in a jigsaw puzzle and then had lollipops in a bubble bath. Mummy has not seen so much shingle and so many bubbles on the bathroom floor before - eeek !! But it was all worth it !!

PS We are soooooooo going to miss Sarah and her family when they move back to Auckland at the end of this year ... but we have been so lucky to have had them here for the past 2 years and know we are going to be forever friends and keep in touch.

Saturday morning with Tomo

No rugby today - the Mustangs had a bye However, no time for disappointment because we were off to Tomo's for a play date instead and that was even more exciting ! We always have lots of simple fun with Tom and his sisters and today was no exception - it was a glorious day so they started off with a water fight and then everyone got so wet they all had to change into their swimsuits. Then, dripping wet, they went on the trampoline and soaked that with water and used it as a water slide to run and slip and slide on. Lots of energy, lots of laughter and lots of water !

Yeeha, it's Friday

Yahoo, it's Friday ... time to walk out of school, up the path to home and put the school bag away for 2 days - no homework, no study ... just fun time ... here we come !!

Off to the park we go ... ho ho

Gorgeous afternoon, clear blue skies, sunshine and not a breath of wind ... so we all decided to pack up a picnic afternoon tea and head to the park. We had a glorious time - Josh and his 4 little buddies, Georgia & LouLou, Yusei and Fionn. It is a great park because it is as gentle or as challenging as you want to make it. They all ran .... and ran ... and ran ... for nearly 2 hours.

And Mr Hudson, of course, joined in all the fun and entertained everyone by doing his usual show - taking himself for a walk by holding his own lead in his mouth and then doing the 4-step frolic and bucking when it was time to go home ! And who said we only have one child !!

They are getting closer...

As much as Josh can be very 'casual' about Huddy, we are also starting to see a close bond developing as well. We all know that Huddy has always simply adored Josh and will follow him anywhere and just wants to be with him - Josh on the other hand can be quite casual about Huddy UNTIL one of his friends shows interest and then Josh is very quick to claim 'his' dog.

However, we are now starting to see a very genuine bond between these 2 blondies and quite often we hear Josh having a wee chat to Huddy.

As a friend once said ... animals have a lovely way of stealing one's hearts and minds - and Huddy has already done that with Mummy and Daddy and he is now patiently working on Josh !

So Huddy, tell me ... how was your day ?

Playing hide and seek with Huddy - where is Josh ?

Those cents sure do add up !

Yes, it is confirmed !!! We are off to the UK to see Grandma & Grandad and Uncle Mark & Auntie Juliet, cousins Olivia & Jack - and we are also making a Turkey sandwich of the trip by spending a little time in Turkey in the middle of it all. We have been busy looking at the world globe and pointing out to Josh where both England & Turkey are - wow, what a long way away it is !! Mummy is already having visions (mmm, maybe nightmares) of the long flight(s) !!


Suffice to say we are counting down the weeks and have set up a wee savings program for Joshua. In return for doing 5 x learning-related activities each day, he gets paid 0.50cents and if he does all 5, then we double his money. As you will see from the photo below, he is 'right into it' (little capitalist!). However, he has tried to 'negotiate' and you will also see that he has changed the 0.50c to read 100c - good try Josh-Malosh!

Mud ... glorious Mud

As if the mud from Rugby was not enough yesterday, we decided to pack everyone up this morning and head off to the Mt Vic Lookout with our bikes. A few weeks ago the Council set up a mountain biking training circuit - and whilst relatively confined it is VERY tricky. After that, we then headed off on one of the many tracks through the bush. We can now understand why the World Mountain Bike Championships were held at Mt Vic a few years back - some the tracks are truly amazing, it was fantastic! And yes, Hudson came along as well - he has permanent 4-wheel drive, so managed the slippery slopes very well!

We then packed Daddy off to play rugby and wallow in the mud a bit more and we came home to literally hose the car, the bikes, Joshua and Hudson (and no, I am not joking - well Joshua and Mummy had hot showers but the car, the bikes and Huddy did get the hose job - albeit Huddy was lathered in baby shampoo as well and had a bowl of warm vegetable soup with rice afterwards !).