Tis Sunday night

Tis Sunday night and Joshua's choice for his school lunch box this week was ... cupcakes ... this time with lashings of icing and decorated by Joshua !!

A Eventful Sunday

We awoke this morning to hear the devastating news of an 8.8 magnitude earthquake that had struck central Chile. Our hearts truly go out to all those families who have been affected by this most shocking event.

Wellington, along with other coastal cities in New Zealand, had a full tsunami alert as a result so we checked in with Grandma and once the alert was lifted, we took Huddy and then went for a walk through the bush and up towards Mt Kaukau. We stopped along the way to have a swim at the local pool and also a play at some parks in an attempt to burn up more energy.

... time in the sun to reflect on just how good our lives are really.

More Mail for Joshua

Look what arrived in the mail today - a card from Uncle Apples & Aunty Margaret congratulating Joshua on his very first Triathlon. They also enclosed the local Kapiti Newspaper that featured an article on the Tri along with a photo - and guess who was in the running group in the feature photo ?

Happy Birthday Reuban

Reuban turns 7 today. The boys all played T-Ball together and then Josh was more than happy to head to the Stadium to have a "Birthday Sports Party" where they had a referee who put the girls and boys into teams to play Soccer, T-Ball, Touch-Rugby and then a few simple games of tag and hide-and-seek.

A birthday hug for Reuban

Josh fielding and throwing the ball

Great soccer cake for Reuban

One of the 2 sports teams

A barbeque with Nicholas

We went and joined Karen & Greg and their son Nicholas (and Teddy-dog) for a barbeque Saturday evening. Nicholas has just started at Wellington College and is another 'big' boy in Joshua's life that Josh truly looks up to (yes, you guessed it, Josh refers to him as "big boy Nicholas"). Nicholas has the world at his feet in more ways than one - sporty, charismatic (and humorously cheeky), sociable and a lovely unspoilt young man. Nicholas, whilst only 12, has the potential to take either his competitive swimming or rugby quite 'seriously' to another level and is also more than holding his weight academically - we are very happy that Josh looks up to Nicholas!

Welcome Home Daddy

Before going to bed tonight, Josh insisted that we organise a Welcome Home Daddy party - so Josh went about blowing up balloons and setting the table with .... err ... junk food ! When I gently commented that I thought we had enough lollies on the table, Josh answered "we need some more cos Daddy can be a piggy-wig!". Oh my goodness - not possibly the answer that Daddy would like to hear !!

Scooby-Doo LOVES yoooooou

Aunty Elizabeth, Uncle Stephen and cousins Alisdair and Fiona posted Joshua a Scooby-Doo Valentines Day card all the way from Canada - how thoughtful is that ? It truly made Josh feel very special and loved, albeit from afar.

The end of another week

Yay, it's Friday and a beautiful day ! Josh was very happy to abandon his school uniform and head to the beach. We joined up with Julie-Ann and Tom and Zac and the three boys and Huddy played in the water for a very long time. We ended up having fish and chips on the beach and watched the sun disappear over the hills ... bliss.

Ahoy thar lad - are yer thinkin about yer next adventuraaarrr?

A beautiful afternoon, 3 energetic little boys, a gorgeous dog and a ship in the distance ... life is simple

Belated Valentine's Wishes

Josh had a smile SO big when he arrived home from school and found a envelope addressed to him. He opened the envelope and found this Valentines Day letter from Georgia ...wow, Georgia, your writing is wonderful and the letter is gorgeous. Josh also misses Georgia very much and the distance between Wellington and Auckland feels like a million miles away at times.

Rugby Fever

Yes it is that time again ! Tonight we registered for the Rugby Season. All the Mustangs and Coach Kevin arrived at the Clubrooms to be weighed and signed in. Josh, albeit tall, is the third-to-lightest Mustang and weighed in at 22.4 kilos.

Some of our Hurricane's players were there so did a few ball drills with the boys and autographed their rugby balls - that's it with NZ, we are such a small, friendly and relaxed country that we get the chance to mix with so many of our 'key' people ... you can personally meet many of our national sports players and you can find yourself at a cafe table alongside the prime minister ... it just happens that way.

Mummy has to confess she is a little worried about this impending rugby season. The first half of the season is 'ripper' rugby using the ripper tags which the boys have played for the past 1-2 seasons; in the second half we move to tackle (yes I said TACKLE), non-competing scrums and line-outs, kick-outs etc.

As Coach Kevin said in his newsletter ... "this is a big year so get ready to swallow that lump in your throat when your little Mustang goes in for their first tackle and hold back that tear when the first scrum is packed down". Gulp .... oh dear !

Josh weighing in at 22.4kilos

Swimming

Whilst we have cut back on some of our after-school sports activities, swimming is not up for negotiation - it is so important to be able to swim and New Zealand has sadly one of the highest drowning rates per capita.

Joshua's backstroke just keeps getting stronger and stronger. However, we are still mastering the breathing technique with freestyle, but we certainly have the arm strokes and foot kick in control. We just pray and hope that the breathing 'clicks' soon !

Having a kick-around with Malcolm

Mummy couldn't help but notice that 99% of the boys in Joshua's class at school all play soccer and at lunch-time that is what they want to do. For some reason, Josh doesn't have the confidence to join in - I think he seems himself more as a rugby player. Tonight Malcolm & Jill came over for dinner so Malcolm (a very keen and skilled ex soccer player and coach) took him down to the park to do a few 'drills'. Malcolm thought that Josh wasn't bad at all ! Hopefully in time Josh may feel a little more comfortable and join in with the boys at school.

EOTC Week

In other words ... Education Outside the Classroom. Wow, what a week - I don't remembder school being this much fun !

Monday - off on the bus to the Island Bay Marine Centre
Tuesday - Te Papa to see the Pompeii Exhibition
Wednesday - breakfast with parents on the school campus and then setting up pup tents to have lessons on the lawn (!) and then the Phoenix team arrive to entertain the boys with a few drills
Thursday - an orienteering event with their 'sister' school Queen Margaret, in the city

Mummy was parent help on the trip to the Marine Centre so managed to capture a few photos. The boys spent time inside the Marine Centre and were able to pick up and handle the sea creatures and then went outside to collect 'things' in the rock pools. The teachers wore 'crazy-fish' hats which amused everyone (even Mummy had to wear a rainbow striped and spotted hat - and no, there are no photos of me)! Scots are super organised, the day went very smoothly and the boys loved it !

Be warned Daddy !

Josh climbed into my bed this morning at 6am and within 5 minutes said "I miss Daddy" and then in the next breath told me that he was going to make Daddy his favourite breakfast when he comes home. Be warned Daddy ... you know the ingredients - flour, sugar, salt, eggs and jaffas (quantity of each determined by Josh at the time!) - all whipped up together and in the microwave for 2 minutes and voila - yummo breakfast is served!

Josh ... and Huddy .... simply that

A weekend would simply not be complete without having time with Hudson at the beach. It is so easy ... the track to the beach is within a minute from our house so we go there often - sometimes with a picnic ... sometimes with our swim gear ... sometimes not - you just never know when you feel like jumping in the water - clothes and all ! That is the true delight of children - they just enjoy themselves.

"Life shouldn't be about waiting for the storm to pass ... it's learning how to dance in the puddles".

I dare you all to go jump in the sea - with your clothes on - Josh and I did!

Sunday night ... getting ready for the school week

Josh helped me bake tonight. Every Sunday night he gets to choose what we bake for his lunchbox that week. We have had a run on cupcakes of late, so Mummy was rather relieved to hear that we were making chocolate chip cookies - Josh is particularly good (or interested in !) using the electric beater (and yes we do have the odd 'flying piece of dough') and pressing the cookies down with a fork. But hey presto, look at the result ... but let's not mention how long it takes for Mummy to clean up the mess afterwards.

Time with Friends

Do other parents ever wonder where their social lives went ? I can answer that ... our time is spent ensuring that our child(ren) have wonderful social lives with THEIR friends - Joshua's social calendar is way more full than ours !

This weekend - in addition to our team sport commitments - we managed a bike and scooter-ride up at the velodrome with Tom and Zac; a play date with Tomo at his house; a play at the park; a play date with Spencer (Josh's "new" friend from school) and swimming and playing at Ben & Alex's house.

And I hear you asking .... was Joshua tired after all that ? Hmmm, NO ! Mental note to oneself ... Mummy needs to overdose on whatever energy 'drugs' Josh is on !

A few photos to capture some of the fun ...