Building Forts

Joshua has ALWAYS loved building forts and hideaways and still delights in re-arranging the lounge furniture along with extra pillows and blankets from downstairs. Saturday morning arrived so he decided that he would build a tent/hut for Huddy. Hudson was such an obliging 'customer' and did what he was told and actually seemed to be very contented inside his hideaway!

A Musical Pair

Help with Piano homework has been allocated to Daddy (as he is way more musical than Mummy!!). Josh has now had about 4 x piano lessons with Miss Lola at school every Thursday and seems to love it. Just quietly ... he also has a lovely little singing voice and can truly hold a tune.

Look what the Postie gave us

A card arrived in the mail today addressed to Josh ... thank you so much Sylvia. Josh got a real buzz to receive your card of congratulations for being 'Student of the Term'. It is great that Josh is getting to truly enjoy the glory of the award. As his parents, it also feels warm to have others acknowledge and care about his achievements as, afterall, there are so many people in our lives who have made an impact on Josh and who contribute to his ongoing development.

Tumbling Towers

Malcolm and Jill came for 'Easter Dinner' this evening. They also got sent on a treasure hunt around Seatoun but this time Joshua read out the clues (and I must admit did help them at times because he was so excited!). And then after dinner we got out Sara's birthday present to Josh ... the game of 'Tumbling Towers' which is an oldie but a goodie. It was a lot of fun and Joshua laughed and giggled so much, he loved the game. It was a tricky game that required patience, good fine motor skills and some luck - there were many shrieks as the tower collapsed at times and many gasps of breath when the moves became more difficult.

I have a feeling that we are going to be playing Tumbling Towers quite a lot!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone - this is the adorable Easter Bunny holding a chocolate egg and card from Joshua which he gave to Grandma

The Easter Bunny and Mummy were very busy this morning working in cahoots and setting up 20 different clues all over Seatoun. Daddy and Joshua (and Huddy) were then summoned to start their annual Easter Egg Hunt. Same rules ... stick together and work the clues out together, be fair, and share! We started off with a few clues around the house, then we ventured out into the immediate neighbourhood, down to the park, through Seatoun to Grandma's and then home again with clues and Easter eggs all along the way. The boys got quite a haul !

Happy Birthday Georgia

Tomorrow is Georgia's birthday and she turns 8. We remember, so fondly, the year and a half that she and Josh were in the same class at Seatoun School. They were such great buddies and a week didn't go past when they had at least one or two play-dates. Although Georgia now lives in Auckland, we still talk about her and Josh misses her very much. Now that Josh is at an "all-boys" school and doesn't have any sisters, having playdates with girls is not that easy. We had fun writing out a birthday card and parcelling up some goodies for the birthday girl. Happy Birthday sweet Georgia.

Waiting in line at the Post Office to post Georgia's parcel

Enzo is growing up ... and FAST

Tonight Enzo came over with his Mum and also Jo, his girlfriend! We felt very privileged that Enzo wanted us to meet Jo (who is such a delightful and lovely girl). I was a little worried about how Joshua would feel about 'sharing' Enzo as those 2 boys share such a strong bond and Josh truly believes that Enzo, in some ways, 'belongs' to him - however, my concerns were short-lived as Jo had already been told by Enzo on the way over about how special Joshua is to him and how he thinks of him as his 'little brother'. Jo was very natural and engaging with Josh who warmed to her very quickly. After dinner, the 3 of them had a very entertaining game of Monopoly and Josh seems to be following in Enzo's footsteps with his passion to win the game and become a property tycoon!

Mustangs vs Slammers

We recently had a practise run against the Slammers but today we had our first 'official' game against them. Fortunately the Mustangs started to find their mojo again with some of their play in the last 10 minutes of the match looking like real rugby. The conditions were a challenge however ... wet and drizzly ... and the ball was so slippery at times. The weather sharply reminded the parents and supporters of what we all have in store in the months ahead - oh dear! The score today was a draw - 4 tries each side.

After-match report said "Joshua was tidy at half-back in the second half and also 'copped' it a few times from the Slammers coming through the lineouts. However he never failed to secure the ball and moved it on. He was always in place in set and broken play"

All I can add is ... let's hope for a warmer, sunnier and cleaner game next week!

Despite the black mouthguard, Maia and Bailey add a touch of glamour to the Mustangs' team

A rather wet and muddy 'muster' of Mustangs at the end of the game, but at least they are still smiling!

A very ... very ... very proud moment

At the end of each term, all the Preparatory School assembles in the Quad and Mr Cassie gives out various awards. The most sought-after award is 'Student of the Term' for each class. Today Joshua was named as Student of the Term for Year 3. Joshua very, very proudly walked up in front of all the boys to receive his Certificate (and free movie pass). Mr Cassie shook his hand, and made him feel very important. As for me ... it was one of those moments where I sincerely didn't think my heart could beat any faster and I truly had to swallow deeply as the emotion welled up.

Joshua .. what can we say. We are just so incredibly proud of you and we also recognise that this award has been so well earned this past term.

Snorkeling

Today we had our last swimming lesson for the term and for a bit of fun, everyone spent 10 minutes swimming with a snorkel. We were amazed at the speed Joshua could swim with a snorkel - he has a great kick and fluid arm movements but what is slowing him down is his breathing - he spends a long time with his head out of the water 'gasping' for breath. Today, with the aid of the snorkel and therefore not having to come up for breath, you showed us what a fast swimmer you will be once you master your breathing!

Another goodbye ...

Today was Spencer's last day at School and the class hosted a farewell lunch for him. Spencer and his family are off to live in Auckland and he will be starting at Kings next term. Spencer was Joshua's first 'real' friend/buddy at Scots and the boys have had many play dates over the last year. We will miss you Spence!


We had a lot of fun - and it took a lot of time - putting the letter "S" on Spencer's farewell cookies

Joshua's get-well picture

This evening, this is what I found under my pillow ... thank you darling Joshua, I am feeling a lot better xx

Two very special people in our lives

Recently Mummy had to go into hospital for a minor operation. I honestly don't know how we would have coped without Malcolm & Jill who very quietly but so smoothly stepped into our lives and filled every gap. Whilst my stay in hospital was short I was unable to drive for nearly 2 weeks, so Malcolm & Jill picked up Joshua every day from school, transported him to all his sporting fixtures, did his homework with him, got his dinner ready, put him to bed and took him down to the park on many occasions to play cricket - and, put simply, just made sure that Joshua's routine stayed the same. Malcolm and Jill, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We truly do think of you as being part of our family and we know that you are both very much on Joshua's radar in that he knows how special you are and he so wants to share things with you. We always miss you when you go back to the UK but this time even more so because we have seen so much more of you this visit.

One of the many bouquets of flowers (these beautiful ones are from Grandma & Grandad in the UK) ... Mummy felt very cherished and cared for with all the flowers, cards and meals she received. Thank you so much everyone.

Sadly after many games of cricket, the cricket bat gasped its last breath!

Joshua's thank you card to Malcolm & Jill with some home-made Anzac cookies in the green bucket

Mustangs vs Miramar Flyers

Josh tackles the opposition to the ground

And who says that girls can't tackle - go Bailey!

Well the Miramar Flyers lived up to their name today - they 'flew' all over the Mustangs, they had some very fast runners and gave us a hiding - 12 tries to 2.

After-match report said "Joshua had a big game but was in the wars a bit today, getting banged around a bit. He had some good runs with the ball and scooped up the ball and took it forward and also pulled off a try-saving tackle (again!)".

Happy 8th Birthday Joshua

Our beautiful 8 year old boy

I know I have said it before, but I will say it again .... 8 years ago now a most wonderful precious little boy was born and came into our lives and completely changed us forever ... we will always cherish that day and our lives ever since. Just when we feel we could not possibly love you any more, you turn another year older and somehow our hearts just keep growing as well.

Even though Joshua's birthday fell on a Friday this year and it was a school day, we decided it was going to be a day of celebration from the beginning to the very end - and that is exactly what we had!

The morning started with phone calls from friends and family and then opening some presents in bed. Joshua went to school laden with home-made cupcakes for his class and a packet of chocolate goodies for all his classmates. When we walked into the classroom, all the boys surprised him by leaping out from under their desks to break into a chorus singing 'happy birthday' - what a fabulous start! And there sitting on his desk was a birthday certificate from Mrs Bell and all the boys. Joshua was made to feel very special all day.

And then we had his Pool Party that evening - the children were all so excited to have the pool entirely to themselves and have the opportunity to swim in the dark in a floodlit pool! According to Mrs Bell, they had talked about it all week. The weather 'gods' looked after us and gave us a relatively mild night which we needed because it was an outdoor pool! We made it a fun family affair and so invited Joshua's friends and also their brothers and sisters and ended up with 34 children all in the pool plus about the same number of adults. We had cranked the water temperature up to 27 degrees and Albie the inflatable Alligator took up about a third of the pool. Some of the Dads couldn't resist the chance to jump on the inflatable and so jumped in as well. The children dived from the pool into the hot spa pool and then back into the pool. Many of the boys bought their water guns (no surprises there ... and so we had weapon warfare en masse!). Daddy dressed up in an Alligator's costume and entertained some of the children, in particular the little girls who loved pulling his tail!

After they had enough of swimming, we then served cups of hot chocolate and marshmallows to warm them up whilst were waiting for the barbeques to fire up. A few sausages in their tummies, a lolly scramble and then birthday cake and goodie bags finished off the night. It was a lovely sound listening to 34 little voices singing happy birthday in the still night air as Joshua blew out 8 candles.
We came home and laid on the bed with Joshua, turned the lights out and all three of us just chatted about the party - it was a fantastic night!
The following pictures capture some special moments of the day...

Joshua received so many gorgeous gifts, it was quite overwhelming. He now has hours and hours ahead of him to open them and truly enjoy them all - thank you everyone. We are hopeful that the piano keyboard from us and Grandma & Grandad will help him in his piano lesson practise!