Father & Son Treasure Hunt

With Daddy working long hours and having been to the UK twice lately, he has had very little one-on-one time with Josh. In addition, because of his eyesight, he and Josh have very little 'alone' time as Mummy is always the driver. So Mummy decided to put together a treasure hunt 'just for the boys'. Fortunately it was a beautiful day and Mummy dropped them off at the Railway Station. They were then given a list of instructions with 42 questions to answer. The 'hunt' took them all along the waterfront, through Queens Wharf, and onto Oriental Parade. In addition, they had to do all sorts of things ... play at the park, go down the slide 5 times, stop and eat an ice-cream, go into a cafe and have a lemonade, climb aboard a friend's boat, ride a crocodile bike. It took the boys over 2 hours to complete the 'hunt' and the final question took them to Vista cafe where they found Mummy sitting with hot chips and lemonade ready to mark their answers!

And the result - they got 41 questiosn right and, I have to admit, the one queston they got wrong was debatable (and debated it was!!). They qualified for the prize which was hidden behind the cafe counter ... Pirates of the Caribbean lego set for them to build together.

Back to rugby

We have now had rugby cancelled for 4 weeks in a row due to bad weather - what a rough season!! Today however, despite the rain, the grounds were open and the Mustangs 'dripped' out onto the pitch for a game - they were a little rusty and got beaten but most of them said it was good to be 'back in the saddle'.

After drying out and warming up, we had a club barbeque and Joshua, Maia and Tom all donned plastic gloves and did the cooking - they were quite a little team selling over 250 sausages for the Club!

'Adopted' special people

Other than grandma, all our family live overseas. We are so lucky to have a few special friends and 'adopted' relatives and grandparents who take a keen interest in Joshua and have become very important in Joshua's life ... they add a duvet like layer of love and care and take the time and patience to humour Josh ... we are so lucky to have their support.

"Aunty" Rosie came over for dinner tonight and Josh couldn't wait to snuggle down in bed with her to read stories.

The College Haka

All the boys at Scots are taught the College Haka. Although the words differ slightly from the NZ All Blacks Haka, it is similar in both lyrics and also message. Today, to mark the end of the school week, all the junior boys did the haka in the quad. Mummy was lucky enough to be there to capture Joshua on camera!

Maori
Kotarani
Waewae takahia ringaringa pakia
Ringaringa torona whakamua
Tau ka tau
Hei
Tau ka tau
Hei
Tau ka tau i a matou, koutou
Nge nge neg aratu arata aratu
Nge nge nge aratu arata
aratu
tahi ka riri toru ka wha
Wetewetea wetewetea hu ha hei
English
Scots College
Stamp your feet, clap your hands
Hands outward stretch
Altogether
Hei
Altogether
Hei
Altogether, all of us (a series of actions and gesticulations)
One, let us prepare to fight
Let us tear them apart, let us tear them apart

... Do Ri Me ...

Josh is learning the piano!! He started learning about 3 months ago, through Scots College, with a weekly lesson every Thursday. Joshua actually finds reading music very easy ... however, sadly, he is a little 'frightened' of his music teacher. She is quite a dear lady in her late 70's and I possibly think she is better suited to older pupils who have been playing for awhile. Apparently she 'yells' and has been known to 'smack' his hand ... as you can imagine, this is NOT good for Josh and his sensitive nature.

We all have memories of our own childhood and now, through adult maturity, recognise how important our role models and teachers are and the impact they have on our learning. We decided that it would be such a shame for Joshua to lose interest in music because he was 'scared' of his teacher so we had a great opportunity to meet another teacher, outside of school, through his friend, Amanaki. Amanaki went away for 3 weeks and gifted Joshua his 3 lessons so we were able to trial Erin and she was able to trial Josh!

We have loved the lessons with Erin and the good news is that Erin was impressed at how much Joshua has learned in only 3 months and his ability to read music. Fortunately she has a gap in her diary so Joshua can have a lesson with her every Thursday after school. We are very excited and start this coming term. Mummy even gets to sit in (quietly) and listen. Erin has a special way with Joshua - she is very kind and has a soft, yet firm way of helping him learn.

.... err that reminds me, I need to let the other teacher know (oh dear, even Mummy is not looking forward to that!).

Rugby World Cup

Part of Joshua's homework this evening was to write up some facts about the impending RWC. Together he and I 'googled' the subject and Joshua then chose the points that he found important and wrote them up as follows (beautiful writing Josh - even if you did ask if you could simply copy and paste them and print them out on the computer!!).

Georgie-girl

Mummy Sarah came down to Wellington to run the Wellington half-marathon this weekend (in the most awful weather conditions!) and brought with her an envelope from Georgia for Josh. Well Josh had a smile from ear to ear when he opened it up ... you may live up in Auckland Georgie-girl but we do think of you often.

Sunday Church

Today the Years 1-3 boys and teachers all met at the local Church, together with their parents, for a church service. The Year 3 boys performed a play up on the altar. They were all given a number which they had personally illustrated in keeping with the words which they read out. Joshua was No. 5 which was all about "honouring your father and your mother" and went on to talk about how important family is.

Throughout the service the boys sang various hymns and songs. Josh particularly enjoyed the song "If I were a butterfly" - in fact, all the boys seemed to enjoy it as when they sang this song they really came alive with energy, a few actions and seemed to be having fun.

If I were a butterfly
I'd thank you Lord for giving me wings
If I were a robin in a tree
I'd thank you Lord that I could sing
If I were a fish in the sea
I'd wiggle my tail and I'd giggle with glee
But I just thank you Father for making me ... ME

CHORUS:
For you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile
You gave me Jesus and you made me your child
And I just thank you Father for making me ... ME

If I were an Elephant
I'd thank you Lord for raising my trunk
If I were a kangaroo
You know I'd hop right up to you
If I were an octopus
I'd thank you Lord for my fine looks
But I just thank you Father for making me ... ME

CHORUS

If I were a wiggly worm
I'd thank you Lord that I could squirm
If I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear
I'd thank you Lord for my fuzzy, wuzzy hair
If I were a crocodile
I'd thank you Lord for my great smile
But I just thank you Father for making me ... ME

Classroom Board

Mrs Bell has been putting photographs of all the boys up on the board and writing something 'encouraging and nice' about them all. Today I saw Joshua's photo ...

Games Night

Most Wednesdays nights in our house is now GAMES NIGHT. If Joshua had it his way, we would play the board game, Monopoly, all the time! However we try and vary it. So after dinner and once Joshua has had his shower and is in his pyjamas, we set up a few games and simply have fun. Tonight we played Monopoly first and then played with the brain-kit and learnt all about simple battery-powered circuits to light up a small light-bulb - I am not sure if the 'big' boy or the 'little' boy enjoyed it the most!

Daddy comes home!!

Daddy came home today after seeing Grandma and Grandad in England. Mrs Bell let me collect Joshua early so that we could be there at the airport when Daddy walked off the plane. Joshua was very quick to run up to Daddy and so, so happy to have him home. We even had Huddy in the back of the car and so all of us went straight to the beach for a long walk along the sand, chatting and catching up and then a hot chocolate at our favourite Maranui cafe.

It feels good to have you home Daddy ...

C'mon Daddy, throw me a stick ... Huddy has missed you too Daddy!

Boys' Sewing Class

Last week the Art teacher shoulder-tapped 3 mothers, including myself, to help with a sewing class. All the boys had been given a square of hesian which they had to stitch around the edge so as to stop it fraying and then crayon a picture in the centre which they then sewed using a large needle and wool. Phew, 3 mothers plus the art teacher plus 14 boys all with LARGE needles and wool was an 'interesting' exercise!

Mummy happened to tell the Art Teacher that Joshua's grandmother used to teach sewing at school, albeit a long time ago, and, in fact, she still has men today in their 40's and 50's coming up and thanking her for teaching them how to take up a hem and how to sew on a button as it is surprising how many times they have had to exercise that talent! Based on that story, the art teacher phoned and asked me if I could put together 14 "boy-friendly" button-sewing kits !

Well, we all know how 'seriously' Mummy takes on tasks so she set to and found some felt fabric in the 4 House colours and then proceeded to cut out 15 individual rockets. We then put together 14 individual packs each with a felt rocket, a needle and cotton and an assortment of about 10 buttons each (a 'pirate' button; a 'friend' button and assorted others).

The boys loved creating their own 'pattern' on the felt rockets with all sorts of buttons. I also had cut out 15 cardboard rocket so the boys then glued their completed felt rockets onto the card rockets and then 'flew' them around the classroom !!

It was a lot of fun - and again, a precious opportunity to participate in the classroom and see the boys work and of course see the wonderful patience of the teachers.

Joshua's hesian picture - a rocket flying up to the moon and a star, with his initials 'JT'
And of course the boy-friendly rocket packs ... some of the finished work

Drrgh, what was I thinking?!?!?

Xterra Wellington have been holding a number of running events lately and this evening was the last one in the series - it was advertised as a twilight run through the Orongorongo's with everyone wearing head torches. Mummy thought that sounded like fun and so entered herself and Joshua.

We arrived to find about 70+ rather fit-looking athletes warming up inside the Scout Hall way out the back-of-beyond - all wearing 'serious' wet-weather gear, small emergency backpacks and quite amazing head torches. Joshua was one of only 4 children in the event. (I should possibly have headed back to the car at that stage!)

After an introduction 'chat' by the officials where they spoke of emergency blankets, thermal clothing, the mud and slush causing people to break their ankles in these running conditions, how dark it was up in the bushes, the gun quickly sounded and before I could give any more thought to what we were about to do, we were off!

We headed into the bushes at around 6.30pm in pitch darkness and we started by climbing up to the ridgeline. It was a hard climb, made only more difficult because of the mud and slush, and the track was only wide enough for one runner so that when someone called out they wanted to pass you had to literally climb up onto the bank and hold onto foliage or trees.

I lost count of the number of times Joshua lost his footing and went down into the mud but he was amazing ... he simply picked himself up and kept going. The adrenalin carried us for awhile and it was quite amazing seeing all the bobbing head torches in the dark. Joshua wore his jacket that had his name printed on the back and other runners were wonderful with their encouragement of him (as they passed us!) .

However, by the time we got to the top, the runners were starting to stretch out and Josh and I found ourselves being rather left behind. The most scary part was realising that the two of us were wearing only children's head torches that did not give very much light coverage at all - at one stage, Mummy was almost bent over using her head torch as a hand-torch desperately trying to make out the path!

At one stage, we seemed all alone up there and Mummy confesses to a mild panic attack, but then the overriding feeling to look after Josh kicked in and we carried on. Unfortunately our torch headlights were not strong enough to pick up the arrows and we missed one turning and found ourselves heading down a wrong track. Fortunately we had not gone too far and were able to re-track our movements and join back on the right track - phew!

Well, I have to say ... I have never been so relieved to see a finish line in all my life! Josh and I, covered in mud and wet from the rain, held hands as we crossed the finish line. What a little trooper he was and it was lovely to see so many people come up and pat him on the back and congratulate him.

We grabbed a quick sausage off the barbeque but didn't wait for the spot prizes. Joshua had to have his muddy clothes literally peeled off him before he could get in the car.

Let's just say that we have ticked that event off the 'bucket list' and I would certainly not contemplate another one unless (1) it was fine weather and (2) it had been good dry weather for at least a week beforehand, and (3) we invested in some serious headlight torches!

A hot shower had never felt so good!

A 'before' shot - very happy with his head-torch on, naively unaware of what was in store

And now the after-shots ... and this only shows the mud on the 'outside' of the clothes, you should have seen up his back!

Grandad

Daddy is over in the UK at the moment spending some time with Grandma and Grandad. Grandad is coping with so much ... bone cancer and now he is in hospital with pneumonia. To cheer Grandad up, we spent some time this morning working on a poster for him. Hope you can log onto this blog soon and see this Grandad. We love you very much.

The Countdown has begun

Stand up New Zealand! The eyes of the world will be on New Zealand when we host the Rugby World Cup in approximately 85 days time. Held every 4 years, RWC this year is New Zealand's chance to showcase itself on the global stage and the country is buzzing with excitement and preparation.

We are expecting around 85,000 international visitors over the 6 weeks of games and there will be 20 nations playing in the 48-game tournament. It is going to be VERY exciting and we are thrilled that Daddy has managed to get 3 x tickets to 4 of the games being hosted in Wellington - and one of them is when NZ is playing.

As much as I had to endure reasonable (and unreasonable) 'cheek' from the UK side of the family 4 years ago, we are forever hopeful that NZ doesn't choke this time and lives up to its name as being the best rugby team in the world. Go Black!

Today, the RWC Trophy was at Scots College and the boys were able to go and see it and even have their photograph taken.

Get used to it everyone ... this trophy WILL be staying in New Zealand this time!

Joshua in 'model' pose

Just before going out this afternoon, we were fooling around with the camera and doing some 'model/pose' shots. Every child is beautiful in their mother's eyes and Josh is no exception. Introducing Joshua Turnbull on the cat-walk!

Book Character Costume Parade

The day arrived ... Mummy was asked to go in early and help get the boys ready into their costumes - it was hilarious with a room full of very excited little boys all running around in their underwear giggling and laughing at each other's outfits! As you will see from these photographs, some of the boys had put in a lot of effort (most probably their parents as well!). Initially Joshua was a little disappointed that he was one of six Cats-in-the-Hat but was able to charm everyone with his face paint, umbrella and white gloves - he even had the walk down-pat!

Captain Underpants was also very popular for those boys who delighted in prancing around in their underwear and a cape; and let's not forget the boys who cross-dressed and some of them made the most 'pretty' girls! All in all it was a fantastic afternoon with a great turnout of parents and cameras and videos whirring!

Mrs 'Pirate' Bell

Mr Wright, Year 4 teacher ... this will be Joshua's teacher for next year - he has a great sense of humour and Mummy may well store these photos away for bribery next year!

The cutest Cat-in-the-Hat ... ever