The End of The School Year

End-of-Year-itis has well and truly kicked in in recent weeks - but school has finally finished for the year.

This is always such a great/hard time of year - with the end of the school year comes all the excitement and emotions of finding out whose class you're in next year (and believe me this is a BIG deal to the kids) and all the sadness of leaving your old class behind.....

Not to mention all the excitement of Christmas coming and summer and late nights and all the other things that come with December.

So we've had a mixed up time lately, split between hanging out at the beach, and resting after school with quiet play and DVDs as much as possible.

Not that school's actually been very hard work in an academic sense. The last month of school always seems crazy, and the last week in particular is quite ridiculous! They spent one day playing in the school pool; on another day they arrived to find giant inflatables in the field and spent all day playing on them; and another day was dress-up day (Molly went as Harriet Potter!). They also had shared lunches with the parents, watched movies, and ate countless candy canes all day and brought their lunch home without eating it. 

The kids both brought great school reports home this year. Some of my favourite excerpts are below:

"Alfie really enjoys writing....he writes with expression, personal voice, and some entertaining anecdotes. Alfie really enjoys writing about his soccer exploits and games the Phoenix play. Keep up the fantastic work Alfie, I always enjoy reading your stories!"

"Molly's strength of character has shone through this year. She has proven that she is a strong and resilient student. This has shown in her learning too, where she has taken risks and accepted challenges".

We had some extra excitement in the last week of term when Alfie lost his first tooth! And the very next day Molly lost one too!

There've been some other great childhood developments recently too: the kids have learnt how to make a good gin & tonic!

Summer has arrived, and although school's finished up, Jake is still working until Xmas Eve. But no worries for Jake - we have been bringing picnic dinners and picking him up from work to go to the beach. Happy sunny evenings....! 

 

 And finally, some random news - we've been entering a few competitions lately and over the last week we have managed to win a new smartphone and a hairless doll (from an NZ-based Alopecia organisation) for Molly! 

A Christmassy Kind of Week

It's been Christmassy this week - in more ways than one!

We're having a slow start to the summer. In fact, the weather this month so far has been worse than it was all through the winter. This means two things:

1) The blueberry season has been delayed. This is NOT GOOD.
2) It feels a little bit like Christmas in the UK at the moment!  (but less dark).

Usually by this time in the year we are spending our afternoons at the outdoor pool, running through the sprinklers in the garden after school, staying up late in the sunshine etc. None of that has quite happened yet.

But most of our other December traditions have continued on. It all started on 6th December when St Nicholas came and filled the kids shoes up with goodies.....luckily they've both recently been bought new shoes, a size bigger.

We put the tree up at the weekend....every year this becomes quite an event. We get the mince pies and the Xmas CD out and have a sing-along, and Molly gets to put the angel on top, so lots of fun. So far it's still up, but I don't rate its chances with the cats around. (NB Please admire our nice white walls - that terracotta is finally gone! :) )

We also held our annual Christmas drinks party at home last weekend. Those in the Falkland Islands might remember this as an evening where tins of Quality Street featured highly. In Wellington we have to make do with strawberries and mince pies instead.

We've had the end of year gym display and ballet show - now that's a real sign that Christmas is coming. This year for ballet they did Peter Pan and Molly was one of the fairies. It suited her down to the ground as it meant she got to wear a beautiful tutu (instead of a pirate or sailor outfit).

And this week we had the Junior School end of year Christmas concert. I don't want to call it a carol concert because most of the songs they sing aren't traditional carols - it's all "Aotearoa Christmas, under the Pohuktawa tree...." and such like. Alfie just loves singing, so it was very cute to watch.

It's the end of year concerts and shows that always make things start feeling like Christmas.




In between all that, the kids have been writing Christmas cards to everyone in their class, everyone they play with from other classes, everyone they met at WOW, etc etc. This means a truck load of Xmas cards. And where did this traditition of sticking a candy cane into every single card come from? We never did that when I was a kid. Maybe it was started by (or sponsored by?) the local dentists?



Sadly, and frustratingly, Molly and her friend managed to discover some of her stocking presents hidden away in my bedroom last week. They were apparently looking for things to dress up in. This created a huge dilemma for me - but yes, I went out and bought new things for the stocking. Plus - in an extra effort to keep the magic alive I also thought it would be a good idea to take her out to meet Santa ;)

 Another tradition - every year in the lead up to Christmas we get the Christmas jigsaw puzzle out. It forces us all to take quiet rest times at weekends and in the evenings.







One more thing - our local Town Hall did Christmas carols and drinks the other night, so we all stayed up late and went aong (the kids in pyjamas and Santa hats). Alfie sang the loudest and ate the most cake!

So we are most definitely in the build up to the big day now, and it's silly hats and headgear all the way!

Life in November

The end of November already. And so begins the mad rush that always signals summer is coming, the end of the school year is coming, Christmas is coming, etc etc. Here's some of the things we've been doing this month...

Molly had her school athletics day. She actually hates athletics, she really hates it. But even she admitted the day turned out quite fun! If we disregard the actual running races and athletic events, and focus on the water relays and the other not-really-real-athletics stuff...

The same week, the annual school discos took place. This time we had a Halloween theme. Alfie went as a red kind of machine man thing (I have no pictures, sadly - or fortunately depending on which way you look at it), while Molly was a more sophisticated witch.  

With November comes fireworks - even on this side of the world! But it's slightly different over here. It doesn't get dark at this time of year until about 8.30/9pm, so the fireworks are late and all the kids get to stay up for a very exciting night.

The city council usually puts on a pretty good display over the harbour, and our usual tradition is to go and watch it from the top of one of the nearby hills. We got there slightly early (along with half the suburb!) and watched a beautiful sunset first, then the fireworks. The kids thought it was the best night ever! 

Meanwhile, Jake's still busy burning the candle at both ends and is currently on a mission to monopolise New Zealand's media. In the space of 10 days he's been in the newspaper twice and on live breakfast TV! All in the name of Weta...

Molly's working hard too. She does nearly 4 hours of gym a week now, and with her end of year ballet show approaching and her Christmas gymnastics display this weekend, there's been no rest! She recently went through the amazing process of designing her own gym leotard - the pattern, the fabrics, etc - boy, did a lot of thought and agonising go into the choice but she got there eventually and doesn't it look great?! 

When we're not at work, school, gym, ballet, piano, soccer, tennis - or on the TV - we've all been working exceptionally hard re-decorating the house. It's taking up every spare minute.

We had some time off last Sunday and spent a wicked day at the splashpad playpark up the coast - basically just your standard kids playpark but with water spurting everywhere. SUCH a great invention and so much fun! 

And when we'd finished there, we went down to the beach to collect fish in buckets and play cricket.

So life's busy. We're all working hard, but we're making time to play as well! The only people in the family who have been lazing around all the time are Bear and Ninja - who have rejected the beautiful soft cat bed we bought them and taken over our bed instead.

The Orongorongo Track (again)

This amazing overnight tramp has featured on our blog before, almost 2 years ago.We loved it back then, and we loved it just as much this time.

Last time we walked it, the kids were just 4 yrs & 6 yrs, so they required a lot of help and we had to carry all their gear. This time it was different! We gave them backpacks and made them carry all their clothes, shoes, sleeping bags, books, toys, etc! Leaving us to just carry our own gear and a couple of days worth of food. We also brought another family along with us this time so we had 5 kids (and a dog) in our group who all motivated each other to walk all day without any grumbling at all. Nice....

So, after a picnic lunch in the bush, we set off. Here we are at the start of the track, all refreshed, happy, mud-free and sweat-free. Note Freddy Gawn (the dog) who was the only one who had no idea what was in store for him at this point - although he probably had the most fun out of all of us in the end!

The first day's walking went brilliantly, with just one brief stop necessary for some afternoon tea and a refreshing paddle in the river....

The track is relatively flat (by NZ standards) but the last half hour was a bit challenging with a lot of uphill along narrow rocky paths. I think we were all quite pleased when we found our hut!

The Department of Conservation maintains a number of these huts around the country which you can book out to sleep in when you're tramping, and they do such a great job. There's no electricity so you need to bring your own candles, but other than that all you need for the night is there - some mattresses and bunk beds, a gas cooker, a wood fire (with wood and an axe) and a table and chairs to drink tea and play endless rounds of cards at...

...while the kids occupied themselves playing outside with sticks and torches and stuff.....

After a very, very broken nights' sleep (Freddy kept pacing the floor of the hut and kept us all awake!), here we are setting off in the morning for Day 2's walking.

For the journey back we decided to take a different route, and travelled the first part along the (mostly dry) river bed instead of along the track. We thought it would be nice and flat and easy. How wrong we were!

The little water there was criss-crossed backwards and forwards across the river bed, which meant countless river crossings for us. Shoes off, shoes on, shoes off, shoes on, numb feet from the cold, numb feet from the rocks. Only two of us complained though...!

It did mean that the journey out took much longer than the journey in! So long that the boys/men couldn't hold on any longer....(!) ;)

And a couple of lolly breaks were necessary to keep the kids going this time...but we all made it out in one piece with only one tiny blister between the 9 of us, a few muddy items of clothing and lots of smiling faces....!

World of Wearable Arts (or W.O.W)

It's all over :( :( :(  So sad.

As much as we've wanted to, it's not been easy to post something on this blog about WOW, as the level of confidentiality around the show is very high and we signed a contract promising not to take or publish photos or reveal any show information.

But we do have to acknowledge it on our blog somehow, as being in this year's World of Wearable Arts show has been such a massive adventure for Molly and it has been such a big part of her life.

She's dedicated all her spare hours to it for the last 3 months, and she's performed in front of an estimated 50,000 people! She's made new friends - of all ages. She's learnt about theatre and dance and performance and costumes and lighting and fashion design. And she's learnt how to make her own Milo backstage (!).  

But most importantly, Molly has enjoyed every last second of every rehearsal, every performance, every moment backstage, and every late night.

Here's the official (child) cast photo that was in the back of the Show catalogue...(Molly in the front row, left of centre).

Because we weren't able to take photos or videos, we have little to remind us of the show, but we have downloaded a few pictures from the WOW Facebook page. This one gives a really good overall view of the childrens' section and was taken I think literally seconds before Molly came out on stage riding on the back of a trike!

Unfortunately there aren't any official pictures of Molly on stage, but here are some of her friends wearing their garments (Official photos courtesy of WOW Facebook page).

Now for a slightly naughty one! Some friends of ours saw the show one night and managed to sneak a little iphone snap of Molly on stage. They didn't have great seats so the view is from behind with a lot of stage lighting blaring, but it's all we have of Molly on stage so it's going on the blog! 

Molly is the little one who is standing right at the top of the human pyramid with her left arm in the air. Isn't she cool!!! (As one of the littlest people in the show, Molly's main role seemed to be the person who got lifted up/thrown around/carried/twirled by the adult performers). 

We also have this shot of Molly backstage getting ready for the show. The picture was taken by her casting manager who asked us please not to share this photo around publicly and only to let friends and family see a copy.

As this blog is password protected to friends & family only, we feel comfortable doing this, but just ask you not to download these pictures or share them around please due to the confidentiality agreement we signed - thank you!

Finally, just one more official picture from the WOW Facebook page, because this section of the show was just SO cool....!

Spring School Holidays 2014

It's nearly the end of the Spring school holidays, and it's been a really fun one!

Molly has performed in WOW almost every night throughout the holidays - this has tied us to Wellington so we haven't been away at all, and it's also meant we've tried to keep things nice and relaxed during the day as she has to stay up late every night (the evening shows start at 8pm).

I say we've *tried* to keep things nice and relaxed. It's not so easy sometimes!

Grandad will be pleased to know that the trampoline he put up earlier this year is still getting a lot of use. Note the picture to the right is not of two boys - the one in stripes is just Molly wearing Alfie's clothes.

As they're roughly the same height now, Molly seems to have taken this as a sign that her wardrobe has doubled and often chooses to wear Alfie's things. (NB This doesn't apply the other way round - Alfie has not yet been seen wearing any pink).

The right hand pic is an early, before-breakfast, 7.30am shot which involved lots of squealing and shouting (our next-door neighbours have recently put a For Sale sign up and I think I'm maybe starting to understand why!)

When she hasn't been performing, Molly has basically cartwheeled her way through the holidays.

She's cartwheeled in the park, in the Botanic Gardens, and along the waterfront. She even cartwheeled around our local Countdown supermarket (and attracted a lot of attention from the old ladies!). And she also spent a whole morning cartwheeling up the beach last week...

...until Alfie put a stop to it by organising a sandcastle building competition. We all had to take part - so I had to put down my book & coffee for a bit and get building too - but it was a lot of fun! Alfie was the judge, so of course he was the winner of the competition as well. ;)

After the competition we put our little beach tent up for some shade and we had a picnic lunch. Unfortunately we couldn't work out how to get the thing down again, so had to walk back through town to the car like this....

And of course, there's also been plenty of playpark time too, as usual.

But despite their best efforts to wear Molly out each day, there has been some quiet downtime too. Time for a bit of fashion design...

...and some iPad time... Alfie recently bought himself a Minecraft Handbook, so there's been a lot of world building (and sheep killing, but we won't mention that bit too much) going on these holidays.

....a little bit of Mathletics (online maths homework)

Movie time....(she looks a bit tired hey?!)

And some art time too (of course!). Do you like the new hair? Molly's real hair has arrived at last, so we've given the loan one back and we had a very exciting appointment at the wig specialists getting fitted last week. At some point we'll be visiting a specialist hairdresser to get it cut and styled, but for the short-term Molly has asked to keep it super long. It feels so silky and lovely - and you look great Molly!! :)

Meanwhile, Alfie's highlight of the school holidays so far has been meeting the Wellington Phoenix players one day in the park. To all those overseas blog readers who have probably never heard of them, the Phoenix are New Zealand's equivalent of Manchester United. Well, ok. Probably not. But they are Wellington's soccer team and Alfie is a big supporter.

Happy holidays everyone!!