Jaimee gets BRONZE!

Jaimee had her cross country today, and we were all excited about it.  Marty and I had spent days building her up, encouraging her to run her best and to just keep going - after last years disaster of a run (she walked/ran in tears the entire way with Marty doing it with her to keep her going ), we tried to prepare her better this year!  She woke up pumped for action and ready to run - I prayed for strength and POWER and we quietly encouraged her to try and beat somebody, just anyone would do! We dressed her in her house colours (TukiTuki is Red) and smeared on some war paint, sending all four colours to school so that all her class mates could share the fun of facepaint too.

Mr Anderson the Principal explains the route while Jaimee's teacher is in the green wig.  

Just before the race, we had a quick discussion with her teacher, when we discovered (after a slight mix up) that she would indeed be running with the Year 1 children, not the Year 2 kids in her class (Jaimee is right on the border line between technical year groups).  Marty and I grinned at each other when we told her that - we were very pleased with this news, she might actually have a chance when not running against kids a year old then her!  

I cheered super loudly alongside the other kids for the Year 3 kids, and then the Year 2 kids - I teach them all in Christian Living, so it was fun to be able to support them in this way.  Finally it was Jaimee's turn to run 500 metres around Frimley Park.  Would she cry and refuse this year?  Would Marty have to run the length with her even with his horrid cold?  NOPE.  She was wonderful, all smiles and all go this year!  She ran wonderfully, and Marty only had to get alongside her once to keep her going -  when the entire group of kids decided to stop running and take a stroll together!  

 

Watch her finish her race well - in 3 minutes and 6 seconds.....

Yes, that is me screaming and cheering in the video, I am such a classic mum eh?!  She came in a well deserved third girl - and we were stoked!  I think Marty was going to cry with pride actually.  hahaha....well done Jaimee! Good effort and great sporstmanship!  Check her out proudly hosting a third place certificate -they even got presented with a wee medal in a ceremony.  It's times like this that I really appreciate St Matthews and the way that everyone gets a go and supports each other in this small school.

Kate's first best friend...aww

On Friday, Kate had her very first proper playdate - not with one of Jaimee's friends but with HER friend coming over after daycare for a play.  Her friend Millie is turning 5 next week and this was our last chance to have her best mate at daycare over, so I contacted Millie's mum and we set a date.  Kate could talk of nothing else for 2 weeks.  She told us that we "need to get the house all ready on Thursday night" for Millie to come....I am not quite sure what we needed to do for this occasion, but ok!

When I arrived to get the two little friends from daycare, I was met at the door by them hand in hand.  Millie looked up at me and said "I'm coming in your car - I have been waiting for this all my week".  Wow, that is a long wait Millie!  The girls were fantastic, and although Jaimee was a little jealous to be on the other end of the stick for a change, all three girls played beautifully for the hour that we had Millie.  Kate and Millie both have older sisters and both sleep on the top bunk in their shared rooms.  They are two peas in a pod and she will miss her buddy next week a lot.

Morning "de-oceans'

Jaimee got a "big girl Bible" for her birthday.  She had a fair idea she was getting one because she had asked for one and we had told her that was a great birthday idea.  So when she opened the coveted pink leather Bible...she was one happy girl.  We decided that a Bible on it's own might be a  bit daunting for a six year old (it is rather a lot of words!) so we purchased her a little devotional for   children and a journal to go with it.

Jaimee is very very proud of this set - she carries them all around in the beautiful little bag that her friend Ella got her for her birthday.  Now she is just like mummy (she knows that I do a devotional each day and then write in my journal)!  We got her a devotional from the same group that put out the one that I do (Every Day with Jesus) - it is called "penz" for those interested in getting one.

We are quickly getting into a new habit of sitting down together in the mornings while I feed Luke and I help her find the verse for the day in her new Bible.  She has already sussed out the contents page without my help, I was quite impressed with that.  Then she reads the little story and t"he question for the day.  Today's question was "How can you share with your friends ?".  So she opened her journal, grabbed her brand new pencil (another gift from a friend) and carefully wrote out the date.  Then she wrote "singlets" down - because she had lent her friend a singlet the other day.  "food" and "toys" followed and that was her devotion done for the day....long may this good habit continue darling girl!

Kate is NOT to be left out by the way - she sits down with her own Beginners Bible, Toddler's Prayer Book and a piece of paper - which she is also carrying around together in a wee bag.  She spends the time at the table copying out sentences from her Bible, importantly telling me she is doing her own "de-ocean".  Good on ya Kate!  That is wonderful work.

Jaimee is 6!

Well, today we celebrated Jaimee's 6th birthday.  Although her actual birthday is tomorrow, there was no way she was waiting any longer for her presents (she has been talking about nothing else for days now)!  She knew it was party day, and that was good enough for her.  Marty was up at 8am putting her new basketball hoop together, and at 9am Kate looked out the window and said "hey, there's a basketball" so I quickly said "Happy Birthday Jaimee - you get your first present already!" and that was that.  The girls were very happy all morning playing basketball while they impatiently waited for the party to start at 1.30pm.  Jaimee went and got paper to keep score, and gave herself a point every time she got a 'nearly' in the hoop - which of course, was every non-successful attempt!  

Keeping score carefully!

Finally, her friends arrived and the present opening commenced.  Jaimee was delighted with the Big Girl Bible she got from us, complete with devotional book and journal.  She knew she was getting one, so is feeling very grown up now.  She got lots of other special presents too from her friends, and was delighted to get a "tangled" dress from us - she has been trying to save her pocket money for MONTHS for one, but it was too much money for her.  

Then it was off to the pools (Marty tried to insist they were going to the snow, to many giggles).  We had plenty of giggles ourselves listening to 6 excited little girls in the backseat, all making up nonsense purely so that they could burst out laughing again.  Everyone got along fantastically and there were no tears and nobody was left out.  Success! 

At Onekawa, most of the girls wanted to go on the slides and Marty took them again and again.  At one point, I said he could let them go alone - but he said that he loved the slide too!   

Of course, there was plenty of time for party food between swimming fun.  I had made lolly cake and marshmallow dream bars, we had chippies, lollies and juice.  Yummy!

They had a spa to finish off their fun and then we all went home for cake.... 

This year I made a swimming pool cake (with blue jelly for the water) - it was so nice and easy to make.  I read on the internet to put the jelly in just before serving (and i lined the hole with baking paper first) to stop it seeping into the cake.  It worked a treat, and everyone loved it.  The polly pockets were a nice touch!  After going to an adults birthday, Jaimee decided she wanted proper chocolate edges on her cake - so i melted a block of chocolate, smeared it out and let it set before icing the pieces to the sides.  Easy!

You may notice that there are only 5 candles on the cake...i didn't until Marty joked about it!  I quickly added another one and we relit them all for her.  Oh dear, I must be in deep denial about having a 6 year old! 

In our house, if it is your birthday you get to choose what is for dinner - so we had McDonalds of course!  Jordis stayed for the night (the girls went to sleep at 9pm, not bad really) and Brianna stayed on for the family 'party' (we invited family to come and have takeaways at our place for tea) and it was a lot of fun.    

Luke came home with Granma, who had enjoyed having him for the afternoon due to his bronchitis (swimming not a good idea we decided) and munched out happily on nuggets and chips! He loved the chip packet (it wasn't full when he got it by the way) just as much as his treat.  

All in all, a great day for Jaimee - it was great fun to give her a special day - and she gets to have her 'real birthday' tomorrow, waking up to a sleepover friend and knowing she will get her birthday chocolate in church! What fun, we love you Jaimee xxxx

If I'm going to be honest...

On Sunday the sermon was about telling the truth.

So here it is.

I woke up to my sick baby and whinging girls.  Luke was obviously in no state to be dragged to playgroup, so I frantically had to organise other busy mums to take over for me...the hazards of being the one in charge.  If I am being honest, I hate being in charge.  It would be much nicer to just call in sick, and let someone else do the work for the day. Instead, even if I am sick, I know that I MUST get the work done - noone else will organise the light party in 8 weeks time, or run Sunday School and Bible in Schools each week - those are my jobs and If I want a day off, It needs to be planned carefully by me.

Luke won't sleep and he is not interested in food.  He wants something, but can't tell us what it is so he just sits there crying until I pop him on a hip and try and make school lunches with one hand.   Meanwhile, Kate is having a full blown tantrum on the thinking chair because she does NOT want to wear trousers today (which I stupidly told her she had to wear).  After a trip to the doctor (bronchitis again to go with the ear infection)  and dropping off the girls (Jaimee was 10 minutes late to school and-don't-you-dare-give-me-that-look-Ms-Climo!) I stop by the church to pick up some work, go home and attempt to do some work while Luke sleeps.

 By now, my headache was become a migraine.  I just want to curl up in my dark bedroom on my bed, and stare with half shut eyes at a movie.  But this is all part of being a working mum - I can't stop.  Luke is tired, but screams when I pop him into bed.  Finally he falls asleep and I get an hour of work done before Marty text messages me to remind me I was meant to drop off his bike repair kit to work.  Drat.  Oh well, Luke is awake again crying, so off we go in the car.  If I am going to be honest, I actually had to close my eyes while driving down the road today - only for a second, but the pain was that bad.  I get home and attempt to feed Luke, who is just not interested.  Back to bed for grumpy boy, and I sit back down to do some more work.  An hour later, I call it a day. I just can't concentrate any more and the pressing work has been done.  I can't concentrate on anything with this headache so I flick through our sky channels, watching half of a disney tween sitcom.  I pull my computer out and write this dribble of an honest yet depressing blog.  Oh, I guess I should stop now - Luke is screaming again.

If I am going to be honest, My life is not all bubbles and squeak and happy children.  I do not always have it all together.  But I DO have something.  Our memory verse for this month is "My Grace is all you need for my power is strongest when you are weak" (2 Cor 12:9). Well Lord, I am weak.  Thank you that YOU are strong and YOU hold me up and keep me joyful and smiling even on a day like this.  And that is the honest truth.

Now, I am going to take a deep breath and go and kiss my snotty coughing baby boy.

He Walks!

My Luke is WALKING.  It's only a few wobbly and very wide steps at the moment, but you should just see the grin on his face as he makes it from one spot to another on his feet.  He is bursting with pride.  It doesn't seem to bother him that as soon as he loses his balance he crashes very hard onto his knees and has to "knee walk" (this is Luke's preferred style of moving at the moment) back over to some spot that he can pull himself back up on to start again.  He seems to think this is all a big joke, and laughs hysterically as he walks, and then claps his hands when he finally makes it to his destination, looking around to make sure all eyes are on him.

Knee walking has been going on for several months, both our girls did the normal crawl to walk thing, but Luke has his own unique style of 'crawling' - he likes to 'walk' on his knees - not so great for the jeans, but must be very good for the waistline!  We have been very relaxed about him not walking yet...I know full well that as soon as he gets up on those feet properly, I am going to need to really watch my curious little explorer!   Already, he likes to get into my handbag and empty it out all over the floor.  Ah well, it's all part of growing up and we celebrate this new milestone gladly with him!

Budding Authors

This afternoon, I suggested we write some stories together.  The girls narrated and I wrote them down so that they would stay focused on their story rather then give up because it took them too long to write themselves!  We were working hard to think about describing words and how to make the story more interesting to read (as suggested in Jaimee's school report!).

 It was very hard to get the girls to consider actually planning an idea for a story, but once they got started with their narration, their creative juices were flowing as quickly as I could type!

Here are the results:

The Adventure of Rosie and Midge

By Jaimee Trowbridge

Once upon a time there was a cat named Rosie and a kitten, whose name was Midge.  When it was lunchtime, they felt hungry so they decided to cross the road to find some food.  They were so hungry that their tummies were rumbling like a lion!  Actually, they were so hungry that they rushed across the road, quickly looking both ways so that they didn’t get run over!

Midge soon found six fish in a pool, and reached out with her paw and grabbed the quick fish.  Midge kindly shared three fish with Rosie, who was delighted with her baby Midge.  Rosie and Midge ate and ate until they were so full that they just wanted to lie down in the sun and rest.  So they did!

Later, they heard a car zooming past, and they got such a fright that they jumped onto the roof of the car – they were VERY quick!  Luckily, when it stopped at the vet they were able to leap off the car roof and run inside. 

Inside, Midge and Rosie spotted two open cages and ran inside them because they heard another car coming to the vet and it frightened them!  Just then, the vet came along and closed the doors behind them. 

Into the vet walked Jordis (who was a little girl) coming to find two special cats to take home and live with her.  Jordis looked around the room, and her eyes caught sight of the two little cats in the cages.  “They are so cute” she whispered to her mum.  Mum agreed, telling Jordis “We can buy them if you want to”.  “YAY! I want them – thanks mummy!” Jordis shouted happily. 

Jordis and her mum took Rosie and Midge home with them and Jordis carefully patted her two new fluffy, soft cats.  Rosie and Midge purred because they were so happy and content in their new home.

The End.

The Rainbow

By Kate Trowbridge

Once upon a time there was a colourful rainbow with red, yellow, green and blue in it.  While we were looking at the rainbow, our family were amazed because it was beautiful.  Mum touched it and said it felt smooth.  She lifted us up and we were able to slide on the rainbow – it was so much fun!  We spotted a slide and we climbed up so that we could go down again and again.  Them we had to go home because Luke was awake and it was tea time. 

The End.  

Kapahaka

Jaimee has been working very hard at school over the last month rehearsing as part of the school Kapahaka group!  Today they performed at the 'festival', on stage at Hastings Intermediate School. I was so proud of her for giving this a go, none of her special little friends volunteered to be in the Kapahaka group, but she still went ahead and put her hand up.  She did a great job too, performing 4 songs, one with hand actions and one with poi.  The host commented on how wonderful it was to see such a huge array of colours and races taking part from her school, he said it lifted his hopes for mankind (he also said how cute all the little ones looked) and how cool it was that such a big group wanted to take part from her school -  I think St Matthews is wonderful for encouraging all the kids to have a go too.

Last night Marty said that she told him "all the kids do funny looks when they sing, with their eyes and stuff, but i like to smile because I am happy and having a good time".    Good on ya Jaimee! 

The VBC Short Film Awards

On Sunday evening, we got all dolled up and headed out on to the Red Carpet (ok the fairy lights runway)!  This 'Black Tie' event was the annual "VBC Short Film Awards" which Marty was hosting, and our girls were starring in.  

The girls were SO excited about this evening - for the last two months they have been asking and asking when they were going to see their movie up on the "Big Screen" at church - this was their moment to shine.  

Marty did a fantastic job as host, interviewing people as they arrived on to the "red carpet" and then hosting the awards, complete with jokes, fun trivia and his usual awesomeness that seems to click into super gear whenever someone gives him a mic!   

A super proud mummy watches her girls in their first movie role!

Even Luke wore his best formal shirt!  

 The movies were all of AMAZING quality and diversity, I was so impressed with the talent in our church family!  There was a special award for every entry - our girls were so excited to be presented with the award for "Best Message".  The flash certificate has pride of place in our dining room, and the trophy (which Kate would not let go of and insists is HERS) is displayed in the girls bedroom.

I was called up to help present an award too - my darling husband invited "the women that he thought was the best dressed tonight" up on stage....awwww, love him so much!

It was so much fun to dress up with our friends, who all agreed that we just don't have opportunity to dress like this enough!  

Check me out wearing mums old dress - she wore this just 10 years ago, that's my slender mother for you!  

....And I guess I had better leave you with the winning "Best Message" entry that we made.....(by the way, the theme for the movies was "The Fruits of the Spirit").  Here it is:

The Olympic Games

This is the only time that I am pleased that I married a sports buff and get access to all the sky sport channels!  We have been watching lots of Olympic games in our house this week.  This is our girl’s first Olympic games (that they can remember) and we are embracing it, from opening ceremony (watched twice) right to the end. 

Of course, like all little (and big) girls, they are just loving the gymnastics (mummy tapes every full session and is slowly watching them all!).  It is all the more exciting because Jaimee is now familiar with the vault, bars, beam and floor now through her own gym classes.  We are hoping that this will inspire her to keep practicing.  On Wednesday after school this week she said she couldn’t do gymnastics because “I feel like spewing up”.  I didn’t even blink after hearing similar ‘sore tummy’ fibs for the last two weeks.  Off we went, mummy very determined.  After some coaxing, I managed to get out that the reason she didn’t want to do gymnastics is because she hates doing the push ups.  HAHAHA…I reassured her that I don’t like doing push ups either, but if she wants to learn to flip like the gymnasts do, she is going to need strong strong arms….so push ups are a good thing.  My almost 6 year old is not quite convinced, but she did join in with the session and came home bubbly and happy.  No fooling mummy! 

 Kate has simply enjoyed curling up on the couch with me as I stop rushing around for a nice change, snuggling in as close as she can get to me and asking me what everyone’s name is.  “WOAH” is heard as the girls flip and the boys swing on the rings.   They clearly love the girls the best – they ask me if they can watch “girls gymnastics” when I suggest putting the games on!  Even Luke stops and stares at the tumbling bodies on screen. 

The swimming they can hardly believe – how on earth do they swim WITHOUT STANDING UP TO TAKE A BREATH? The girls wonder in disbelief….They are in swimming lessons, and simply cannot grasp the idea that people can swim like that without having to stop to breathe!  They like the butterfly because…well, it is called the butterfly! What little girl wouldn’t like a stroke named after such a beautiful creature.

They also watched the diving (synchronised mens) and told us that every pair were twins because they had the same hair, same togs, and dived the same.  Fair enough. Apparently they wanted to see horses crash when the equestrian came on…not quite sure where that one came from, but anyway….

Rascals (Kate’s daycare) has been holding their own little Olympic games, and I saw the cutest photos of Kate competing in her first swimming and diving races ever today in their indoor pool!  They did the balance beam, and my daughter got high points for poise with her nice pointy toes.  That’s my girl.  Do me proud. 

Well, that’s our Olympic update…now excuse me, I have another gymnastics session that I recorded waiting for me!