Luke's drawing

Luke drew me. 

We talked about each aspect of the body and this is what he came up with.  

Looks just like me eh?!! 

A Testimony from Jaimee

 This video was shared with the whole church on Sunday last week.  May it be a witness that you are never too young to learn to recognise God's voice if you just listen for it. 

Best buddies

School holidays means time for friendships to be developed.  Both the girls have beautiful close friends, and by that I mean kind people who play fairly and think of others. friends whose families live by faith in Jesus, one a daughter of pastors, the other a daughter of ambassadors of orphans aid.   Friends who are not from NZ first - one Indian, the other Romanian.  I am so thankful that these girls are in my girls lives at this stage of their lives.  

Squinting into the sun! 

We had a lovely time with them on Tuesday here, with different board games, playing mummies with dolls, doing craft activities, a long trip to the park (with even more friends joining us from there) ) to play in the trees.  A swim (even though they all yelped FREEZING the whole time) and a game of giggly hide and seek with all 7 kids happily involved.  

It's not over, we had Annaliese join us for the movies today and both girls have set up sleepovers for Friday night too! 

The only sad thing? We don't know how long we have these blessed international friends in our lives.  There is talk of going home for some years soon for one of them.  Jaimee has already had tears over this knowledge, as her first BFF left her school a year or so ago and she still misses her deeply - it took a long time for her to find another forever friend.  But I trust God will bring the right people into her life if that day comes. And she will always have her beloved sister! 

The new pool

Most people pack their pool away at Easter.  Our family set a pool UP.  And swam in it.  'Cause thats what you do when your neighbours offer you their pool!

I was going to blog this, but then Kate decided she felt like writing a book about the whole thing, so I figure, well - her words are much more special then mine...so here is Kate's version of getting our new pool!

NOTE: I can only upload it here as a video, so make it full screen to read the words and you may have to pause it to  read the longer pages! ("push the button" page is for the PDF version to make her recorded words play)....I did no editing at all so you can see this is ALL her work!

It's been a while....

I know, I know....we haven't been raptured or anything, It's just been a pretty busy week!

Besides sanding and painting windows (top coat only left to do) organising to have a swimming pool put up (thanks to the neighbours kids outgrowing theirs) and dealing with a broken boiler (we have had no hot water for 2 days now and have no heating either), there has been lots of activity here this last few weeks.

Poppa and Oma came down for a flying visit, which was a huge excitement for their adoring grandkids.  We played skipbo, went to cirque del soilis (in our living room!) and played games on the wii (poppa got  so into it that he knocked all the lights out in one round!).  We had lunch out, and generally got excited about their big move next year to join us locally.  It was a great weekend.

Meanwhile our kids social calender turned us into taxi drivers.  Jaimee headed out to a bach in Haumoana for an overnighter with her brownies group.  With a whole bunch of girls sleeping in one lounge, she tells me she went to sleep around midnight and was awake at 4am.  It was probably more like 10pm and 6am but either way, we had a very tired but excited and happy girl returned the next evening.  

Luke attended his best buddies 5th birthday party, not at all worried about being dropped off for 2 1/2 hours at a strangers house..he was with Carter and didnt need us!  And the party fun didn't end with that birthday for our household - the girls went to splash planet with Jaimee's best friend on Sunday afternoon (yep, straight after the brownies sleepover and day out, sheesh).  I love that both girls were invited, they are a close knit group of friends and all hang out together at school.  

With us out at a friend's wedding and the kids at grandmas for a night on top of all this...well, 

I am sure you can only imagine the tears and baggy eyes we had to deal with on Monday morning.  It was not a pretty household, and Jaimee skipped swimming at school that day!

I have my own life too you know.  Wanna know what I have been excited about this week? What has kept me occupied in my evenings and why the blog is a bit quiet?

I got netflix. I was that geek who was counting down until the NZ launch and signed up at 6am on the big day last week.  Oh the shame.  But oh the fun!  I have been binge watching TV shows i missed the first time round, and have a list of moves a mile long added to my "to see" list.  Luke has happily been able to watch back to back Thomas the tank engine while the girls settle down in front of Lalaloopsy.  Needless to say we are now on unlimited data plan and are considering an apple tv device!

And lastly, but certaintly the best news,is that today the girls had their end of term prizegiving and both got presented with such personal awards that fit them so well, it made the even more meaningful and special.  Jaimee got the coveted "fair play" trophy this term, because she consistently demonstrates this attitude in all areas of school.  Kate recieved a principals award for her had work, happy attitude and ability to take anything in her stride.  Anyone who knows my girls, knows that these comments are so accurate for both of them. Poud mumma right here! 

R