Latest photos

Hi all, It has been a long time since an update. Busy busy busy. These photos show - Camryn all wrapped up... can we exchange the gift? Isobel self portrait, and Isobel's picture of our family. Lastly the ghoulish Chappy girls. Next update we will be based in our new country location - Coatesville. More on that later.

Easter trip to Hawkes Bay

We have recently had a fabulous holiday in the Hawkes Bay. We based ourselves in the TukiTuki valley, near Havelock North. We stayed in a small farm cottage just above the TukiTuki river and had a great time walking up through the hilly farm, swimming in the river and exploring the area. At this time of year it is a stunning place to visit with the leaves turning a golden brown.

The beginning of 2013

A lot has happened in the 3 months since the last post. Two birthdays - Camryn turned 3 so is now considered to be a 'big girl'. Well at least she considers herself to be a big girl. She is no longer in nappies (day or night) and goes to Kindy. She is very proud of her newly acquired independence and loves heading off to kindy to play with her friends. Alexa turned 7 and has been losing teeth on a fairly frequent basis. She is missing the top two, as well as some bottom teeth making eating a little challenging at times. Isobel at 5 has settled in well to school after a rocky start. She found the mayhem of play times a bit overwhelming and needed a lot of support at this time for the first few weeks. Now, however she is far more settled and is in a lovely class that started the year with 14 kids, but is now up to 19 at the end of the term. She is really enjoying her reading and the progress she is making to learn new words.

The clingons

The girls on a homemade swing.

Our first family camping trip

We have succeeded in having our first week long camping trip as a family of 5. FOr this we visited Pataua South, which is just north of Whangarei Heads. Luckily or maybe essentially, the weather was fine through out and very hot. We spent each day down at either a sheltered and very flat estuary or round by the open beach. The kids had such a great time. Every morning Camryn would march towards us while we were enjoying our morning coffee with togs held aloft demanding to go for a swim. THis all before 9am. She was a hoot and we quickly realised that she really runs the family! Alexa had a new aim to learn how to walk on her hands. This meant a week of continual practising of hand stands, cartwheels and lots of falling over. She didn't quite get there, but must have developed much stronger arms after all her practising. We camped in style as there was one local shop at the campsite which made its own bread and buckets of 20c lollies as well as plenty of ice creams. In fact, it was these last things that gave us the only bartering tool each day... if you don't do this you won't get an ice cream. This worked very well on the older two, but unfortunately didn't have the same affect on the 2 year old. Needless to say she had many days with out an ice cream!

Wedding

We attended my cousins wedding recently. I use s because there were 2 brides and 2 grooms. It was a fabulous day with the sun shining and lovely grounds complete with cricket pitch, croquet, and a pool where my girls watched a dog for over 30 minutes diving in to retrieve a plastic duck. There were screams of delight/excitement when he shook himself anywhere near them. When we first arrived my father (Grandad) was just leaving heading down the hill to their tent site. You will see from the photo the tents in the far distance - in the hay paddock! The girls were keen to see him and so followed him off to the tent. Then they stood absolutely mesmerised as he proceeded to have an outdoor shower in just his underpants! They thought this was terrific! The day was so wonderful. A chance to catch up with many relatives and friends. The girls then danced themselves to a standstill well into the evening. Camryn refused to come off the dance floor but fell asleep in my arms with me doing the sway.

Any for ice cream?

We have had a week of very warm weather in the lead up to Christmas this year. It has meant we have had our dinner outside on the deck. This day we ended the day with an ice cream in a cone. David teased the girls by tempting to put ice cream on Alexa's nose. She fought him off valiantly and quite strongly... but didn't quite accomplish it! Camryn didn't want to be left out of the game and insisted on joining in too. Then she got to return the favour on Dad! What a waste of ice cream! Luckily I was safely on camera duty and stayed well away from the fray.

The next school girl

Isobel turns 5 on Wednesday - 21 Nov and is heading off to school the following day. She is very ready for it and LOVES her new uniform. Recently she has been craving more school type challenges and has been caught coping lists of names on another sheet of paper at music class sign in. She is lucky to be joining a smaller class that has 14 kids and can only have a maximum of 16. This will be great for getting her used to the challenge of school. I am looking forward to her heading off to school as she has been exceptionally challenging of late demanding that she can do what she chooses as opposed the the constraints I give her. This is of course copied by Camryn which doesn't help. Gran and Grandad came for a visit recently and upon leaving Gran said to Alexa you will probably have a missing tooth when I see you next, to Isobel she said and you will be a school girl. To Camryn she asked and what will you be doing? Camryn's immediate response was "Sticking my tongue out".

Funky feet

The two big girls have been enjoying two terms of a dance class called Funky Feet. It is a modern type dance that they love doing. It leads up to a performance in the last term which they have recently done. Alexa's class danced to Walk the Dinosaur and looked fabulous in their outfits. Isobel's class performed to Hands Up (think the 70s version - hands up baby hands up give me your heart give me give me....). ISobel did so well as all the other kids are school age and I put her in on the basis she was ready and turning 5 in this term. I was amazed at her concentration and memory matching and often exceeding (in my opinion) some of the other school kids. (OK OK not an unbiased opinion but I'm sure I would be backed up here!). Both girls absolutely loved performing. They did so well as it was at Kristin auditorium with huge numbers of people. Both were buzzing before and after their performances. Camryn did not get a chance to perform on stage much to her disgust and attempts to go on "after Alexa". During rehearsals she would stand behind the class and mimic the dance moves. She was hilarious but not reliable and very very easily distracted.

This is your life... David

On Friday we had our very own This is your life. David turned 40 and for this auspicious occasion I put together a bus blind summarising the main places he has lived. When he was opening it, the girls were super excited and Isobel yelled out "it's your whole life daddy". This left him puzzled and a bit concerned that he was opening a montage of photos from early days.

We celebrated with a jungle themed party for the kids with their cousins, Ethan and Jamie. They decorated the cake with Isobel doing the icing and Alexa & Camryn putting on the pebbles. Doesn't it look great!

The girls are growing up so fast! Alexa has had her first date - a night out with Dad. Dinner at a local italian that has yummy pizza and (according to Alexa) super yummy chocolate mud cake! This was followed by a local show at school - Beauty and the Beast. She arrived home just after 9pm, tired but very very happy! It is such a treat to have some time alone with Dad.

Isobel is getting closer and closer to school time. She is a bit frustrated at her perceived lack of reading and writing - "I don't know any words". But her knowledge of her letters will set her up well for an introduction to reading and writing at school. Currently she loves doing letters or cards and will write in everyone Isobel, Mum, Dad, Alexa, Mia as these are the only words she knows and is keen to practice.

Camryn is precocious. She loves copying her big sisters who she calls "the kids". "where are the kids?" she will ask! She loves 'reading' to herself and also sits at the table doing great circles and colourful scribbles to mimic the others doing their cards. We recently had a visit from Jamie which she loved as she got a lot of attention from him and now he is a common topic of questioning.