First Day of School

It's weird to be writing that again but for Abigail and Walker they experienced another "First Day of School" yesterday with the other students at Putaruru Primary School.  They have been on summer break and just started back at school.  It was fortunate for Abby and Walker to be able to start with them on their first day as well.

Abby is in a combo class with 4th, 5th and 6th year students called the Challengers.  Walker is in a combo class with 2nd and 3rd year students called the Voyagers.  The school is rather small with only about 170 students in all. 

What we have learned on their first day is that shoes are optional.  The kids LOVE this.  It's not a joke.  I walked in to the office and the principal was not even wearing shoes.  It was awesome.  They swim each day for P.E. and so they wear Togs or what we call swim suits.  They wear uniforms and part of that standard uniform is a hat that is mandatory when they are outside.  They are serious about the sun here in NZ.

Campus is completely open to parents.  They just let you walk around, check out the class, stop by to see how your child is doing, bring them snacks during recess/snack time and bring lunches.  No need to bring anything to the office to drop it off.  No "visitor pass" or signing in or out.  They just said, "go ahead and walk on in to the class."  The encourage parents to come to assembly's and morning gatherings.  So welcoming and relaxed.

School is from 9-3 with lunch at 1.  This was a pretty late day the first day for Walker.  He even asked his teacher if they sleep there at school.  I bet he was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to go home.

Their homework policy is that homework is something they like to teach as a habit and not extra school work to be done at home that the teacher should have to monitor and keep after the children to do.  With that, homework will be kept to a minimum of 20 minutes a night.  HOLY COW!  What are we going to do with the other 2 hrs and 40 mins of homework time we've been doing every night?

Again, I think leaving NZ is going to be a hard adjustment in more ways than one as we are quickly learning.

A new beginning....

So before I begin on a new week, I've already covered a bit of what we did on Thursday and Saturday.  We didn't have a Friday because of travel and the time change.  How weird is that?  Monday was a holiday here so we drove around to check out some local sites close to us.

 New Zealand, Hamilton Temple

Then we came home and swam at the local pool that is conveniently located just across the street from our home.  We are pretty excited about that.  The kids were excited to jump in and get some practice before school started the next day.  They will have the joy of swimming every day for P.E. at school and didn't want to be rusty.  I have a feeling they are going to like school.  We'll see.

Kia Ora!

WE MADE IT!  We made it through the check in, baggage check, security, long waits to board, 13 hr plane ride, passport check, customs and a 2 hr drive to our home but we made it in one piece.  Piece of mind that is.  It wasn't too bad after all.  Traveling with 4 kids we planned for the worse and hoped for the best.  When your airplane has individualized t.v.'s and gameing consoles for each person well I don't have to paint that picture for you if you have young kids.

Our home is a nice little 4 bedroom, one bath place that is a dream.  It has just enough space for all of us and a visitor (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  Two rooms have trundle beds so they have decided to share rooms leaving one room is left vacant as a guest room (for yep, you know who you are).  It has a decent sized t.v. room, kitchen/dining room and laundry room/closet. 

I think having served a mission it has prepared me for being able to live in any conditions possible.  The kids on the other hand.  They are funny.  Talmage walked right in and said "wow, this is beautiful."  The kids ran from room to room and claimed their bit of home right away.  How could we have all thought any different that Abby wouldn't want the purple felt covered walls and butterfly papering for her room.  It wasn't until they walked throught the t.v. room to the back deck that took all of our breaths away.  This place is A-H-H-H-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  My previous post with the google map, ya' that didn't even do this place justice.  Let's just say that we got here yesterday and we haven't seen the kids in two days except for when they are hungry.  Abby came in to grab something and on the way out she said, "see you at dinner time or sometime around there."  Man did that bring back memories of when we were kids and could actually say that to our parents. 

I'm not kidding about this majical place.  I'm not sure how it will to be going back to our dust stink hole of a backyard after living with the Secret Garden/jungle.  It is going to be really, REALLY difficult.  We have these views from our bedrooms and I wish you could smell it too.  See for yourself!

Our humble abode from the front

The view from the deck off the t.v. room and bedrooms

The view looking back up at the house from the yard

Another thing we have to get used to is our lovely vehicle.  According to New Zealand's standards we have quite a lot of people in our family.  Enough to necessitate a large vehicle in which to get us all around town in.  We asked for something like a large car, SUV or a van.  Nope, not here.  We qualify for what they call a "people mover".  So we're the nice American's sporting the 1994 teal PMV (that's just my cool way of admitting it's a 'people mover vehicle').  Do you think we'll blend in alright?

Our PMV yo!

Now if I can just learn how to drive on the wrong side of the car and road we'll be doing alright.

NZ Bound

And we're off!  New Zealand here we come!  We packed up our lives for 3 months, left a lot behind and are ready for this new adventure and journey to begin in so many ways.  The kids had a hard time saying goodbye to their friends and I have to admit, so did I.  Like I told Abby, "it's better to have great friends to miss while you are away than no friends at all."  We feel so blessed and lucky to have this opportunity to experience a new culture, new way of living, new people and new ways to serve.  I'm grateful for a husband who loves adventures and New Zealand so much that he felt a desire to bring his family here to experience something new.  We are truly blessed!  Yep, I said it again.  I hope you'll join us on our journey through NZ the next 3 months.  If not, we'll catch up later but I can't promise you any of the same stories or pictures to prove them to you.  Your choice.  ;)

Heading out of LAX!

Kicking it DS style while we wait to board the plane.

And we're off!  No looking back now!

Abby the Science Kid

The 4th Grade has come with a whole new set of challenges.  We've been battling them as well as they have come.  New friends, new curriculum, new way the teacher requires cursive to be written (found that out the hard way when her spelling test came back with a low score and NOT because the words were misspelled!).  We've welcomed silly boys and their teasing, California Missions, G.A.T.E work, GPA's and not just plus and minus scores.  We thought we had 4th Grade in the bag.  After all it's more than half way through the year.  BUT NOOOOO.  It's Science Fair time!  As Abby is our oldest this is our first experience with doing a science experiment and all that it entails.  Oh man has it been a while since I've done this.

We are sure glad for the help of some great family and friends for help with this one.  A lot of food was consumed to make this possible.  I hope Aunt Tam's kitchen doesn't still smell like a food court! I sure hope I get an A!

Hogwarts Here!

So this week at the kids elementary school they celebrated reading by being able to dress up as their favorite storybook character.  If you know my kids, you don't even have to guess what they dressed up as.  It wouldn't have been possible without this years amazing Christmas gifts from Aunt Tammy who made the cloaks and Grandpa U who made the wands.  She also gave Walker the glasses and we found the ties and vest. 

Abby was the best Hermione because she had the hair to make puffy as she called it.  Walker has been growing out his hair and it all came together perfectly.  He even wanted to draw a scar on.  I think they really enjoyed their day.  Thanks to a great idea at a great Elementary school.

H&G

Hello and Goodbye!

Before I start telling the happenings of THIS year (I know, we are only 2 weeks in), I'll just do a short recap of last year.  And by short I mean just last month.  I'm too tired and have lots of other things going on to talk about all of last year and really, not much happened.

We spent our Holday's with family and this year was super extra special because we got to spend it with both sides.  That hasn't happened in about 4 years and that's a long time for me.  Just see for yourself how much we enjoyed ourselves....

To kick of the Holiday festivities we enjoyed the St. Philips Nativity story that all the children participated in.  I say all and I mean about 100 kids but one.  Can you guess who the ONE was?  Yep, my child.  Oh, don't get me wrong, he knew the songs and had been practicing for weeks all around the house but come the actual performance the kids was soooo excited that he just couldn't stand still on the risers.  Jumping and squirming too much and may or may not have grabbed the mic.  So the teacher pulled him off the third row and put him and the ground, by her side, away from ALL the other kids.  That was it for him.  Sad thing is it was about the 4 number in.  Regardless he as a cute little Donkey.  Granted at the time there may have been another word I may have been thinking of instead of Donkey.








We had some good times with the Watson's exchanging early Christmas presents then having a night of our annual (ok, we've done it twice but I'm sure it's here to stay.  It's pretty fun.) Navity reading/reenactment.  I'd like to give a shout out to the Dad who played Joseph.  No child chose that character simply because it didn't have a crown/staff/gift or anything "cool" to use.

Don't you just love the Twin Sheep?

Then we headed up to Utah for some much cooler weather, snow and more family.  Two out of three isn't bad.

We just chilled on "Big Red", my own name for the womb of comfort in the folks basement. It sleeps 4 kids comfortably!  It's the lenght of a twin bed! 

Ate, watched some T.V. and played THE BEST Wii game EVER,  ABBA dance baby!  Anyone care to dance with me?  Kids played on their new toys and men watched ball games.  Not sure if we ever got out of our pj's the entire time.

It was much needed R & R for what lies ahead in our next wild adventure!

What I will mention is that Cordell and I have had a tradition since the first year we were married that is we get chinese food on Christmas Eve (if we are not with family) or some time during Christmas break.  Not sure why but it happened and sort of stuck.  This year it was pretty fun because we got some good fortunes.

So to send us off in to the new year, Confusios says...

"You will soon be crossing great waters on a fun vacation."