Kapahaka

We just had one of our coolest family experiences of 2015 for sure. It was our ward conference just this weekend gone by and about a month ago we heard that we were having a cultural evening and different groups would be represented through kapahaka style performances. We knew we were in the maori group and didn't it much thought until the wednesday night the week before the Friday show we went to our first practice. Fun!!!!!

Then we had 4 more practices after that before we did the big reveal as the grand finale at the Ward Luau. What a buzz it was. We enjoyed the practises, the songs, the vibe of the whole lead up and the event itself. So glad we had the opportunity to learn some waiata and what was even better was that our children were a part of it. 

Practice Antics.....

On the night...

I wish I had more pictures and even footage, but i'm sure the memory will stay with us for a long while yet

Then the next morning we had the not so exciting task of chapel clean up, made much more enjoyable by the other ward members who turned up.

One of the men wasn't satisfied with just using the blower to get all the leaves into one section of the carpark. As we were all about to get into our cars and leave he insisted that we rake them up and put them in the skip. Annoying, but so fun for Seth

Then home for a special chapel clean up morning tea. Cheezels, Mandarins and Chocolate + Banana Chocolate Milkshakes which pretty much all ended up spilt over the table!

I think for the next little while we'll all be  singing the 5 Maori songs we learnt....and it's cool that both of the girls can join in, for 2 of them at least. They had such a fun taste of what's it like to be part of Kapahaka, perform on stage, be part of a group that practises and then presents something. Faith had been open to the idea of doing it, but Ella said all along she definitely wouldn't come up on stage. But thankfully she saw young children her age perform earlier on in the night and realised she could do it. I'm so glad they both did it and realised that even though it's a bit scary and you might feel nervous, there's such a high that comes from doing it as well.

It was cool on so many levels. Hopefully we'll do it again next year (and they'll start earlier and finish earlier so Aunty Natty and Aunty Nae will bring all the boys again!)