Whaea Heke

Tomorrow I begin being Whaea Heke....full time teacher at Summerland Primary. 

As the past couple of months have flown by I've gotten more and more excited about it. I've been really loving all the relieving work I've been doing and never even thought of doing anything more than that, but now that it's happening, it feels so right. And by the look on the girls faces (below) when I told them the exciting news, they think it's pretty cool too!

Working at home in the evenings has begun in earnest, but I'm enjoying it so much that it doesn't even feel like work

And I've been so spoilt by all the resources that have been brought for me/the kids. When these boxes got brought up last week I felt like it was Christmas!

Pretty cool that I'll have resources that are perfectly suited to Ella. Now when she comes up to me in the afternoons school can continue on beyond 3 o'clock cause she can play with all my resources.....or just play and draw pictures probably

Awesome view!

What an exciting time for me and our family.

More love for Summerland now....if that's even possible!

Homemade pastry

Don't think I'll ever buy puff pastry again.

Can't even compare store bought with the home made stuff. I wish I found out sooner!

Method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Roughly break the butter in small chunks, add them to the bowl and rub them in loosely. You need to see bits of butter.
2. Make a well in the bowl and pour in about two-thirds of the cold water, mixing until you have a firm rough dough adding extra water if needed. Cover with cling film and leave to rest for 20 mins in the fridge.
3. Turn out onto a lightly floured board, knead gently and form into a smooth rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction only, until 3 times the width, about 20 x 50cm. Keep edges straight and even. Don’t overwork the butter streaks; you should have a marbled effect.
4. Fold the top third down to the centre, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (to the left or right) and roll out again to three times the length. Fold as before, cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 mins before rolling to use.

Dalls Bells

This little kid is almost 18 months.....1 month away from being legal in nursery. Yes, I'm counting down!!!!!

Junior Story time at the Ranui Library...look who plonked herself right next to the teacher.

Grandie's little Maori boy playing with the poi

Just before 15 month immunisations. Gotta be cruel to be kind sorry darling

After...

Dad and the big kids going to Gengis for dinner last weekend (Bishopric Dinner)

Mummy and Dalls had a little one on one date to Pooks Road Takeaways (yes she's eating a carrot, her brother taught her that little trick...his fav snack)

Mummy threw caution to the wind and decided to have our chips picnic style in the lounge. She was so excited about that little fact that she only ate about 5 chips and just looked around at how cool it was to be eating on the floor!

And that's a wrap. Lets just lie down to recover

This kid really protests about the highchair sometimes and her favourite thing to do is climb up on a chair and onto the table. Don't know what's worse, her dropping things in the toilet, or emptying out half eaten bowls of porridge and weetbix all over the table/floor!

And now that Mummy's starting full time work on Monday, she's also a big 5 day a week kindy girl.....and she loves it thank goodness. Can't believe this girl is walking, dancing, and even doing a little talking now

poo (nappy)
row row (fav action song)
Da
Ma
Ta
More

FHE - Samuel the Lamanite

This week it was time to do a spotlight on the scriptures and I chose Samuel the Lamanite to be our guest for the night.

The kids loved looking through our different Book of Mormons to find the accounts of this great prophet.....and they were riveted when I made a 'cup wall' and put him on the top to talk them through how he cried repentance to the people on the city wall.

By the end of it they could all tell me something they learned from the story of Samuel the Lamanite and I told them we'd do a review next week to see if they still remember anything. Now I think we'll do a BOM character a month (at least until we get through all of our 14 figurines....whom Seth says good night to every night). They're so good at remembering the scripture stories and prophets....sometimes better than me!

And what a great way to end our FHE.....apricot crumble

Snow Play

I remember telling the kids when Dallin was born and the subject of 'snow' came up that we definitely wouldn't be going until Dallin's at least 3. Faith figured out quickly that she'll be 9, Ella 7 and Seth 5 when Dallin hits 3. And thankfully she was ok with that.

But snow came early to these patient kids of mine and thankfully it wasn't a 4 hour drive away....just about 10 minutes up the road in fact.

And after we got home and I hung out all of their jackets and gloves and waterproof pants to dry, I didn't know if I was excited for the prospect of a real deal snow trip one day because they LOVED it.....

 Or maybe it made me more hesitant to do it because there was a bit of whinging with all the gear on, and losing gear, and wet socks.....

I feel I better be a cool Mum and stick to my word.....snow trip in 2 years from now I suppose!

A small, teeny tiny piece of me thought it would be so cool to bring this husky home with us!!!! First time I've been around one since being with Skye...gosh she's been gone a long time now!

And this is how my big girls went to bed for a few days after their snow trip. Pretty excited about the new beanies I think