Athletics Day 2015

What a cool day we had yesterday.....Summerland really knows how to do Athletics day for 650 kids very, very well. Pretty cool to be a teacher and a Mum on days like this.....especially when you get to sit on the bus with this beautiful girl. Pretty cool that out of 12 buses, we ended up on the same one! As I look at these pics I can't believe my kids are so grown up...and gorgeous!

Miss 5 year old girl sprinter right here, and she's got a pretty good vortex throwing arm too!

We had a great day together. That sadie face is because Ella wanted to come back on the bus with me and unfortunately it didn't work out like that. This Mumma doesn't do special treatment and let her sneak over to my bus. Sorry baby :(

And now we've ended up at home today because Faith's face started to swell up yesterday, too much sun and grass I think, even though she had sunscreen on. Her face was so puffy by about 7pm so I had to organise for my first reliever so I could be on Mum duties today. Funny to call her my little pufferfish, but not very funny when she started crying cause her chin and ears were so itchy she couldn't go to sleep, and her right eye started looking like she'd been punched in the face :( !
On the mend now thank goodness.

Stolen (The 2015 Summerland Production)

I know these pics aren't gonna do this justice at all, in fact they won't even come close, but I've just got to document a little snippet of the 2015 Summerland Production.....STOLEN

I'm so proud of my girls for performing and coping with the massive week that it was. They had 4 shows each over 4 days, late nights, practises, production hype and all the hoopla that comes with 674 kids being part of a show. It got a bit manic there at times, probably because I had my own class to oversee, Joe had work and a temple trip thrown in there for good measure, & little kids to pick up from kindy.....Gosh I was glad to see the back of the week, but it really was one for the books...in a good way!

Just had to document the yummy dinner that was put on for the teachers every night. Beef or Chicken wraps.....soooo good!

These girls are getting quite accustomed to sitting in the staffroom while I do jobbies (or eat production dinner). Most of the time they sit quietly, sometimes they have little chats with teachers or deputy principals!

This kid  was slightly excited to be taken to watch Ella in the show on Tuesday night. He's never been out to something like this so it was 'cheek popping' exciting for him.

I had to leave work at lunchtime on Thursday cause Dallin had a temp, so I ended up having Seth, Ella and Dallin at home while Faith performed in the show. I thought I might be in for a crazy, grumpy afternoon, but to my delight they all fell asleep for 2.5 hours....sweet!

She was super proud of herself and I'm super proud of her!' So cool that at 5 years old and with about 12 weeks of school under her belt, she has performed in front of 300 people 4x.

Bring on 2018 when we do it all over again!

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!

Ella's start at Summerland

Visit number 1

Because the girls are in Piha Pod together I got to be there with Ella when Faith incidentally got a certificate for a big improvement of comprehension with her reading. Ka pai Faith!  haha  

2nd Visit

This girl is a superstar at colouring in. I thought when she picked this up and said it was hers that she'd got the wrong one cause this one must have been the teacher's one, but no, it's my girls

1st day of school with a semi puffy face.....so cool that Dad got to be there for it cause he thought he had the day off work, but he actually got called in about an hour later, so he was just blessed to be able to be there for the momentous drop off

Too shy to look at the camera

So coy! Sitting with Mrs Landon as we walked out the door

1st hot chocolate from the coffee pod (and last for a while, although she keeps asking every morning if she can have another one)

My 2 pink tupperware girls sit together for morning tea and lunch

Lucky I emptied her pockets after the first day before putting the jumper in the wash. This is quite the collection Ella!?!?!?!

Faith's home school work that I made her do after Ella's first week. Pretty happy with how her writing's coming along, especially using full stops and capital letters. Will have to talk to her about moving from multiple simple sentences to a few compound sentences as well.

So cool to drop the little sissys off at the fence now, and even better to walk in with a girl on each hand when I'm working!