My girls + Books

I had to smile inside when I took these 2 big girls of mine to the book fair last week. I'd previously said 'no I'm not buying anything', then I back tracked and said they could have $12 each. Why does that always happen? I thought they'd be pushed to find one thing on that budget, cause lots of them were $20 plus, but we managed to find these beauties.

And what made me smile was their choices. Faith = superheroes, Ella = girly girls.

And a pirate one for Seth

Ella's just had her first week of readers and my goodness! I'm back at the pre-reading, frustrating, can't remember the same word from one page to the next stage. Faith's able to read pretty fluently these days so I've got to keep reminding myself that she started back here just under 2 years ago. Progress will be made if we keep practising every day.

So over the last 2 weeks we've been to the library a few times to get more books. Now we're not allowed to turn on the TV after school or on saturdays until we've had 'book time' beforehand. A big pile of books get scattered out on the lounge floor and everyone has to read/look at pictures until Mum says we've done enough.

'Faith I've told you so many times, put your readers in the returns box!!!!'
This is pretty much what I say to her every afternoon and she forgets every day and adds a new one to her collection. You'd think she's sick of carrying them around in her bag, but no, she couldn't care less. So who had to do it? Muggins!

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!)

FHE - With Aunty Natty and the Boys

We have been having FHE lately, I'm just super slow on the recording. Tonight we had Aunty Natty and the boys over for dinner and a lesson/activity/treat. They came last week too, so it's pretty much our regular date night with them.

Tonight was a little question/answer session. We each opened questions and had to answer them and choose someone else to answer it as well.

Ella got this and had no idea what the answer was so we had to teach her. And Faith said her names Faith because Grandma Julie is so faithful....she didn't know where Kathleen came from, but now she does!

Daddy Joe and Aunty Natty answered this. They're both getting pretty old if you ask me. Can't believe Mum and Dad's baby will be 25 this year

Aunty Natty - So we can be happy

Faith - Go to the park...sorry lovey, too cold for that for the next 4 or so months!

So we know what we should do

Jordy - Work at the Warehouse!

Seth - To sit at church nicely and not go on the little room (that's what we call the room we have to sit in when he and Dallin are too noisy!)

Joe - Pay bills and save the rest 

Kyky - up to the sky like Grandma Julie. She's a star

Then our game was an oldie but a goodie. Memory

Followed by a delicious treat that Aunty Natty whipped up from the Cheesecake Shop

We're already excited for next monday when we have our guests back for another crazy dinner and lesson.

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!