The End of Term Three

First up - sorry that the video link of Katie in the last post wasn't working, I've fixed it so if you are keen to see it you can scroll down and watch it now.

The little two girls have been busy at school as well - they finished out the term with crazy hair and loud shirt day.

They also attended their first school disco and had a great time - here they are ready to go!

The big three girls all had Speech and Drama exams this past month. Josie takes a drama class after school and she took the Grade 1 Speech and Drama exam through Trinity College London. She, not surprisingly, did very well and received a score of 92 out of 100. This is the first time she has taken this exam and we were very proud of her. Katie also started taking Speech and Drama at school this year. Her exam was through Speech New Zealand for Grade 2 and she received an Honours grade (she didn't get a numeric score but her score sheet was mostly ticked in the "well-developed" box). Again we are very proud - only two people in her class got the same mark, so she definitely worked hard and did well. Meggie did the Grade 4 exam and received a score of Honours Plus, the highest grade possible. Her exam was also through Speech New Zealand and this is her second year taking Speech and Drama at school. We are SO proud of all of them and it's great to see them doing well in something they love so much.

School has just wrapped up here for Term 3, so we have a two-week break and then our final term of the year. This year has flown by! We don't have plans to go away over the October holidays but hope to do some fun things around Wellington, and maybe pop up to Palmerston North for a visit. Katie and Josie have a busy first week of the holidays with rehearsals for their ballet exams but other than that the girls are all looking forward to catching up with friends and sleep!

Lots of love to all! Dx

The Jungle Book

The Marsden Primary School put on an amazing production of The Jungle Book last week and Katie was one of the lead characters - Bagheera the panther. It was a fantastic production and such a joy to watch - here are some photos and a video clip.

Katie and her friend Lottie

Nicki doing Baloo's face paint. Louise and I helped with the face painting too, it was a lot of fun!

Ellie was with me while I did the face painting so she had fun with Katie's mask and ears.

Here is a clip from the show - I edited together the bits with Katie speaking and left out the songs, except for the very beginning because Katie is the very first one to sing:

Meggie's 13th Birthday Party

For Meggie's birthday party this year we booked the private room at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse and let her host her friends there for pizza. I paid for the food, took a few pictures, and left them to hang out and eat by themselves. The plan was for them to walk home after dinner and have dessert and presents at our place, but of course it started raining right when it was time for them to head out so we shuttled them home with the help of my friend Felicity. The girls were lovely and it was a really special night for Meggie.

Christy, Bria and Meggie. Christy and Bria spent the night after the party.

Meggie, Bria, Christy, Imogen, Gothami and Olivia.

Gothami and Lucy

Bria and Georgia

Pippa and Olivia

Georgia K. and Kristi

Back - Aimee, Gothami, Claudia, Olivia, Meggie, Georgia K., Lucy, Christy and Zoe. Middle - Georgia B., Emerson, Lilly, Bria, Kristi, Olivia, Ariane, Kate. Front - Pippa and Imogen.

Imogen, Gothami and Kristi playing with Choe.

Zoe, Imogen, Christy, Georgia and Lilly dancing in the living room.

Aimee and Claudia

The girls congregated on the stairs for awhile.

Presents!

Meggie reads her little sisters (and friends) a bed time story.

Our House - Living and Dining

I have really enjoyed finally owning our own home again after renting for four years. The past few weeks I've been focusing on trying to make our house more "us" after spending months mentally prioritizing the budget. I am happy with the things I've decided to focus on first - floors (we had the old carpet pulled up and the floorboards underneath polished), some painting, some art work, repairing and painting our dining table - and thought I'd share the updates. I have plenty more ideas for the future but for now we are all loving our bright new space.

The dining area - the table was a very beat up and worn out mahogany so we freshened it up by painting it black. I love how it turned out and I've ordered some great black and white fabric similar to the runner on the table to re-cover the chairs.

Looking back into the kitchen. I really want to paint those green cabinets white. . .

The artwork is named Hatfield and it was painted by an artist in Tyler, Texas where the girls were born. We love it!

Peeking over into the living area.

I'm not loving the artwork above the mantle and would like to move it but just need to find a replacement. I also am thinking about a different carpet but don't tell Dugald. I think this one would be fun.

We have a lot of books and I wasn't sure how to sort them so decided color-coding would do for now.

A very important area!

I'm also going to get a coffee table to replace the leather ottoman which is too small but I just haven't found what I love yet.

I will post more pictures soon of some of the bedrooms I've been working on but they aren't quite finished.

Dxx

Mid-Winter Christmas 2012

You wouldn't know it looking at the kids in kayaks, but our mid-winter Christmas this year was quite cold. We stayed at the Scouts camp in Wainuiomata just outside of Wellington City so it wasn't far away, but it felt much colder and was definitely more rustic! As always camping - or in this case cabining - with this lot of friends is such a treat. Meggie missed it unfortunately because she had a good friend's birthday to attend and to be fair I wasn't sure we were going to get to go anyway because there was the real possibility we would have a baby to look after, but in the end CYFS found permanent placement for that child and we were able to join the fun. Matthew and Monty also missed it because Monty was sick.

Katie

Matthew and Anna

In the bigger boat - Pippa, Ruthie and Julia. In the kayak -Sophie.

This lot have no idea what they are doing - Isabel, Amelia, Ellie and Josie.

Pulling the boats out of the water.

Sophie and Ruth

Katie and Daddy cleaning up.

Inside it's time for cocktails and appetizers.

Alison, Kathryn and Linda.

Mike and Dugald deep in conversation.

Me and Fleur

The boys start on dinner for the kids.

Josie and Izzy

Noah, Ruth, Ellie, Pippa, Katie, Anna, Libby, Julia and Sophie with Matthew peeking out at back.

Clean-up duty

Katie posing in a tree.

Ellie organizing her stuff so she can get in bed.