Parade Day

Today was Wellington's Christmas parade and the big girls were in it for Musical Stars. After church we got changed into our parade outfits and headed downtown.

The girls and me in our Santa hats, ready to go!
Daddy dropped us off as close as he could get to our starting point. He and Ellie headed off together to watch.
Here's El waiting to see her sisters.
Our Musical Stars float. . . 

I'm on the float with Josie, it's easy to see me on the left but harder to pick out Josie. She's on the same row as I am to the right of the green pom pom. 
Katie was a reindeer and followed behind the float. She's the one grabbing her ears towards the front.
Meggie has the white flag, white leggings and plaid Christmas skirt.
After the parade Daddy took Ellie to get an ice cream while they waited for us.

Then we all went for an early dinner down on the harbor.
My little punks outside the restaurant.

They may be athletes. . .

I've been pondering recently how busy we all are. .  . it's a good thing in some ways. . . we're getting more settled, meeting people, the girls are all having new experiences . .  it's good. But, it's also challenging to be the places we need to be to pursue these activities and still find time to be at home, together, as a family in an unhurried environment where we can just enjoy each other. So, I'm thinking about how to carve out more time and how to reduce our activities. . .no answers yet because it's hard to stop doing something once you start. 

The Karori Athletics program is an example - I actually signed the girls up for it knowing our plates were pretty full, but wanting them to have the track and field experience. I often sign them up for things that I can't provide them as a homeschool mom, and track and field wasn't my strength!  I also acquiesced because it fit into our schedule more easily than most other activities (the oldest three can all participate and all at the same time), and they meet at the park two doors down from our house. It's perfect really.

However, one of my children doesn't love it. She isn't the fastest runner and, like her mother, doesn't enjoy running. She likes the jumping and throwing, but not the running. As you know though, running is a big part of track and field. So, I gave her the option of not doing it next year, but asked her to try to finish out this year. Funnily enough, once I gave her a way out of it (sort of) she decided she really wanted to continue with it. . . which proves my point that once we start it's hard to stop, even when it's not a favorite!!

All that being said, we had a beautiful night for the program Wednesday night. . . here are some pics of the girls:

Josie and her friend Izzy (in front of her) await their turn in the relay race. I suggested a skirt might not be the best thing to wear to this activity, but as you can see decided not to enforce a change. 

Katie attempting the long jump:

Meg doing the discus throw:

Of course social butterfly Katie decided this was another opportunity for a party - here she is with her friends Georgie and Pippa.

But here is where she should be, starting her sprint.

And Ellie, taking it all in from Alison's shoulder. . .
Jo doing some throwing. .  .

No one would ever accuse me of being athletic!

I attempted my first harbour swim this morning with my team! We've been trying to get out there for awhile now but the wind has been ghastly on the days we've scheduled so this was our first go. In fact, the coach said it was perfect weather, and judging by the lack of wind and calm water alone it was. However it was still only 14 degrees outside (57 F) and the water was FREEZING!!!

We arrived at the beach and I realized I'd forgotten my towel, not an auspicious start on such a cold day. Then we all helped each other into our wetsuits. I had my camera but was just too overwhelmed to remember to photograph the occasion, but I will next time. After that we inched our way into the water. My feet were bright red from the cold and almost instantly numb. I waded out as far as I could before actually beginning to swim, but when I could walk no more I had to buck up and put my face in. Oh. My. Word. It felt like I had been smacked and it took all my breath away. So I swam in what we call "chin on water" to our first buoy. I basically didn't put my head in again. After a much too short rest at the buoy we headed for our big swim to the fountain. 

This time I had to put my face in the water. Thankfully the wetsuit kept my body temperature pretty stable and as I exerted a bit more energy my feet eventually warmed up. The challenge now was to go the right direction. I kept drifting with the current and heading the wrong way. There were times I was swimming as hard as I could but it seemed like I was going nowhere. I had to flip over and do a bit of backstroke just to catch my breath, but I finally made it to my destination. Again a short rest and we were off to the third buoy. By this time I was used to the temperature and could breathe again, but I was still having directional issues. I stayed close to my friend Fleur and decided to let her navigate while I concentrated on surviving.

Lastly (for me anyway) we had the long swim to shore. On this swim I felt pretty good, but then I started thinking about the sea creatures the girls and I have been studying in science and I kind of freaked myself out. There was a bit of seaweed and if I saw a shadow it made me nervous, not to mention the fact that I was flat worn out and there was no way I'd be able to out swim a creature coming after me. Once we reached shore I got out with a few of the other girls and had a rest while the rest of the team did it all again. The "resting" girls made the mistake of doing one more "quick swim" to the buoy after we'd been out resting so I had to go through the shock of cold all over again - so next time I'll do my resting in the water I think.

After the swim came the fun bit - we all paid to shower at the pool so we could warm up and then headed across the street to a lovely cafe overlooking Oriental Bay and had coffee and treats. We've decided to keep doing sea swims on Wednesdays until Christmas, so I'm looking forward to participating, and hopefully improving, until my babysitting budget runs out. 

The girls are still happy and busy with all of their activities, Katie and Josie are preparing for their ballet recital now that the Musical Stars performance is over. Meggie and Katie are still riding horses as well as preparing for a small Christmas performance with Musical Stars, but nothing like the one they just did. They will also be in the Christmas Parade in downtown Wellington this weekend. All of the girls are still swimming and they think it's great that Mommy is taking lessons too :). Dugald is still quite busy at work so he's constantly trying to find the balance between work and home life, not always easy and I don't envy him but he does a good job. That's all our news for the moment!

We're still in election mode. . .

The New Zealand elections are tomorrow so we are all still in election mode around here. In fact, Dugald and I are going to a party on Saturday night to watch the results as they roll in. I am a bit clueless to be honest! I missed the opportunity to vote in this election by three months because you only have to be here a year and you are allowed to vote with a Resident Visa. 

The current Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has been in that office since 1999, which is really hard to imagine! My oldest daughter was born in 1999 and in some ways it seems like a lifetime ago. Anyway, we'll see if the Kiwis are as eager for change as the Americans were. The Kiwis have a voting system called MMP which stands for Mixed Member Proportional Representation. It's different from their former system of FPP (First Past the Post, which is basically majority wins). The MMP system means that each party's share of the seats in Parliament would be close to its share of the overall vote. At last count I think there were 20 political parties. . . including one called "Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party". Aotearoa means "land of the long white cloud" in Maori, which is of course New Zealand, and they do spell legalize with an s here. All of this is why I am confused and it's probably a good thing I can't vote.

Speaking of Americans, I am NOT getting political here, I just wanted to say that it was weird getting the election results before dinner. That's one advantage of being a day ahead and a few hours behind. 

In other news, I was supposed to do my very first sea swim on Wednesday and I had psyched myself up for the challenge of getting my wetsuit on and entering the frigid water, but alas, it was not to be! We woke up to gale-force winds so thankfully the swim was cancelled. I honestly wasn't sure our coach would actually cancel, these people are TOUGH and they are out in just about any weather. I've mentioned before that I often feel guilty when it is blowing and raining outside and I decide to drive the half mile to the grocery store rather than walk, because I almost always pass someone I know hoofin it in the horrific weather. 

No new news from the girls - they are all doing well. Even Ellie seems to have her temper a little more under control, could she be turning the corner?? I can only pray. Dugald is quite busy at work, he just returned from another short trip to Auckland last night. He was there for some work but he also got to see Kate and her family (he stayed with them) and attend a Mercy Ships board meeting. We're looking forward to heading up to Auckland as a family next month for a Mercy Ships 30-Year Reunion. Don and Deyon, our good friends and the founders of Mercy Ships, will be there so we are all excited to spend time with them as well as Kate and family and our other Mercy Ships friends. 

It's hard to believe it's almost Christmas! Especially since we are in the middle of spring. My brain is all muddled with the seasons turned around. I miss the changing leaves that usually accompany my Christmas music. I always try to hold out until Thanksgiving to play it, but I usually don't make it and whip it out just after Halloween.  And as far as Thanksgiving goes, I'm trying to muster the energy to cook and celebrate it. It is one of my favorite holidays so I think we'll have to organize some friends to come over and celebrate it with us. I could barely manage cooking for it in Texas in my gigantic kitchen with two ovens, who knows how I'll sort it out here, but I'll figure out something!

I'll try and post more photos of the little ones soon! Hugs to all.

The Wicked Wizard of Gree. . . And Halloween

Before I even begin to talk about our Halloween I have to say a great big, huge, enormous THANK YOU to Molly and Lori who so kindly sent my kiddos Halloween treats. They were so excited, as always, to get a package, and even more importantly I had nothing special for Halloween this year  . . . no new costumes, no special orange and black candy, no special plates, no decorations on the house, nothing, nada. So your gifts were a huge blessing to all of us. 

The reason I had none of the above items, until our sweet friends sent us some, is because Halloween is just not that big of a deal here. A lot of kids have never been trick-or-treating. The stores don't sell anything special, it was difficult to even find wrapped candy to hand out. Our church put on a "Beach Party" with another church which was well attended (but not everyone was in a costume), but we missed that because we were invited to Rob and Liz's to go trick-or-treating with the cousins. Rumor has it that where they live, Seatoun, is one of the more popular places to go if you are in fact planning on trick-or-treating so off we went. 

Here the girls are all dressed up and ready to go - it was still light out because we are in late spring so the days are longer.

I had the best Halloween ever because for the first time in 9 years Dugald and I didn't have to split up with one of us (him) answering the door while the other chaperoned the children. Instead the girls were taken by their cousins and Dugald and I got to stay at Liz's (Rob was in Hong Kong) and drink wine and eat nibbles. Thank you so much Liz, Alex and Hettie for a lovely evening. 

On Saturday the girls had their last Musical Stars performance of "The Wicked Wizard of Gree".  It's a funny title because the week of the performance the powers that be decided that Musical Stars could not do a performance called "The Wicked Wizard of Oz" due to copyright laws and whatnot. So, the staff scrambled to rewrite a lot of the script and change songs in order not to violate the copyright issues. It's too bad it all happened at the last minute because the children have been practicing for three terms, but, that being said, they pulled off an amazing show and did a wonderful job! It was lots of fun to watch.

We took our friend Pippa along, here are our girls waiting for the show to begin:

Katie is on the right - she sang a solo part in "Do you believe in magic?"

Meggie had a pretty big speaking role - she's the one with the mic on the right in this picture:

Katie dancing in "One Short Day in the Emerald City"

Both girls were on stage during this song, but they were behind the girls in gingham so it's difficult to see them!
Meggie is the yellow witch here:

Katie on the left next to her good friend Julia.
Meggie's last solo - she was terrific!

** Remember if you'd like to see a larger version of one of these pictures you can just click on them **

A Doll Tale

When Meggie was born one of the gifts my mom gave me was my well-loved childhood Madame Alexander doll for me to pass down to Meggie. Well, Meggie never really was a doll kind of girl. She preferred playing outside, playing with stuffed animals and playing with toy cars to playing with dolls. It was a tough blow and completely unexpected. 

When Meggie was six we made a special mother-daughter pilgrimage to New York and I took her to the American Girl Place, which if I had gone at her age would have sent me into a complete frenzy, but instead of frantically choosing a doll that looked just like her and begging me for several outfits (like I would have done), she asked for a horse. She had no interest in the dolls - and I had even scheduled a special tea for us where the waiters attach little chairs to the table for your very special doll. She wanted none of it. Let's just say I was disappointed. I insisted that she get a doll and then bought the horse too, because I realized the unfairness of my living vicariously through her. We had tea. All was well. She even played with the doll a bit since we were in New York with her very best friend Clara and Clara was excited to have her new doll and encouraged Meggie to play too. By the end of the trip Meggie was a convert and her doll went everywhere with us, but gradually she was forgotten again. 

Katie was my "transition into doll world" girl. She would play with dolls and quite enjoyed it but was often recruited by Meggie to play animals instead. Taking her to New York to pick out her doll was a bit closer to the experience I had dreamed of with Meggie. We had the tea, Nicky sat with us, all was well.

Josie is the doll queen. Finally. She LOVES dolls. She's dying to get her American Girl doll when we go to NYC for her six-year-old birthday. I can hardly wait, we're both giddy with excitement.

The funny thing is, as Meggie has been more and more surrounded by doll-loving girls she has started playing with them more and really enjoying them. Her doll is named Skylar - Meggie chose her and named her. At the American Girl Place you have the choice of either picking a doll that looks like you, or picking a doll from history that has already been assigned a name and a bit of a story. Meggie picked a doll that came from the "My Twin" group - only she didn't pick a freckle-nosed, curly haired, blue-eyed, red head; she picked an olive-skinned, straight-haired, brown-eyed, brunette. Go figure. 

Katie picked Nicky and she is a doll with a story - she's a cowgirl from Colorado and I think Katie just really liked her outfit. Katie's stylish like that.

So, now we have American Girl doll beds, suitcases, clothes, you name it, and everyone likes to play.  All that to say, the girls were OVER THE MOON when a package arrived from the Parkers in Japan full of belated birthday presents  . .  . this is what they got:

Kimonos for their dolls!!! So cute!! (Yes I know one of them is on backwards) We immediately dressed everyone up - Josie and Ellie still have Bitty Baby but that's ok, the kimonos worked on them too. Such a great gift. Many, many thanks. The dolls are now going to a Halloween party with us in their kimonos as costumes. 

Here are a few pics from the weekend, the girls had their friends Julia and Izzy over for the afternoon and I snapped a few pics of them having lunch.

Meg and Ellie

Julia and Katie
Izzy and Jo
This last one is a pic of Katie doing Nicki's hair, she was out on the porch for ages just thinking up new styles.