Zealandia

The Karori Sanctuary is a beautiful haven right here in the heart of Wellington - a nature preserve full of animals unique to New Zealand and it's practically in our backyard. The powers that be have decided to re-name it Zealandia and market it more aggressively as a tourist attraction. There's been a bit of a brouhaha over it - as there always is when something is changed - but no matter what you call it, the place is amazing and we went there on Saturday to participate in some of their Easter celebrations. 

First up, egg painting. I was very grateful for this activity as I had failed to special order white eggs from the butcher for the girls to color. They only sell brown eggs in the store here - and we get brown eggs from our farmer - so I didn't have any suitable for dyeing. 

Then it was time for an Easter Egg hunt - only not like any egg hunt we've been on before. This one involved a sheet with clues that Daddy read out to the girls, then a hunt all over the sanctuary. Here's Daddy reading the first clue to our eager beavers.
And they're off. . .
It was a great way to explore the sanctuary and we were there for several hours looking for eggs, but admiring the wildlife too. The "eggs" we were looking for were simply construction paper cut in the shape of an egg and we just had to write down what color we found where on our clue sheet.
We spotted one of the elusive tuatara, can you see him?

It was such a fun way to spend the morning - the rest of the afternoon wasn't nearly as exciting as it just consisted of lunch and shoe shopping, but we did stop in Seatoun to visit with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Kate who are in town for Easter and the Wellington Quilt Symposium. Kate won 1st place with one of her quilts, she is amazing and I'll try to post pics of the quilt here - I've seen it and it is remarkable.

Palm Sunday and Birthday Plans

Last Sunday for Palm Sunday we had a real donkey in church representing Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt and the girls thought it was grand. . . the donkey, not so much. The poor thing was terribly frightened and not too thrilled with being paraded in front of everyone. However she made it through the service ok and afterwards on the vicarage lawn she was happy to let the girls and everyone else pet her while she nibbled on the grass. They also had a few other animals for the children to play with, here are some pics of Katie and Ellie feeding the guinea pigs.

In other news we are organizing for Ellie's family birthday celebration so Meggie pulled out a book she got for Christmas and helped Ellie pick out some cupcakes. It was very cute!

Today we headed to the family service at church for Good Friday. It was a powerful service, we all went up and hammered a nail into the cross and as the sound of pounding echoed through the building I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at what Jesus went through on my behalf. Truly we have so much to be grateful for and to celebrate this weekend, but it did come at great cost and I am left pondering that today.

Praying for Stellan

I was introduced to a whole new world known as the blogosphere when I began blogging following our move here. In the early days, before I had made many friends and when I was desperately homesick, I started reading the blogs of some amazing women on a regular basis. I found that reading the blogs of women that inspired me, women that encouraged me as a wife and mother, women that were a few years ahead of me in child-raising, women that had a relationship with the Lord that I admired, all helped me feel not so alone and gave me hope and inspiration when I was struggling. One of those women, whom I have never met in real life and probably never will meet, is MckMama. You can read her blog for yourself by clicking here, and I'd encourage it if you have some time, but the reason I'm writing about her here is that her baby boy is sick. He has a heart condition and has been in the hospital for three weeks and things aren't getting better, yet. The baby's name is Stellan and a friend of theirs has started this really cool name gallery where people are sending in pictures of Stellan's name to show that they are praying for him. You can find that here, there are some incredibly amazing and creative ways people far and wide are showing their love and support for this sweet family. 

Our care group was here tonight for dessert so we prayed for Stellan too - and  our family has been praying for Stellan. We took our feeble Stellan picture tonight (can't really see the sign in the group shot but it does say his name) and lifted up powerful prayers to our powerful God on his behalf. We sent them in and soon they too will be a part of the gallery. It's an amazing thing to see how this sweet baby is being prayed for by people all around the world! 

Puppy Appeal

Last summer (which is January here) we went to a church camp in Waikanae for a long weekend and while there we met a blind man with a seeing-eye dog. Dugald and I talked with him awhile and found out that it costs $25,000 to train one dog. We also have sweet friends - our neighbors from Campbell Street - that have been involved with The Society for the Blind for awhile now and have participated in the society's annual fundraiser. Here in New Zealand charities are allowed a particular time of year to solicit funds on the street, and now is the time to raise money for the dogs (so to speak). Meggie and Katie were eager to participate when we told them how much it costs to train a dog, so on Saturday we headed down to Karori Mall to help.

In New Zealand you aren't allowed to actually ask for donations, or shake your bucket, you are just to stand politely and wait for people to notice you. The girls were told that only one out of every ten people would actually donate and so they shouldn't be discouraged. I watched them for awhile and then did some shopping , got a coffee, etc and checked in on them every now and again and I would say without a doubt that they beat the one out of every ten people donating by a mile - I was so proud of them. They were near an entrance and they would just smile and say "Good Morning" and people would donate - their cuteness beat the odds!! After an hour and a half when our time commitment was completed they wanted to stay longer! 

Later that evening we had fish and chips and watched "Planet Earth"  - it was a great day!

Happy 6th Josie!!

Our Josie turned six on April 2nd!!! Her big present this year is her trip with Mommy, Aunt Ali and Anna to New York City, so we didn't have a party and just celebrated as a family instead. I think she still had a pretty wonderful day and we are all grateful for the many gifts from friends and family that she received. We'll be working on the thank-you notes asap.


Here's the birthday girl awaiting her requested birthday breakfast of Froot Loops and hot chocolate. This girl understands that breakfast is THE most important meal of the day. But even before eating one must open gifts. . .

Let's get this party started. . .
Here is Jo with the card Meggie and Katie picked out especially for her.
And with a very glamourous Barbie sent by Mimi and Big Daddy. She was so excited about every single one of her gifts, thank you everyone. (Mommy loved the surprises tucked in the Abrameit package too - yum!)

Alex, Hetty and Hugh sent flowers and an adorable pink hippo that's been named Amelia.
And then Lucy and Adrienne popped over with a beautiful cupcake. . .
After her requested dinner of roasted chicken and potatoes - with a few green vegetables thrown in that were not requested - we finished the evening with cake and ice cream. Meggie and Ellie decorated the cake.

Josie had a wonderful day - so much to celebrate!

On Wednesday night Dugald and I had a fantastic evening out with Rob and Liz, it's such fun to get together sans kids every once in awhile and connect with siblings. We went to an amazing Wellington restaurant and loitered over our food and wine for hours - it was truly a blessing.

Life continues on at it's normal, but slightly busy pace. . .it's the end of term 1 here so the girls' activities are all about to stop for two weeks which in some ways is a welcome relief. I've worked really hard to keep our schedule manageable, and this term was definitely better (especially with the two big girls getting themselves to a lot of their activities) but I still am always happy to have the term breaks. We will be continuing with just about everything - but Athletics has ended so Meggie, Katie and Josie will be giving netball a go. I don't really even know how to play netball, and they don't either, so it will be fun to discover this Kiwi sport together.

Watch to the end. . .

This video is hilarious!! I'll post again about our lives soon, but enjoy this in the meantime.

Dragon Boating Competition

Sunday was cool and overcast so our day got off to a slow start. . . I have to laugh because with the change in weather the girls have started singing Christmas carols around the house. It's just ingrained in us that cooler temperatures signify Christmas, not Easter. Although we've been here a year we are still getting used to the months having the opposite seasons.

Anyhoo, we finally got ourselves dressed and fed and headed down to the waterfront to watch the dragon boating competitions. Our niece, Alex, and our old neighbor, Lucy, were both on the Marsden team. Unfortunately we missed Lucy's race by getting there too late, but we were just in time to see Alex and her team in the championship race. It was quite cold and I didn't envy those girls getting in boats!

When we arrived the girls huddled up for a cheer - see the paddles at their feet? That's Alex looking our way with the brown hair.

We filed over closer to the boats and waited for her race to be called. Meanwhile the girls kept cheering and chanting - I think it was to keep warm as much as to display school spirit. This cheer was a favorite of my girls, that's Josie in front in the polka dot coat and Katie to the left. It involved some sassy hip shaking . . .

With Alex. . .

And Hetty. . .

Finally it's time to get in the boat. . .

There were quite a few people there to watch, despite the yukky weather, so we found a spot near the grandstand. When the boats first came into view Marsden was in the lead. . .

sadly within a few strokes some of the other teams pulled ahead.

After crossing the finish (I think they were 4th out of 20 overall) another boat hit them and Alex and a few of the girls were tipped into the freezing water,so they swam to the ramp. Here she is getting out:

My girls were impressed that the girls were putting the boat away - seemed to the boys should have been doing it.

All in all it was a lot of fun to be a part of the excitement and we're proud of Alex.

In other news, Dugald arrived home safely this morning and we are thrilled to have him back!!!