I have finally synced my phone to my computer - something that I should probably be doing daily but don't - and discovered random photos from the past few weeks. I have numerous shots from ballet when I was playing with a new app but I'll post those separately. Actually, it wasn't a new app I was playing with, it was an old one that I'd totally forgotten I had. Ahem.

Anyway, we have lots to catch up on, this wee blog and I, so I'll try to be more attentive to it in the next few days.

This precious dog, surrounded by precious girls and Daniel, was tethered to a bench outside church a few Sundays ago. Apparently she was being "dog-sat" (rather than babysat, get it?) by a lovely couple from our parish. She was a gentle giant and the girls fell in love.

The reason Meggie wasn't in the above photo is that she had arrived early to get ready to lead worship. She's been asked to sing with our worship leader regularly and this was her first gig outside of a children's service. Dugald and I have been inundated with compliments as to how well she did, we were and are so proud of her!

Sundays have been synonymous with ballet of late - the girls are having rehearsals to prepare for their exams. That means Meggie has to be at the studio at 12, Katie at 1 and Josie at 3. While waiting for Meggie one day Katie and I ventured out for food and landed here. Yum, yum and more yum.

It hailed. Again. We've had some crazy weather this year.

Ellie loves, loves, loves to jump in puddles.

Family Weekend

A few weekends ago we had a lovely time with Lloyd and Julie and family before Lloyd was scheduled to head back to Seattle. Andrew and Debs joined us from Australia, Hamish flew in from Berlin, and Lloyd and Julie hosted all for a wonderful weekend. We had brunch with the extended family on Saturday, a lovely cocktail party on Saturday night, and another brunch with friends and family from out of town on Sunday. It really was a special weekend - lots of laughter - and we are so grateful for the time together. 

Debs, Dugald's cousin Jo, and Dugs.

Vita and her dad reading the paper.

Meggie and Katie joined us Saturday and Sunday morning, the little girls only came on Sunday.

 

My lens cap on my small camera failed to open properly here - thus the black lines - but this is Uncle John, Kate and Rob.

The boys table - Andrew, Hamish H., Lloyd, Ant, Tom and Dugs

Maddie and her dad.

The "A" team - Dugald, Kate, Andrew, Rob, Lloyd and Hamish

Lloyd's car with all his hats lined up in the back.

Wishing Hugh/Grandpa/Dad a Happy Father's Day (New Zealand celebrates it in September)

Liz

The "B" Team - Me, Julie, Ant, Liz and Debs. We missed you Mike!

Three of Hugh and Margaret's grandchildren are in casts, or plasters as they say here,  so Katie enjoyed playing with the crutches.

Our girls always love hanging out with their grown-up cousins. 

Hamish and Ellie having a discussion.

Elliott and Wills with their injured feet.

Vita

Elliott

Hugh

L and J

Ottilie and Hettie

Me, Lloyd and Debs

Dugs and Hamish

Ant and Rob

I love this photo of Julie and Kate!

Ottilie and Ellie - despite warnings to not climb all over Otts because she was recovering from gallbladder surgery I found this!

Ellie

Ellie is growing up, and while she has always been fiercely independent, she has added being helpful to her repertoire. She saved her allowance money to buy a "big girl" magazine a few weeks ago and then pulled a recipe out of it to make us all dinner. She wrote the ingredients that we needed down on our shopping list, helped me to find them at the supermarket, and then assembled it all on her own for dinner.  

All the girls have wrapped up their netball seasons. Meggie's team had a great time playing together but it wasn't exactly a winning season. In fact they didn't win any games, but they had surprisingly good attitudes. It's the first time she has played on a graded team and most of the other girls on her team were inexperienced. Katie's team finished fantastically well in first place. She played well and her coach commended her for it and said she was one of the best players on the team. Josie's team also had a lot of fun - for them it was a steep learning curve as it is the first year any of them have played games. A few of the girls had participated in Fun Ferns (which is what Ellie did, Fun Ferns is a skill building course for younger kids) but most of them were brand-new to the sport, including Jo. They had more losses than wins but they learned a lot and had great team spirit. Finally Miss Ellie loved her time with the Fun Ferns, she was fearless (of course) and will probably develop into a very good player if she chooses to continue. Here's a 10-second video from my phone, Ellie is in the striped dress.

We had a lovely family weekend recently and I will post pictures soon. Hugs to all!

Remembering 9/11

Thinking back to where we were 10 years ago today - home watching the events of September 11th unfold before our eyes on television and weeping for our country. So thankful to the first-responders, so proud of how America pulled together, and so sad for how the world changed that day. We will never forget.

Katie's Soiree

We went to Marsden the other night to hear the Years 5 & 6 play musical instruments and sing. At the moment Katie isn't playing an instrument, but she did try out for, and made, the Chapel Choir so we got to hear her sing. Here are a few pictures and then some video at the end. I didn't take our video camera, oops, but I used my phone. You won't be able to pick Katie out of the crowd but you can enjoy their lovely voices and I hope my American family enjoys the accent. Lots of love. Dx

Katie is in the front row, second from the left.

Still in front row, second from left.

Now Katie is right in front of her music teacher's hand.

Meggie's Amazing Race

We finally had a party to celebrate Meggie turning 12! We hosted an "Amazing Race" and movie night and the weather couldn't have been better - a great benefit to having waited a few weeks after her actual birthday to have the party. 

Meggie has lovely friends and it was so fun to get to know her new school friends a bit better. We all met at our house and then walked over to Marsden to have the race. I actually had them do more of a photo scavenger hunt than a race like the television show because after we'd sent out the invites I realized that implementing that was going to require much more manpower than I had available. In the end though I think the girls had a great time anyway. We divided into two teams and gave them a sheet of clues and they had to run around the campus and find the various spots  and take pictures. I heard a LOT of giggling. They had to take turns taking the pictures and we divided the teams based on how long the girls had been at Marsden (since they would know the campus best) and we even had some non-Marsden girls who were enthusiastic participants as well. In fact I think they spotted some of the spots before the girls that actually go to school there. The teams got one point for finding the spot and another for being creative in the photos. 

Meggie's Team - Claudia, Sophie, Gothami, Meggie and Zoe

 Katie's Team - Gina, Martine, Pippa, Katie and Julia (who was there for the second half)

After the big race we came home and ate pizza and ice-cream cake, then the the girls hunkered down in the playroom to watch "Soul Surfer" while Dugald, Wills and I played a game in the dining room. I also burned DVDs for each of the girls with photos from their team for them to take home. All in all I think Meggie had a lot of fun and felt loved, success!

I have a couple of things backlogged that also need blogging so they make it into the family photo album, will hopefully get to that soon. Katie competed in the Western Zones swimming last week and qualified to move on in backstroke. She also sang at the school soiree and I have a cute video clip to upload and hopefully post here soon.  Meanwhile Dugald and I are both trying to get over the colds that won't die. He's off to the doctor tomorrow but I think I'm finally seeing the tail-end of mine so will just wait it out a few more days.