Sprwintsumming

Our spring weather is as changeable as...well, spring weather. We've had warm fine days, warm cloudy days, cold cloudy days, cold fine days, wet days, windy days, and hail days.  And sometimes all of the above in one day.  This hail came down quite suddenly and shared skyscapes with the sun.  The hailstones were small but many, affording the boys a good bit of fun before it melted away in the rain which followed (briefly, before the clouds were blown away and the sun came out again, which was before the clouds blew in again). 

Aaron played a basketball game this evening and their team won, dramatically, with a score of 22/21. It was a fabulous game to spectate and I was one of several parents yelling in excitement from the sidelines, nearly hoarse by the end of it and feeling as victorious as though we had been the ones shooting the hoops. Go TCS Hurricanes!

We've missed you, Caroline

We gathered together a small crew after the evening service for a beach visit - we'd been keeping an eye on the weather forecast and today seemed like it would be a good one for the first beach excursion of the 2013/2014 season.  It had been cloudy all day but with a few northerlies about it was pretty mild.

The Phillipsies all came, along with Zayn, Zildari, Inge and Kenan. 

Erinmarie dared Caleb and Aaron to immerse themselves in the ocean, so that was an easy $5 earned!!  Aaron looking a little gap-smiled there, having lost two teeth on the weekend.

And then the sun came out - well, more accurately described it started sinking out from below the cloud line.  What a magnificent evening!

We hadn't thought ahead to bring any beach balls or sports gear, but the kids improvised with a game of 'toss the sand clods'.

Arrrrrrrr....

Bronwyn and Charity arrived...

By around 7.30 pm we were about ready to head off, still exclaiming at the sunshine and brightness of the day at that time.

An unsurprising but surprisingly fun shower

Last Saturday night when Graham, Liz and Sascha came for dinner, we used all their hands for putting together a "nappy cake". Of course I couldn't say anything about it at the time because it was to be a surprise for Rosanna's baby shower today, but thanks fellas for the help in producing this creation of nappies, baby products, lime green and orangeness! 

So, with not too many weeks left, it was high time to get our church ladies together for a shower.  Bronwyn and I had a good laugh about our cultural differences at approaching the organization when, a few weeks ago, she asked me a question regarding the date right in front of Rosanna.  I stared at her as blankly as possible, wondering how I could possibly cover up the faux-pas, but apparently in kiwi-land showers are not intended to be surprises at all.  Does make it a lot easier to plan when you don't also need to concoct a fake event to which to invite the mum!
We held the event at Liz's house and had a fabulous gathering of 17 ladies, young and old.  Liz is a great party planner - she's really an ideas person, and between us we came up with several baby-related activities (apart from eating) - guess the girth, draw the baby, charades, a baby trivia quiz, guess how many nappies were in the cake, nappy shotput, memory game, and getting Rosanna to work out who the gifts were from by matching the baby photo to the giver.  It was a fun-filled afternoon although I see everyone looks very serious in most of the photos in this post - they must have been concentrating hard!

Can't wait to meet the new little person, Rosanna!

Being at home ranks higher than a swim

First week of holidays has nearly come and gone. The boys had to do their room - a typical holiday fun activity I schedule in for them. I offered them a swim as their reward for a job well done, but they have been enjoying playing with the neighbourhood kids so much they asked for the swimming fee as cash instead! 

This afternoon's game had to do with flowers possessing magic powers, potions, apothecaries, swords and all things medieval. 

Since the start of daylight savings at the beginning of the week, the days have suddenly opened up into sunny evenings and time for play outside after tea still.  We're loving spring!!

Celebrating eight decades

She hides it exceptionally well, but the secret's out now: dear Shirley is 80! We celebrated with our sprightly octogenarian by joining forces with the regularly scheduled coffee morning, and adding numbers and items of interest. After sampling the delectable goodies provided by so many different hands, Marg gave the opening welcome and congratulated Shirley.

It's also Nick's birthday this month, so as per the regular custom of the coffee morning he was awarded a flower to wear in his jacket.

When we'd all had our fill of tea and cakes, we reseated ourselves in the pews for a short program of singing, dancing and poetry.  Caleb (Cameron) was first up with a song and dance number which he performed so well - what a natural!

Chrissy had her singing voice dusted off and sparkling...

...then Nick introduced the next item which was one of his songs, performed by Rene with Nick accompanying.

Rene caught his breath for a moment before launching into a moving rendition of "When it's all been said and done"...reflecting on Shirley's life.

Hannah blessed us all with a song too - so much talent in the Kempf/Cameron family!

Josh was last up with a reading of a poem about Shirley (written by clever Bronwyn) which had us in stitches.

What a great morning and such an honour for us to join in the celebrations.  Happy birthday Shirley, and many, many more!