On the home front

How does one pass the last few weeks of summer before school starts in Nelson, NZ?

1.  Go to the Rodeo in Richmond.  (Boys only - mommy was working!)

2.  Have Poppa over for dinner whilst Nana was away to visit her sister.  Open the Christmas Crackers that didn't get opened at Christmas, wear silly hats, read silly jokes and learn why gorillas have big noses (because they have big fingers!).

3.  Play Nintendo DS - brother bonding time.

 4.  Collect shellfish at Rabbit Island and enjoy a feast of FREE seafood (Dave only this time!)

5.  Go to Quinney's Bush as a family and check out the old school waterslide . . .

. . . and play in the swimming hole in the river and try ANOTHER water slide

 . . . enjoy the FREE lazy river ride  (thanks again for the inflatable rings from Hawaii)

6. Learn how to use the BMX track!

7.  Take swimming lessons, learn big arms . . .

  . . . backstroke

 . . . and diving!    (I nearly freaked out when she started teaching them in the shallow end of the pool - I was like "Hey, my kids already know how to dive - like to the BOTTOM!"  ARGHHH!  They managed to convert their dive to a suitably fashionable belly flop (thank goodness) given the circumstances (i.e.  3 feet of water)

8.  Hang out at Ruby Bay.  We headed over to this stoney beach to have a campfire on the beach, which they let you do below the high tide line . . . except on the day we arrived they had just imposed a fire ban due to lack of rain.  So we ate un-toasted marshmallows, collected seashells, uncovered hundreds of little crabs hiding under the rocks, and a dead hedgehog. 

9.  Xavier looses the training wheels!  YEAH!  And graduates to another BMX track (pump track) at a local school (YES, the school built this track for community use too, how cool is that??) within 5 minutes of riding a two-wheeler. 

  

10.  Read Asterix and Tintin.  Truly, how many of these books have been published??  The kids keep finding new ones every time they go to the library.  Oh, yes, Dave reads them too (shhh, don't tell everyone!...Dave).  I, on the other hand, avoid them at all costs.  These Romans are CRAZY!

Last day of summer vacation, the boys headed where else???  To the beach again.  Digging holes affectionately known in our family as "Dougal traps" since little 2 year old cousin Dougal loves to sit inside them, but often can't get out.

We finished with pizza and a view!

Then off to school we went, uniforms and all.  Walking down our street = down the hill in the morning is much easier than walking back up at the end of the day.  (I keep carrying the backpacks)

   I've had a request to do a blog on the school system here and the differences to Ontario.  I'll keep some notes and get to work on that shortly.  For example, the boys have swimming 3 times per week and a school triathlon next week.    Should be interesting!

Well, the biggest news is that my parents have arrived for a month long visit and we welcomed them with a roast leg of lamb for dinner and company for a dessert buffet!

That's it - you are all up-to-date!