This seems to be a familiar picture when we have visitors - we are trying not to take it too personally!! Mum and Dad have arrived safely and after 4 days have managed to stay awake for most of the day. They have now moved into Annes house and are trying to get used to having a 10 month old giddy dog. Mum is not too keen on having her legs cleaned every evening by morris who sits snuggled up close to her licking her legs!

The boys and Martin had a good time at camp. Sam and Joe did rock climbing, abseiling, kayaking, caving, bmx racing and shooting. They both had a fantastic time and came back very very tired but luckily this time with no injuries. Martin sort of enjoyed it but struggled without his several times a day coffee fix, He was very brave and did the extreme caving and swam under the water to get out of the caves. He says he enjoyed it but we will see if he offers to go on the next camp for a true measure of his enjoyment.!

Next year the boys camp is for a whole week, they go from here right to the top of the north island and back down the other side. Joe has already got my name down for that one but I think I may be much too busy to spend a week in camps with 25 kids!!

As usual Joe doesnt like having his photo taken.

Here is a carrot Martin grew just in case sam had another accident with his finger! At least we would have a spare then. Below is the other interesting shapes we managed to create with our carrots!

Not sure we are going to make keen gardeners but we have had a laugh trying!

Jess has won an award at school for excellent artwork and was star of the week last week so she is doing really well. Joe got the highest PAT maths results in his year so he is pleased. Sam is annoyed that he hasn't won anything yet, but we are sure he will soon, especially if there is an award for being 'cheeky'!

The tsunami didnt really make it here. We had some swell but all of it was under a metre.We didnt know anything about the alert until we started receiving texts. Luckily, although we are next to the sea we are in an inlet so whilst we would get the water the main body would hit some islands before it got to us. (not lucky for the island!!).



We have our next set of visitors arriving in a couple of weeks. Grandma and Grandad are coming for 7 weeks. They have the job of house/dog sitting for a friend who has the most beautiful house set in 10 hectares of land with amazing views and a few cows thrown in there too. The kids cant wait and have along list of things for them to do.

Boys are off to camp along with martin so will post some photos when they get back - hopefully with no injuries this time.
xx