This week has been the boys athletics day, it was held in Omokoroa so we didnt have to go too far. Lots of different schools from around the area came to compete hence the different school colour uniforms.

Action shot of Joe completing the high jump.

Just to show the delight on sam's face has he throws the quoit and sees it heading straight for me taking the photo - bless him.

We have been to the mount today to see the christmas festival and parade with our neighbours Kim and Scott and kids. We went Handy which means early in liverpudlian! as they shut the roads so the parade can go up and down the main street.

Sam and Joe and their friend Sam waiting for the parade to start.

Lots of fire engines, motor bikes, sports cars all were on the parade all decorated in tinsel. It was a really lovely day, the sun was shining, lovely friends and the bagpipes and other bands playing loudly. It was a great atmosphere.

This was the Tauranga Salsa group.

Here is Jess showing the loss of one her front teeth. She is trying to get to grips with speaking.

There is no news on the house yet as its still at council. We have Jess's athletics tomorrow at another school so we should have some photos from that. Jess is not looking forward to it and is praying for rain so its cancelled!

We also have the family festival at Omokoroa next week which was a really good day out last year.

See you all next week

Love xxx

Well its now spring in sunny Omokoroa, the sun is shining and that summer feeling is with us. The barbie is back on regularly and we are enjoying the longer days. We had a bbq at a friends house a last weekend and chilled out whilst our 3 and their 2 boys had a water fight with the water guns.

We have been seeing lots of Parakeets in the garden recently

Jess being a bird lover made sure we caught it on camera.

So just to annoy Jess we caught her on camera too!!

Not sure if I have already posted that one or not!

The boys have been on a visit to another school to play the marimbas (think that is how you spell it!)

They loved it and play really well, somthing to do with hitting things as hard as possible with a big stick that makes it so much fun. The school was a lovely little school which has year 1 to year 8 with a roll of 86 - how small is that.

Here they both are playing away. Yes they do look miserable but they did enjoy it honestly!
We have athletics for the boys next week where they all compete against all the other local schools and then Jess does the same the week after, so we should have some action shots for the next blog.

Then its all go for the weeks leading up to christmas at school. It will be a busy time for them with all the christmas activities, summer sports and the finish of this school year. Jess will move into year 3 and Sam and Joe into year 7 in January. Jess will have an new teacher who is apparently very bossy so we will look forward to that battle of wills!! The boys will probably stay with the same teacher as he teaches year 6 and 7, there is only small numbers of kids at the school so most classes have pupils from 2 years in.

Martin has 3 weeks off at christmas so we can do some chilling out with hopefully some good walks and nice coffees. The kids finish on the 18th Dec and then go back at the beginning of Feb, very carefully timed with my parents visit, who arrive the week after the terrors are back at school. They will probably find me rocking in a straight jacket somewhere by then!

The photos I have posted on here today with the views of Omokoroa have been taking by a lovely friend Stephanie who is a professional photographer and has been out and about capturing Omokoroa in the spring.

The photos she has taken are amazing, hope she doesnt charge me for using them on our blog!
Will report again soon
love to you allxxx

Well this week we have had bonfire night and halloween. Here is Sam with his sparkler after eating many cupcakes and drinking lots of Milo (hot chocolate for uk translation).

We went to the beach with lots of other families, this was a little chaotic and unsafe to say the least, so due to fear for our own safety we made our way to the other side of the penisular and set our fireworks off with a few fellow brits who recognised what firework safety was all about!

Last week we went to a Halloween zumba party, here is Jess with her friend Mya ready to scare everyone at the dance, Just to scare you all a little more here are the mums!!!

A good night was had by all and we raised $230 for the community centre.

Jess went to her friends birthday party this week at a play centre called Chipmunks, she managed to fall again and hurt her ankle. It was black and very swollen so we ended up at a&e again, luckily it was a bad sprain rather than a brake. Getting her to not put any weight on for 24 hours was impossible.

We have had a beautiful hot summers sunday today. We walked down to the esplanade for coffee and collected a few friends along the way. The beach was packed as there was a school triathalon going on down there. Sam and Joe didnt want to enter as it meant they had to swim in the sea!! They will have to get used to that living here but as the bay is the breeding area for sharks I can see why they are reluctant!

this is the wharf where there was lots of fishing going on.

And just to finish off the strawberry farm are trying to go for the record for the heaviest strawberry. Here was todays pick

Looks rather yummy... i think we should go again to see if we can find any bigger ones.

We are collecting some friends from Auckland airport this week, they came to live here last December but they didnt settle and returned back to the UK in August, and are now on their way back to NZ as they realised they had come to the right place the first time. We hope they will settle quickly this time and find work straight away.
Our plans are with the council awaiting planning permission, so we are hoping to at least have started the build before xmas.
Cant think of anything else for now so am going to put my feet up and have a nice cuppa with a lovely muffin baked by our neighbour Kim.
love to you all
xxxx