We’ve been having a great time hanging out with the Chiangs. They just got married a few weeks ago and are here on their honeymoon!
Sophie really loves her godma and I think she’s really sad that godma and Uncle Jasper are leaving tomorrow.
Last friday, the whole school went out for an outing.
We had lunch picnic at McClaren Falls (about 1/2 hr from the base) and then to the beach at Tauranga for fish & chips in newspapers for dinner.
Having fish and chips wrapped in newspapers is a very kiwi family thing to do apparently. Seems like most kiwi families have fish & chips for dinner on Fridays when they were growing up. It’s like the thing to do.
I really like this picture.
Sophie’s really into being a doctor/nurse these days. She’s got this book called Nurse Nancy (one of the Golden books) and she loves it! She’s been making us read it every day! I’ve had to hide the book so that we can read other books. 
Anyway that explains the bandages on her head. I got her a box of kiddy plasters from the $2 shop in town. She loves them! Gin got her a medical kit for her birthday. I think she’s gonna have so much fun.
I also love the way she hugs Eli. Reminds me of how I used to put my arm around my bro when we were kids when we had to take pictures. Always looked like I was strangling him.
We had quite a crazy day today.
In the morning, James caught an eel using a self-made eel trap and he made unagi! Check out the process on our flickr site. I’ve uploaded the pictures of the trap and stuff!
Later at night, he found a calf stranded by the river (later we found out that the calf was two days old and it had slipped down the slope towards the river when the mother cow gave birth to it. poor thing!). After dinner (we had a massive Chinese food feast at our home and invited some friends over), he went back with our friend Stuart to rescue the calf and brought it back! We got the farm next door to come over to collect the poor calf. The kids were kinda sad that they couldn’t keep it as a pet. Hiak!
What a day, what a day!
See you friends. Gonna miss you all so much!
It’s been so good to catch up with our friends the past week!
Left: This was Sophie and Skyler last July, still stuck in their Sack & Seat (which is a great buy for jetsetting kiddos from 6 mths - 24 mths) in Hong Kong.
Right: That’s Evan and Sophie snuggling last Sept.
Bottom: That’s Evan, Skyler and Sophie eating chicken rice on their own, on their own table and kinda chatting with each other, kinda… and with a lot more hair.
P/s: in case anyone thinks that they are super proficient in their self feeding, let me share that there is a wad of newspapers under the table. It helps. Hee but it’s more for Sophie than Evan coz Evan is super neat. Hee!
We went to West Coast Park to meet up with DN and R today. It actually poured big time! No way! But…. it kinda cooled down the weather so that was nice.
Sophie was quite happy to dig her feet into the sand and pick up sticks along the way, just like in Vanuatu. I think she really missed that.
Thank God my mum came along and she was happily (er… I think) hanging out with Soph while I caught up with the other mummies!
P/s I really love this pic of my mum and Soph. They both look so happy! It helps that Soph can smile and pose on command now, somewhat willingly. Check out the stick she picked up. It took me almost 5 mins to convince her to let it go before we got into the car.
We received a lovely surprise gift from Perth last week!
It’s this beautiful handmade skirt that Sophie is so happy to wear. Once she opened up the gift, she immediately put it on, on top of everything she was already wearing! Thanks Pris!
P/s Thank you to everyone who have sent lovely presents to us while we’ve been here. Esp Mama and Yeye, Sophie loves all the books and puzzles you sent! And a shout out to Grace for the lovely bento box! It’s been such a blessing to receive snail mail. Thank you for your love and thoughtfulness.
The weather is turning cold but still there is lots of sunshine. We spent Sunday afternoon at a nearby lake (about 20 mins from our base) on a boat! It was lovely! We got to fish and our friend got to water ski.
Sophie and Micha were a little scared when the boat went really fast but they really enjoyed it when we slowed down and went into a little inlet. The inlet was beautiful, almost magical. James even caught a trout when we stopped for a little while in the inlet but it got away. So sad……
There are more photos of our weekend on flickr. Check it out!
Oooo we had such fun last Friday. Our classmates raised funds by organising a banana split communal style! About 50 or more kids and adults sat together to eat a long long banana split served on a drainage pipe like thingy that they bought from the hardware store!
Sophie sat with the kids and had a ball!!!!! She was still at it even after the kids were done.
After the ice cream party, we went back to put Sophie to bed and came back to celebrate the birthdays of two girls with KTV using the Wii. It was hilarious! I’ve got a photo of the Pursuits DTS (the youth DTS) dancing to YMCA on flickr.
It was our long awaited turn to host the Sept parents and tods in our little tiny 3 room flat!!! We had a total of 12 adult and 6 little kiddos running and stepping over each other last nite! What chaos but oooo what fun we had!
We set to prep as soon as Sophie went down for her nap. We had to move the furniture around a little for more space and hide all the mess. When Sophie woke up, I roped her in to dry the dishes for the kiddos coz she was fussing. Yes, the best way to eliminate fuss? Involve them!
First to arrive - the Teos! With all their barang - 2 kids, 1 humongous tiramisu in a even more humongous pail, etc etc… hee… Super amazing coz they are the only one with 2 kids but the first one to arrive! And the last to arrive?????? Grace, CL n Clarence coz prince Clarence woke up late! Hee but he was in a good mood when he arrived! And they brought the very very nice fruit punch too!
While waiting for everyone to arrive, we had a conference call with the Ongs! We got to see little DN who is miles away in the UK! Oh how we miss the Ongs at parties!!! Unfortunately that didn’t turn out well coz we didn’t have MSN video on our side to support the call and June’s hardware couldn’t support Skype. But at least we got to see them and hear their voices for a bit! So cool!
While James went with Tony to pick up the dinner we ordered, the kids started feasting on the noodles that Joanne prepared. YUMS! Sam and Shawn took turns to feed Sophie. (Thanks guys!)
The guys finally arrived with dinner. The menu for the day was
1. Chefs Salad w Cherry Tomato Olive n Artichokes
2. Grilled Veg Platter
3. Mushroom Aglio Olio
4. Roasted Chicken thigh w Italian Sausages
5. Oven Roasted Meatballs and Mozzerella Cheese
Left: The Spread Right: The Tiramisu
YUMS!!! We finished all the food pretty fast and quickly went onto the famous Tiramisu that Sam made! Each couple had a 4"by5" piece! I’m serious. It was huge! The kiddos had a bowl of Haagen Dazs Berries ice cream each.
That was the best time to take pictures coz we got all of them to sit in a row and they were sitting as still as they possibly can! Bren and Shawn were going a bit crazy singing and making silly actions to get the kiddos to look up so that the rest can take pictures! Aiyo super funny!
Towards the end, we took a group picture. At the end of it, Sophie stood up and started singing and dancing in front of all of us! And the girls joined in and then Clarence and Jovann all joined it and they just all started jumping up and down and laughing. It was so funny to see our kids "performing" for us!
Finally we had the exchange of presents and they presented us with a special present for a reason which we will reveal in a bit on the blog. It was so sweet……. we got a calendar which Grace made with all the kids’ pictures and winter stuff like gloves and scarves. Cool beans, just what we needed!
I really had so much fun and I think the kiddos and everyone else too.
Sophie had some girl friends over yesterday morning and they had a blast!