Today dawned wet  & windy & cold and just a little WET.  I wimped out of my 10k, but Albie & Miss D were still keen to do their run and so Cam  also decided to do it.

Over the last 8 or so weeks they have run about a km a day for 5 days of the week.  Today was the final 2.2.

They got rather wet, but did very well, and all received their medals at the end.

Cam has been doing drama at school this term, with other year 5 & 6 students as part of the GATE programme.  On September 23 they put on a small production in front of their classes and parents.  Cam is an ugly sister and needs to wear a dress.

They had great fun and did very well.  The dress Cam is wearing is the one my Grandmother wore to Mum and Dad’s wedding 43 years ago and the other ugly sister is wearing the dress I wore to my 21st (not quite that many years ago) – knew they’d come in handy one day

Last school holidays the kids moved around.  Cam & Albie are now sharing and Miss D is on her own in Cam’s old room.  We thought it would last a weekend, however it seems to be permanent, and so the rooms have been redecorated.

When we first moved in Rob painted them both “Whipped Violet” (aka purple).

A couple of years ater and an orange wall was added to Cam’s room.

Now the boys room is GREEN (a glowing green)…………….

And Miss D’s is………  PINK. (although her first choice was blue.)

Not quite true to colour – need a sunny day…………….

With Fairies and butterflies on her curtains.

Next time though I’m making sure the curtains are blackout as well as thermal backed (roll on day light saving and darker mornings….)

The boys room is nearly always spotless, Cam has become almost obsessive about it, But Miss D takes after Mum and her room is a tad untidy, and the unmade bed a good place for a cat to hide.

We let Rob decide what to do today, just this once

He chose to go for a bush walk at Wairere Falls and then a swim at Opal Hot Pools.

We had a really nice day, and the kids did great with the walk.

The Destinations....

We did the walk to the viewing track – 45 minute walk took us nearly 75 minutes, but there were lots of stops for photos.  Took us about 50 to get down.

Kid's with their new Back Packs

The kids all christened their new backpacks, got to carry their own jackest, drinks and lunch. – and scroggin.  Absolutely no complaining!

The start

Walking

Halfway Up

Always a helping hand available

Not sure if L & D were even aware that they had grabbed each others hand as they were walking.  It is something they unconsciously do in new or different situations. They did it at one stage today for a few minutes.

still going up

Bart

Just a few of the stairs - going UP

Next time we are walking to the top!

Can you see the people on the rocks........

There were lots of stairs!

All finished - ready for a HOT swim

Tonight is the school disco, L & D get dressed up to go.

On Saturday we went to have a look at the NZ Cyclocross Champs held at our local mountain bike track. As usual Michelle took her camera and snapped away. I emailed some photos to the club wep page designer and Michelle’s photos are now famous.

http://www.hamiltonmtb.org.nz/pagefiles/cyclocross.html

Te Rapa School’s Crosscountry for 2009 was held on Friday 21st of August (which was also Nana Bull’s 80th birthday).

Deanna’s race was first, she finished around 5th place out of the 6 year old girls.

Next was 6 year old boys, Logan was about 8th or so from last.

Cameron’s race was second from last, they had to leave the field and run around the streets.  Cameron did really well this year and ran the entire distance (better than his mum ever did in a school cross country!)

Mum couldn’t get away from work, but they had a great cheering squad with Aunty Helen & Uncle Philip here from Australia, and Nana Craig coming down from Papakura for the race.

Rotorua 15 August 2009

http://www.toughguyandgal.co.nz/

Michelle & I did this event this year, my 2nd time & Michelle’s 3rd time.

No photos from the venue because it was RAINING!!

2 photos of our gear once we got back to Hamilton where it was not raining. An extra event was run the previous weekend due to the original one sold out, this was held in perfect weather.

For the last 2 – 3 weeks of the racing season Rob has managed to get the kids down to the track for the kids races.  They have enjoyed it and had fun.  There was a bit of a “hill” that Rob was a bit worried they would have problems with, but after Miss D managed it the first night, Albie was fine as well.  Cam had it nailed!

Go Here to clearly see the two younger ones in a thumbnail for the start….. and here to see why Albie came at the tail end of the last race…….

And here are a couple of photos I managed to get on the last night….

Ready for the start

Listening...........

Also listening..................

And a third listener!

Ready to go Racing

Miss D crashed on the start line and then took off, Albie crashed somewhere and Cam took off, trying to keep up (unsuccessfully) with the BMXbike that does really well on the small track they have set up.

They all got great certificates, and did soo much better than they do when it is just us!

Yesterday Mark our neighbour was mowing his back lawn when he found an injured sparrow. We thought it would die, and this would not upset our kids as much as Mark’s and so the sparrow came and visited.  We gave her a bit of water and honey with a syringe (minus the needle!), and Cam gave her some of the wood shavings from his mice.  After a while, she started to look a little happier and fluffed out her feathers.  And then went to sleep……………

We put a lid on her box, left her with food and water for the night.

Cam got up this morning and took the lid off!!!!! She flew around until he opened a window and she flew away!  Yayyy an unexpected happy ending!