Ethan's 12th Birthday

It's been a big week around here, with Ethan's 12th birthday and party celebrations! He got the day off school on his birthday. Given Ethan's intense dislike of school, Tony and I decided that for the last 8 weeks of term he could have 5 mental health days to get him through -and so the first one was used on his birthday. It was a day of playing squash with his dad, watching endless hours of Bear Grylls while drinking tonic water and a beautiful lunch at a new restuarant we found down the road.
We are very thankful to God for our hilarious and soft hearted boy. A story that sums him up happened the other day.  When I found a baby ghecko in the fridge (and was about to chuck it carelessly outside), Ethan bolted over, carefully cupped it in his hands and blew warm air on it while rocking it back to full health. He's a kind, sensitive lad who loves his sisters and is extremely protective of both of them. Should be interesting in a few years!
Here are some photos of his big day and party over the weekend.

Brekkie and present opening.

Bear Grylls...hour 3..4?? Who can tell?

Lunch out with his mum and dad.

Showing off his most recent gardening success....check out that bad boy!!

Pizza with his school buddies

The cake (post dog attack) but still standing...and still edible.

Movie and popcorn-obviously the dog had been punished enough and was allowed back in the house

Finishing the weekend off with some fireworks we bought at the shop..not illegal here in Fiji.

Bad photo but captures the happiness of a full birthday week of fun!

Update on homeschooling.

Thought I might dedicate a post to home-schooling as that what the last term and a bit have been consumed by for me. I must say that I had thought my teaching days were over -I was happy to do ministry and if anything other study, was keen for psychology. But here I am in Fiji homeschooling Hannah full time and also teaching in a women's prison. I guess God thought the other stuff could wait. Surprisingly, I have loved the home schooling.
1. I love hangin' and chillin' with my 14 year old daughter -see how much cooler I sound already?
2.I love programming and thinking of teaching ideas.
3. I do better having a structure and routine, rather than too much flexibility.
4. We have covered alot in a short amount of time -so given this season of life, it has definitely been the best decision for us.
5. It was always short term - and Hannah is very keenly anticipating having a social life again next year.
6. Hannah has spent a massive amount of time playing with her siblings and thinking up fun things to do, which wouldn't necessarily have happened back home in normal Year 8 land with friends.

 Ethan hates school and it now looks like I will be home-schooling him all of next year, which doesn't make me want to curl up in a ball as it once would have. Actually looking forward to it (!).Just for next year.

Here are some photos of the last few months. I wish I had a photo of us doing pilates for P.E, but am glad I didn't capture the moment that we went for a walk for PE and then arrived home in a taxi! Not my finest teaching moment, but it's really hot here! Tony MAY have buried his head in his hands when he looked out the window. Next time, will ask the driver to drop us a few metres away.....

A few words from Hannah herself..
Hi everyone, thanks for all your support! I have enjoyed homeschooling much more than i originally thought i would, which is good. As the people that know me well know, i'm a very chatty gal. So homeschooling has sometimes been boring and lonely. But it has been fun doing hands-on activities and to be explained things face-to-face not just instuctions from a book.(things i couldn't do at my old school here) I enjoy P.E. which means going for a walk, going to the local pool or Zumba on the tv at home. I also enjoy doing a Bible study with Dad every moring and listening to a sermon every Wednesday. Maths is my ABSOLUTE LEAST favourite subject. I find it so difficlult to learn and remember, it drives me crazyy! Mum who is good at maths and also likes it (i know she's strange) usually finds it hard to understand where i'm coming from and to be patient. Another subject i don't enjoy is PD eww. I like being able to watch tv at recess and having hot lunches from my kitchen not just chesse sandwhiches from my lunch box. I feel i'm actually learning things and making some progress which i guess is more important than wanting friends. Some funny moments was when mum and i went for our P.E walk down the hill and came back in a taxi. Haha Dad wasn't impressed! Another was us both being sick of science and going over to the nutella jar to stick our fingers in. Hehe yum! I hope Ethan likes homeschooling when he does it as much as i did.

Experimenting with acids and bases.

This is the Roy Lichtenstein artwork that Hannah produced! Andy Warhol this term.

Presenting her assignment on the rainforest.

Probably recess?

A visit from the Wright Seniors!

The last couple of weeks have been full of visitors -the latest being Tony's mum, dad and brother, Pete.They stayed 2 days in Suva with us and then we headed down the coast for an extra few days away. Very relaxing and great to catch up on the last few months of missed cuddles. We even celebrated Ethan;s birthday 2 weeks early so they could be part of it...and not at all because Ethan couldn't sit and look at unopened presents for that long. Here are some happy snaps and I have to say that these will be the last "resort" holiday photos you will see for a while as it's becoming a little embaressing now. We have had some great holidays this year, but from here on in, the blog will show what we do the other 90% of the time when we're not sunning ourselves or pigging out on breakfast buffets! There, I feel better already!

Hannah and Sophie's dance concert.

Soph graduated her class and will move up next year.

Ethan scores a model aeroplane!!

Early birthday celebration

Soph and uncle Pete

Kids fulfilling a lifelong dream at the "Swim up bar"

Getting chucked up in the air by uncle Pete

Grandad at his happiest with a table tennis bat in his hand.

Soph at her happiest buried in books.

Another highlight of the holidays has been our annual pastoral care visit from our friends at CMS. It was so refreshing having a few days to de-brief, discuss how we are going and just generally have a laugh with. It's also fun showing people around our new environment. These friends actually teach the training course in Melbourne where we spent 6 months preparing for mission work, so we had a heap of news to catch up on and fun reminiscing too. Rachel loved visiting the womens prison with me and David was introduced to some of the people that Tony works most closely with. A lovely 2 days that went way too fast, and we miss them alot, but we feel very encouraged by the time they were here.

Some waterfalls about 20 minutes from our place.

Rachel and the kids braving the water.

Teppanyaki dinner at local restaurant

The last 2 weeks have been school holidays for us -here are some snaps of what we've been up to.

A wonderful parcel full of chocolate,chai,book,lollies and much more from a lovely friend at our church St Albans.A highlight was the cards the youth group kids signed for each of the kids.

Celebrating the parcel with hot choc and marshmallows!

Tony's good friend Andrew visited for a few days-here we are enjoying his hotel with him. We're good like that.

We found a new spot to walk the dog..and swim the dog.

The great thing about our house that it's surrounded by kids on every side. To our left, there are about 12 kids and behind us are another 6. In the last couple of months, we have managed to make contact with them and the kids are enjoying being part of an instant "gang" now and then. Here are some of the latest goings on.

Good ol' fashioned rope swing from a tree

Different set of boys that live behind us -Ethan in heaven in this photo

and then the zombie version

The last week or so..

The last week has been a blur of nurofen, codral and sleep, but we managed to have some fun in between. Soph LOVED the school camp and looked slightly put out when we came to visit on the last night for the concert. Not that I had a problem with that. Much. Anyway, she enjoyed the dorm with literally 20 or so bunk beds in it and she delighted in mothering the kindy kids...whether they needed it or not, I'm guessing! If she saw them lying in bed, having neglected to brush their teeth, then she was onto it.Good food, hikes, 6am swims(!), a cat who regularly visited their room and making friends from another school were all highlights.They almost made up for the fact there was no hot water for showering. The only lowlight was a boy(from the other school) calling her and her family and her country stupid. Ethan happened to be visiting that day and soon put an end to that. Bad timing on the other kids part. But a good chance for us to praise his care of his little sister and keep talking about godly ways of continuing to do that in the future (let the reader understand).

Soph is the middle grasshopper-talking to the Ants!

The year 3/4 reciting a whole chapter of Mark from the bible.

About 2 hours after getting home.

Yesterday we decided to drive and explore just outside Suva

we thought this was cool until we saw.......

this bigger one!

Ethan channelling "Indiana Jones" at this point.