Happy Birthday Kesia

FIRST FISH on new boat!

Jordan - the only one to catch a fish on the first fishing trip. Scott, Kesia and Pop mustn't have the fishing skills required.... ha ha...

New Boat!

Last weekend we got to go out in our NEW BOAT for the very first time. Scott had been in Taupo for Round Lake Taupo Cycle so didn't get back till late Sun pm. Weather was a little rough, so just a quick trip up to the Town Basin to satisfy our need for trialling our new toy....

A Wild Day on the West Coast

Enjoying Paihia!

A group of us took advantage of the Copthorne winter rate and headed up for the weekend. Enjoyed lunch and dinner out in Paihia and relaxed over a buffet breakfast at Copthorne. Unfortunately the weather did not play the game so no golf on Sunday!

Rotorua 07 Snapshots!

Kesia and Georgia

Kesia and Georgia enjoying a weekend together before Georgia heads off on her USA/Mexico adventure. We look forward to keep in touch with their holiday stories and photos on their blog! See you when you get home Georgia!

Zorbing in Rotorua!!!

Check out the Luiten-Coutts zorbing in Rotorua!! Awesome fun was had by all with Carol and Tania being Chief Photographers!

Dancing Girls

Another night of dancing at the Hardcore show for Kesia and Lyric. Over a 6 week period they go to dance twice a week and learn the "moves" for 3 songs! They both love dancing and being on stage! What amazing dancers and great performers. We are proud of you girls!

Boys Baking!

The mission was to make a marble cake using a recipe found in a magazine. The boys set to work following the instructions and working as a team to create their masterpiece! Of course Kesia was on hand to give advice! They even did the dishes, what well trained boys! The finished product looked and tasted fantastic!

Kesia's First Attempt at Movie Making!

Boys Building Boats

A busy weekend for the boys on a mission to build the best boat. Ryan stayed with Ross and designed and built their boats and Troy stayed with Jordan for their design and build mission. The boys met up on Sunday and Scott took them to the creek at Whangarei Intermediate to "float" and "sink" the boats. The aim was to see which boat floated best and then to do their best to sink each other's boats! Unfortunately Scott forgot to take the camera for shots of boats in action! Will have to design and build boats for another weekends attempt. Great to see them making plans together, all being so actively engaged in a project and enjoying the mission in the great outdoors!

Learning about Skype!

Blake and Cameron were visiting today after school and Blake asked what our webcam was. I explained to him about skyping and we talked about how we can talk to other people and see them on our computer and that they can see us on their computer. Luckily Beverly was still at work so we were able to skype her at Manaia Kindergarten. After a few technical issues it was all go and Blake, Cameron and Jackie were able to see skyping in action! The learning journey continues to expand!

Saturday Soccer and Stuff!

Saturday Soccer for Jordan and Kesia, both teams playing at Onerahi and both teams finishing with a draw. Spent Sunday with Tessa and visited Scott at the Fire Station for a photo shoot!

Winter Holiday

ICT at home

I took the Kindergarten digital blue movie maker home for the weekend and Jordan and Kesia got to create movies with their friends. What an experience. Throughout the day six noisy children, at various times, trying to be directors, producers and actors!!! Kept them busy all day Saturday and their end product is just toooooo big to upload and put on blog. May have to treat you to a small part only. The best thing was watching the amazing teamwork across a age range of children from 7 to 11 both boys and girls! Lots of interesting ideas and crazy children willing to be "out there" in front of the camera and their friends! Next time your visiting just ask to see it, make sure you grab a cup of tea and take a seat, it does take awhile!

Sam and Tessa in NZ!

It's great to have Craig, Angela, Sam and Tessa home on holiday in NZ! Today Sam and Tessa came to visit at Kindergarten and enjoyed working with our ICT equipment. Don't just love what they have turned me into!

A new toy! Turns photos into sketches...

http://www.dumpr.net/sketch.php
Check it out! Very easy to use.

Camping at Pataua - by Jordan

On Sunday I traveled to Pataua and went camping in a camper van at

Frog town when we got there we decided to go for a walk to the beach. We got told that something big was chasing fish into land so there were lots of fish all over the beach, we thought that we could use the fish as bait so we went to get the fishing lines and there were no hooks on them so we couldn`t go fishing . When we got back to the the camper van we decided to go down on the flying fox, it has been broken for a while so we fixed it and went up and down it for half an hour. After that we had dinner, for dinner we had a pie. After dinner we played cards and went to bed. When we woke up and had breakfast we went to climb the mountain, it was hard to climb the mountain because it was really steep and slippery and when we got to the top we had views of of all around Pataua and of all the islands like Little Barrier,Great Barrier,Hen And Chicks and the Poor Knights. It wasn`t an easy journey down because you kept slipping over. When we got back we went for a bike ride on a dirt track and got really dirty because of all the puddles, when we got back it was time to leave. I had a great time and loved it! Thank you to the Luitens!