Gymnastics

A little while ago my sister in law's mother, who happens to be a kindy teacher, called to see if I would be a parent help for their gymnastics class.  Downside, I'd have to deal with other people's raised-at-daycare kids.  Upside, Vili would get to be in the class for free.  And so we went for it. 

Best decision ever.

Vili absolutely LOVES gymnastics.  Climbing, jumping, rolling, running, he was born for gymnastics.  In fact, since we started going, every single prayer he says starts "Dear heavenly father, thank you for this day, thank you that I can go to my gymnastics with my friends".

He has the best time there, loves every minute of it every week.  He will be devastated when the class is over.  But for now, he's in little gymnastics boy heaven.

Otai Making

Malachi's kindy/preschool has such a diversity of cultures and often parents come in and sharing different food or dance or festival celebrations with the other kids.  It's really awesome.  And considering that Malachi has been there almost 2 years, I we thought it was time to share a bit of Malachi's Tongan culture.  Since it's summer and watermelons are a plenty, otai seemed like the perfect, easy thing to make with the kids.

Tui got all the kids to help scrap the watermelon and mix it in.  They've loved it.  And they loved drinking it too! The asian kids especially loved it, and kept asking for more.

Before he turns 5 and finishes there, I'm hoping to convince Tui to teach them a ma'ulu'ulu....we'll see how that works out....

The mount

We are trying to make the best of the time we have, before Malachi turns 5 and goes to school, where we can do stuff during the day.  So we made a day trip over to the mount.  We started by hiking to the top of the mount.  It was much more vertical then Tui would have liked, but it was a great way to start the day.

 

Super pumped and ready to go!


Just some random sheep along the way - I love living in NZ!!

 
Now is that a view, or is that a view?

 Tui carried Vili most of the way and I carried Lani, and Malachi the trooper walked up himself.  So many people commented about how amazing it was that he walked the whole way, because it was NOT an easy walk up.

Then we headed to the beach for a play  (and a lie down, for those of us who were exhausted).  Malachi swam and played rugby with Daddy, Vili dug to china, and Lani ate a few cupfuls of sand.

Lani thought it would be funny to lie in the sand, regarless of the consequences (actually I think the consequence of having a sandy face made it even more exciting for her. She is so left field some times.)She thought it was hilarious.

 

 

An icecream to end the day.  

I love that my kids love the beach.  And I love that this summer has been long and warm and awesome.  I'm so sad for it to end.  But this was just one of those awesome, awesome, summer days to remember for a long time.