Mothers Day 2013

 Lucy and Dom have been hiding this box of chocolates under her bed for WEEKS!!!  The kids were really happy to finally see inside it  :)

 Beautiful Yadu, and Monica

 The Dhakal girls - Sam, I took this photo for you...

 

 10 minutes ago - Lucy and Monica rollerblading while waiting for dinner to be cooked

 They  have been playing roller hockey in the road (we live on a dead-end) for the last 2 hours)

 Sebastien...  found in the garage making something.  When I found him he said "Mum, I really need a candle and some matches."  Uh huh.  Yer.

Megane swinging in our back garden. The red tree is my favourite this year.  It is magnificent.

I've got standards...

WELL!  In my day, you polished your shoes every Sunday and that was that.  If you didn't do it, you tried to hide your feet from your form teacher at school, and from your Dad.  Nowadays there is some kind of mana to be had by having really scuffed school shoes.  No more!  Sure, I had to bribe them with pizza but my Yr 12 form class, and my Yr 13 French class (which is full of Prefects) are now reformed citizens :)  For your viewing pleasure I got photographic evidence

And before you ask... yes, these feet and socks belong to the same body.  Someone got dressed in the dark....

There were a few girls that went along with it (for the pizza and for "a Mothers' Day gift")...  bravo to them for being team players!

 

 yr 12 feet

 yr 13 feet (and yes, we talked all about it in French)

 Yes.... well, it was just quicker, easier and less messy to do some of the really tragic shoes myself.

 This is Megane (bottom right) and her friends doing some group work...

And other girls in Megane's class working on paragraphs in the past tense about what they did on the weekend.  Supposedly...  Bex, j'ai pris ces photos pour toi. 

Baking Day

Meg and Radhika have been baking for the last two days...  Everything has been delicious (except the feijoa and chocolate chip muffins, which got burnt) and beautiful.  I wish I had taken more photos - the lemon cake was amazing too, and the chocolate cake was so good it disappeared before photos could be taken. 
PS I would like to mention that I tried them to make aloo ghobi yesterday and they got as far a chopping up the veggies and then... they drifted off.  It seems only baking holds their attention.  Bother.
PSS Sam, the afghans are even better than your wildest dreams.  Sorry... 

Lewis Bear Grey

They look innocent don't they? 
Well they are not!  These two can make something out of NOTHING and they think nothing of biking all over Christchurch in search of adventure.  They eat constantly and put their dishes in the sink, not the dishwasher! But, it is all good fun so I guess I'll keep them both around :)

The eagle has landed!!!

I was shocked in the best possible way today, Dad came over!  And he drove over :)  He timed it perfectly because Seb was trying to make a slingshot and needed The Master to advise him, and provide the strip of leather.  We watched a French movie recently (La guerre des boutons) et the kids in it used slingshots really well...  and well, I think you can guess where this is going.  I've already had one neighbour come over and tell me that 2 kids were hurt during this afternoon's practice session, so I have had to make a few rules about when and where the slingshot can be fired.