School Holidays - April 2009 - Nelson

We all went up to Nelson for a few days to visit Nana, Granddad, the Aunties, Uncle and cousins. Above is Granddad Russell, Joshua, Nana Anne and Nicholas.

The Egan Boys - Granddad, Nicholas, Joshua and James waiting for a train ride at Tahunanui.

Granddad, Nicholas and Josh having a mini train ride.

Nicholas having a ride in Granddad's special little electric noddy car.

Joshua with Aunty Lou who was celebrating her 40th Birthday.

Joshua, Nicholas and cousin Lachlan were getting ready for a Bear Hunt in the hills behind Nana and Granddad's house.

Joshua.

Joshua 8 years, Nicholas and Lachlan 4 years.

Cousin Jack 2 years.

Nick and Lachie hit it off and are "best friends".

Joshua and Nicholas at the start of the St James Walkway in Lewis Pass, on the way home to Christchurch, after a wonderful few days in Nelson.

Wood Collecting - February 2009

On the 14th February the Egan's (Julia, James, Joshua and Nicholas) and the Mummery's (Emma, Paul, Sophie and Sarah) got together to celebrate Emma's birthday (it isn't politically correct to say how many years) and gather free firewood off the banks of the Amberly riverbed.

Nicholas helping out.

James doing the gathering.

Josh helping out with a more manageable log, after giving up on the enormous tree trunk behind him.

Julia getting in first with the fun toys.

Packing up and going home absolutely buggered!! It is much harder work than it looks. We still had the job of cutting the logs into fire box chunks. The neighbour wasn't too impressed with the noise of a chainsaw in the city. Next year we will arrange to have a trailer with a cage and cut it all on the river bank.

Some more summer photos

Josh and Little Bear

Nick and Little Bear

Julia having a wee drop of wine up in the Port Hills while the boys collected pine cones for our fire place. (I did have company... James, Mum/Nanna and Dad/Poppa)

Joshua and Nicholas having a silly moment together.

Nicholas

Yes. This is Nicholas in our new wheelie bin.

James and Nicholas

National Mud Slide Day - Cub Scouts

The Mud Slide

Tug of War

Wet Sponge - Throwing and being thrown at

The Water Bomb- Josh loved this one and spent most of the day here. He managed to refine the art of nearly hitting (or missing... depending on how you look at it) silly people who kept walking directly across the path of these misiles.

The Sling Shot (with really big, wet sponges)

The Slippery Pole - which was being turned by a helpful Cub Leader while you tried to get from one end to the other.

Joshua - Malvern Cub Scout

Elmwood Top Town Sports Day

Elmwood School hosted its own Top Town Day. The Year 4, 5 and 6 children were split into four "houses" and participated in a number of different activities. Josh is in Rhodes (green) which was the winning house.

Below Joshua is participating in the School Cross Country.

2009 School Year

Above is Joshua ready for his first day at Elmwood Normal School. He is now in Year 4 and is doing extremely well. His excels at mathematics, reading, and spelling, and has also started to learn French.

Below is Nicholas getting ready for Rutland Street Kindy. He was just having a quick read of the headlines first.

Summer at the School Pool

This year we spent every warm day at the school pool. It was a fantastic (and inexpensive) way to spend the long summer holidays. Above is Nick doing his version of a starfish. He can hold his breath for ages, so it took some convincing him that he should be floating on his back. By the end of the summer he had amazing confidence in the water, and had even started to do very basic freestyle. Both boys would love to run and jump into the deep end. We just had to keep a close eye on Nick to make sure he had his "floaties" (arm bands) on. Josh also spent most of the summer under water chasing his torpedo pool toys. The hours in the pool perfected his breaststroke and he could tread water for hours.