BBQ with Students

Here are picture of our 1st BBQ with the University Students!

BIKES

Bikes, bikes, and more bikes! The kids were each given a gift of a bike from Gigi and Papa when they got to New Zealand for Christmas. They patiently waited for months to get their bikes and the time was finally here. After many trips to different stores and peoples houses we were able to get a bike for each of the boys! Since then we have been off to the park and a cool bike park with stop signs, roundabouts, and yield signs!

A Day at the Beach

After three weeks of living on an island we finally headed to the beach. Most of the close by beaches are still closed due to the earthquake so we headed about 20 minutes north to Woodend beach. It was fabulous. The kids had a blast and we were practically the only people there!

The Kids Go to School

1st was Logan. He was off to start school at Westburn Primary School. In New Zealand they start with 1st Year (instead of Kinder). Logan was put into 2nd Year and was very excited about that. He is in Ms. Smith's class. The whole school wears uniforms that include shorts or sweat pants, a polo, fleece, and a hat when you play outside.
Some of the things that are different about schools here compared to Tucson are:
*They don't have a cafeteria. All the kids eat outside on benches by their classroom.
*Instead of snack time they have morning tea.
*The kids go out for a snack and the teachers have tea in the teacher's room.
*You start school on your 5th birthday.
*Schools have 4 houses (like teams) that compete all year long. Logan is in the Shepherd House.
*The school year starts in Feb.

Logan on his 1st Day of SchoolPlaying on the playgroundLogan with his classmates at the 5-7 year cross country meetComing to the finish line

Next were the two little ones. They started preschool at Portobelo. In New Zealand all 3 and 4 year olds (no matter your income) are entitled to free 20 hours of preschool. We were very excited to hear about that. It will help them be ready for 1st Year. They get together and love taking their backpacks and lunch boxes to school. They get to go to school for two full days and 1 half day a week! It is a great school and they are adjusting well!Landon and Levi on their 1st day of preschoolDoing puzzles at school!

New Zealand Home

Next stop was getting our new home ready! It was truly a miracle that we were able to rent our home. After the earthquake we decided we should rent a home before we leave due to the fact that rentals were now in high demand. Lynton and Philippa (Our leaders) were kind enough to search for a home for us. It was an on going process of looking online, they would go check on the house for us, and if it was good we would put an application in. Well, God picked the perfect home for our family. It is close to the University, a 3 minute walk to Logan's school, and lots of room for the kids to play. It also has all sorts of ways to heat your home. Heating in New Zealand is very different then in the states. There is no central heating. You basically close off rooms and heat one area at a time. Well this house was lucky enough to have double glazed windows which was very exciting. It also has a log burner, a heat pump (which heats really well and is pretty cost effective), and two night storage (now from what I understand a night storage collects the heat at night then slowly releases it during the day, but you will find these very expensive to run), and lastly we bought some oil heaters for the areas of the house that don't get much heat!
We received the keys to our new home and got to work going shopping to fill it. In a weeks time we found beds, sofas(which were kindly donated), a dining table, linens, washing machine, dishes, pots and pans, towels, and much more. It was crazy and I can actually say that I was so ready to be done shopping and I love to shop! Plus Trademe which a site similar to craigslist became a favorite of ours!

After that week we were ready to move in and have loved having our own space and the kids love having there space!Family RoomDining RoomKitchenI call this the hall with many small rooms.

(The shower has it's own room, the toilet gets it own room,
and the bathtub gets it's own room)Logan's room
Landon and Levi's roomThe guest room just waiting for a guestPatioMore PatioBack YardMy Lemon TreeHeat PumpLog BurnerNight StorageOil Canister

Driving

Next on the list was to find a car! After a week of looking and test driving we were able to find a car. We purchased a 2001 Honda Odyssey. If you look closely at the car you will notice that the Odyssey is a bit different here then in the US. It is not really a minivan. It has four normal doors rather then sliding doors. It does seat seven but you have to crawl to the back. Here they would call this a people mover for people like us with lots of kids. It is smaller, but that is really better for here because they have much more narrow lanes and spaces for parking.

So now that we have a car it has been a challenge to learn to drive. There are many differences:
*The steering wheel is on the right side of the car
*They drive on the left side of the road
*You may not turn left (which would be the same as US right) on a red light
*The person who has the right away while turning is the person turning right not left (which is the opposite as to what we are use to)
*Lots of roundabouts
*Much more

Bryan has done most of the driving and has done really well. I (Erin) am getting better and better and learning more everyday! The kids know that when mommy is driving they really should not talk to her because she needs to concentrate!