Plans, performances and play-dates.

The planets aligned! Well at least for us. Adam got holidays, kids have holidays, free airfares, I have been pushing to go for some time and when some good friends of our's mentioned their up-coming trip to New Zealand we decided to jump on the band wagon! (Luckily they didn't seem to mind us crashing their party, thanks Ally and Rob!) So we have been madly researching the south island where we will be embarking on an epic road trip with 4 adults and 12 kids (we adults are drastically out-numbered; let's hope there isn't a mutany!!) in the September school holidays. The kids are very excited and have started to count down the days!

Here is one of the places we hope to visit - Milford Sound.

I am excited to finally get to visit Ashburton which is about an hour's drive south of Christchurch. A town made famous by the Ashford family and their spinning wheels, weaving looms, wool and all things crafty. Adam says I can spend about 4 or 5 (hours??) minutes there! Ha! We'll see!

This weekend was also the time for the annual Iona College School Production. "Walls" was a collection of three plays performed together over three nights. E was in the second one and performed with about 20 other boys in a play about "good walls making good neighbours" that goes a bit "Lord of the Flies" wrong. E was very good and enjoyed himself so much he plans to do Drama next year at school. We all went along on Friday night, including M, who called out rather loudly when she could see E on stage! L was involved "front of house" and helped with ushering and organisation. It was a great night. The two boys were totally worn out after the final show on Saturday night.

L got his first ever eagle (2 under par) at golf on Friday afternoon which he was very excited about! (Have I mentioned that Lachlan is now taller than me! Ahh, I'm one step closer to being the family shrinkydink! (Remember those!)

E's soccer team won again (against North Star, Dad, yay!), maintaining their undefeated status, after a nail-biting second half.

T was able to compete in a junior school athletics meet at the University of Queensland because of a bye this week at soccer. He won his hurdles race and jumped around 3.5m in the long-jump.

J had his first ever sleep-over at his friend B's house, M had her first-ever play date with his sisters and Emma and Darren (their parents) had us over for dinner too. Thank you so much again! A good time was had by all.

News flash - Adam entered a photography competition with Quest Newspapers (the local paper) that were awarding prizes for the best Ekka photos capturing the spirit of the event. With the photo of the calf in last weeks blog, he won second prize and a $400 camera! (That new camera is paying for itself and now he can say he is a prize winning photographer!)

Here's one of his photos this week.