First Day of School

The boys finally had their first day of school! The week before we moved into our new home, we were traveling back and forth from Oteha Valley to Stanmore Bay getting the boys registered, tested, getting tours, and purchasing their uniforms. Then with the Easter holiday, they finally started their new schools midweek. Schools are zoned here, meaning you must go to the school where your home is located in the zone. Gavin and Trevor go to the same school. Elementary school is called primary school. Trevor is in Year 2 (equivalent to 1st grade) and Gavin is in Year 5 (equivalent to 4th grade). We had them move up a grade because of the difference in school year times between the USA and New Zealand (New Zealand's school year is from February-December). Instead of having them repeat most of the year that they had almost completed, we had them start a little late into their next grade level. And, when we return to the USA they won't be behind in school. Their school is a close drive away. I'm sure we could walk or ride our bikes but we haven't yet ventured out to figure a route out.

Ethan is in Year 7. Middle school is called intermediate school here. The intermediate school that we are zoned for is a middle school and high school combined. High school is called college here. So, Ethan is now attending college! We live close enough for him to walk to and from school. 

It was a crazy first few days of school getting our schedules figured out and getting them all to and from school but we now have it under control and have found our groove. 

Uniforms. Oh uniforms. They are mandatory and they are expensive! We totally knew that coming and were prepared for the price, but it's still hard to swallow paying that much for clothing. I just bought a few shirts, shorts, and jackets for them and will plan to do laundry a few times a week. We were able to buy a few things used from people in the area. Bless Facebook and their community pages! Gavin & Trevor need to wear their school shirt & shorts but they can wear any socks, shoes, and hat. Ethan, however, must wear the school's shirt, shorts, socks, all black shoes (no other coloring at all), hat, and PE gear. When they get home from school I have them change into normal clothes to prolong the wear of their uniforms…gotta be smart. 

Both schools have a morning tea time and lunch time. Tea time is essentially snack and recess for 30 minutes. Lunch is 45 minutes. They get a lot of outside time. The schools are great about fitness and outdoors. Poor Trevor found out the hard way that your tea time snack must not be sugary. A boy in his class told on him for having a fruit snack and Trevor felt horrible. They can only bring fresh fruit, nuts, crackers, or yogurt. Gavin's teacher isn't as strict and I can send him with a granola bar (they call them muesli bars). 

Primary school hours are from 8:45-2:45. College hours are from 8:40-3:15. It's nice that we get to sleep in a bit.

After school, we wash up, change, have a snack, do any homework (which isn't very much here), and we head to the beach to explore. We absolutely love being so close. There is a path right through the grass to the water from our house and we can choose to wear our swim suits (they call them togs) or just wear our clothes and walk along the sand and rocks when it's low tide. 

Friends Date at the Beach

We met up with our friends at, what we refer to as, our backyard beach. The kids were still on school holiday so we were living our freedom up while we still could. Ethan and Gavin have started to learn to skim board. Gavin bought his own skim board and a friend also let us borrow his. The kids loved exploring the tide pools at low tide, trying to catch little fish in their buckets, playing in the sand, and swimming. We walked back to our house and had ice cream cones in our yard. We love these lazy days filled with fun & friends! 

Hamon's Cove

We have met and become quick friends with a fun family at church. They have 3 boys similar in age to our kids and they all get along great. They have had us over to dinner, invited us for a day of playing in their beach close to their backyard, and they've come to play with us in our backyard beach. Their backyard is breathtaking! It sure makes the transition easier when you make great friends!

We took the goPro on our adventure in their cove. Here's a link of the video we put together from our fun day:

https://youtu.be/KdHbJDqlFzQ

Easter

It was nice to be in our new home for Easter. The Easter Bunny found us all the way across the world and left New Zealand candy (lollies) and sand shovels in buckets hidden around the house. We put on our Sunday best and went to church. We had a very nice meeting with beautiful music and accounts of the Savior's crucifixion and resurrection. After church, we hid some plastic Easter eggs filled with chocolate covered raisins in our back yard and let the kids go at it. Small candy is hard to find here. They don't have bags of skittles, jelly beans, m&ms, or other candies like that we so had to improvise. The kids didn't seem to mind! A nice couple in our ward invited our crew over for a delicious Easter meal. He is a butcher so we had some amazing beef and other great food. And his wife is from Huntington Beach...small world! We are loving meeting new people and making friends. The people here are very friendly and welcoming.

Moving Day

Saturday was moving day! We had been in New Zealand for almost 3 weeks and we were so excited to finally really settle in and become part of a community. Up until this point, the kids and I had busied ourselves with looking at homes to rent. I would search Trademe.com every night for potential homes and then we made as many appointments as we could each day. We looked at about 20 homes in a week! It was so hard to narrow our search. We wanted good schools for the kids, a good commute for Cody, a good community where we were either in the country or near a beach, and a good quality home in our price range. It was so tough and a ton of work. But we prayed many prayers and I know a lot of family & friends across the world did for us too. Our prayers were answered and we found a home and they accepted our application! It was a great teaching opportunity for our kids. I explained to them that faith without works is dead. We could pray all we wanted to Heavenly Father to help us find a home but if we weren't willing to do our part of the work then He wouldn't help us. I dragged them all over Auckland every day for a week straight, we got in & out of the car over and over, and they had to be well behaved in each home we viewed. It was hard work for all of us. But I knew that if we put in the research, effort, and work we would be rewarded. It was a sweet relief when we decided on the home.

Moving would be pretty simple. We just had suitcases and some other odds and ends that we had collected over the last few weeks to be moved about 25 minutes away. We planned to take 2-3 trips until it was all moved. But, on Friday night we got a call from a man in our new church (the High Priest Group Leader) that insisted on coming to help us move. What a blessing! We were able to fill our van and his and be done in one trip. Once we were unloaded, he and another man from church insisted again that they bring things to make our life in our new home more comfortable until our shipping container arrived in a month. They brought us a table & chairs to eat on, padded patio furniture for our family room, foam pads and a cot for the kids to sleep on, and a pot and baking dish to make cooking easier. What tender mercies! We were just planning on eating on the floor and making the most of this time to camp out in our home. It was such a small and simple gesture on their part but a huge help for our family. It taught us to be more giving and service oriented. I love these men and their families and their Christlike service and love. 

Since we still needed a fridge and washer Cody left the unpacking and settling in to me and he and Ethan went off on a search to save the day. Appliances are especially expensive here. But, we've been told that the best time to shop for anything is during holiday sales. Lucky for us, we had Easter on our side. We had put our fridge stuff from our vacation rental in a borrowed cooler (they call them chilly bins). I was really hoping that they'd be able to find a fridge and have it delivered by that evening but our chances were very slim and every store we talked to said they wouldn't be able to deliver until the next week. But, our prayers were answered and we were able to have both a washer & fridge delivered that day! Another blessing!! 

It's amazing to see God's hand in every little detail of our life. He cares. He listens. He answers. As Cody was off on his appliance mission, I was surrounded by colorful suitcases & chaos and everything but an orderly & clean home. But, I had this overwhelming sense of peace wash over me and I knew that this is where we are supposed to be. We are supposed to be in this home, in this neighborhood, in this ward for church, in these schools.

We live on the Hibiscus coast, north of Auckland. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room, family room, and nice garage. Our home is right next door to a huge gorgeous green soccer field, awesome park, and beach. We are just a 2 minute walk away from the water. Ethan can walk to school and the other boys' school is just a 3 minute drive away. Cody takes the bus to work each day. His bus stop is right across the street and it takes from 45-60 minutes each way. We are close to grocery stores and church but we still feel like we're part of a small village and outside of the city.

Although we don't have any of our furniture, here is a small tour of our home and yard. Hopefully it will look like much more of a home in a few more weeks….

This is Gavin's & Trevor's room. I have a feeling their room will always be messy... 

I let them have free reign of decorating their closet. When the rest of our stuff arrives, I will have free reign of decorating their room =)

This is the kids' bathroom downstairs.  

It has a separate toilet in the room next door.

This is Ethan's room. He is SO excited to have a room to himself. 

This is the master bedroom & closet. It is quite bare without all of our clothes, shoes, hangers, and accessories. Cody & I have said that we don't really miss our stuff...except for our kitchen stuff and clothes...

Our comfy air mattress

This is the master bathroom upstairs. It's small but serves its purpose. 

We refer to the shower as our spaceship shower. It is tiny and narrow but at least we have something to get clean!

This is the gorgeous view from my kitchen window...I get to look at that every time I'm cooking!

Kitchen

Bare Family Room

Dining Room

Sunset from our kitchen

Back yard

Our clothes line just outside of the laundry room

Laundry room

Mairangi Bay Beach

In New Zealand they take a long holiday for Easter. Schools are out for 3 days and Cody got 2 days off. We had a lot of work to do since we would be moving the next day, but it was Good Friday and everything was closed for the day! We needed to buy a fridge, washer, microwave, and other small appliances but it was nice to be forced to slow down and not concern ourselves with consumerism.

We took advantage of Cody's presence & the holiday and hit a local beach. It was a cloudy day but that can't keep us away from the sand, water, and waves! We packed a lunch and some buckets and everyone was happy. Cody and I love to sit & relax and watch the kids entertain themselves. We love seeing our kids thoroughly enjoy being out in nature, creating and exploring. It's so fun to see the world through their eyes. But we mostly just love being able to spend the time together as a family. It was a good day!