Wearable Art, Sledging and Rugby (of course)

Joe's school has been preparing for their 'Wearable Art' show all term and the performance days finally arrived last week. We went along to an evening show and were really impressed with the costumes and performances! Joe's class had a theme of 'from the mountains to the sea' and their costumes included a tuatara, crab, octopus and mermaids. Joe's little group did the octopus and despite dropping out of wearing the main costume, Joe appeared to have enjoyed the whole thing.
Other classes had themes of fairy tales, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Funky and Royalty. They had all used recycled materials really creatively. The crisp packet robes were truly amazing!

We finally made it up to the mountains last weekend (without being turned back by deteriorating weather) this time it was beautiful and clear. The recent nor-westers have reduced the amount of snow, but it meant we didn't need chains to get up to the ski field. Between us and the Ralphs we had the makings of a great hot lunch and then the serious sledging got underway (avoiding the drop off at the bottom of the slope). After falling down the slope and then throwing a serious tantrum, Ben did eventually thoroughly enjoy his new inflatable sledge (a much less bruising ride).
You can see Amy hurtling down behind him in this clip. Joe was gung-ho as ever and we called it a day when a large party arrived, beers in hand and neatly sidestepped out of his way as he hurtled towards the edge, luckily I managed to leap and grab him by his collar before he disappeared. Up until this point parents had been stopping each others kids!
We went back to Rangiora with the Ralphs and had a lovely Thai takeaway for tea! A great day!

Oh yes - rugby. 10-10 draw this week, Joe scored 3 tries in the first half after the team had gone down 4-1, drawing them level. There were some BIG fast boys on the opposing side so our boys did a fantastic job!