| Walking to school |
| Daddy and Duncs on the way to school for Day 1 |
| Being silly |
| The 'Walking School Bus' which Duncan will take to get to school in the mornings |
In New Zealand, kids can start school (called Year 1) anytime starting on their 5th birthday until they turn 6 (most kids start on or soon after their 5th birthday). Duncan was keen to start school right on his birthday, so that is what we did. He had already had a couple of visits during the morning at the school, so he was familiar with the teacher and some of the other students before we dropped him off for his first official full day on Wednesday, 16 October. We are really proud of him, because he was quite nervous about it and we could see his little body tense up and he entered the classroom, but he gave Ewan, Joe and I hugs and kisses goodbye, then turned around to tell his teacher about his birthday presents. Since he started on a Wednesday, he has had 3 full days of school now, and the weekend to recover! Poor little guy keeps saying the day is too long. I hear ya, son! That is a super long day for someone who has not been in school really for the past year (apart from some afternoons in the BCA kindergarten, for which we are thankful to Mrs. Newman and Mumbles!). Anyway, all this to say, Duncan has started school and is doing really well. He is very tired at the end of the school day, but he is adjusting well.
For his birthday on Wednesday, Duncan chose to have spaghetti, pizza, and the wraps that I make for his special dinner. Of course we had cupcakes, too, and he opened his pressies. On Saturday we had a birthday party and invited some friends from church, people we met at school, some neighbours and a dad & son we met at the park to join us in celebrating Duncan. It was a fun time! There were about 10 kids, 2 babies, and 25 adults here to enjoy Joe's yummy pulled-pork sandwiches, some fluffernutters (just to introduce them to the American side of us), and cake & ice cream (of course). We played Pin-the-S-on -the-Superman (drawn by Duncan and me), pass the parcel (which I will tell you more about in a moment), and had a pinata to break (which actually fell off the string, rather than burst open, so the bigger kid tore it apart with his hands!).
So, pass-the-parcel is a game that we've played at every kid party in Scotland, and also played here at the one Kiwi birthday party we've been to. So, I thought I knew what I was doing, since I got a little bouncy ball and wrapped it up a bunch of times and then let Joe take over with stopping the music every so often so that a kid could unwrap a layer (I think my dad said this game is called 'hot potato' in America). Anyway, when the first kid to unwrap a layer was looking for some sort of sweetie in the wrapping, I thought he was just being greedy, but then another kid unwrapped the next layer and was looking for something as well... Well, it turns out, you are supposed to have some sort of treat wrapped in each layer of paper so that all the kids get at least a little something. Oops. Fortunately, all the parents laughed along with me as I apologized for my ignorance (and for ruining the game).
I think we all had a good time (at least Joe, Duncan, Ewan and I agree that it was a good time!), and it was really nice to get to know some of our neighbours and fellow church-goers a bit more, too. We are so glad thankful that people who don't know us very well came over to celebrate Duncan with us.
We love you so very much, Duncan, and we are so proud of the big boy you have become!
(Sorry for no photos from the party. One of our friends took quite a few, though, so maybe we'll get some from him and post them soon)