Family Store Conference- Hanmer Springs

One of the 1st major training sessions for me was the Family Store Conference (13 - 15 May)where I learned everything from the mission of The Salvation Army (again) to how to spot and deal with Shoplifters..... This was a good opportunity for learning, catching up with officers and family store managers from around the top end of the South Island and to have a soak in the hot pools.... Lovely.

Also to experience the drop in temperatures due to snow in the nearby hills. There was ice on the windows of the car on our final morning and lots (or so I thought) of snow on the mountains....

Some pictures of the lovely setting that we were in.

Frost on the ground and snow on the hills

And a little bit closer

Self Portraits

It seems that all the funny kid stories are about Emily at the moment and here comes another... Sort of story.

Emily has taken a liking to taking photos of herself whenever she gets her hands on a camera... I think she is taking a leaf out of Corryn's book actually.... I guess we imitate those we love....

Here are a few examples of her photography skills in self portrait.

Smile Crocodile

Emily after she had a bit of a crash involving teeth, nose and lips

She took off with the camera again. This was the nicest shot of about 10 self portraits

Emily and her picture of her own beautiful blues

Emily comes of age

Just a really quick story about Emily. I was sitting at my desk at the office with Emily hanging around like a bad smell. She really wanted to do something other than watch the DVDs that we had brought to the office for entertainment. (We are still waiting for Morning Kindy). I have spent the morning writing cheques to pay all the bills..... Morning tea time arrived and Perry made me go to the kitchen to have a drink and biscuit.

Emily makes a detour on the way and I think that she is watching her DVD. When I get back to my desk I look at the next cheque in the cheque book and I see that Emily has been busy.

She had decided to 'write' a cheque in the book and then found a highlighter and highlighted what she had written. It was all circles by the look of it and neatly along the appropriate lines on a cheque. But then her conscience had got the better of her and she decided that this might not please Mum too much. So she found the corrector tape (the twink but dry stuff that rolls on) and 'corrected' all that she had written... well most of it.....

I wonder who the administrator of my children is going to be.....