The fourth and final term of the year has begun at school. And with it there have been a couple of changes....namely in the "walking to school" department.

This has been somethng that the boys have been super keen about but their parents (namely us) have not been so happy about it all. You see, for the last 8 years they have never walked any further ahead of us then our holding hands allowed. We have ALWAYS been there with them. They have never popped down the street by themselves for anything. Only recently have we allowed them to purchase their own food at the food court in the mall. But then that was only once we knew where they were going and could see them at all times.

Today we allowed them to walk, by themselves, to school. We live just 1/2 kilometre from the entrance and they only have to cross one road to get there. That road is patrolled by a school patrol that tells you when to cross and when to wait. They were so excited! I'm sure they felt quite grown up. Nige and I were feeling more apprehensive then they were....so much so, that we jumped in the car, drove to the school entrance and waited for them to walk in the front gate. All without them seeing us. Silly huh? But it made us feel better and we were quite happy for them to walk home after school.

So that was today's big lesson in living in NZ. We passed with flying colours I think and it was really nice to see them when they walked in the front door after 3 PM. I had even made muffins. Yum Yum!!! Now the big problem is that Nige and I have no reason to go walking in the mornings. That's not good, so we are going to have to bite the bullet and walk anyway. We'll see how long that lasts....if it ever begins :-)