Ilam Gardens and Baby Ducks and Chinese Food...

We were on our own for Thursday because Brady was going into his office.  We started our "homeschool", which is a difficult thing to do when you've been in a new place for only 1 full day.  No better day to start then today.  We worked for a few hours and when the girls needed a break, Brady suggested we walk over to the Ilam Fields and Garden. All we needed to do was cross the street and walk the alley way for a short ways.  Ilam Fields is a giant University field for Cricket and a running track.  Along one side it has a beautiful garden with some trails, trees to climb and our favorite find, ducks.  We were lucky enough to spot a momma duck and 10 babies.  They were so adorable.  We couldn't get enough of their furry small bodies.  They wanted so much to try and hold one but I told them they couldn't touch them.

We also found these plants with GIANT leaves.  The girls said if we picked one, we could use it as an umbrella. 

We looked closer at them and their stems had giant pokey thorns on them.  Ouch!  We would definitely not be picking one for an umbrella.  Not to mention, Dad has told us not to pick anything here.  He said that NZers are very protective of their country and green space.  Leave it as it is....

On Friday we did homeschool again as Brady was preparing for his class.  Still having not driven, we were forced to stay home and venture only as far as Ilam fields.  They were happy to do that as we had found some great trees to climb, fun trails, and definitely had to check on the cute baby ducks.  Kayla stayed home this day to keep working on her school work.  

After some tree climbing we found our ducks.  We were surprised and sad to find that only 9 babies were with mamma duck.  There was another duck and "teenage" duck around but we couldn't find #10.  The mamma duck chased off these two other ducks while we were standing on the bank but she didn't seem to mind us being there.  We eventurally saw the lost baby emerge from the bank but it ran up the wrong way.  After searching, we saw it again only to loose it again.  After a while we decided to leave and hope that the mamma would eventually find it.  We were supposed to meet up with Dad anyways and go to the Faculty house soon anyways.

Every Friday the faculty is invited to go to the faculty house for mingling.  We were reluctant to go (the girls were) but went anyways.  We eventually met a family there that has 4 daughters too.  Its a rare thing to find a family with only 4 daughters so we instantly had a connection with them.  It was fun to find out that their ages were so close to our girls ages.  They had a 14, 12, 10 and 7 year old.  They took them into the Ilam Gardens to show them some hideouts they had.  They were gone for nearly an hour or more.  I visited with the mother and enjoyed getting to know her.  She was from England and her husband was from France.  It is so interesting; the people we have met; they are so global.  They have lived all over the world with their families.  They speak many languages.  It is so different than America.  We hardly go beyond our state borders, let alone span the globe and speak many languages.

After our long visit it was very late and we hadn't eaten dinner.  We went to a Chinese restaurant with Engineering friends.  This was a new experience for the girls.  They eaten Chinese take out, but not at a Chinese restaurant before.  They were so intrigued by the tank of live lobsters.

Our large table with a round spinner in the middle to share the food.  Kayla's face in this picture is evident of her feelings toward Brady by the end of the night.  The first thing to be brought to the table was Calamari.  Brady told them it was chicken and they were like skinny chicken nuggets.  They all ate one.  I was forced to as well as to not look suspicious even though I know quite well what calamari is.  After a while Brady admitted to them that it was squid and that the were eating tentacles.  At least that's better than another "T" body part they could have been eating. he he

Kayla was super mad and told him that she was never going to trust him again.  After lying about the lamb meat and then squid she was done with him.  Although, she really liked the lamb and has eaten it again since.