Form 10Bg and sunbathing lambs

First day of high school for boys today!!  Uniforms and all!  And when all was said and done even Jack, who told me yesterday I was the meanest mom ever when I could not find him a red jersey anywhere in the entire community, said that he was happy to have the black jacket, "it is cool, Mom!".  Phew!  They are in Form 10Bg which is their homeroom and then will take required Eng, Math, Science, Social Studies, Music and Art.  There will be a field trip to Auckland in Oct to study DNA at a large medical research center, and then there will be a 3 day overnight trip to start out next term in Oct as well.  All I know is when I picked up boys at school today they were happy, had met  some "mates" (one being some surfing stud!), watched a Ted Talk on obesity in America, and they felt things went well.  Noah even proclaimed "Mom, Science was really good!!"  Another sigh of relief on my end!
The school is roughly 4-5 km from our house and the boys will be on their own by foot or bike to get there-rain or shine.  You can see the Mount in the above photo to give you idea of distance.

After dropping boys and Maggie off at school, Lina and I took some time to explore the higher elevations here.  We took bikes (photo of her on bike with Mount in the distance) to base of the Mount and journeyed up.  Took about 30" to climb the 770', the trail being pretty straight up.  Glorious day, the trail wanders through grasslands with grazing sheep and lamb and into fern forests, with ocean views 360 around.   From the top one has a lovely view of the peninsula we are living on of Mount Maunganui.  Turns out to be a perfect spot as it is really easy to navigate, folks seem to look out for each other, easy access to all we need, and I will commute over bridge to clinic in Tauranga in about 15".  When the sun shines here it is pretty awesome!  After our jaunt we rode home along Marine Parade, the road that borders the amazing shore (see bottom photo)

Thinking we will venture out for Fish and Chips to celebrate the boys first day of school being such a success-yes, they are even happy to go back on Monday.  Our landlady stopped by here as well to open the apt downstairs for us, so now we have room not only for boys to spread out and hopefully not kill each other, but plenty of room for guests!  She is even going to purchase some outdoor furniture for us and a BBQ!  Happy Days!  Next hurdle:  my first day at work with new computer system, same meds all with different names, new people, etc.  Hope I keep everyone alive!!
Plan on a few adventures this weekend to surrounding areas as well....stay tuned!
Have I mentioned how well I am sleeping here?!  The sea air perhaps?  But it is a deep and satisfying sleep with loads of crazy dreams.  Cheers!