A Watery Kind of February

February is usually one of the hottest and driest months of the year in NZ. So when I say it's been a very watery month, I don't mean we've had a lot of rain - I actually mean it's been hot and we've been cooling off in the water alot! 

Sometimes we've done this in our own backyard by throwing water balloons at each other and putting the hose pipe on one another....although how I always seem to end up wetter than the kids I still can't understand??

Sometimes the kids have got the waterslide out (but there's no way I'm getting on that!)...

We've often just ran backwards and forwards through the sprinkler....although now Wellington City Council have told us we're only allowed to use it every other day (presumably to prevent us running out of water), it's reduced the fun factor - especially as I can never remember which day we're on!

We're so lucky to have an outdoor swimming pool next to the kids' school and we've been using it alot. I love strolling down there in the afternoon after I pick them up and watching them play with all their friends....Molly seems to spend more time lying around on the sun deck chatting with her friends than she does swimming, but every so often she takes a dip to cool off - and then goes back to the deck.

The other day Jake called me from work and said he really wanted to go for an ocean swim that evening. So I cooked us dinner, packed it into four takeaway boxes, grabbed our togs and drove down to meet him after work. We had dinner at the beach and then went for a swim - the kids thought Christmas had come again - so exciting to be taking a swim in the sea when they should really be doing homework and going to bed! ;)

And when all the visits to the beach and the pool are done with, we revert to the backyard and get the water gun out!

How much noise can six girls make?

It's been a VERY exciting few days for our Molly.

Firstly, on Thursday at school, her year were given 24 hours notice that the elections for this year's House Captains would be on Friday. So she spent all afternoon and evening on Thursday writing a speech for the elections and practising it. She even asked me to wake her up early on Friday morning so she could practise before school as well (getting up early is virtually unheard of for Molly).

Jake and I spent all of Friday bursting to know how it went. And Molly must have been bursting even more than us.

And when I went to collect her from school that afternoon I heard a little voice shouting across the school grounds - "Mum! I'm House Captain!" . The speech had been given, the votes had been counted, and our Molly had been elected! How proud are we....!

And on Sunday she had her birthday party. As she's now older, we restricted the number of party guests to just six. But crikey, I had completely under-estimated how much noise 6 eight year old girls could make. OMG. My ears are still ringing! 

After a disco for the first hour - during which virtually the whole of Wellington was treated to a screaming rendition of One Direction's "Midnight Memories" about 56 times - they finally quietened down and made some jewellery. 

And then a big water fight in the garden, lots more screaming, and some afternoon tea!

A Nerf Gun Birthday Party

Our Alfie turned six at the weekend - so it's been a crazy couple of days for us.

Despite our insistence that this year the kids wouldn't have big parties and instead they could each choose a friend to take swimming or to the movies or something, we somehow found ourselves hosting 9 boys for a Nerf Gun party at our house on Saturday....followed by 6 girls for a One Direction / jewellery making party on Sunday (???)

We had given countless hours of thought as to how to control nine over-excited 5 and 6 year old boys at Alfie's party, and the party planning that went into this two hour event was quite something!

First of all, as they entered the house, they had to put down their Nerf guns and read the Rules on the wall. There were only two rules:

1. No shooting inside (thank goodness the weather gods were on our side, I have no idea what we would have done if it had been raining!) 

2. No shooting people. 

Amazingly, almost everyone followed the rules - apart from just two occasions. Not bad boys! 

Since Alfie's party guests were basically his entire soccer team, the Black Ninjas, we started the afternoon off with a big game of soccer. 

Next it was time for Nerf Games. We divided into two teams, and played a range of (outside!) games including seeing how many tin cans you could knock off the wall, seeing if you could shoot your bullets through an old car tyre, and shooting a target drawn in chalk on the wall. 

Some of them were good shots, but let's just say it's now three days later and I'm still finding bullets stuck in the trees, in the flower beds and under the table! 

Towards the end of the games, the boys were ravenous. There had been several desperate requests for food but Jake had ignored them and insisted that they continue with the games (taking his role of Sargeant Major quite seriously, ha ha!)

But finally they got to eat!

Next it was birthday cake time, and this continued with the Nerf gun theme!

And present time...

Before we finally sent them all home with a Nerf-themed party bag, temporarily flopped onto the couch with a glass of wine, and then set about preparing for Molly's party the following day!

A Very Horsey Kind of Birthday

Our little girl turned EIGHT a few days ago. Man, that 8 years has gone fast!

At the moment she's absolutely, completely and utterly obsessed by horses and ponies.  She collects toy horses, she reads horse books, she requests a pony of her own on a daily basis (sometimes hourly) and regularly dreams of ponies.

This has been going on for months - it's not just a passing phase.

So, this year we gave her a completely horse-themed birthday!

It all started with the cake, as it usually does on Molly's birthday. She always invents something in her head and asks me to create it for her - and I always seem to do so at 11pm the night before her birthday. Over the years we've had sharks, chocolate cats, trains, Dora the Explorer and Barbie cakes.

Every year I promise myself I'll be more organised next year, but it's so hard to find the time and the opportunity before the kids are in bed.

This year she was (as usual) very specific about her cake. First of all, it had to have horses doing show jumping on it, in a grassy and muddy field with daisies in it. (Do you like my giant yellow daisies? I didn't have white icing!)

Next, it had to have a "surprise" inside filled with M&Ms, so that when you cut it open all
the M&Ms spilled out. How she knows about these cake trends I have no idea??

Anyway, with a little bit of help from the internet and a little bit of help from a genius friend, I managed to bake a couple of layers (each one a different flavour of course), scoop the middle out, and pack some M&Ms in, then stick it all together with icing and hope for the best. It didn't collapse overnight and I am still amazed that it worked! 

Once the excitement of cake and presents were all over, we told the kids we were going on a secret mystery trip in the car. Both kids were fairly convinced we were going to meet our new kittens (this is a whole separate story, but for those who haven't heard yet, we have two gorgeous little kittens joining the family next week). 

In fact, we'd arranged a secret birthday horse riding lesson for both kids! When we pulled up outside the stables the look on Molly's face was completely priceless! 

A few nerves kicked in as she got kitted out with a helmet...

But once she was up on the pony she relaxed and had the best half hour ever!

Each of them got a private lesson on a pony called Billy - he was very gentle and lovely - and they both learnt heaps. Molly mastered the art of getting him to trot and halt within minutes, and just loved it all. Of course the instructor picked up on this and managed a hard sell at the end to try to sign her up for regular classes!

At $55 a week, we unfortunately had to say no way, as we'd have to re-mortgage the house - or live in cardboard boxes.

So she worked out how to do it herself instead! For all those UK relatives who sent her birthday money, just to let you know she's decided to put it all together and use it to continue with riding lessons (and when that runs out we are in big trouble!)

Palliser Bay. The South.

Contrary to popular belief, the most southerly point of the North Island is not Wellington. The island actually curves down and around to the east, going quite a bit further south than the capital.

Cape Palliser in the Wairarapa is actually the southern-most point, and this is where we chose to spend our latest holiday. It's a wild and lonely place - but so beautiful.

Our accommodation was in one of the Department of Conservations huts/cottages, and we brought another family along (and their dog Freddie) with us. Much of our time was spent playing cards (the adults) and building mud & stick dens in the surrounding bush (the kids).  The adult card game went on for 72 hours....and I do have to mention here that the girls team won! ;)

Thanks to the fault lines and mountain ranges that criss cross this part of New Zealand, the scenery is rugged and spectacular, with steep cliffs and unique rock formations. The Southern-most point is marked by a lighthouse - which is still working (but these days fully automated by a computer in Wellington).






There are hundreds of steps up to the lighthouse (we know because we got the kids to count them - they

counted 175, the sign said 255!), but it's so worth it as the views are fantastic!

(Just don't look past the step in front of you on the way back down - it's pretty hairy!)

There are also alot of seals around this part of the coastline, and we saw so many I completely lost count! On the rocks, on the beaches, swimming and playing in the water. Pretty awesome.

Summer School Holidays

I love school holidays. I love hanging out with the kids, abandoning our normal routines, doing whatever we want, whenever we want - even if it means I then have to work until midnight each night!

But the difference between school summer holidays in New Zealand and summer holidays in the UK is that here in NZ we have Christmas in the middle. By the time school's broken up and you've had the lead-up to Christmas, then Christmas itself, then you go away for a couple of weeks for a summer holiday....well, you get back and you realise there's only a couple of weeks left of the school holidays. There's only a few days now until the start of term.

The UK school holidays used to stretch on forever. I feel kind of cheated!

Anyway, here's a little bit of what we've been up to...

Both kids have been in Swim School during the holidays. We often do these, and because they're such intensive courses the kids learn heaps. It also wears them out and means they're happy to do quiet stuff for a couple of hours afterwards, which means I get some work done during the daytime, which saves me burning the candle too late at night for which I am truly thankful!

Of course, there's been plenty of playpark time too, as always...

Back at home, Molly's taught her brother to skip...

The kids have been so into painting this summer and we've had the paint set out most days. One day they made painted stone signs for virtually every plant in the garden (not all spelt very well though!)...

Often they've been content to just sit inside doing arts & crafts...so sweet. They get story CDs from the library to listen to while they paint, and they beaver away for hours while I work. 

Unfortunately Molly's Alopecia hasn't been great lately, and the bald patches have been prone to sunburn, so last week we went shopping for a new sunhat...

Luckily she loves it, wears it everywhere, and often gets comments from random strangers about how much they like it - and I think it really suits her too!

January's given us a very mixed bag of weather this year, but when it's become too hot we've had plenty of water fights and sprinkler sessions in the garden...

And we've often cooled off in the local outdoor pool (which is situated at the bottom of the mountain mostly in the shade, and is unheated!)...

On cooler days we've been into the city, met Jake for lunch, pottered around the waterfront collecting water snails...

And we've spent endless hours at Te Papa, our national museum...

I love that during school holidays, normal routine goes out of the window. Meals happen just whenever we're hungry (what I mean by that is whenever Alfie gets hungry, as he's always first). Lunches take place while we're out for the day or just outside in our back garden, any time we feel like it...

One of Molly's favourite pastimes - chatting to one of her friends on the phone for hours...

And finally, of course, we've hung out at the beach..... so sad it's nearly over :( roll on the next holidays!