Hatepe

Oh, New Zealand on a sunny winter holiday, how we love you! 

We spent the last part of the school holidays up at Hatepe, a small settlement on the shores of Lake Taupo. 

Lake Taupo's not a small lake. In fact, it's the size of Singapore. This means it *almost* has the feel of being by the ocean - but not quite.

 On a clear day (which we had plenty of) it's just stunning in the winter, as there are snow capped mountains all around. This means you get to do that weird thing (which I've only ever done in New Zealand) where you can play in the warm sun on the beach while you're looking at snow all around you.

So we did just that. Although we'd originally had great plans to go skiing, we abandoned that idea on the first day and instead we spent hours and hours on the beach by our bach, watching the colours and generally relaxing while the kids did cartwheels, made sandcastles, dug holes and made piles of pumice stones. 

We were so happy that Mark and Sam joined us for part of the trip, thanks for coming guys! They helped me escape to a bar in Taupo for a couple of beers one afternoon...;)

They also spent time on the beach with us collecting "stuff".

There was great excitement by the river, as a) the owners of a riverside bach had a shiny black helicopter that kept taking off and landing and b) a man swam his horse up the river and rode it along the beach.

The kids were so, so happy and relaxed while we were away. Lots of smiles and laughter and happiness....it was so special...

In fact, so did all of us!

More School Holidays

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I cherish the school holidays and how fiercely I protect my time off with the kids. The current school holidays have been no exception.

Although arguably, the July school holidays are usually the least exciting ones! After a winter term that's usually full of coughs and colds and other viruses, this is the one holiday that all Kiwi kids seem to need a complete rest and plenty of quiet downtime.

So this year we've done just that! I've been working reduced hours during these holidays so they've been at the School Holiday Club 50% of the time and home with me 50% of the time. On their time with me, I've given them the choice between a day out somewhere exciting or time at home, and both children have chosen to stay at home every single time. I guess this term wore them out!

It's been lovely to see them relax into things and enjoy pottering around. They've done a lot of art. And made countless rainbow loom bands of course!

There's been some iPad time too. I'm guessing this is true of many kids these days, but ours rarely watch TV at all, unless it's a family movie night. In my early days of parenting I remember all the advice to keep TV time under 2 hours a day, but honestly, I just can't imagine mine wanting to watch 2 hours a day. Give Alfie an iPad though, and it's a different story!

Sometimes they've had playmates over, sometimes they've played imaginative games together, and sometimes they've played alone (at Molly's insistence because Alfie isn't so good at time alone!).

Their favourite game so far has been the Harry Potter one, which has been going on for days, on and off, with the help of some magic staves and a red scar drawn on Alfie's forehead...

If it sounds like it's been a very lazy time, that's probably because it has been! In fact, sometimes they've felt so lazy they've stayed in their pyjamas until lunchtime! Molly even spent a whole entire day in a onesie last week, even going out to the Mall wearing it to watch a magic show and eat Sushi!

All this quiet at-home time has been lovely for me too! As well as keeping on top of my work, I've been able to commit the ultimate crime (in Jake's eyes anyway ;) !) and RELAX with a cuppa and a book while the kids play..... not just once but twice!!

They do still have plenty of energy to burn of course. The trampoline put together by Grandad during the last holidays is seeing plenty of action - partly from the kids and also from the kittens too who love playing rough & tumble on it! (Thanks Grandad :) !)

And we've hit the playpark more than once as well...

But all up, these holidays have been just what the doctor ordered, and very special. We're into the second week now, so fingers crossed that the rest is just as good....!

A Sunny Winter

It may be the middle of winter here, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying the outdoors (and the indoors too!). We're lucky to have fairly mild winters here - often the mornings are pretty chilly but daytime temperatures usually get up to double digits and often well into the teens with plenty of warm sunshine. 

This suits us just fine. It means we can still get out and about and do all the things we love to do, and then once the sun disappears over the mountains and the temperature drops we can come home and cozy up for the evening. 

So there's been plenty of larking around at the beach over the last few weekends! 

We've discovered some new walking tracks recently too. The tracks at Butterfly Creek over in the Hutt Valley kept us occupied for most of the day last Sunday. The kids have got to a stage now where they don't need bribery to keep them walking; instead they ran ahead, collected sticks, squealed a lot and jumped in as much mud as possible. Bags of energy and lots of fun!

Back at home, we've been enjoying the sun trap in our garden that makes it possible to be outside in t-shirts (or less if you're Alfie!) even at this time of year. Jake & I often try to enjoy a peaceful cup of tea with the newspaper on a Saturday afternoon, but the worldwide Loom Band craze has hit Wellington too, and we've ended up reading nothing and making bands with the kids more than once or twice!

Thanks to the good weather, we're eating lunch outside most weekends at the moment. Now the kids are older they like to make it for us sometimes (yikes!) - their specialty is beans on toast and scrambled eggs. Long may this continue! (and I might throw a few recipe books their way too!) 

The garden table has been used at night recently too! Thanks to a big focus at school each year, Matariki (Maori New Year) has become a significant time of the year for our children. As a result, celebrating it is becoming a bit of a family tradition for all of us. Last year we went to a school celebration; this year we skipped it (bad parenting?) and baked cookies together instead, then ate them outside with warm milk while the kids taught me about the stars. They certainly knew their stuff - thanks for the lesson, kids!

But the difference for us in winter is that most evenings we are cozied up indoors. Evening life has changed for us enormously over the last few months, as Molly has clearly entered the next phase of sleephood. For a while this completely stumped us and we struggled every evening to force her to fall asleep at the same time as Alfie. Cue lots of frustration from all parties.

When the penny finally dropped, life became much easier!

Her bedtime has now shifted back by about an hour and a half compared to this time last year. We've finally got into a nice routine of putting Alfie to bed, and then we enjoy lovely chats, sometimes TV, but more often some reading time with Molly before we snuggle up in some of our own favourite places in the house.