Friday, December 18, 2015

Nearly there...

School finished yesterday which means Christmas and our summer holidays are officially nearly here!

We put the tree up last weekend. It was a little earlier than usual but we had our annual Christmas drinks party that night and wanted to have it up for that. However, as all the kids are now older, this year's party included a few youngsters who completely took over that room and so none of the adults actually got to see the tree.


We even managed to work out how to do a self-timed photo on the iPhone ;) !


After a few days of having the tree up, my early Christmas present arrived! Which means the whole tree had to be moved into a dark corner and is no longer the glory of our lounge room. But look what we have instead!!!


Both children have just written their letters to Santa and they are sitting by the chimney today. Molly wrote her's with a cheeky glint in her eye as she once again asked Santa for a horse/pony and questioned how he can get up and down a modern gas flue. Alfie however put a lot of thought and research into his. Why he needs a FitBit I have no idea, but I fear he could be slightly disappointed when the big day comes :(


The last week of school was the usual type of week of no work, lots of games and lots of fun. They had a blast, despite the fact that one day they were all plunged into the outdoor pool which has only just opened for the year and has only got to 18 degrees so far, brrrrr! Check out Molly's face! She actually went purple after 20 minutes and had to be pulled out by a member of staff! ;(


Alfie and I went to the official Wellington Santa Parade last weekend, which is always so much fun no matter what age you are. We found a sunny spot on Willis Street and watched all the completely non-Christmas-related floats go by (Minions, Harry Potter, rugby players, etc)..... until finally we saw Santa at the end!


Molly and Jake were part of the parade this year - Molly was a Pohutakawa Tree and did a great job of high fiving everyone up the street (Jake was a marshal - you can see him in a green Santa hat at the right of the picture below).


So now it's Day 1 of the school holidays, which means that by 9.30am this morning every single room in the house looked a little bit like this..

There is paint and glitter all over the dining table, scissored pieces of paper all over the lounge room, nail polish on EVERYTHING, blue wall paint on the sink (how??) and rolled up newspapers all over my bed. I actually can't bear to photograph any other rooms. HELP!!!

I seem to have had about 107 different kids at our house today (maybe it was actually 7? It felt like 107), and they spent most of the day setting up a "stall" outside the house where they tried to sell their services: 50c a hair spray (purple only), $1 a face paint and $1 for painted nails.

Most of our household possessions, including all toys and my whole cupboard full of towels, were taken outside to make this stall, posters were made displaying prices and balloons were tied to the road signs.

Then every car that drove past was yelled at and screamed at - they certainly gave a few drivers a real fright - and after 4.5 hours they had a grand total of two customers (both were given free face paints). Lots of fun but man am I shattered!




Wednesday, December 2, 2015

What's Been Happening?

Well, a lot actually!

The Davey's have been to visit from Auckland. Alfie and Cam displayed their usual amounts of energy together (including a 9.30pm trampoline session followed by a 7am soccer session, god help us). But in between all that we had a great time at the new WWI memorial museum and on the waterfront.


And the kids all met Graham Henry who walked past while we were having lunch! (That's the All Blacks coach, mum! ;) )


Last weekend, Molly had her end of year Gymnastics Display...


Since our new next door neighbours have daughters of babysitting age, it means Jake and I have had a few dates lately! We've been out to dinner, and to a 40th birthday party....


It's been a very busy few weeks for dates in fact - we went to a Robbie Williams concert and to an Elton John concert too. Both were outdoors and both were amazing, just brilliant! For such a small city, Wellington's definitely punched above its weight this year and we've seen some great bands.


Not leaving out the rest of the family completely for our nights out, we all went to a Phoenix v Adelaide soccer game the other night. The Phoenix won and all the fans took their tops off. It's a well-known tradition apparently. The kids can't stop talking about it.



In the daytimes we've been working hard on the garden. I'm not sure if it's due to the law of probabilities (as we have such a big section with so many plants and trees) or if we're just unlucky, but so many things in the garden need to be pulled out or treated at the moment due to fungal infections, lemon borer, etc. Anyway, Jake and Alfie are good puller-outers and I'm the official planter of new things. (Molly doesn't yet seem to have a role, but that will be changed soon!)


Aren't I doing a good job of planting?!


As the weather has started heating up again, there's been a lot of outdoors time actually. The water slide has been permanently out over the last week.


Which means we usually have a collection of various local kids wanting a go too!


And still there's no rest! The kids made an indoor tent the other weekend, which we were all forced to sleep in. Jake snuck out, leaving me with two wriggly children on the floor all night. 10 days later and I'm still tired and recovering, but the kids enjoyed it!


But we've still found the energy to make the most of the hills behind our house a lot lately. It's so beautiful at this time of the year, and we're so lucky to have this on our doorstep. Jake has been running up in the mornings before work, and I have been going walking along the ridgeline in the evenings when he gets home. It's an amazing spot.



If life seems busy that's because it is! It's always the way at this time of year. October to March are usually bedlam, and we have to be careful to give ourselves some rest. Quiet time for us recently has been scarce, but when it's come it has involved a spot of reading in the garden....



And hanging as a family on quiet beaches like we did on this gorgeous day last week....