A rainy weekend

We haven't had a lot of rain over the last couple of months. I've even had to start watering the garden every day. Luckily my little boy's recent must-have purchase - a blue elephant watering can - has helped with this issue as it means he can take part in this task with me while his sister's at rehearsals. Cute hey?

This weekend though, I was able to take a break from the hosepipe as we finally had some rain, yay! So, in between gymnastics, piano lessons and WOW rehearsals, this is what we did on our rainy weekend...

Firstly, we cuddled the cats alot....

When they'd had enough of the cuddles they escaped outside. Even in the rain they managed to find dry spots. 

Meanwhile the kids played lots and lots of games. Lego, den building, farm games, Sylvanian families.... There wasn't much floor space left by the end of the day. 

On Saturday evening we had a street party, which was nice. One of our neighbours told us about a great walking track that leads from the end of our street through the bush and down to the next suburb, which we didn't even know about! How this happened I have no idea, but we checked it out yesterday. Lots of fun. 

Jake and I managed a night out on Saturday, for dinner at a local hotel and to an awesome play/comedy at a small theatre here, about a middle-aged man who takes up biking and wearing lycra. Seriously. It was very funny. 

We had a bit of TV time too this weekend. TV is something we've not done much of lately due to a general busy-ness and other stuff. Alfie has become obsessed with soccer....(note: STILL no TV cabinet. I'm not sure we'll ever own one). 

And we read lots....we've got Harry Potter on the go at the moment but it's giving Alfie nightmares so we have to only read it during the daytime and stick to gentler things at bedtime.

Yesterday morning I went out for breakfast with the girls while the kids pottered about in the wet garden and found a couple of lizards/skinks. When I got home I discovered that one had even made it into our kitchen with only 3 legs. This whole discovery was either super exciting, super interesting, or super gross - depending on who in the family you were speaking to.

Finally, we were going to cook a lovely dinner last night, but the oven caught fire (well, it is nearly 20 years old) and we have to wait a few days until Fisher & Paykal can come out to replace a part.  (So we got pizza takeaway instead and now we have lots of wasted food, grrrrrr....)

A sunny weekend

It's just a 7km bike ride - each way - from the end of the road up to Pencarrow Lighthouse. What a great track to go riding on with kids! (Until the last few kms....!)

We set off along the coastline and we rode.....

And we rode.....

And we rode....

(I'm not sure my helmet fitted properly??)

Anyway, when we got tired we stopped for a picnic lunch....

By the time we'd done the first 5 or 6 kms, we needed to put a few incentives were in place. The first one to see the lighthouse was going to get chocolate! And the second one too! Well done kids!!

We stopped for ages at the lighthouse and collected a pile of stones, shells and dead starfish....then we set off on the return journey....

It was much slower on the way back and we needed plenty more stops!

What we do during rehearsal time

For the last month Molly has been immersed in rehearsals for one of New Zealand's top fashion/arts/design shows. Anyone who lives in New Zealand will know all about it, but for those readers who don't live in New Zealand you can check it out here: http://worldofwearableart.com/ . 

Getting a part in it involved two rounds of auditions and is quite a big deal! For Molly, it means her world is now full of excitement and dance and costumes - and  secrecy. She's had to sign a confidentiality contract and isn't allowed to speak a word about what she's doing until opening night. For an 8 year old this is a hard task! But she's doing well and so far the rest of us know NOTHING at all. 

Despite not knowing anything, it's pretty much taken over our lives! The rehearsals are 3 times per week and take up about 10-12 hours of our time. Unfortunately this means it's not always possible for Alfie to do a lot of the things he wants to do this term, as he needs to chauffeur Molly around with me, but he's been a great support crew so far with only a very teeny bit of complaining. 

Wellington's not a big city and one of the perks of living here is that it usually takes no time to get anywhere. But as fate would have it, rehearsals are about as far away from our home as possible - a whole 15 kms away in Miramar. So rather than drive there and back and there and back every time, Alfie & I often just hang out on the Miramar Peninsula and enjoy a bit of time together. 

Sometimes we bring a soccer ball and hang at the beach.....

Sometimes we go to the local library and read books together, or to the garden centre where we've bought the occasional random item such as a blue elephant trunk watering can that Alfie was desperate for.

Sometimes we sit at one of the many cafes and treat ourselves to a hot chocolate while we do homework....

As luck would have it, rehearsals are on the same road as Dad's work, so we sometimes visit him in the office, check out the latest company prosthetics, pat the office dog and watch movies in the kitchen.

But at weekend rehearsals we have Dad with us so we get to play more soccer and hang out at the beach some more!



Thanks Alfie, my little chauffeur buddy - I'm loving our time together!

It's A City Life

The last few weeks have been interesting. Most of our blog readers know that Molly has been waiting - very patiently - for some new hair for the last couple of months, after hers all fell out in April.

She's managed ok so far. She's mastered the no-hair look brilliantly and for colder days she is gathering quite an impressive collection of head scarves and hats. Some look sillier than others.

Unfortunately we received some sad, bad news a couple of weeks ago - after months of hard manual work making Molly a custom-fitted wig, it had been stolen by some scumbags in Chinese Customs just before it left to come to NZ (along with 8 others. Why????)

Anyway, thanks to our very very lovely hair consultant we've managed to borrow a loan wig while they start from scratch making Molly another one. The loan one is not custom made to fit Molly and it's made with artificial hair.....but check out how good it looks!!!

Molly's choosing to wear it 50% of the time, but the rest of the time she sticks to a hat or nothing. She likes being able to change things around.

Other news....At the end of July we celebrated our Wedding Anniversary with a takeaway. Such excitement.

Well actually it wasn't our real wedding anniversary. The real one is in February, but for one reason or
another we chose to get married right in the middle of the busiest couple of weeks of our lives, and it's the same every year. It falls within the first week or two of school term, in the middle of both kids' birthdays, the peak of summer, etc etc. So far we've found every year that we're too busy to celebrate it.

We can't see this changing, so we've decided instead to celebrate 29th July instead, the date we originally got together!

Meanwhile work's going well for each of us. Jake's starting to get addicted to checking his sales figures now, it's very reminiscent of our days at BTW. And I've got some nice clients who are keeping me busy. An older relative remarked the other day on how interesting it is to see that my desk is pretty much paperless. True. In fact, my desk most definitely resembles the modern world these days, usually with two screens and an iPhone on the go at the same time.

Having said that, for someone who supposedly works from home, my job has been taking me into the city a lot lately. I've had networking events, courses and meetings to attend which have kept me away from my desk and walking around our beautiful capital. Sometimes I think seriously, just how photogenic can a city be??

We've changed things around a bit in our garden recently. We've had our big Pohutakawa tree thinned out a bit to allow more light into the garden and into the house. We've pulled out some horrors (like giant daisies and privet), leaving the natives to flourish and we've bought some new pots.

We've also cut down a dead Pittosporum tree that was blocking the light to our lounge room and used the wood to create a new play area for the kids. It's kept them occupied for hours. Who would have thought you could have so much fun with pieces of wood!

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.