Winter School Holidays

Well, it's the winter holidays again and we're well into the swing of things! Last year we all spent the winter holidays in bed with a serious case of the flu, so it's been great to be able to enjoy our time together this year.

We did get off to a shaky start when on Day 2 there was a magnitude 7 earthquake not far from Wellington – it hit us just as I was going to bed and consequently I hardly got any sleep that night and Day 3 was a bit of a write off for me! The quake was quite deep but it was still the scariest and largest one I’ve been in so far and not something I enjoyed at all. Our house was ok and luckily there’s not been any real damage to anything (just reports of things like tea bags and painkillers falling off the supermarket shelves, and I do know of at least one father who was clutching at his flat screen TV set while he watched the cricket during the shaking rather than looking after his kids, but at least the TV was ok!)

Anyway, after a super hectic Term 2 at school, we decided to keep this week fairly simple and relaxing, but we’re on Day 4 now and we’ve packed a lot in already...

We've barbequed our lunch in Otari-Wilton bush, then explored a bit - and got very muddy! I love how Australia and NZ have free gas barbeques in their reserves and public parks. We used to do it in Australia all the time and it was great to reinstate the tradition here.

Molly’s been on a school holiday swimming programme so she’s been at the pool every afternoon learning how to stick her bottom up and down (the beginnings of butterfly stroke apparently!)

We’ve been to see a show by BJ Bear (yes unfortunately that really is his name, but the kids LOVED him).

We’ve been to several playparks (of course!) and for fluffies at our favourite local cafe.

We’ve had friends over for playdates.

We’ve had long arts & crafts sessions at home with playdough, beads, scissors, pens, etc (not all at once!).

We've baked - we made alien cupcakes! 

Looking forward to the rest of the holidays now!