Our lives have been ridiculously full lately.
Full of Christmas planning, Christmas shopping, parties,
concerts, school functions, the village fair, social events...etc, etc, etc.
The local outdoor
swimming pool is now open for the season, so we’ve been hanging out there a
bit, enjoying the weather.
We’ve put the Christmas tree up, decorated the house,
written letters to Santa – and visited him at the local mall too. 
It’s not all been kids’ stuff though. We went to our
friend’s 40th party last week, which was a lot of fun, and we also held
our annual Christmas drinks party at home at the weekend (we always try to hold
one wherever in the world we are).
We had a great day on Sunday supporting Jake on his new
ocean swimming hobby –the kids spent all afternoon collecting pipi shells and
jellyfish (luckily not stingers!) on the beach, while the adults relaxed with a
beer and strawberries – it was all great until Jake whipped off his wetsuit and
revealed his speedos (it kind of ruined the relaxed moment ;)
Not so special was when I was stung last week by an
Australian Paper Wasp. Typical that I managed to survive a year in Central
Australia without getting bitten or stung by anything, and then I move back to
NZ and an Aussie insect gets me!
Within 24 hours my entire upper arm had
swelled up to double its normal size and it itched and burnt like crazy all at
the same time. Since my weekend was so packed I had to make do with a mild
antihistamine from the pharmacy rather than getting to the doctor’s for
something stronger – it made the torture last a little longer, but it’s
slightly less inflamed today so at least I’m finally on the mend.
On top of all this we also have two very tired children – as
I think all Kiwi kids are at the moment. Not only are they completely worn out
from all the extra goings-on at this time of year, but sleep has become a big
issue in our household and it feels like we’ve regressed a few years!
Gone are our pleasant evenings where the kids are in bed
asleep by 7pm. Thanks to the warm, muggy nights and the late sun, our children
aren’t managing to get to sleep until 9pm ish – but even though they’re not
able to get to sleep they’re actually extremely tired which means our evenings
are spent dealing with tantrums and meltdowns and tears and other such
behaviour. Grrrrrr!!!
But despite all this, I must quote some excerpts from their
school reports, which they both received this week and made us very proud.
Alfie:
“Alfie is an active
participant in both group and mat time and has been a pleasure to teach. He
particularly enjoys construction and ball games. Alfie is progressing through
the reading programme and....he is currently reading emergent level books.
Alfie’s passion for learning is evident when he engages in physical
activities.”
(Note the recurring theme of active and physical for Alfie!)
Molly:
“Molly is a quiet,
helpful and considerate student who always makes responsible choices. She is
reading accurately, at a level that surpasses the expected level for her time
at school. Molly takes pride in the standard of her written work, checking the
success criteria before handing it in. Molly has produced some detailed artwork
this year and her art has been used as a model for others on occasion. It has
been a joy teaching Molly this year."
(Awwww, well done Molly! x)
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