The Big Man Turns 40 - Part 2

A few days before Jake's birthday, we were getting ready for our trip to Ohakune during (another) very busy phase of life - I have multiple work projects on the go, we're busy with billions of specialist appointments for Molly, and Jake is 4 weeks in to a new and very busy job which so far has consistently required approx 60 hour working weeks. (And that's not even the half of it!)

You can imagine how I felt when Jake suddenly announced: "For my birthday I want more than just a family weekend away. I want you to organise me a party for next week".

To be fair, I probably should have thought of this before, but life has been a little bit challenging lately and I had instead just been trying to get through everything, quietly congratulating myself on actually managing to buy birthday presents and organise a weekend away in amongst all the other general day-to-day bedlam.

Anyway, I love a challenge ;)

So organise a party I did.

Not many people these days can necessarily attend a party with only a week's notice, but despite the lack of proper planning we managed to gather together a lovely group of Wellington friends for a drinks party at our house.

A couple of cases of wine were ordered, and some nibbles were prepared. And it's Jake we're talking about so of course there had to be a cake as well.

While I prepared the food, the kids were in charge of party decorations. I gave them about an hour or so to decorate the house - and they managed to blow up 3 balloons ;)

(NB If you look closely at the last photo you will see that yes, Jake wore slippers to his 40th birthday party).

Both children stayed up late and were in charge of photos! (I think they need a little practise!)

Alfie hit the pillow at 9pm and Molly followed on at nearly 11pm (!) and after that the music was turned up, more wine was got out, and the party continued.....until 3AM!!

That's the first time we've done a 3am party in a very long time, and we're still recovering!

The Big Man Turns 40 - Part 1

Last week, the big man of the house had a birthday with a large number in it. Yep, Jake is now 40!!!

As well as organising some special presents, I'd also arranged a weekend away for the whole whanau* to celebrate with him - 16 Downings from Auckland, Wellington and Morrinsville.

We all took a day off work/school, and travelled to a roughly half-way point at Ohakune. In a couple of months Ohakune will be covered in snow and full of skiiers, but right now it's too early in the season so things were pretty quiet, still and beautiful, with snow-capped mountains all around. Lovely.

With ages ranging from 3 to 52 yrs, we found it surprisingly easy to occupy everyone and keep things happy for the whole weekend (the only exception to this was tears from Alfie on two occasions, once because of a fat ear received during some rough play, and secondly because of a broken toy).

We found a gorgeous wooden ski lodge to stay in with a couple of roaring fires and plenty of space. We consumed a fair amount of booze in this space - although not with our breakfast despite what the picture of Sam looks like?!

We managed a great tramp through Tongariro National Park - and not a single child complained about the walking! They were full of loud chatter all day, and demonstrated some "interesting" imaginations with excited talk about how they were travelling through the Australian Outback and China!

The kids drank water from the stream (can you spot Molly & Amelia?)...

And then they all played in the water for a while and got wet.....

Most people know the way to Jake's heart, and Sam didn't disappoint him, with a fabulous cake absolutely fit for a 40 year old cake lover - and definitely fit for 7 children!

A great weekend, and Jake was so pleased that everyone could join us. Happy Birthday JD!

*For non-Kiwis, Whanau (pronounced faa-now) is a Maori word for extended family, and is commonly used in everyday New Zealand English. 

The Annual Grandparents Visit

Well, that was quite frankly the wettest April EVER!

Did my parents actually, literally, bring the weather from the UK with them?? Because the rain started on the day they arrived and carried on for most of the month, and then stopped pretty much on the day they left.

I've never known such relentless wet weather here!

But life goes on. So we put them to work on the garden, took them for gentle walks, made them put up with a great deal of moaning from Alfie (who never does well on an indoors day) and forced them to help with kids arts and crafts sessions.

(But secretly I think they were mostly just happy with the excuse to sit around on a couch as much as possible, rest and relax!)

While they were here, we also took them up to Himatangi Beach for a few days, so they could see where we hang out so often at weekends.

The kids had a ball on the bike tracks but Granny wouldn't (or couldn't?) watch!

Instead they did both seem to enjoy sitting on logs on the beach for hours on end! Happy Grandparents!

Meanwhile Jake took time to read the newspaper and think of things other than the NZ film industry.

His new job for Weta Workshop has been pretty full on and the first 2 weeks have completely taken over his brain to the extent that when he comes home at night you might say "would you like a glass of wine?" and he will answer "the workshop tour was full again today"; and then you'll say "lovely darling, that's great news, have you had enough to eat?" and he will answer "the Spiderman 2 movie was amazing and we all stayed to watch the credits"...etc etc.

Help! Weta Workshop has taken over Jake's brain!!!!

The kids don't seem to care that Dad's mind has been taken over by film graphics and hobbits, and have coped admirably with being cooped up so much. On the rare occasions that the sun's come out, they've made the most of it.

Himatangi's sand dunes are amazing!

So while the kids played, the grandparents sat on logs, and Jake thought about hobbits, I managed to find time for an afternoon walk up the beach.

I love walking along Himatangi Beach on a clear day - it's just so stunning.

 And for our last day at the beach, a perfect sunset from the top of the sand dunes..... 

Girls Weekend Time

It's that time of year again, the time that means girls-weekend-away time!

Beth, Sam and I do it every year (although Fi joined us this year as well) and we go somewhere different every time. To be honest, we don't mind too much where we actually go. Our only criteria are that we have a bach with a spa and plenty of wine and coffee!

This year's trip was to the beautiful Mangawhai Heads...just stunning!

I'd forgotten how much I love this part of NZ. It was my first time back to this region in about 8 years, and it was my first time back to Mangawhai Heads since 2004! Why did I leave it so long?!

We had the loveliest weekend,  walking along beaches, swimming a little bit, paddling in the waves...

And sometimes just sitting with a book and a glass or two of wine in the afternoon!

One night we took an evening stroll along the estuary....

Relaxing again the next day...

At the beautiful Langs Beach...

Autumn...

I really like March in New Zealand. It's actually my favourite month of the year.

The mornings are chilly. But the daytime weather is so much more settled, and warm, and sunny (usually). It's not too hot to do things, but it's still warm enough to be lazy and relaxed. We still get to sit outside and have ice creams sometimes!


 And hang out at the beach...

On the downside, the garden is starting to look a bit sorry for itself now. Luckily we don't lose leaves from many trees in NZ so it's all still very green. But the flowering season is well and truly over, and my veggies and strawberries are almost finished. However, we are getting some rather large pears off the tree!

Another downside - the camping season is pretty much over and we didn't get to camp at all this year! :( One night recently, Jake and Alfie put the tent up in our backyard and they were planning to sleep the night in it, but Alfie got a bit scared and by 9pm they were back in the house again. (I think Jake was secretly pleased). Anyway, never mind - we already have grand plans for next summer!

Meanwhile, the weather at this time of year is just perfect for hiking. Not too hot, not too cold. Molly still loves coming up the mountain with me, and I love having her as my hiking buddy.

Sports Mad

We have a sports mad little family here at the moment.

Firstly, last Friday was Alfie's school Athletics Day. He laughed and smiled and chatted and ran his way through the whole day. He came second in the running race, and he won the 3-legged race (twice!) - thanks to some careful team tactics discussions held at the start (see photo below).

Our Alfie is an EXTREMELY competitive little man. This sometimes approaches unhealthy levels, but is usually a good thing. He puts in an enormous amount of effort, which thankfully frequently pays off - and when it doesn't he learns some good life lessons and sometimes takes these lessons well!

Meanwhile, the summer soccer season is almost at an end - there are just two more games to go - and Alfie continues to LOVE playing with the Black Ninjas. They play officially every Friday afternoon, although generally every single lunchtime I believe the Ninjas get together at school for a game as well.

They're a characterful bunch of boys...!

And they certainly play well together!

Molly has continued with her horse riding lessons this month, and is loving every second of it! 

And today she took part in the Weetbix Try-athlon (pretty much 50% of her school took part in fact!), a nationwide series of kids triathlons. Molly decided to form a team with her friend Lucy, which meant Molly was the biker, Lucy was the swimmer, and they both ran together. Here's the "before" picture...

And the "after" picture...!  

Strangely enough, it's Jake who's been lacking in sports activities this month due to a lack of time - he's currently working 1.5 jobs (he's still at the Department of Conservation but is starting a new job next month and they've already got him attending meetings and preparing things in the evenings). 

And me, I'm just enjoying lots of walking up the mountains and around the coast this month. 

Two New Members of the Family

Meet the two new members of our family - introducing Bear and Ninja.....!

Bear (the tortoiseshell one) and Ninja (the ginger one) joined us last month, when they were just 11 weeks old. It's a long story as to how and why they came to live with us, a story which dates back almost 3 years. Let's just say Jake surpassed himself in his commitment and decision making skills this time and leave it at that. ;)

The kids are completely IN LOVE! They leap out of bed each morning without even letting us know they're up and rush off to find the kittens. They rush home from school each afternoon and go to play with the kittens. We can't get them to bed without letting them say goodnight (156 thousand times) to the kittens. And the kittens, bless them, tolerate this well...

So far they are housebound, until they've finished all their immunisations and other such things that the vet takes care of. Every night they go completely MENTAL, and demonstrate more energy than Alfie's entire soccer team - and that's saying something. Very entertaining to watch!

But overall they haven't caused us too much trouble yet. Just a smashed photo frame, some chewed up important paperwork, a half eaten box of Molly's homeopathic drops and an incident up the chimney.

A Watery Kind of February

February is usually one of the hottest and driest months of the year in NZ. So when I say it's been a very watery month, I don't mean we've had a lot of rain - I actually mean it's been hot and we've been cooling off in the water alot! 

Sometimes we've done this in our own backyard by throwing water balloons at each other and putting the hose pipe on one another....although how I always seem to end up wetter than the kids I still can't understand??

Sometimes the kids have got the waterslide out (but there's no way I'm getting on that!)...

We've often just ran backwards and forwards through the sprinkler....although now Wellington City Council have told us we're only allowed to use it every other day (presumably to prevent us running out of water), it's reduced the fun factor - especially as I can never remember which day we're on!

We're so lucky to have an outdoor swimming pool next to the kids' school and we've been using it alot. I love strolling down there in the afternoon after I pick them up and watching them play with all their friends....Molly seems to spend more time lying around on the sun deck chatting with her friends than she does swimming, but every so often she takes a dip to cool off - and then goes back to the deck.

The other day Jake called me from work and said he really wanted to go for an ocean swim that evening. So I cooked us dinner, packed it into four takeaway boxes, grabbed our togs and drove down to meet him after work. We had dinner at the beach and then went for a swim - the kids thought Christmas had come again - so exciting to be taking a swim in the sea when they should really be doing homework and going to bed! ;)

And when all the visits to the beach and the pool are done with, we revert to the backyard and get the water gun out!

How much noise can six girls make?

It's been a VERY exciting few days for our Molly.

Firstly, on Thursday at school, her year were given 24 hours notice that the elections for this year's House Captains would be on Friday. So she spent all afternoon and evening on Thursday writing a speech for the elections and practising it. She even asked me to wake her up early on Friday morning so she could practise before school as well (getting up early is virtually unheard of for Molly).

Jake and I spent all of Friday bursting to know how it went. And Molly must have been bursting even more than us.

And when I went to collect her from school that afternoon I heard a little voice shouting across the school grounds - "Mum! I'm House Captain!" . The speech had been given, the votes had been counted, and our Molly had been elected! How proud are we....!

And on Sunday she had her birthday party. As she's now older, we restricted the number of party guests to just six. But crikey, I had completely under-estimated how much noise 6 eight year old girls could make. OMG. My ears are still ringing! 

After a disco for the first hour - during which virtually the whole of Wellington was treated to a screaming rendition of One Direction's "Midnight Memories" about 56 times - they finally quietened down and made some jewellery. 

And then a big water fight in the garden, lots more screaming, and some afternoon tea!