Aquarium Antics

Marty's sister and her family were up from Palmerston North, and invited us to join them at the National Aquarium.  We were keen, hadn't taken Luke before (although he went with his Barnardo's Christmas Party last month with Granma) and they had new penguins.  We were a little put off by the price ($54!!!) but figure this is an 'occasional' outing so what the heck.  I actually tried convincing Marty to pay the $119 for a yearly unlimited pass, but couldn't convince him despite my best efforts to shell out that kind of money at this time of the year when we have none!   

It was lots of fun, Luke loved the "ish" and was soon making fish sounds with his mouth on demand.  Cute!  What is it about fish that have us all staring.  They don't do much do they, they don't give us cool expressions or anything, yet they still hold us captivated as we stare at them swimming in circles, all looking exactly the same.  Must be a boring life.  Guess that's why God gave them such short memories.  

  

fascinated!

 The penguins were little and cute, although not keen to come and be interesting, they hid away until the keepers pulled them from their burrows to show to us!

 I think the best part of the aquarium would have to be the excellent diver who feeds the fish.  He puts on a real show, having nobody watching the fish at all while he blows water rings, turns somersaults and clowns around with the kids watching.  Luke and the girls watched him for half an hour, mesmorized.  I actually thought it safe to leave him with his sisters for two minutes while I went and saw the family.  Silly me.  He took off down the shark tunnel and we all had a moment of panic!

Granma and Grandad came along too.  Check out Luke sitting with his Grandad, just chilling together.

Afterwards, we met up with cousins and friends at the park down the road for a play, followed by a special icecream together.  My girls ordered lolly icecream, and asked if they would have a lolly in it.  "Of course" I said laughing, as I asked the young lady serving to ensure they had a lolly.  Duh.  It is lolly icecream.  

Well.  There was no lolly in either cone.  Jaimee had a COMPLETE TANTRUM.  I did manage to score her a lolly from the lady, who looked at me like I was a total lunatic when I asked for one for the disappointed child!  Kate coped better as her buddy Seth kindly shared from his cone.  But it was full on sulks from Jaimee.   Of course, as always is the way when one child is tantruming - her cousins didn't get a lolly either but behaved perfectly well.  Hate those parenting moments, and it really wrecks giving the kids a treat!  Ah well, on the whole the day was good fun, and the happy memories will outweigh the meltdown!

The beautiful people...

I am sharing these photos for those who don't have facebook.  The blessings of having a mother who does photography and therefore has an awesome camera.  On Christmas Day I took these ones using her camera...Marty took the one of me. I just love them all. My family is so beautiful!

Jaimee, age 6

Kate, almost 5

Luke, 18 months

Marty, happy.

3 Christmas days at once!

Christmas Day.  My favourite day of the year.  I am always first up in my household, especially since our kids normally sleep in following the church service we go to on Christmas Eve.  This year was no exception, but 4.15am was a little too early even for me....stupid heat!  I attempted to go back to sleep, dozing until Luke woke us up at 6.40am (very unusual for him to be up so early).  Jaimee stirred at 7am, and shook her sister awake.  I was amazed - Christmas early in our household! Normally I am itching to wake up the troop by 8am, but this year I got lucky.  Stockings were promptly opened.  Although we tell the kids over and over again about Santa not being real, they still love the idea of Santa, and still asked me what time he filled the stockings up!  Luke had his first stocking, full of plastic animals which he thought was pretty cool.  The chocolate was even cooler though!

 Since the kids were up at a normal hour, we had time to doll ourselves all up and still make it to church, which was like having a family christmas party all on its own.  I loved being able to hug all our church family and wish them a merry christmas.  We went straight from church to our first 'event' - brunch with Marty's family (and my mum's household came too).  The tradional waffles loaded with icecream and berries was yummy as always, and then the kids had great fun opening presents.  Check out the adorable chef outfits that Nana made (Kate got one too but was in a funk and wouldn't pose).

Matching outfits for my men!

 After the crazy large family Christmas that we all love so much (really, I do!), it was home to open our family gifts for each other.  I admit that my 'love language' is gifts, much to the dismay of my husband, so I may have gone a little teeny bit overboard in my love of watching people open gifts.  Marty got nerf guns and water guns this year (4 of each), resulting in a loud and fun war this afternoon in our backyard!  I was a little worried Marty would take my much used iphone off me and wrap it up for me as that was my main gift this year, but luckily his threats went empty!

Gramps (Marty's dad) joined us for a relaxed afternoon tea at home while Luke slept and the girls played in their new sprinkler, cooling off in the heat.

As Gramps walked out the door, we rounded everyone up for the final part of our day - dinner at my mums. I was looking forward to this, mum is well known for her amazing meals and I knew she had gone all out.  Check out the menu that was set out on the table for each of us.  The kids even had colouring sheets with crayons at their table!

Mum had her best friend Mandy and her beautiful twin girls staying for Christmas.  Mandy has always been my 'big sister' growing up, so it was great to catch up with everyone.  There were lots of laughs, just the way Christmas should be.  We went home feeling very very full and very very satisfied.

We spent boxing day playing with all our new presents and relaxing, finishing off the day having a wine with the neighbours.  Bliss.

Did I mention I love Christmas?

...dinner

...and dessert!

A fiesta of lights

Each year, Hastings put on a 'fiesta of lights' show, where we can pay $4 each to wander through a sparkling display of fairy lights in every form.  We didn't go last year, but decided it was time to take the kids again, who we knew would just love it.  

We shook the girls awake at 9pm (obviously, it starts after dark!) which went against every grain in my parenting body, only countered by the knowledge that I was doing this to give my kids a special memory to treasure of this Christmas treat.  It wasn't easy to wake the girls, who sleep soundly.  I finally picked Kate up out of her bed and stood her up as I talked to her about what we were going to do.  Kate stood wobbly for a moment before climbing back onto her bed and lying down!  Eventually, we had all the kids bundled into the car, Luke looking a bit puzzled at this night time trip.  We picked up Granma and Grandad much to the delight of the kiddies and took them with us.  

It took the kids a little while to wake up, but they were soon racing through the "maze" of fairy ropes laid out on the ground and admiring the many different characters along the way - including kiwis, dolphins and even tiki!  

They just loved running through the hoops of lights and dancing under the disco ball set high in a tree.  Some lovely older people nearby commented on little Luke as he danced with his big sisters, keeping up with them and enjoying the freedom to run and leap at NIGHT.  I had to keep a close eye on them all as they took off to see all the sights in the dark park, yelling at them to wait for mummy a few times!  

There was a fun caravan style room set up with holes in the sides which we had to peek through.  As we peered in, what we couldn't see was that we were actually putting our heads onto a body painted on the wall below us!  I had to go around to the other side of the caravan to actually see who it was that Luke and Kate had become which was fun...apparently I was a monkey as I snapped this photo!

My favourite would have to be this star, which changed colours and patterns as it played different songs.  We all sat down to watch it, even Luke was captivated - better then Kidzone channel.   

 Spirited music (including Gangnum style) blasted as we walked around the displays.  Marty joined the kids dancing to some pretty ballet music, he looks a little sheepish to be caught on camera as he twirled and leapt....

On the way home, we drove past some of the known decorated houses and even stopped to talk to 'Santa' at one!  It was a magical evening, and I hope the kids will remember it with as much fondness as we will.

My Water Baby

 Luke has just discovered the joys of water play in this hot weather.  Until a couple of days ago, he was not at all interested in the pool.  I decided he might gain some confidence if I went in with him, and he had a blast with me, playing 'jump to mummy' and 'wishy washy (splash game)'.  Now, I can't get him out! He says NO and unsteadily walks away across the pool when I try.  He loves it.  Check out him trying to be just like his sisters, attempting to kneel in the pool and going right up to his chin!  He likes to pop his nose in the water too, but chickens out before putting his whole face in.  What a water baby.
 

Anyway, Today it is 3 days before Christmas and as I said to Marty this morning "whoever invented the need to have lots of baking at Christmas obviously lived in a cold climate".  I started my baking at 8.30am, but was still icing biscuits at 2pm.  I got so hot, I joined the kids in the pool after. Not really a great NZ tradition in our 30 degree heat!

Yes, Christmas is the "most wonderful time of the year" - once the cooking, cleaning and financial pressure is taken out of the equation.  In other words, Christmas is wonderful for kids!  Meanwhile, mummy and daddy are wondering if we have enough money left in the account to pay the mortgage this month after all the present and food shopping is done.  Today I weeded the garden, baked 2 quiches, gingerbread cookies and rolled truffles.  I did the last of the grocery shopping, including an expensive trip out to the berry farm.  And all in this disgusting heat that kept me awake most of last night.  Ah well, tonight I will re-enter the 'wonderful time' spirit with a trip to the "Fiesta of Lights" show with the family.  And we did have our carols pumping all day!

 Meanwhile, as I was busy being santa's busy little elf, the kids were in and out of the pool all day.  The lawns are rather dry, so I introduced Luke to sprinkler fun today.  He thought it was the coolest, standing against the wall and saying "ready...go!" and then giggling into the spray where he stood for some time enjoying the coolness on his face.  I just sat down and watched him.  What fun!  Yep, this is Christmas in New Zealand....sweating in the heat, lots of water play and strawberries.  

Jaimee graduates from B1!

Today Jaimee completed her first FULL year of school.  She came home with a bundle of books and paperwork galore, as well as a stunning report.  She is achieving "above average" in all areas again, and check out all these ticks - I am so proud of her efforts.  She is doing so well that she is moving up with the older kids in the class next year to be in 'W5' with a new teacher (although she still will be year 2).





 As you can read from her 'writing' report, her teacher thinks she does some pretty awesome story writing, which I am pleased to pounce on as possibly something that stems from her mother and Granny!  We also love to write stories (and blogs) and poetry so keep it up Jaimee, we love your stories.  Rather then keep everything, here is a sample of her work from Year 1 (class B1) at school:

30/10/12: 
(this story is obviously based on a familiar legend and was written over 5 full pages in her story writing book!)

"Lets go fishing in the sea to get some food so we can eat our own food".  Up comes the sun.  It was racing across the sky and jumps back into bed.  Then it went dark, then they didn't have time to play 'go fishing' (or) go to the ice skating place.  They they had a idea, so they chopped some flax and then they made it into a rope by scraping the green off it and then after they wove it into a net they all marched where the sun comes up.  "I'll tell you when to throw the net over...NOW!!!!!" Shouted Maui. And then the sun rose to begin it's fast journey and suddenly he got cold, then Maui hit the sun with his magic bone from his grandmother.  Then the sun wriggled and screamed and yelled and then said "let me go!".  "If you promise to slow down" said Maui.  "Ok" said the sun.  Then they had time to fish and go to work.  And they all lived happily ever after. The end.