Summer is here!

It was one of those perfect Saturdays today.  Not a lot on the agenda, sun beaming down hot but not uncomfortable.  After a brief debate over whether to take along Luke, Marty took all the kids to swimming lessons this morning, leaving me an hour to finish some work off and have poached eggs and coffee in the quiet sunshine.  Ahh...so nice.    When the family arrived home, I decided to was a great day to set up their wee swimming pool for the season.  You would think it was christmas day, for the reaction I got from the kids!  They were so excited to see this evidence of fun to come.  Putting the fence up proved a bit too much for me in the heat on my own with three excited kids (Marty had convieniently gone off for a long training bike ride!) so I called on  Grampa Muz to help me out with construction.  We negotiated payment for his services of course - a freshly made chocolate brownie seemed a fair trade!  By the time Luke woke up from his nap, the pool half full, and in the spirit of the sunshine, I was merrily setting up lounge chairs and citronella burners around the place. 

Check Kate and Luke out, enjoying popcorn in the shade - Luke wanted to lie back but couldnt eat like that, so he is really working his tummy muscles here holding his shoulders up!  Kate is cruising out with her favourite soft toy and a new book: "Little House in the Big Woods".  I am so impressed my FIVE year old picked this book up to read.  She finds the fact that mum and dad are "ma and pa" quite intereresting.

As Jaimee and daddy returned fresh from a birthday party, the attention returned to the pool.  "PLEASE can we get in?!" begged Jaimee.  I tried telling her how cold it would be since it was still filling up fresh from the hose, and it was only November.  "I'm BOILING" she told me.  I gave in, figuring they wouldn't last long, and all three kids jumped in the pool alongside the hose.  Here is the video footage I took, fully waiting for them to jump back out after 20 seconds and wanting to capture their mistake.  HA!  My kids are water babies, and excitement won over common sense today.  Luke was in the longest, and even shaking and shivering, he still had to be forced out by mummy.  

This day was proving to put us all in a great mood.  Marty got stuck into a giggle filled game of hide and seek with the kids, and then we fired up the BBQ for dinner outside.  Luke helped daddy, insisting on his own set of tongs.  Whipping up a salad full of greens fresh from the vege patch makes me so content.  Nothing better then salad from the garden to the table in 10 minutes.   I told the kids we now had an outside dining room, lounge and the funnest of playrooms for the summer...of course, they asked for a bedroom too.  Umm...maybe tenting in the holidays will be a future blog?!  Bring it on Hawkes Bay Summer, we had a day enjoying what we know is just a taste of what is to come.  :)