Autumn Traditions

 As we pulled out of church after an awesome morning of worship with our family, I spontaneously suggested buying some lunch from the supermarket and heading over to Keiranga Gardens for a picnic and some fun in the leaves.
At church we had been talking about the legacy we pass down to our children, and this is certainly a ritual that has been handed down the generations - one of my favourite childhood memories are of our annual autumn "leaf fights"!  It only works if there are piles of leaves on the ground and it hasn't rained in a while, so they are fresh and dry.  And today the sun was shining, and conditions were perfect.

We sat in the sun and shared juice out of the cup I had purchased, nibbled on fruit, mini pikelits, luncheon and crackers and finished our feast with the ultimate treat - a chocolate bar each!  We had the place almost to ourselves, and all we could hear were the calls of the Tui in the stunning colourful treetops. Bliss.

The leaves were perfect for our fun, piles that had Luke in leaves knee deep, and that Jaimee was able to literally sled down the side of the hill on!  We all had a lot of fun chucking leaves at each other, chasing around trees and corners and giggling with delight as we showered them over daddy or Luke or whoever was closest!

And the views.  Wow.  It really was pretty magical.  At the conference I had been on for the last few days, several Amercian speakers had commented on the sheer stunning beauty of New Zealand.  Looking around me today, I had to agree.  Of course, Autumn is the most beautiful season of them all in my opinion, especially with a backdrop of clear blue warm skies. The trees were every colour you can imagine visable in autumn, layer on layer on layer of prettiness.  I couldn't say much more then "Thank you Lord".

Marty and I were able to just sit and enjoy the kids fun, I think they could have stayed much longer in the tranquil garden of leaves.  We might be back next weekend - Luke was quite excited to see the train tracks, we haven't been on the miniature track for quite a while so sound like more fun to come...

Can you find the girls?! I had to uncover their faces a bit to take a pic that wasn't just leaves!

Luke screamed blue murder every time the girls emerged from his burial of them.  He loved it!

(the burying, not the emerging!)

Shameless Selfie! Marty looks movie star good here huh?!

 After exclaiming over the fantails that flitted so close to us that we could almost reach out and touch them as they sat in front of us and tweeted merrily away, we finished off our time with a wee walk, the kids took turns taking photos, and then Marty timed them on the obstacle course by the playground.  We didn't get in the car to go home until 3pm, happy and with a full family tank!  

Jaimee took this photo as we posed with a giggle....and  Luke said with a deadpan face: "That's eww mum" 

Marty laughed at him, because he told me that Luke was giving Kate "funny kisses" the other day.  I asked what a funny kiss was and Luke gave me one - it is him just coming up to my mouth with his mouth wide open!  Marty is pretty sure Kate got some tongue action from him.  giggles.