Nana, legend.

Today we Celebrated a very special occasion. The matriarch of Marty's family, his amazing nana, turned 90 years young. She has lived through the Napier earthquake, a horrific war and some amazing changes in this world and has taken them all in her stride - nana has a tablet, email, and a laptop and will be reading this blog! 

Nana is a legend. She still lives in her own home and walks into town. She is actively involved in church and her craft group and still does all the family mending and adjustments.  Each school holidays she has the great grandchildren over to do a little craft project and she has patiently and lovingly taught the girls how to use a sewing machine and how to knit. 

 Our beautiful Nana insists on paying me a little pocket money to vacuum her house even though I would do it for nothing....and Luke still maintains the most important part of that fortnightly visit is the mint from her lolly jar that is always waiting for us - we can't leave her house without that mint! He loves going to nanas, they feed the birds together. And when nana comes for dinner every fortnight, Luke and her have a race to see who can eat dinner the fastest! Even our cats love nana, oozing attention over her just as she gives it back to them. 

A big Happy birthday nana, you are an absolute legend in our books. You are sweet and kind and fun and speak "family" to us all. I never had a nana who lived so close as a child, one who came to every birthday party (sorry about that noisy 'bounce' party nana!) and every school play. I know that it's so special to have her in our lives and we treasure her as she deserves.  Here are some of my favourite nana moments this year:  

  ....See you on Thursday for more Downton Abby Nana!! Xxxx

Lukes writing

Lately Luke has developed a real interest in writing. He has just "clicked" as to the shapes and sounds a letter makes, and enjoys trying to write letters that he knows. It probably helps a lot that his sisters have been playing schools with him over the last couple of weeks! He can now write his name easily too. Today he wanted to do some writing, and as he wrote random letters carefully in a line he asked me to read them to him. "What does this say?" He asked me as he added another letter. 

He was getting a bit frustrated that his letters didn't make a lot of sense when read out and I tried explaining that he needed to do letters in an order to spell out words we know. Well he didn't like that very much but soon came around to the idea. 

"How do I spell dinosaur?" He asked me. I spelt it out for him, sometimes reminding him what a letter looked like. When he has carefully written the whole word I was so proud of him, telling him" wow Luke you wrote dinosaur! I can read this word!". His grin said it all - he was so proud to have worked out how to put letters in a usable sequence! We went on to write things he saw: window, book. Clever Luke! What is school going to do with you?! 

Come on the bay!

Marty was struggling to find someone to come to the rugby with him as its a long weekend, but FL Bone had their corporate box free for the staff...what to do but suggest the entire family come along?! So the kids got to finally attend their first rugby game - in total style! Sitting in the corporate box armed with glasses of fizzy and filled rolls and sausage rolls, they really got the best first game experience they could! 

They were all so excited to be going, 

The girls have been talking about the magpies at school and had been asking us to take them to a game one day. And Luke is just getting into the whole game, loving to check on the scores and tell us who is winning. 

When the mayor of Hastings sat down next to Jaimee, it was just the icing on top! I snapped this photo and he turned just as I took it, shame on me for being caught out! He was talking to the kids and I told him it was their first game. Then I told the girls that this was the mayor of Hastings. He told them that they could just call him Laurence! He was lovely and obviously a keen supporter. 

The kids just loved the whole game, keenly keeping an eye on things and getting excited with the crowd as things got heated. Luke kept his close rally on the score of course. Kate said the chanting and yelling was a bit loud, but she joined in anyway! By the last few minutes when we suddenly came back from losing the game to a just in time win- well, we were all on our feet yelling and screaming! What an exciting finish! The kids are now so keen on more games so i guess next year we will be back for more. Black, white, alright...come on the bay!!!! 

First Swim of the season

When the kids decided to go swimming in EARLY OCTOBER because we had been cleaning out the pool and they just couldn't resist temptation....I just had to capture their reaction to the water.  Giggle.

Wellington Holiday

While shopping in the mall (mums in heaven) we came across "yoghurt story", a place where you can build your own dream frozen yoghurt.  With flavours like watermelon, white chocolate and fudge and a huge variety of toppings....it was a delicious treat for lunch!

At Te Papa we went to the Gallipoli display.  It was the best war display I have ever seen, explaining what went on in ANZAC cove so clearly and with great personal details and stories.  It was incredibly moving and powerful.  At one part, you walk through the trenches, all sandbagged around you with gunfire shaking the floor and viewing tunnels with soldiers huddled inside.  Jaimee found that very moving and needed to leave in tears.  As my great grandfather fought at Gallipoli (although with the English) it was quite personal too.

Hunting for a dinosaur fossil in Te Papa was great fun.  They always have lots of interactive things to do.

The kids loved the "Bush walk" in the museum!

We went for a drive to see the very bottom of the North island.  It was rugged and windy.

We didn't quite mean to go for this long a drive - we drove ALL THE WAY around this part of the island....mostly with a petrol light on and a slight panicked look.  It was really really windy, so I was a little nervous being so close to the open sea!

At the Botanical gardens it was lush and green - look at that sunshine! Perfect day for a play.

Off to the Zoo, the kids have been waiting for this for the whole trip!

We were very blessed to be able to get up close to so many animals who were out in the sunshine.  The Sun Bear was being fed and we were so close!  And the lion sat beautifully just behind this fence while the keeper talked about prides.  Amazing.

I love this Chimp perched high surveying the city.  

Jaimee made a friend in this squirral monkey, who tried to touch jaimee's hand through the glass and sat there for a long time staring at her as it ate some fruit.  So sweet.

We checked out Weta Cave as Jaimee has seen the first couple of hobbit movies so was familiar with these characters!  We had fun posing with the trolls.

At Captial E, they had three different puppet theatres for the kids to explore and play at.  We really enjoyed watching them use their imagination here. 

And we finished off our Wellington trip with a trip to the Wellington Museum, which did a great job on its displays.  Check out the girls trying to lift 50kgs from the docks with the pully system.  

There was still enough time to stop in Palmerston North for a quick swim with all the cousins at the local pools - Check them out, aren' they beautiful kids!  They all have so much fun together.  

Masterton

Last school holidays we tried to go visit my 89 year old grandmother (we call her GumGum). But Luke had that horrid chest infection, the rest of us had bouts of the flu and it just didn't work out. Finally these school holidays we made it to the town my mother and I were both born in: Masterton. It's always great to go back to my roots, to visit my lovely Aunty and uncle and see our awesome GumGum. Marty was straight out with my Aunty and uncle for their weekly cards night, he loves going on a Friday so he can join that circle of friends! The kids had fun bunking down in the same lounge that my cousins and I used to play in through my childhood visits to masterton too. 

On Saturday morning we walked in to GumGums room in the rest home and surprised her as she was finishing her breakfast in bed! "Oh, I forgot you were coming" she giggled and got me to help her sit up a bit more. We settled in for a long newsy chat, showing her photos of our year and telling her all we have been up to. 

The kids enjoyed writing her little notes on her whiteboard, which she read with a smile on her face. 

GumGum was in a pretty good space, and we stayed for ages chatting. Only once did she confess to being tired of being the last of her friends alive and wished "she would just go to sleep and not wake up". She got a bit teary and quickly changed the subject though. 

I love my GumGum so much. She was always the perfect stepford wife, hair perfectly permed and house immaculate as she baked in the kitchen and listened to talkback on the radio. And boy was she a beauty in her day. It was so good to see her this month. Love you GumGum! 

Check out these Monkeys! Back scratching all round here. 

Leaving in a happy space, we then headed towards Wellington for a few days, stopping in Greytown for lunch and a visit to the settlers village. 

It was a stunner of a day, and we joined the many sitting outdoors having lunch in cafes. I was delighted to find that the settlers museum have now created a quiz to be filled in as you go around for kids, this kept them interested and engaged the whole way around. 

When we got to the little church, we had to find who built it. And would you believe, it was my 5xgrandfather whose name was on the information sheet! Suddenly my family history came back to me and I recalled that he owned a sawmill, built a church, was Greytowns mayor and was a preacher too! This is the man who Luke is named after - Hart Udy (Lukes middle name). It made the trip much more meaningful for us all. 

It was our good luck that On Saturday afternoons the family who owns the printing machinery come and do demonstrations - it was lovely for the kids to get a chance to use the old printing press and see the large ones in use too. 

And of course, no settlers visit would be complete without a schoolroom...and a naughty spot! 

Luke writes his name carefully on the slate. 

We stopped for icecream on the footpath  in Featherston and finally were in the way to Wellington, happy and sleepy. What a great trip to the Wairarapa!