Aaaaahhhhh normality....

Finally everyone is better and back to work and creche! Adrian is feeling miles better and although he looks like a spotty teenager by Saturday he even managed a day working on the drainage while the boys and I ran around town picking up 90 degree thingy-me-gigs and 100mm Y bend wots-its.

Sunday was a brilliant and really HOT day so we spent the morning at the beach and having a picnic. After a nap Adrian took the boys to their choice of venue for the afternoon and they choose Te Papa and they had a great time while I spent a lovely afternoon doing absolutely nothing but reading and sitting in the sun....bliss.

Jack's doing really well with his toilet training but we still have a few accidents, he was really excited to find out that when you're at the beach it's ok to pee in the sea (the joy of being a boy), I don't know if you're still allowed when you're 36 though Adrian!

Tom's been really good with his terrible case of chicken pox and definately won the I've got more spots than you competition at creche and has been staring as "Chicken Pox Monster Boy" at creche this week!

Have a good week all X

The Pox, the Pox!!!

Well we thought Jack was lucky with his chicken pox being so mild and man we were right! Poor Adrian and Tom have the worst cases of chicken pox I've ever seen, both are head to toe with pox and it's particularly bad for Adrian being so much more miserable getting these as an adult.

We'd had a great week of hot weather and sunshine with some visits to friends and a good week with everyone back at work and creche until Friday morning when two of the household woke up like this..... (that's tom by the way not Ade!)



Unfortunately it was the weekend for all the digging to be done so we had to get some extra labourers in to help and our backyard has dissapeared! We found that it was 4 inches of concrete under the lawn and then everything had to be levelled but at least this bits done and the boys and I had fun with the digger.

With the obvious signs of pox we've been trapped inside the house most of the long weekend so it's been a pretty miserable time of it when the sun is shinning and you have no back yard and can't really go into public.....can't wait for everyone to feel better, especially Adrian as I feel so sorry for him he's really suffering.

Well pretty "sorry for ourselves" blog but next week we'll be onward and upward...!!

Toilet Training and Digging Draining....

I once read that toilet training toddlers is like making a bead necklance, you spend all day on it and then find that you forgot to tie the end in it and you have to start from the beginning the next day....well Adrian will agree that DIY feels the same if not worse....

This weekend Adrian spent hours and hours digging the drainage trenches around the house to fix the damp problems we've been having, it was back breaking work but he got a huge amount done until late Sunday afternoon when we discovered that under most of the grass in the back yard is a complete concrete pad (must have been a car pad in another life), so all work has been abandoned so we can get a digger in to lift it, bonus of course is that we will have a digger in our back yard and two boys who will be delighted (well 3 boys and me really!).

Jack is now officially "underpants boy" (his term not mine!). He toilet trained himself this week when at creche one lunch-time he turned to the teacher as asked to go to the toilet, did everything like he should and that was that. We brought some new underpants with great excitement (Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine of course) and with a 50% hit rate he is doing really well. Tom's not as interested (other than in the underpants) but that's pretty handy for me to only have one to deal with at a time.

Have a great week everyone XX

Sunny beaches, scenic features, Christmas cheer, too much beer, Xmas socks, and Chicken Pox!

Well this is an update for Xmas and New Year with all our visitors so get comfy!

We had a wonderful time with Micky and Tori and they had a great time in NZ including heading off to the south island to do the fabulous Trans-alpine Express train journey and they loved it. We had some great nights out with them and even more once the Arnolds arrived and had a good build-up to Xmas. Xmas day was brilliant with the children so excited that Santa had visited and eaten and drunk all the treats they had left, they did their stockings early and we managed to get some breakfast into them before Micky arrived to join us in the morning for all the other presents, everyone spoilt us rotten especially the children . We had bbq lunch after church for those who wanted and lots of champagne, food and pavlova, some of us managed a nap (including me) while others headed to the beach for champagne on the beachfront at Macra. We had a lovely quiet night eating leftovers and Micky headed off back to the UK.

We headed off on our holidays after Xmas with the Arnolds and the first stop was Napier, we arrived in the afternoon and headed off to Splash Planet to cool off and the children all braved the slide that terrified all the adults. We managed a quick night out with friends and a morning in Napier for Kaz and Paul to do some sightseeing before heading off to Athenree (near KatiKati) and our Bach (holiday home) to meeting up with the Wares from Auckland who had thankfully already arrived and cooled the beers and got the bbq on as we'd had a long hot drive and were really exhausted. The Bach was fantastic and we all loved it, it was big enough for everyone and had everything you could possibly need and more, it had beautiful views of the ocean, trampoline, tree house, games and more....We had a fabulous time during our stay there with temperamental weather but managed some days at the beach and the boys did some fishing (well feeding the fish and came back empty handed).

New Years eve was lovely with all the children allowed to stay up late to see the fireworks, Tom unfortunately was a bit frightened so maybe next year will be braver with them, but the children all had a great evening watching movies and playing while the adults managed a lovely at bbq, some of us drank too much champagne and we all managed to stay up till midnight to see the fireworks over Mt Manganui before heading to bed at 12:10!!

Our last day at the Bach and I noticed a large spot on Jack which by the time we arrived at our friends in Taupo had developed into a number of spots which overnight turned into lots of spots and yes Jack has chicken-pox, it did mean we had to leave Taupo a day earlier and a faster drive back than we thought but we had a nice evening on the deck and Jack has been remarkably happy considering how miserable he must be feeling. Adrian who has not had chicken pox has been ill also so waiting to see if any spots appear on him this week!

Today we had to say a very sad goodbye to the Arnolds and it's a sad, quite house without them, we had such a wonderful time with them and know we had a great holiday as we're so tired (that could be due to the big night out last night though!). Thanks to the Ware's and O'Sullivans for your great hospitality and good times and wishing the Arnolds a great time in LaLa land we love you lots XX