Saturday, September 29, 2007

Last week this week and this week coming next week..... confused I am.....

Last week was full of fabulously sunny warm spring days and we managed some brilliant days out enjoying it. We headed to the beach midweek for the afternoon for the first time this season bringing a great picnic dinner to share with Adrian when he finished work. It was a brilliant afternoon and gorgeous evening watching the sun come down lying on the beach together. Saturday we spent looking at kitchens before heading up to the park where the boys trees are planted for a picnic lunch and a great run around.

The boys also had the last swimming lesson and last french lesson for a few weeks until the new term starts so Adrian took the afternoon off work to come along to the swimming lesson and see how they were progressing. The boys were so excited that he was there and it was an extra special lesson as the teacher got out the "magic carpet" (see pic) and the slide and even finished off splashing around in the spa pool so they had a ball.
Saturday movie night was disney pic called "Home on the Range" which was great *******/10, it had a huge cow as the heroine and when we were reinacting it the next day Tom said "OK I'll be the horse mummy and you can be the fat cow".........thanks!!


Well this week has been one rainy day after another so we'll fill you in on that and other excitement later. Have a great week everyone, keep posted for more film footage later this week.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

OK blog is coming but I wanted to test the video function on this to see if you can all see the boys dancing.....just so you know I put the music to this, there was NO music, they just have this much energy all the time!!!

If this works they'll be more video next week :-)

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy.....(John Denver)

Spring is definitely coming and the last two weeks the sun has finally started to spend a lot more time in the sky making us all feel good.

Two weeks worth this week so I'll start with last week. Saturday we spent doing lots of jobs around the house before Saturday movie night was the absolutely brilliant "Cars" which we all loved and was *********/10, the boys have been car made since and that fab garage from Aunty Kaz and Uncle Paul has been worn out this week! Sunday morning (pic left) the boys and I got up early to watch the All Black’s brilliant defeat over Italy in the world cup and the got really excited and yelled at the TV nearly as much as mummy (great game but I really missed my call from Grandad to dissect the game afterward). We then had a great brunch with a group of families at a café/bar that has entertainment for children while you relax and eat…fabulous idea!!

This week has been full of running around outside in the sunshine and it was such a glorious day on Saturday that we headed to the the harbour front to eat icecream in the sun and playing in he park before coming home to spend hours in the garden tidying everything up while the boys played rugby and doing "helping" - they are quite helpful really. Saturday movie night was the not so brilliant “Valiant” *****/10, even Jack said “next time can we get a movie with not so many birds in it and other animals instead”…ditto

Sunday we headed into Capital E for the "Grumble Rumble Mumbler” which the boys loved (we did too because it was free!), it was a show about Taniwha’s (Maori Monsters) and at the end the boys got to go up on stage and try on the masks and talk to the actors and they loved it, they decided they want to be actors now! We spent the afternoon finishing off the garden and then all fell into bed seriously exhausted.

The boys are really fascinated by weddings and marriage at the moment and we have hysterical conversations like these:

Tom “mummy where did you get married?”
Mum “in England”
Tom “Oh, was it at the marriage shop there?”

Jack “will I get married one day daddy?”
Dad “if you want to yes”
Jack “will I have babies too?
Dad “if you wanted to”
Jack “mummy, can you have a baby so I can have it”……..aaahhh no!!

Pic below is the boys discovering that polystyrene packing makes great snow......that was a hell of a clean -up!!



Sunday, September 02, 2007

Fun, Flights, Family, Farewells, Funerals and Father's Day.
Well it's a long blog this week so settle in......! We'll start with Adrian's trip to Grandad's funeral and then back to what we've been up to while he was away finishing with this weekend now he's home.

Adrian left for Ireland 2 weeks ago and although it was sad for us to see him go it was all for the right reasons. He had a long direct flight to London before heading off with his family on a 5 1/2 hour drive to North Wales to get the ferry to Ireland which takes 3 1/2 hours before the final 4 hours to Kiltyclogher where Adrian's Dad's family are from and where Adrian's Uncle Richard still lives. The pics above are of Adrian's family's beautiful land that sits on the river and is so picturesque, Kilty is a tiny village which is really just a crossroad and exactly as you would image a lovely little village in Ireland to be. The next day after the standard two fried breakfasts they then headed to the town of Dungloe for the funeral itself which was Grandad's hometown. They had a wonderful time catching up with the family before and after the funeral. It was by all accounts a wonderful service which Grandad would have loved. Adrian carried Grandad to the grave where he was laid to rest next to his wife Adrian's Nanny with a piper playing Amazing Grace which would bring tears to anyone's eyes.


The next day they headed home to London stopping in Dublin for the night then the long drive back to London. He had a great (but short) time catching up with friends and family over the next few days and really enjoyed seeing everyone and catching up over a few beers. Next time it will definately be all of us!!

Meanwhile back in Aoteroa life carried on as normal, the boys and I had a great time at Staglands on the weekend which is now full of baby animals with the spring finally on it's way and the peacocks were also in full display which the boys were facinated with. Saturday movie night last week was the "Sword and the Stone" which the boys liked more than I did but we gave it ******/10. Sunday we had a great day at the park and lunch with Uncle Chris and Aunty Sue. Unfortunately the boys also managed to get ill again with terrible colds that came with awful coughs that sounded so dreadful all night so we spent a few days at home tucked up trying to get better. The boys did manage to have a swimming lesson this week though and really enjoyed this weeks lesson of blowing bubbles and floating on their backs.

During Adrian's absense I have definately learnt a few things, I can tell that it takes exactly the amount of time in Mary Poppins from jumping into the picture to the end of "supercalifrag-ilisticexpialidocious" for me to have a shower and brush my teeth, that humans can actually survive with not 1 minute more sleep than two 3 year olds will allow and that I have wonderful friends who really looked after me and made sure we were alive and not going too crazy!

The boys missed Adrian terribly and were so excited on Friday going to collect Daddy and were jumping up and down with excitment before running to cuddle him as he came out of the gate at the airport. It was so nice to have him home for the weekend and Saturday we had a wonderful morning at the Beatrix Potter Show which the boys really enjoyed as they know the stories but it was a tad too long for us!! Saturday movie night this week was Happy Feet ********/10.

Sunday morning was father's day so Adrian had a little sleep in and a fried breakfast in bed before the boys jumped on him with presents, cards and cuddles. He spent the morning with the boys at TePapa and they all had a great time. When we tucked the boys in and asked what their favourite thing today was Jack said "having daddy home" ditto!!

Cute story for the week: after a night eating too much garlic bread at a friends for Dinner, Tom snuggled up for a kiss in the morning as said to me "what to you call air?", "what air" I asked, "the air that comes out your nose" he replied. "Breath" I said, "mummy your breath stinks" he said....well I'm told!!
Tom's conversation with himself yesterday"
"mummy can I talk to myself" - (Yes, I replied)
"Hi Tom"
"Hi Tom"
"How are you?"
"Good, what are you talking to me for?"
"Nothing, bye"
"Bye" followed by hysterical laughter!PS message from Adrian to Paul - send John our address by internal e-mail so he can send us the Dr Who?!