Birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Marlborough Wine Festival & Cigna Round The Bays!

What a great week! We’ve celebrated hubby’s 45th Birthday, our youngest daughter’s 8th Birthday and felt the love on Valentine’s Day, appreciating the amazing community of friends and neighbours that we and our children are blessed to have in our lives.

Valentine’s Day fell on a Wednesday this year, which is my favourite day of the week in our home ed world – as it’s when we meet up with several other families for drama class, picnic lunch and a play at the park. I felt so surrounded by loving families and it’s been great getting back into all our regular activities after the long summer holidays.

In the evening hubby and I took a stroll around our local area and smiled at all the couples dotted along the beach at Princess Bay. There was definitely a lot of love in the air on Wednesday and the sunset was a beauty!

It was the third night in a row that hubby and I had been out to take in the sunset and we are just so in love with this magic summer that Wellington is having. On Monday evening, after he’d enjoyed his Birthday cake and gifts, we took a stroll too. We never tire of the scenery and always feel so fortunate to have it on our doorstep.

On Friday we celebrated our youngest daughter’s 8th Birthday. She has such a great time with her friends – bouncing at the UpTown Bounce Trampoline Park, enjoying a Birthday dinner at Maranui Cafe and a dip in the sea at Lyall Bay Beach.

The party topped off a great week for our younger two, who despite having colds enjoyed tumbling class, drama and tech. Our oldest daughter had a great week too, having got a part in a local school production and spending the week volunteering at lots of Wellington community groups as part of her ‘Education Outside the Classroom’ week. She spent Saturday with her youngest sister, Alice, taking photographs for an art project themed, ‘Nature girl’. They headed to the Botanical Gardens for some of the photos and then finished up with a milk bath! The photographs all look incredible. Hubby took a snap whilst Charlotte was setting up the bath and one of Alice in it!

Today, has been a busy day for everyone, with Charlotte at choir and production rehearsals, whilst I ran the Cigna Round the Bays 6.5km with Sophie and Alice. They did great, with Alice (8) finishing in 48 minutes and Sophie (12) in 46 minutes. It was a hot day, but the northerly wind at our backs and people with water guns and hose pipes helped cool us down!

It’s the first time I’ve ran the 6.5km, having ran the half marathon for the past three years in a row, and I really loved the atmosphere of families running together. We enjoyed the end of run vibe in Kilbirnie very much.

Hubby and I enjoyed a fabulous day at the Marlborough Food and Wine Festival last weekend (and ended up staying over night, at the kind hospitality of friends living in Blenheim, due to sea fog sitting over Wellington). We had a great time and met so many wonderful people. It was our first night away from the children, as a couple, in 14 years! Our kind neighbour looked after them and they good as gold for her. So thankful!

The flight back on Sunday morning was absolutely beautiful.

The fog cleared just at the right time to let us land on the run way in Wellington.

Lots of lovely celebrations and love shared this week, along with all the little loves of happiness at home and in the garden too.

Now we feel ready to jump into another week!