The Red Monster – Our Jim by Chinese Grandma We have a little monster, Who came to visit us, All the way from England, On a plane and on a bus. He is a little devil, And likes to move about, In the trees and bushes, Of that there is no doubt. He hid inside…
Category: School hols
The Gallery – Children: A Holiday Special
Three generations Father and son reunited, for a special holiday together, after nearly four years of living on opposite sides of the world. The bond never breaks, but grows stronger yet with a new granddaughter to get to know. Grandparents and grandchildren reunited Stories and laughter, days out and late nights, treats and sweets. The…
Nature at its best in the Marlborough Sounds
The dolphins leaped out of the swell around our boat, turning on their sides to examine us. Their white under-bellies were clear to see as they rolled in the water to get a good look at us. These bottle-nosed dolphins were just as curious about us as we were with them. The energy on-board was…
After three and a half years, we are more than ready to…
Welcome Chinese Grandma & Granddad, who arrive Saturday afternoon from the UK! It’s been three and a half years since we last saw them. Chinese Granddad has never been to New Zealand. Grandma was over in 2005 for Sophie’s arrival into the world. And they have never met Alice. How exciting! The girls are very,…
The day Vegemitevix came for a BBQ
It was with great excitement that the day finally arrived when Vegemitevix, Kiwi expat blogger extraordinaire, and her ‘Englishman’, came to our house for dinner! Well, dinner sounds way too grand… it was a hastily thrown together BBQ – with the potatoes nearly forgotten about and the salad pre-bought from the supermarket and chucked in…
Water babes are LOVING having their Daddy home :)
There’s barely been a day in the past week when our girls haven’t been playing in water (thankfully out of choice, not due to flooding – poor Queensland, Australia is in awful strife). We’ve been keeping out of the midday sun and heading to the local swimming pool – or Dan’s taken the girls further…
Starting the day with doughnuts & rain
Well thankfully we’re not camping! This morning’s rain is torrential. Here’s the Pohutukawa tree in the garden, battling with horizontal rain in windy Wellington. The perfect tonic to a rainy morning was doughnuts freshly made before breakfast… and eaten with fresh coffee… Building with lego… Crafts… Beading… (Charlotte loves her ‘aqua beads’ from Aunty Sue…
4 Seasons: Summer Solstice a Washout
Today it is the Summer Solstice in New Zealand, but it felt far from summer this morning. Rain pelted down and winds funneled through the valleys making walking a challenge. Second day of the school holidays and not the best way to start, but the garden is grateful and so too are the birds. We…
The Happy Den
Where we live is surrounded by trees and close to the sea. The garden is what really attracted us to the property. It’s not easy to find a flat section in the hilly topography of Wellington. And to find somewhere set back from the road with a safe driveway for the children to ride their…
Kids Click – Animals: Charlotte’s Fish
The theme currently running on Kids Click, till 10 October, is ‘Animals‘. I mentioned this to the girls on a rainy day of the school holidays. Sophie said to Charlotte, ‘But you can’t enter, cause you’ll win! I won’t stand a chance!’ This is because Charlotte won once before with her ‘Green‘ entry. Charlotte has…
Easy on the Ears & Cocktails at Naptime
After four week’s of listening to Sophie’s hacking cough night and day I made the call to the doctors; surely it wouldn’t be ‘just a cold’, ‘just a virus’? Alice had also come down with a thick, vile, mucus producing cold and with babies it’s always worth checking all is okay. They managed to fit…
Wardrobe Wednesday: Warm enough for a skirt!
The challenge was set last week for no denim and no black. My wardrobe in summer is a lot more colourful and less denim dependent so when the sun came out on Friday (and stayed out for several days) I delved into the back of my wardrobe to my summer skirts with great excitement. I…
Make hay whilst the sun shines…
We have had a beautiful weekend of weather, which has drifted into the start of the week. Saturday was taken up with two different children’s Birthday parties, but they were surprisingly sedate. The first one was in the morning at ‘Tiger Eye Beads’ on Cuba Street. One of Charlotte’s friends turned eight and a group…
Here Come the Girls: The Gallery Week 30
Girls run strong in my family. I am one of two girls, just like my mother and her mother was one of SEVEN girls! My husband’s brother and sister each have three sons. We have three daughters. I would have been beheaded or divorced in Henry VIII time! Saturday at the beach after a Birthday…