Turning 50 is definitely a milestone birthday, but hubby Dan didn’t want a party so in February we decided to head away for the weekend to celebrate at the Marlborough Food and Wine Festival. Dan’s Birthday fell on the same weekend as the festival, in the sunshine summer month of February here in New Zealand, […]
Our youngest turned 13 in February, joining her older two siblings in ‘teen hood’ (though our oldest will turn 20 in June this year!). Having started high school a couple of weeks before her birthday there was, certainly for me, a moment of nostalgia as I reflected on how grown up my ‘baby’ has become […]
Sunshine was gifted to us on Christmas Day this year in Wellington and we had the most wonderfully relaxed day together (well, almost all together, as our oldest currently lives in Melbourne and so we video chatted and were delighted to see them having an awesome time with a friend and their friend’s family). We […]
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks of events and I am so grateful that our ‘team of 5 million’ pulled together earlier in the year, with the 7 week lockdown, so that we can enjoy living a life of ‘relative’ normality now (things can always change!). Everyone I talk to is filled with gratitude and […]
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 […]
Alice had a hard job deciding on what theme she’d like for her 7th Birthday party. Pokemon featured high on her list, as did the amazing ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ story, from the recently released movie and the wonderful ‘Moana’ movie. In the end we went with Pokemon as there were so […]
Dear Alice, What a celebration you have had! You woke on the morning of your 6th Birthday, stretched up with your arms and said, ‘My, I have grown!’. And yes, you really have. This past year and a half, since arriving back from our amazing experience living in California (which you still talk about with […]
It’s been well over a month since I last blogged, but Instagram has been a constant online ‘fix’ and brought back a few memories from the year with the ‘Best of nine’! The end of 2015 came around so quickly, with our three daughters finishing a great school year in early December (in a flurry […]
There has been colour from afar, by way of gifts and cards, and colour near to me, by way of nature, food and art. There has been colour in my children’s creations and in the candles, lit to warm the dark. I have been spoiled with loving gifts and thoughts this week, in celebrating my […]
Our oldest daughter has just turned 11 and she celebrated in sunny California (her first ‘summer’ Birthday – as she was born in the middle of New Zealand’s winter – on a particularly wild day in Wellington!). She has grown tall enough to have her first proper bike, with gears and all that jazz, for […]
My Facebook feed was flooded with lovely messages of ‘welcome to the club’ and ‘forties are the best’ this weekend. It’s been like reliving turning eighteen again, as I’ve watched friends slightly older than me party into their forties and then, last weekend, it was my turn. It was a fabulous weekend away in Santa […]
This Easter we are far away from our home (though home, for my husband and I, is forever split between the UK and New Zealand). By home, I mean our literal home, the property we own and have lived in for eight years. Our little patch of New Zealand, on Wellington’s south coast. The place […]
It started with a treasure hunt, through dinosaur den, bamboo forest and pirate hideout; before quickly rolling into pin the tail on the tic-toc croc and find the gold doubloons in the sand. There was blue jelly with orange boats sailing the high seas, a water melon doubling up as ship and a chocolate cake […]
We are so very blessed to have Alice in our family. She has spent her first four years sharing her happy zest for life with us and bringing us all so much joy. There’s been no need to rush her off to kindergarten when we were in New Zealand, or a preschool whilst here in […]
