I'm just saying. . .

On the road again

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Palmerston North with Grandpa and Grandma, always a treat! We got there mid-afternoon on Saturday and the weather wasn't great so we hung out inside, here are Katie, Josie and Grandma playing Chinese Checkers. 

Those of you with young children know that it can sometimes be an exercise in patience playing board games together. . . I tend to save teaching new games for the weekend when Daddy is home to help. So thanks Grandma for patiently playing, they had fun.

We spent the night this time so we got to stay in a local motel - always fun for the girls!! They don't have hotels in New Zealand the way we do in America, but their motels are nicer than ours. They do have some nice hotels in the bigger cities, but since we need adjoining rooms and yada yada yada it's just as easy to stay in a motel. So we did. Anyhoo. . . . our bathroom had an enormous jacuzzi tub in it so I sent all the girls to get undressed for a bath. After waiting several minutes for Ellie I went in to find her jumping from her bed to Josie's and back again. 
Meanwhile Meggie and Katie were playing with the motel cat - he'd just sauntered on in to our room, fat as all get out, and doesn't he look thrilled to be picked up? 
Sunday was beautiful! We went to church with Margaret - it was the family service so Hugh didn't go, too happy clappy for him, smile. It was very interesting in that Margaret attends the Anglican church, but the person doing the sermon that day was actually the main pastor from the local Baptist church. He's also ordained as an Anglican priest. That is not a common combination! He did a great sermon and told some funny jokes and all and all it was a great service - God was glorified, we all laughed, and the kids were good.

We left after Sunday dinner and the weather was beautiful. As it is spring here it is also lambing season, so we got to see lots of scenes like this:

So cute! The drive is really beautiful along the coast.

Finally, we switched to daylight savings time over the weekend so we are now much closer in time to you all in the states. Woo hoo. 

Also thanks for checking on us about the earthquake - we are fine, it was too far away for us to even feel it.

Visiting Rico

On our way to Palmerston North on Saturday we went to Upper Hutt to visit Rico. He was very happy to see us, and vice-versa.

Saying goodbye again was difficult of course. Thankfully, however, the girls had Grandma and Grandpa's to look forward too.

Tiptoe through the Tulips

It's a sure sign of spring when the tulips are blooming! We had such a beautiful day yesterday that instead of having school we decided to take a "field trip" and go see the flowers at the Botanic Gardens. 

We parked at the top of the garden and then walked through it down to visit Dugald at work. He'd walked 55 minutes to work that morning from our house thanks to disagreements between the bus drivers and owners over salaries. This morning he flew to Sydney so he took a taxi, we're hoping the wage dispute gets settled soon or this could turn into a major inconvenience.

We then all had lunch together in the Rose Garden. The weather was perfect and it was nice to have an hour together in the middle of the day. The girls especially loved their chocolate milkshakes.





Tomorrow we're heading up to Palmerston North and hoping the weather is as glorious there as it has been here these past few days. We're going to visit Rico on the way, we're all excited to see him!  

Next week it's school holidays again here and we will take a break from school as Katie and Josie have lots of practices for their ballet exams and Meggie and Katie have lots of rehearsals for their Musical Stars production. We're also planning play dates for everyone. Meggie had a friend over last Sunday too - I am making more of an effort to get her some one-on-one time with friends. That's all for now!

Butterfly Chaser

As most of you know, the fabulous, much-loved and greatly missed Miss Sarah took the picture at the top of this blog. She also took the amazing pictures from the blog's early days while she was here with us in New Zealand. We miss her like crazy. We also miss her pictures like crazy. 

Sarah now has a new website for her budding photography career and you have to go check it out. Right now. Aside from the fact that my children are prominently featured, you will get to see some amazing portraiture and candids.

www.butterflychaserphotography.com

Sarah REALLY has a gift and we were so blessed to be on the receiving end of it for so long. I knew her absence would leave a huge hole in our lives, but what I didn't realize was how much we'd also miss her chronicling the lives of our children.

Anyway, click on the link above and take a look at the work of this gifted artist! We love you Sarah!!

Many Thanks

Meggie said to me the other day, "Mom, we used to get mail every day in the U.S."

I agreed that we did, we got far more mail than we wanted or needed!! 

Since we haven't yet been put on lots of mailing lists here, and our bills go to our PO box Dugald clears, more days than not the mailbox is empty. 

However, this past week we have been inundated with not just mail, but even better, PACKAGES!!! Woo hoo!!! You seriously cannot even begin to imagine our joy and excitement when a box is delivered.

Here the girls are modeling their new shoes from Target in America! Thanks for sending them Mama and Papa.

Seriously, the shoes in the middle are Barbie and were $9.99 at Target. Here they sell Sketchers that look the same but cost $80 each. So we saved a bundle, but then again we didn't pay postage - so thank you very much Dad and Jayne!!

Here the girls are opening a surprise package from Mimi and Big Daddy - 

New panties!!! Yay, Josie loves them :). And here's Ellie with a cute new outfit:

Meggie loves any books she can get her hands on about horses so this was perfect for her!
Josie modeling her new outfit:
And cute and sassy Katie, the fashion queen, modeling hers.
We also got a box from our sweet friends the Knights with video games, High School Musical school supplies, exercise DVD's for Mommy and books for homeschool. And, finally, a big box from Amazon.com with books for school and for fun. 

I know, I can see on the boxes,  how much it costs to send things our way so I just have to say again how incredibly grateful we are. We feel so loved when we get presents from far away, and it is such a huge help when there are things that I can't get here and you all are willing to send them. We love you all, thank you!!

Randomness

This post is full of random photos and thoughts. . . our life is settling into a very doable routine now with school/activities/breaks for mommy. Dugald's workload ebbs and flows, and while we're just now back into a busy time for him it was nice having him around more the last few weeks. All in all I am getting my groove back and I am grateful!

Now for the randomness. . . . check out my oldest little punk: 

She, of all the girls, has struggled most with all the changes. We still have some teary nights, but Mommy is determined to help her find some close friendships. Some really sweet girls have reached out to her and had her over and we need to reciprocate and work on forging those bonds of friendship that help through the lonely times.  

Here is my little social butterfly with her buddy Willow:
Katie rolls with the punches pretty well and she can make friends anywhere with anyone, she's more like her daddy in that regard. Some of our closest adult friends are the parents of her friends, so way to go Katie! Get out there and get us some more friends girlfriend!! 

Josie is still joyful and is learning to read. Here she is with her nose in a princess book:

Speaking of the cat, (which we were two photos ago), look what she brought in and left on our playroom floor last week:
That goldfish came with the house and was entrusted to our care. Oops.

Speaking of friendship, the girls received these beautiful, hand-made, friendship bracelets in the mail from their precious friend Ann-Elizabeth in Texas. It was almost like getting a big hug from across the Pacific. Thank you sweet Ann.
And, finally, speaking of breaks for me, my latest passion is swimming.  It's been such a great way to exercise for me and I really enjoy the people I'm getting to know. On Friday I went and bought this in preparation for our upcoming harbor swims. I almost felt like a real athlete!
I can't even begin to tell you how much fun it is sliding on form-fitting rubber from head to toe! I thought shopping for jeans and regular bathing suits was as painful as it got. . . but I'd never had this experience before!!! 

That's all for now, I hope to post more regularly this week - we want to go take pictures of the beautiful spring flowers in the Botanic Gardens.

Shopping 101

We had an amazing weekend - the weather was picture perfect! Saturday was full of the mundane - new tires (or tyres) on the car (I'll be self-controlled and not tell you what those cost), a new haircut for me (which isn't mundane at all - it's a real treat) and various bits of whatnot. Dugald, the girls and I all rode into town together and dropped off the car and had a quick lunch after which he took them to the park and I headed to my hair appointment. They decided to go home as soon as the car was fixed (no surprise there) and I decided to stay in town a bit longer and take the bus home (no surprise there either). 

I was looking for a birthday present since the three oldest girls had been invited to a party on Sunday, I was looking for something to send someone back home, I was looking for Christmas presents and I was browsing, casually, for myself. I have to say that though I used to be a somewhat professional shopper, I've completely gone off of it now. I had a routine in the States, that mostly consisted of shopping online, and I knew where to go for what, what I should pay for birthday presents, what size clothes and shoes we all wear, etc. Now I am lost and every time I need to purchase something it is an ordeal - for several reasons - I don't like to drive into town (you can read previous posts about the parking challenge, hitting the sides of tunnels and being hit by a bus if you want details on why), I REALLY don't like to take the kids with me (getting in and out of the car takes FOR EV ER, they block the entire sidewalk and annoy people, they want to buy different things than I want, they are exuberant, they are darling but they are a lot of work) and I love a bargain and haven't found too many here. I already have a mighty long list for when we get to Florida in 2009, even though I know the exchange rate isn't great and I'll have to pay to get it back here, at least I know where to go. 

All that is not to say my shopping experience was a waste - I did manage a not terribly expensive birthday gift, it was more than I would normally want to spend but I did have three girls going so I was happy to be generous. I didn't find any Christmas gifts, but I got a few ideas. I'm still not even sure who we are buying for at Christmas so I'm jumping the gun a bit on that anyway. I didn't find a thing for me but that's ok, I am still just trying to find a shop where I like and can afford the clothes so I can just go there when I need something. Besides I'm looking for long sleeved shirts and sweaters and now all the summer stuff is out. I wear long sleeves in the summer here, at least at night! Anyhow, my neighbor told me it would probably take a year to sort all these things out, I hope I have it worked out by then, I'm thinking it could be longer. 

Shopping aside, we are feeling more at home here every month. We've made some really nice friends, we are loving our church home, we actually see people we know sometimes when we are out and about, we (ok I) now know how to get around pretty well, it's becoming more and more familiar. I can actually do some conversions in my head now - 350F is 180C, 250 grams of butter is about two sticks, 100K's is about 60 mph, etc. It's all coming together - we even have a lead on a possible house to rent in January that would offer us a lot more room (for all our visitors). We're heading into my favorite season in one of the most beautiful places in the world and I feel privileged to be here, privileged that my children are getting to know their Daddy's home, privileged that so many people have really reached out to us and made us feel welcomed. We are blessed.

I'll post more pictures soon!

Jo Jo's Solo

As we head into another weekend here I thought I should get these pics from last weekend posted. Josie had another Musical Stars performance, this time at Westpac Stadium for the Parent and Child show. She and I headed over on Sunday morning while Dugs took the rest of the family to church, it was a treat to have some one-on-one time with Miss Josephine and I am pretty sure she loved it too.

Here she is all dressed and ready for the first song:

And here she is on stage singing her solo. I hate that the big bow on her head rather obscures her face. Once again she did a super job and this time the sound was a bit better and we could hear her. 
She's on the far right of this photo, still singing away.

After the performance we wandered around a bit enjoying coffee (me) and hot chocolate (her) and checking out the vendors' stuff. Before we left she got her face painted.

Culinary School

Most mornings we sit down to morning tea around 10 or 10:30 am. It's a nice New Zealand tradition that we have wholeheartedly adopted. The girls love having the break and they are always hungry, and it's the perfect time for me to read to them from their literature selection for the week. 

Yesterday we were shopping at a different grocery store than we usually do. We were on our way home from riding and popped into a much larger one on our way back to Karori. While slowly perusing the aisles in order to not miss anything we spotted these:

and, of course, they just HAD to have them. What's better in the eyes of four little girls than little pink cupcakes with sprinkles?? And, seeing as it was actually a box mix and not something that had to be made completely from scratch, I acquiesced. Under one condition. They would make them all by themselves. And, so they did.






Ta Da!!!
Now for the ultimate verdict . . . they look good, but how do they taste?


They were the perfect accompaniment to our morning tea. Good job girls!