Mid-Winter Christmas 2012

You wouldn't know it looking at the kids in kayaks, but our mid-winter Christmas this year was quite cold. We stayed at the Scouts camp in Wainuiomata just outside of Wellington City so it wasn't far away, but it felt much colder and was definitely more rustic! As always camping - or in this case cabining - with this lot of friends is such a treat. Meggie missed it unfortunately because she had a good friend's birthday to attend and to be fair I wasn't sure we were going to get to go anyway because there was the real possibility we would have a baby to look after, but in the end CYFS found permanent placement for that child and we were able to join the fun. Matthew and Monty also missed it because Monty was sick.

Katie

Matthew and Anna

In the bigger boat - Pippa, Ruthie and Julia. In the kayak -Sophie.

This lot have no idea what they are doing - Isabel, Amelia, Ellie and Josie.

Pulling the boats out of the water.

Sophie and Ruth

Katie and Daddy cleaning up.

Inside it's time for cocktails and appetizers.

Alison, Kathryn and Linda.

Mike and Dugald deep in conversation.

Me and Fleur

The boys start on dinner for the kids.

Josie and Izzy

Noah, Ruth, Ellie, Pippa, Katie, Anna, Libby, Julia and Sophie with Matthew peeking out at back.

Clean-up duty

Katie posing in a tree.

Ellie organizing her stuff so she can get in bed.

Meggie's Birthday (a little over a month ago)

Two posts in two days - it's a miracle! These photos are from Meggie's 13th on August 6th. Since her actual birthday was not conducive to partying (we'd only just returned from the states), we instead celebrated by going out to dinner at one of her favorite Wellington restaurants with two of her closest friends from school. Her actual birthday party is this coming weekend. So this year we celebrated 0 out of 4 birthdays with parties in the month of their actual birthdays. The upside of this sort of disorganization on my part is that they in fact get celebrated twice instead of once, so it may become a tradition. Or not.

Anyway, here are some photos of our lovely girl and her special day. . .

Breakfast in bed

Claudia, Meggie and Katie

Cadillac Diner

Ribs and Fries. . . and she ate it all!

Meggie Sings!

We went to Marsden earlier this week to hear Meggie sing. Marsden allows their students to take music lessons once a week from a group of itinerant teachers and Meggie takes from our family friend Annabelle Cheetham. This small concert was an opportunity for all of Annabelle's voice students to sing for an audience of parents and friends. Meggie performed two songs - she had a problem remembering all of the words in the first song (she wasn't the only one) but she performed beautifully and I was proud of how she just kept right on going regardless. Unfortunately my phone ran out of memory while I was videoing the second song so I didn't get all of it but you can see Meggie's part.

Have a great day!

We've been a bit under the weather. . .

Oh my, the flu hit our house hard this year!! Ellie and I caught it first and I was sick for a good 10 days, and now Katie has it. Meggie and Josie must have super-immune systems since they've managed to not catch it and Dugald has been away more than he's been home the past couple of weeks so I reckon that's how he's stayed healthy. All that to say I have a lot of catching up to do here! Here are some random photos to get us started. . .

First up are a few pictures I took with my phone of Katie at Prep Market Day this year. Marsden Primary teaches the girls about enterprise through their PREP (Primary Enterprise Programme). The girls have to create CV's, write recommendations for friends, get recommendations written from their parents and interview for the job they'd like to have. Last year Katie was the CEO of her group and they published a magazine. This year she was CFO of the film group that they called Hot Chili Films. They created a video of all the other groups singing their jingles and then sold the videos at market. They also charged people to have their jingle filmed.

Katie, Zoe, Imani and Kylie

Next is a sneak preview really - Dugald has finally found a permanent home for his company, Resimac. I snuck into town and had lunch with him and got a quick tour. The offices weren't quite done so I only took a picture out front, but I'll get more for later as they look really nice. He's on the 10th floor in downtown Wellington and has a great view and it all looks very flash.

Oh and here's a cute picture of the day we arrived back in Wellington from Florida. . .

Finally, we enjoyed watching the Olympics very much even though I personally find it a teensy bit annoying watching them in another country. However, we all wanted to watch the equestrian events and New Zealand actually took the bronze so we got some good coverage. The dog was pretty funny though - she kept barking at the horses!

Hope you are all well - I'll try to keep up a bit better here on the blog. We've had a few false alarms where we thought we were getting a foster baby but it didn't work out - the first time CYFS found a permanent placement before the baby was born, the next time the baby was much sicker than we had expected and we were still ill so we didn't take her. We are now waiting on another baby that is due to be born any time but anything could happen. We have what we need and our hearts are ready so we just trust the timing will work out as it should. Meanwhile I've had a few house projects I'm trying to focus on and get handled before we have a little one. It would be much easier if the trades people I'm trying to work with actually came when they said they would. Argh.

Lots of love from all of us!!

It's time to say goodbye. . .

Our last evening with all the Florida cousins was a dinner at Will and Jen's. Will was working but Jen was game and had us all over to play in the pool and share one last meal together.. . bittersweet but very fun, thanks so much Jen for having us, and thanks everyone for making so much time for us all to be together this year.

Carlouel with Metz's

The Metz's invited us to join them for a day at Carlouel before we left Florida. Mom and Mrs. Metz are good friends and Melissa, Ali and I all knew each other in high school. Melissa's girls are in the same age-range as mine and Ali's, and her brother Bobby's wife was also there with her little girl. We enjoyed re-connecting and having another day at the club.

Samantha, Lilly and Josie

Katie and Anna, Megan, Grace and Poppy, Meggie and Lilly, Samantha and Josie.

Kayaking at Papa and Mama's