Raglan isn't always bad...

Soon after we first arrived, we headed to Raglan to check it out - it was supposed to be a nice laid-back town with good beach and a great surf break. We were disappointed to find a wind-blown, freezing cold, rainy little place. I hadn't been back since. The only other time Mel had been back was a few weeks ago, and it rained then as well.
Anyway, the forecast for today was for sunshine and warm weather, so we thought we'd risk another trip to Raglan. And it was worth it. The sun was out, the wind stayed away, the water was beautifully clear and very very warm by NZ standards (must have been at least 22-23C - as warm as Qld water!). We all had a good time - the kids loved playing on the sand and splashing in the water. A few hours disappeared in no time at all before we had to get back to town to get some fish and chips for lunch at the harbour.

Part 5 - Auckland

OK, so this is now well and truly out of date... but anyway. New Year's weekend was spent up in Auckland with my parents before they left, flying out of Auckland. Some highlights:

• Going to Rangitoto Island (the kids walked most of the way, before getting carried)
• Caught a ferry across to Devonport and North Head
• The kids took a trip up the Sky Tower with Granny and Grandpa W
• Everyone except me went to One Tree Hill (I was on the way up from Hamilton)

Photos at the usual place...

More visitors...

My sister and family arrived early this morning to stay with us for the next 3 weeks. So we have finally got to meet our nephew/cousin Joshua in person for the first time. He looks big and chunky when we put him next to Naomi!

We've bought a house!

As of 5pm today we have gone unconditional on a 4 bedroom house in Hamilton. It has taken us 3.5 weeks from when we decided we could actually afford to buy a house, to get to this point. When I say it like that it sounds really quick, but it has been an eventful, stressful 3 weeks. It only took us 1 week of looking on the internet and 1 weekend of looking inside actual houses (we looked at 3 in total) for us to find a place we wanted to put an offer on. It has then been 2.5 weeks of trying to organise finance - which has had many ups and downs, twists and turns resulting in a lot of scrambling around by us (even if most of it has been in the virtual world of the internet). So if you have been wondering about the quietness of this blog for the past month, basically this has been the main reason why.

Part 4 - Waitomo

This is a slightly delayed update on what we got up to over Christmas/New Year time... part 4.
We headed down to Waitomo with Granny and Grandpa W to explore a cave or two. It's the sort of touristy thing that we haven't done a huge amount of, and the sort of thing that you don't do when you live here. Anyway, we went to Ruakuri Cave (very nice - cool formations, big shafts dropping down to the river below etc.) and the Glow-worm Caves - not quite as nice, but you do get to float along in a boat, looking at glow-worms in the pitch blackness.
If you have the money, it's recommended (it is a little pricey... as touristy things tend to be...)
More photos at the usual place, part 5 of 5 to come soon :)

Little fish...

Ben and Joanna started swimming lessons for the season today. I had been intending them to start lessons back in October/November, but with Naomi arriving early and then the steady stream of visitors, Christmas holidays etc...
I still have to get in the pool with Joanna, but Ben now goes on his own. I was a bit apprehensive about how he would react to it because when he went for a trial last summer (for them to work out which level class to put him in), he totally flipped out at the side of the pool and refused to get in. As it turned out he happily hopped in the pool and totally enjoyed himself the whole time - no tears, tantrums, or refusal to participate.

I'm back!

Went back to the gym for the first time since Naomi was born. There are a few reasons why it has taken me 12 weeks to get back into it (Naomi is 12 weeks old tomorrow!).

1. I couldn't go for the 1st 6 weeks as babies have to be 6 weeks old before they can be looked after in the creche.
2. Peter's parents arrived just after Naomi was 6 weeks old and so we were away on holidays.
3. Then it was Christmas/New Year so creche at the gym shuts down for a couple of weeks
4. My membership expired during this time, so I had to wait until the office girls got back from holidays (which was on Monday), so that they could figure out what to charge me (it gets complicated with the kids and creche and Ben starting morning kindy in a couple of months).

It was great to be back - everybody was excited about seeing Naomi (benefit of belonging to a small gym - the people (employees and fellow members) are all really friendly and familiar with each other. I'm looking forward to the exercise giving me more energy, making me less stressed and giving me a short break from the kids.

First day of summer!

I know that officially the first day of summer is the 1st of December, but that never really coincides with reality. Hamilton had it's first real day of summer yesterday - well that's Peter and my opinion (quite a few locals were commenting at church about how hot it has been the past week). It got to 27C and was humid - so it felt like a Brisbane summer day where you are slightly uncomfortably hot, when just sitting doing nothing and stinking hot if you are out in the direct sun! The good thing is that it still cools down nicely at night - we still pulled up our summer-weight doona during the night.

End of school holidays!

Tomorrow is Ben's first day back at kindy for the year. I am kind of feeling bittersweet about it.

Bitter - because it is the end of total flexibility of our daily timetable. It will make afternoons pretty busy 3 days a week again.

Sweet - because Ben (and the rest of us) is ready to go back - for the extra stimulation it provides, the interactions with peers, and other significant adults to talk to.

TradeMe money making

A week ago we finally got around to listing our old/no longer needed TV and VCR (we were kindly given a free widescreen TV and DVD player from one of Peter's work mates) on TradeMe (NZ ebay equivalent). So I decided to do a bit of a stocktake of other items around the house that we no longer use/have upgraded. This included our Breville coffee and spice grinder (I got a Breville conical burr grinder for my birthday just over a year ago), kitchen scales (I upgraded to digital kitchen scales over a year ago - which I bought cheap off ebay), and a dinner set (which we have never used). Everything sold except for the dinner set (which we have re-listed) and we made a total of $75! I'm tempted to try and find more surplus stuff around the house to sell (we just need to decide if Naomi is the last baby - because there is a lot of baby stuff I could sell for quite a bit of money).

My first complete complete photo frame

I've been intending to make our own photo frames for quite a while now... a couple of years ago I got a mitre saw to get me started. Trouble is, I needed a strap clamp and v-nailer to be able to put the pieces together. So I got those. Then, I needed a router to be able to do the rebates on the inside where the glass and photo itself goes. So I managed to get one of those. Then, I needed a table saw to be able to trim pieces of wood that weren't perfectly formed to start with. So, for Christmas last year, I got one of those. Then, I needed a glass cutter and a source of glass. I've borrowed a cutter from Tony, and Mel got me a dodgy frame from the dump shop that still had perfectly good glass.
So, finally, I have the tools!
Here's the results: the mirror was made without the benefit of the table saw (it was wood that didn't need trimming), the photo frame used all the tools (I think the wood's jarrah - whatever it is, it's certainly very very hard. It was tongue and groove flooring before trimming).

busy, busy...

Towards the end of last week and over the weekend, I have felt a strong urge to be productive. Especially to get things done that have been ignored/put off for a while. At the same time I have been frustrated by how little I can get done between the normal day to day tasks and the increasing demand of managing the children (as it gets towards the end of school holidays and they are ready to get back into the normal routine of life - deliberately annoying each other, want/need for constant dialogue with me, wanting/needing others to join in their imaginary games). So I have ressurected my 'to do' list (following Peter's prompting) and have managed to get a few things crossed off already (it also helps with the breastfeed brain issues - ie. remembering something needs to be done, when I can't actually do it right now, but then forgetting when I do have time to do it).

Part 3 - Boxing Day

This year we decided we would start a Boxing day tradition. As we don't have any other family living here, but still like the idea of spending time with other people around Christmas, we organised to have 'Open home' at our house on Boxing day. We invited various friends from church, work, playgroup/kindy to drop around anytime on Boxing day, just to relax and chat and eat (a solution to using up Christmas leftovers). So we had a nice day just relaxing and catching up with friends/getting to know them better. And we will definitely try to continue this tradition.

Growing up...

We haven't said much about what Naomi has been up to lately. Well in summary she has been growing up...over the Christmas weekend, she graduated from the bassinet to the cot for sleeping and she also graduated from the baby bath (ie. our camping washing-up tub) into the big bath. Both transitions went well, she likes the big bath and doesn't even mind her big brother and sister getting in with her (as long as we make sure they don't splash or play too boisterously)!

Part 2 - Christmas

Well I blogged a little about things we were doing in the lead up to Christmas, but then it kind of stopped when we went on holidays. The advent calendar was a hit with the kids, they enjoyed doing it each morning and Ben especially became more familiar with the Christmas story (even some of the more minor points) . When we got home from holidays we purchased our first family Christmas tree - a real one - Peter, Joanna and I went to the Christmas tree farm and wandered around in a heavy shower of rain to choose our tree. We decided we would have an outdoor Christmas tree as this would save on having to clean up pine needles all the time. So on Christmas morning I got up early and and placed all the presents around the tree, ready for when the kids got up.

Christmas morning we had breakfast outside in the cool of the morning (a nice change to stinking hot Brisbane Christmas mornings). We opened 1 present each before heading off to church. When we got home we opened the rest of the presents while lunch was cooking (I'd planned a warm/hot lunch seeing as I knew it wasn't going to be ridiculously hot here, so thought it would be nice to do). After lunch we watched Ice Age (Ben got the DVD as a present), before having leftovers for dinner.

What we have been up to lately part 1 - Mt Maunganui

The first week the Waldeck seniors were here, we all went on a holiday to the beach. We rented a 4 bedroom bach at Mt Maunganui (the best beach spot on the North Island). The weather some days was a little cool for spending much time at the beach, but we were thankful that at least it didn't rain all week (which it traditionally does in December). So most days involved spending some time at the beach playing in the sand and sometimes venturing into the water (only Peter, Ben and Liz actually ventured in a reasonable way - the rest of us weren't too keen on the cold water temperature). Other activities we did included:

• walking to the top of 'the Mount' (as it is known to locals) - it's a 232m high, extinct volcano
• learning about the kiwifruit industry at Kiwi 360 - did you know kiwi fruit grow on a vine
• Peter and Ben tried out fishing for the first time (off a jetty) - unfortunately they didn't catch anything, but Ben had fun anyway
• walking around the base of 'the Mount' - which included seeing a ship loaded with logs sailing past
• visiting the local farmers market - where we sampled locally made cheeses, salami, avocado products, and chilli products.

Back to reality...again

Peter's parents went back to Brisbane on Sunday. So it is back to just being us and Peter goes back to work today (Monday was a public holiday), so it will be just the kids and I at home. There is now two weeks that I need to try and organise to be fun and enjoyable for us before kindy starts for the new year. Today looks like a day for washing (still catching up from people staying and going away for the weekend), and maybe some gardening.

Sleep in...

It is 8am and Ben and Joanna are still both in their beds asleep! It is the first time this has happened in a long time (usually they are awake at 7am, if not before). Unfortunately this does not mean I get to sleep in (hence I'm writing this post) because I still had to get up and feed Naomi.