Fun in the snow

As promised, some more pictures and details of our snow trip last weekend...

The weather forecast for the weekend was pretty ordinary - snow showers and icy southerlies on Saturday, cloudy on Sunday and strong westerlies by Monday. Because of that, we left after breakfast rather than before. By the time we got down to Taupo, there was no wind there, so we figured we may as well head up the mountain and see what it was like. Blue sky, not a breath of

wind. We ended up having lunch at Whakapapa Village before heading up - and then had a great time tobogganing and playing all afternoon, before getting back to the village to get into our cabin.

Sunday turned out to be perfect again, so we decided to head up

the chairlifts (the "sightseeing" option), which the kids loved - Joanna wanted to go, then didn't, but once she was on, loved it. Two year-olds. Anyway, by the time we got up to Knoll Ridge, it was almost lunch time, so we had lunch up there, before Joanna ended up falling asleep in Mel's lap. Ben, Naomi and I headed back down to make a snowman in the meantime. By the time Mel and Joanna were down, our snowman was done and it was tobogganing time again!

Monday was yet another perfect day (it's pretty rare to have 3 days in a row as good as that!), so we took advantage of it and did some more tobogganing, before heading home after lunch.

So much for that weather forecast...

Full set of photos at flickr

Mystery illness

I mentioned the other day that Ben had developed a cold, well at that stage he only had a temperature, which I assumed was the start of a cold. So I expected that a runny nose etc. would develop. Instead...he developed a rash - viral looking one on his chest and back, accompanied by splotchy/welty/slightly itchy rash on legs, arms, face etc. So off to the Drs we go - no cause could be identified so we were sent home with some anti-histamine (phenergan) and steroid (prednisone) to treat the over active immune response (ie. the rash). Well see how it goes...

Btw...I just have to mention (again) that I love the Waikato District Health Board's funding of medical care for children. The whole visit (seeing Nurse, Dr and getting prescription medicine) cost $0, that's right - nothing!

Big week...

After long weekend at the snow, processing mountains of dirty washing (produced at aforementioned weekend), and dealing with sick kids...I am well and truly ready for a quiet weekend!

Adult education

I'm watching the Spider-Man movie for the first time ever. Being from a family of girls I have never read Spider-Man comics or been involved with any other of the 'superheros'. But being a 4 year old boy, Ben is starting to get into that stage. At the moment it is mainly from what other kids tell him/play together at kindy. However I've decided that I need to familiarise myself with the Superhero stuff, so I can engage in meaningful discussions with Ben and help guide him through all the issues that this superhero stuff can explore.

Sick house...

3 down...only 2 to go! (Naomi got cold before the weekend, I got cold on the weekend, Ben developed cold overnight)

Whakapapa blue

We just got back from our snow holiday... we managed to get the most fantastic weather possible - blue sky for 3 days in a row, with only the tiniest breath of wind the whole time. More details and many photos and videos to come once we've unpacked and recovered!

Time standing still?

Do you find at times that it feels like time is standing still? It felt like that to me this afternoon...then I realised that's because it was! The clock had stopped.

Tonsilitis again

no comment.

Australians all let us rejoice

Naomi is officially an Australian citizen! (and has yet to set foot in the country)

Washing line false start...

On the weekend, we tried to install our new washing line (that I'd been given for Mother's Day). Peter dug a hole in the ground, then went to put the washing line in it, when he realised there was a problem...it was too short!

Back when we shopping around for a new one, the height of the washing line was one of the important criteria to consider (because Peter didn't want to be able to 'clothesline' himself on it). So we specifically chose one that was height adjustable (it didn't have a crank handle like the traditional hills hoist, but more like the length adjusters on aluminum crutches). The problem is I am even at serious risk of 'clothes lining' myself on this one! (let alone Peter) - even at it's highest height setting. There was no way we could know this before opening it up, as nowhere on the packaging does it tell you the height of it, it just tells you the arm span length and how many metres of line space there is...which brings me to our second complaint with it - it has 50 m of line space, but the lines are only space a maximum of 5cm apart - which a) doesn't allow for good airflow and so if I filled it all with washing, it would take ages to dry; and b) it means that even on the longest outer lines, it would take 2 sides to hang a queen size bedsheet (not to mention the fact that the sheet would drag on the ground due to the impractical low height of the whole contraption!).

So now we need to find out if we are able to return this one and find another, more suitable washing line - which will cost us at least twice the price, based on our previous research . At least it is the middle of winter at the moment and so I'm using the dryer most the time to get the washing dry (as the weather isn't suitable for drying 'all natural').