Life lately, in reverse

Let’s go back in time.  We’ve been enjoying some unseasonably good weather lately, so Chip and I kidnapped D and took him to Kowhai Park for lunch.  Beats sitting in an office!  It’s days like this that I love being a stay at home parent, able to take full advantage of sunny weather, and being the master of my day.  It’s not all sunshine and roses, of course, but these days make it all worthwhile.

Chip had his third birthday, and was lucky enough to have three parties!  He had a very long list of loved ones that he wanted to come to his party, but our house isn’t big enough to fit more than 12 people comfortably.  He had a little party with some friends (easiest party ever, fish and chips, glow sticks and a few games), and I hosted a lunch for family.  Chip’s great-aunt made him the cool biscuit cake pictured above.  Chip goes to a playgroup with my Mum, and he also had a little soiree there!

Before that, was my birthday.  Here are two of the lovely gifts I was given this year:  Harry Potter Scrabble (so much fun!) and a drawing by a church friend of mine.  So blessed.

D and my brother playing HP Scrabble.  Just recording for posterity that I won…

 

Before that was the school holidays.  We had loads of fun, but the holidays felt super-long.  We had several play dates and outing with friends.

Sausage at Helentown Museum, Murrayfield

 

This miraculous photo of my two children looking and smiling at the camera at the SAME time was taken at Virginia Lake

We also went on an absolutely marvellous trip to Taupo to take part in the Taupo Winter Festival.  It was fan-flipping-tastic!  I highly recommend it to anyone, and especially for families.  Most of the events are free or quite cheap, and it made for a fun and frugal holiday.

Taupo can be an expensive place, but I managed to find a good holiday home which gave us our third night free.  Just as we were leaving for Taupo, a massive storm swept through, leaving huge dumps of snow.  This was the first time my kids had played in snow.  They had a ball.

The festival had a light show (free), an ice slide (free or $5 for 3 slides and cutting the queues), a giant snow globe ($5, they were setting up as we arrived, and our children got extra time because D helped shovel snow!), street performances, a giant colouring competition and so much more.

 

Free Pancake Breakfast, part of the festival

 

Not all our doings were frugal, like this trip to a restaurant

 

The festival was packed with performances like this one, The Biggest Little Circus

D and Chip enjoy the FREE ice slide

Sausage slides solo

Chip enjoyed playing in the giant Snow Globe 

 

This face says it all

D and I at the light show

I don’t know where she gets these poses from…

Colours are for everyone

While there, we also stopped at a place called Mind Junction, which is sort of a sciency place.  It was very over-priced but had lots of cool stuff.

 

There were several optical illusion exhibits

 

The highchair at our holiday home was put to good use

 

More posing, this time at Virginia Lake

Lest you think that life is all joy, joy, joy, here’s the reality of life with kids.  Before the holidays I was stuck at home with sick kids for two weeks!  Chip got sick first and wasn’t too bad, but then Sausage caught it, and was off kindy for a fortnight.  Here she is, too tired to colour in and do a sticker book (‘my arms are too tired Mummy, you do it’).  Sausage is massively into Tintin at the moment, and I was extremely grateful when a friend lent us his box set of the TV series.  She watched it all, as she had no energy for anything else!