A busy Sunday

Don't you just love those Wellington days after a cold southerlie - we get those stunning clear blue skies and sunshine but with a little nip in the air ! Mummy was asked to do an interior colour-scheme on a house out in Paremata so we all went out there this morning - wow, the house literally 'hung' over the Paremata inlet - the owner said he can cast a fishing line off the deck at high tide and catch fish for dinner. Quirky design with rooms, nooks & crannies everywhere - fascinating ! And then this afternoon we all went to a party in Island Bay for a friend's mother's birthday, Birte, who is out here from Denmark. Gorgeous afternoon in the sun, lovely relaxed company, a Danish & NZ barbeque feast, hot dogs & buns for the kiddies, lollipops & birthday cake - and the afternoon just raced by and now, sadly, the end of another weekend.


Daddy playing 'eat the aeroplane' with Josh - boys and their games !!

Valentines Day

So many celebrations today .... firstly Valentines Day started with me sending Daddy & Josh on a wee chocolate hunt - a trail of chocolate hearts that started in the garage, weaved their way outside and up the stairs to the top balcony and back down again into the tree house to finally discover a large chocolate heart each. Daddy then left a wee surprise under Mummy's pillow - a lovely candle, soap & face cream - oh to feel pampered!

It was also Grandpa's birthday (don't worry Grandpa, we have stopped counting the years!) so a singing phone call to him down in Queenstown. And Granny Cranney's birthday also so yet another phone call !

And then this afternoon Josh went to Tomo's 6th birthday party. Tomo's brave Mummy had invited 10 boistrous boys over! Fortunately they broke the noisy play with a visit to the movies to see BOLT which they all loved, then cake & pressie-time before pick-up. Josh adores Tomo, they went to creche together, they both play in the same rugby & cricket teams - and if Josh had his way, he would love them both to go to the same school.

This evening Mummy went into town to help a friend who was event-managing a charity fashion show to raise funds for the Mary Potter Hospice - a most successful and heart-felt evening. Mummy went out the back to help the models and guess who was modelling the little girls' clothes - Josh's friend from school, Anika, and her younger sister Chayna - don't they look gorgeous!

What a full-on week

Our first 'full' 5-day week back at school and all the other things we get up to after school ! We started off with Variety Sports where Josh gets to have a brilliant run-around for over an hour after school - Mummy & Daddy are always hopeful that it will tire him out !

And another day .... we went and had a hot chocolate and yummy cupcake after school with his very close friend, gorgeous Georgia, who is being so brave at the moment with her broken arm (eeek!!)
And .... swimming at school on Wednesday. I think the 'fun' part was the bus trip there and back! Let's just say that we hope next week is a little more organised. Mummy was on 'parental pool patrol' and learned very quickly that next time she needs to wear her swimsuit !!

And let's not forget dearest Grandma's birthday - wow, 86 years old! Scones, jam & cream with some friends in the morning and then a fish & chip dinner and home-made birthday cake in the evening - and no, we didn't have 86 candles!


And, of course, there is always fun-time to be had with Hudson and his furry 'play' pussy cat.

..... and tug-of-war with his string bone !



The week finished with a hair cut .... do you remember those pudding-bowl cuts that your Mum did in the kitchen. Well that doesn't happen today, on no siree ! We go to a fancy salon where Josh gets given a fluffy, sits on the special 'horsey' chair and has a 'professional' haircut by Tuan !!

Josh loves the computer !

Monday came around very quickly - and the start of our first 5-day week back at school for the year - I think it is going to be a long week! However, Josh only has a half-day on Mondays as he has a one-on-one private lesson in the afternoon with a speech & language tutor, Sara Spur. Josh loves going to see Sara and she has a wonderful ability to get Josh doing things whereby the learning is a by-product of the activity or lesson. The majority of Sara's learning is computer-based so Josh is very happy about that (no surprises there!). It is scary how fast he is around the keyboard, it is almost second-nature to him and is another reason why the computer at home is now password coded (brings back memories of one morning at 6.15am where we wondered where Josh was only to find him in the home office, having turned the computer on, gone into gooble (his understanding of google), scrolled down into favourites and was busy playing golf on screen - mmm, not quite the same way that Tiger Woods started out!)

Gorgeous 3-day weekend

Wow what a 3-day weekend - thanks to Waitangi Day. Wellington was flooded with thousands of visitors who came to see the World Rugby 7s - an event which the Capital City has proudly hosted for the past 10 years. This 2-day event injects an additional $16 million dollars into Wellington coffers - which the bars, cafes & retailers love! Hong Kong is the traditional home of the 7s but Wellington is certainly the carnival capital and of the 38,000 spectators in the stadium, I would imagine that 90% of those dress in fancy costume for the event - it is truly amazing - and very colourful and funny, the city comes alive ! NZ & England were in the finals - suffice to say that Daddy has been chanting England's anthem all day long (just lovely for Mummy who is not at all competitive - NOT!) - NZ were up 12 in the first half, but then got complacent in the second and lost in the last dying seconds with a final score 19-17 - ugh!

As for us, well we kept well away from the 7s ... we visited some friends, went to the movies, took Huddy to the beach and also spent some time at Thorndon Pool with cool drinks and ice-creams - don't you just love those lazy, hazy summer days.

Cricket is back!

Yes, our first day back at Cricket for the year and an early start at 8.30am for the ROCKETS. Here we have Josh on the field waiting for the ball to come flying and then team-talk at half-time with coach Rob. Note Hudson is behaving as team mascot and looking after Joshua's drink !

And then in the afternoon we had swimming lessons. After the 'structured' lesson, Daddy, Mummy & Josh headed to Thorndon Swimming Pool which is a lovely outdoor pool, albeit heated to 27 degrees (lovely!) and played around in the water for nearly 2 hours. Hopefully we will have a tired wee boy this evening !

First Day at School 2009 Room 5 Year 2

Here we have Joshua with his new teacher, Mrs Andrea Whitehead. First day in Year 2 - Wednesday 4th February 2009. Mummy had a meet-the-teacher meeting the day before and we have high hopes for this year. Mrs Whitehead is just glorious - very organised, structured and firm but fair. She said some lovely things about having Josh in her class - so watch this space!