Church Antics & Doggy Friends.

At church today, during the Eucharistic prayer, I'm kneeling, eyes closed. The congregation is still. I open my eyes and look at the little man on my left. I catch him quietly licking my jacket sleeve. WHAT?!

After mass, the husband tells the little lady as she walks back to the car, "watch out for the puddle." She looks carefully at the puddle in front of her and jumps in it.

Not quite what he meant but that's my girl! 

We went by our neighbours' this afternoon to tend to their home as they were away. Our little lady has long been terrified of their dogs. Lately, she's still wary, but seems to be warming up a little to them. This afternoon was a milestone as she happily petted them as the dogs roamed freely in the garden. Petting has always been a carefully orchestrated event in the past. It's great to see her overcoming her fear. 

Part 2 of kitchen organisation involved labelling our containers of pantry essentials. The bigs were happy to help and made good work of them. It will be interesting for them to see these labels years from now when their handwriting becomes more grown-up. Better than printed labels any day! 

Bakes & Meteors.

It was a beautiful day with lovely sunshine! Perfect for proofing our bread loaves on the windowsill. 

The children spent the day outside with their friends too, a nice change from the dreary winter weekends we have had. 

It was a productive day in the kitchen. 

Lunch for the family 

The week's bread 

Chocolate Chip Buns

Yum. 

This weekend, New Zealand's night sky is expected to be lit up by meteor showers, with predictions of up to 20 meteors an hour over the course of the evening. We ventured outside, wrapped in dressing gowns and coats, and watched the stars.

It was hard for the children to keep still, but they were blessed to spot a meteor each. It took our big girl two nights of watching to spot one but she was so pleased when she finally did.

Sorbet & Spice.

The morning was spent running errands but we managed to spend some time at by the beach.

The little lady fell to the floor in tears, inconsolable, when the lady handed her a wooden spoon with a smidgen of the strawberry sorbet she'd asked for. A sample. She thought that was all she was getting, in comparison to her brother's cone, and couldn't bear it. I couldn't help but laugh at the dramatic response.

I picked up a set of brand new spice jars from a local free cycle group and set out to refresh our spice rack this afternoon. 

Our big girl was more than happy to help fill the spice jars with our assortment of spice and herb boxes. It was an incredibly satisfying project and I was glad to have had her company. 

Looking Forward.

It has been a week that's zoomed by. This morning, we attended mass and met with the parish priest to endorse our little man's preference card for his enrolment to primary school. Our little man was excited and is looking forward to starting school next year. We will pop in to school to submit his forms tomorrow.

Term 3, Day 1

A poorly-timed coffee yesterday evening kept me awake until 3am. Getting up this morning was painful.

Still, we got safely to school in spite of blustery winds and rain. Poor weather, bad traffic and the first day of term 3 were not a great combination and we heard/saw two cars right behind us collide in rush hour traffic. (Bigs: This is why we pray before we drive!) The littlies and I had a pretty good day, all things considered.

Exploring a new playground, indoors - - a bonus on a wet day! 

haircut day! 

Shaving Foam fun

Phew. I can only say that the Lord gives all the grace we need to get through each day. One day down, 49 to go! 

Building Friendship.

The Michael family moved here from Singapore about 6 weeks ago and we finally managed to catch up with them over lunch. I got to know them years ago in church ministry, but this was probably our first time properly catching up in a decade. 

The children gave them a really warm welcome by spontaneously putting up a performance in our front yard for them:

It was a meaningful afternoon spent connecting and building friendship. 

Big Pizza.

We headed down to Mission Bay to check out the newly-renovated playground, and in papa's words, to have "big pizza".

The weather was very unpredictable today, but we had a few good moments to enjoy the playground. There were a few unique features that the children especially enjoyed. 

And then, big pizza. A whole 18" pizza at Sal's.

Our big boy has had his nose buried in a book since he started on The Philosopher's Stone yesterday. 

"Is Professor Snape good or bad, mum?"

I didn't have the heart to tell him it'll take 8 books to really find out, so we went with Papa's answer that he's both good and bad. He seemed happy with that.

That's one boy who will power through a book and take it everywhere with him until he's done with it. 

Playdate.

We finally had the McVey siblings over to spend the day. Not much to be said, simply that it was a day that was very much enjoyed by the children. The McVey brother makes an effort to connect with our little man, which means a lot to him. They played Mario Karts on the Nintendo Switch together for a good half an hour this afternoon.

a decent photo was impossible this evening.

They bid each other a reluctant goodbye when we dropped their friends off at home after dinner and dessert.

While the children were busy playing this morning, the husband went and picked up the first three books in the Harry Potter series. After their friends had gone, the bigs settled into a book each and read quietly until bedtime. 

It's been a fruitful day, and I'm especially grateful for the husband who quietly and faithfully runs the errands, cleans up our messes and today, made us all dinner. 

Hot Pools.

We made a day trip to Parakai to soak in the geothermal hot pools of Palm Springs Complex. It's one of the best winter activities! We made a packed lunch, herded everyone into the car and set off for the 55 minute drive there.

We were all pretty spent after, but it was a day that was enjoyed by all. 

Garden Day.

What's that they say, "make hay while the sun shines"? Well it was a beautiful day and while we didn't make hay, we all spent some time in the garden working.

Papa repurposed big boy's old bed slats into another raised bed. The littlies helped to fill it with compost, transplant seedlings and level the compost.

I pruned and trained our blackberry plants along the fence and fed the strawberry plants that are still trying to flower and fruit in the middle of winter.

It's been a good day outside.

Apple Pie Day.

"My favourite sound in the whole world is the sound of a knife on a chopping board," remarked our big girl as we peeled and sliced apples for a pie. The little man was on my lap munching an apple and the little lady was perched on a chair beside me trying to peel an apple with the peeler.

We have been working our way through a kid's cook book this isolation.

Our first ever apple pie

Yesterday's pretzels 

The pie popped out of the oven just in time for Papa to get home from work and we all had hot apple pie for afternoon tea. 

Monopoly this afternoon 

We're on the tail end of our isolation as most of us have tested negative. We don't have anywhere else to be this holiday so we might just hang out at home for the next few days. Our bigs had video chats with their best friends this evening and I reckon they might be able to meet up next week after this is all over. 

Home Isolation Day #6.

Given that our neighbour and Val tested positive for covid today, it does appear that there has been a wave of cases in the last few days.

Our neighbours dropped off some treats this morning...we thoroughly enjoyed them, indoors on a rainy Monday. 

The day mostly went by in a blur, with the husband working on his notes for the week's lessons at the uni. The rest of us will finish off our isolation in a day or so. 

Home Isolation Day #5: The Good Samaritan & Burgers

From our first night in a tent, we learned that:

- If you close the inside partition before you go to bed, you might find yourself stuck, disoriented and very desperate in the middle of the night if you need to pee.

- There is NO sleeping in in a family tent. Ever. The chatter and the torchlights will make sure of it, first thing in the morning. 

We are all having an early night after the excitement of yesterday's camp in, and there were no complaints.

And after all that, the tent packed down into this bag within 15 minutes.

The parable of the Good Samaritan, today's gospel. The bigs had heard it a million times, so we decided to jazz it up with a family reenactment of the parable. You might be able to guess some of who was who from these pictures. I played Robber #3 and the Levite. 

I ordered a new toy from Bunnings and Val kindly picked it up and delivered it to us this afternoon. The children were pretty pleased with it. One more thing to fight over and injure themselves on.. What's not to like? :) Good to see them getting creative with it already. 

Papa and our big boy made delicious smash patty burgers for dinner. Very yummy! Toasted marshmallows for dessert.

Bedtime. Goodnight! 

Home Isolation Day #4: Camping In.

Today was the day we unboxed our camping tent and set it up in our living room!

A few weekends ago, we hatched the idea to start camping as a way to see more of New Zealand on a budget. In picking our tent, we sought out one that was easy to put up and take down, and had a blackout feature to enable the littlies to sleep easier in the summer's late sunsets. We finally decided on the OZtrail Fast Frame Blackout 10 person tent.

It was fairly quick to put up, given the Fast Frame structure. It's a massive 6m x 2.2m tent, which just fits into our open plan living space. The children were absolutely chuffed. 

Lunch was a roll-your-own sushi affair. 

Our friends generously and contactlessly delivered dinner: shepherd's pie, chicken nibbles and spiced veges. We were grateful not to have to cook! Our neighbours had also dropped over cookies earlier in the day, so that was also dessert sorted. 

After dinner, we brought mattresses down and draped the Blackout fly over the tent. The tent sections off into three rooms separated by zipped partitions, with two to a room.

The little lady fell asleep fairly quickly. The others are still settling in. Fingers crossed for a smooth night. 

Home Isolation Day #3: Macarons & Puddles.

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone happier about a positive covid test result than these two boys were this morning.

There were hugs and high fives when the last two of our family joined the rest of us. Our little man is currently asymptomatic and our big boy has a slight cough and had a slight fever this evening. 

We are deploying our arsenal of daily vitamins and herbal supplements and are grateful that symptoms seem to be mild so far. 

Big boy made his "Breakfast Deluxe" breakfast platter to share. 

Pineapple rice I made for a quick lunch

Our big girl's project for the day was macarons. I didn't have any expectations because of how temperamental I know macarons are and how finicky they are to make. She did really well and they turned out to be quite delicious!

And these guys may or may not have gone outside to splash in puddles and fill their gumboots with rainwater. 

There's much to be thankful for about today. 

Home Isolation Day #2.

Big boy: Come and sit down next to me and play computer games with me!

We did. He talked me through a couple of levels and showed me how to get through them. 

I'm not normally a computer games person but being in isolation is a great chance to do something different. 

I tested positive for covid-19 today, a weak positive, but one nonetheless. Thankfully, I'm still feeling fairly energetic and doing all right. 

Our big boy ending the day reading stories to his siblings. They were thoroughly engrossed in their stories and it was lovely for me to be on the listening end of the storytelling. :)