Cakes and camping

Gosh, well, seems another few months have gone by since we last updated you all… so here’s what we’ve been up to...in words and pictures.


September started off with the arrival of a new nephew (Joshua), born a couple of weeks earlier than anticipated, son to Fiona’s brother and sister-in-law. So Fiona got the privilege of looking after his older brother and sister while that was all happening, which Lillia and Nina were quite happy about as it meant they got to have a sleep over at their cousin’s house, as well as all the excitement of a new baby :-)


September also marked Nina’s 1st birthday and Lillia’s 3rd, and Matt’s …. so lots of fun and presents! We had some people round to our place in Auckland for afternoon tea and cupcakes to celebrate Nina’s birthday… She had a ball! For Lillia, we got together at Gran and Grandad’s house in Tauranga, for lunch, games and cake (a butterfly – thanks Mummy). Then we had Matt’s birthday the following day, on which he went off to run a race around the Mount… got back home just in time to have his cake.


Unfortunately both Lillia and Matt came down with a nasty tummy bug during the following week, and Nina a second ear infection. This was a downer, with both Lillia and Nina having just got over ear and chest infections… thankfully all are good now.


We had a weekend away at the snow booked for mid Sept, with some friends, which we were really looking forward to… Matt keen to get out on his snowboard in NZ.. However, that weekend coincided with the second worst storm on the planet at the time! Gale force winds, rain and freezing cold weather all weekend, the mountain was closed :-( - we got about ½ an hour playtime in some snowy slush! So no snowboarding or skiing sadly… But we had fun playing at our lodge. Thanks J&M and D&M..


Since then we have enjoyed Labour Weekend – bank holiday weekend in Oct – highly recommended! We went and stayed at a campsite with 3 other families – so 8 big kids and 7 littlies to herd around! We found hedgehogs, paradise ducks and ducklings, a possum (now a dead possum) and – oh – sheep. Lots of outdoor play including Burma trail, lighting fires, cooking marshmallows and staying up late.


Next weekend saw an early start for Matt – catching the ferry to Devonport at 0540hrs in time for a 7am start to the Auckland Half Marathon which comes back across the Harbour Bridge. Matt had a great morning run and was cheered home by the girls – 1h23m05s official time. Tired but happy man. Had a fab morning in park with friends after – Neil and Lisa who also ran and had awesome times to write home about. Bit of an Oak Hall reunion for brunch with Jim McInnes, Nina and Himali tucking into Eggs Benedict and pancakes. Marzi we missed you!


Next weekend – Matt being Matt – had booked himself and John Catmur on a 28k offroad race out on the stunning west coast at Bethells Beach. Kind of thing you talk yourself into over a few beers – hmmm, they were only on Skype! 4hrs later and having ascended 1600m, fallen in a river, crunched through flaxes and gorse the boys returned to gladly find the finish and a well earned beer.


In the mean time Fiona and the girls had a ripper of a time playing on the beach, black sand on the West Coast though – Nina made full use of it and imitated an ostrich quite well. Lillia also enjoyed playing in the estuary and using her new digger to good effect. Hot pool action at Waiwera to follow, ahhh - nice.


Lillia has now established herself in a new Kindergarten that is just down the road from here. Took a few weeks but she is now loving it with her new friends Yaelle, Aashna, Sophie and Zoe. There's great outdoor play there with the biggest sandpit short of the beach, climbing kit, ride ons and of course water play :-) Nina looks on enviously but has some great Mummy time instead.


Christmas now approaching - how did that creep up on us! Nearly missed the posting date to UK already :-o


Enjoy the lights and Santa's grotto - we have Christmas parade this Sunday - bring it on!!