First day of school!

Olivia's 5th Birthday

Olivia had a Princesses, Princes and Knights in Shining Armour party! There was feasting, jousting and slaying of dragons. We had a great day.

Olivia settled in to school immediately and has made friends. Hopefully she will be just excited about starting back again after the holidays. She is in Room 6 at Havelock North Primary, and her teacher is Mrs Fergus.

Fruit bowl of the country

The lemon tree on our property has at least 3 years worth of lemons - now I have a fridge full of lemon curd!

New House!

Finally - an update. It's been very busy down here in the bay. We are settling in and are a few boxes away from unpacked. We are enjoying the pool, gardens and great weather. Ross is doing well with his new job, and the kids have settled in to their new daycare extremely well. We visit the Farmers Market each week and get all our fresh fruit and veg - all sorts of different varieties of things - it's very stimulating. Here are a few pics.

If it's pink it's good...

As a reward for copying her own name at Bear Park today, Miss O gets her face painted and joins the revered wall of face painted faces.

Easter

What a great Easter. We made Easter Bunny cupcakes (Olivia's seemed to suffer from a touch of calesi (?) virus or mixamtosis (?!)). The weather was pretty good and the roads quiet. Nana and Grandad were up from Te Puke and it was like having no kids!

On Easter Sunday, Olivia and I went to church with Granny Di, then it was home for the annual Easter Egg Hunt and Egg and Spoon Race. Ross had mowed the lawn with racing lanes. And last year's title was snactched from Grandad by Dad, even though Olivia was convinced she won. No love lost for little kids in that race! Too much chocolate, lots of lazing around - just right. Angus was moved on to a bottle, and even tried a spoonful of pumpkin mash mixed with baby cereal.

The Christening

Here are some photos from Angus' Christening and a trip to the zoo recently. Godparents are Gael and Suresh Nagaiya, Russell McLeod and Arabella Brawn.

A Star is Born

This morning Olivia started ballet - she loved it!

Summer Holidays

After Christmas in Palmerston North, a quick trip to Te Puke for Ross' Birthday. Olivia, Angus and I headed to Waiheke with my mother. The idea was to do as little as possible and to try and get Angus a little more settled. The Moates came to visit for two days, and Olivia was thrilled to get some company. Ross came over on the weekends. The weather was great, we got out for two lunches, a few trips to the library and park, a visit to Planet Ceramic to paint mugs and plates, plenty of trips to the beach, and out to dinner for my birthday. On 1st Feb Angus rolled on to his tummy (13 weeks old). We had a great time, and when I got home after two and a half weeks, I couldn't remember where things were supposed to go in the kitchen cupboards, and I thought Ollie was my Mum's cat every time he walked past.