Home Again

The Mountain Again

Tom sent Mum this picture of Kate, Bradley and Grandad before they headed up the mountain. Kate is still talking about how wonderful her adventure to Wilkies Pools was.

Sammy

This is Sam and his friends enjoying breakfast in our lovely new kitchen.

Best Friends.

One day in the holidays we blew up the airbed. Kate and Sam were supposed to be having turns sleeping in it for a wee indoors camping adventure, however this is how they were found when Mum and Dad went to bed that night. They both slept really well too and were allowed to sleep in it together again the next night.

Lachie
Lachie's favourite things are his "Woo woo", "wrap wrap", plasters and all things Beatrix Potter. Woo woo, which is the supposedly the sound a dog makes, is a huge stuffed dog. He is very important and even had to be squashed into a bag for our christmas holiday up North.
Wrap wrap is the wrap Lachie was wrapped in as a baby, and luckily folds into a tiny, very transportable and washable bundle.
The best thing to give Lachie for a wee treat is two plasters. Woo woo is covered in them and Lachie often has them on his legs just because he especially enjoys putting them on all by himself.
Here he is cuddled up to the plastered Woo woo and with a wiggles plaster on his head, which unusually, was there for a genuine fall.
Lachie loved going to Kate's ballet concert at the end of last year. It was based on the tales of Beatrix Potter and sInce then he has watched the recording of this concert on dvd over and over again. He particularly loves any Beatrix Potter Books and takes them to bed every night. His favourite characters are "Peter hop hop" (Peter Rabbit), "Jermy flog" (Mr Jeremy Fisher), "Mima Pubble Ducky" (Jemime Puddle Duck), "Tom Titten" (Tom Kitten) and "Norty mice" (the tale of the two bad mice).

Mel, a friend of ours, is top of the pops. She has now given Lachie some Beatrix Potter pictures, which we put around his bed and some Beatrix Potter books to borrow too. They are a favourite. We can hear Lachie talking to the pictures and reading his "hop hop" books through his monitor at night. He is also wearing a pair of wiggles jammies from Mel's family in the picture above. So he is very spoilt. Thank you to the Lemin family.

Sunshine
We get very excited when there is sunshine at our place. We try to make the most of it, so one sunny day after school we headed to Queens park for a bike ride and a play.

On the way out Sam decided to stop for a rest on the park bench.
He still loves his Piping Hot hat Tom, though it has been renamed "Piping rain" due to the weather at kindy lately.
And whatever Sam does, Lachie will do too!

Our Cheeky Monkey
This is our big 2 year old boy modelling his lovely new tractor jersey.
(Note the plasters on his legs again)

Lachie is 2!

We celebrated Lachie's second birthday in Hawera.

Grandma came up from Palmerston North and brought Lachie, this cool wee sun shelter.

The kids ate their birthday lunch in it. Thanks Grandma!
Lachie had a amazing wiggles birthday cake! He absolutely loved blowing the candles out. Thanks you Nana for the cake and all those party preparations too. It was a lovely day.

Bradley, Sam and Jack had a go at blowing out the candles but they especially enjoyed having turn with Tom's IPad christmas toy

Highlights from Christmas continued

Grandma's house is perfect for riding bikes and after spending a few days on a running bike, Kate learnt to ride a bike without training wheels.

This was a big achievement for her and she was very proud of herself.The running bike was a hit with all the kids even though it took some getting used to.

Lachie stuck with Grandma's cool motor bike.

The esplanade in Palmerston North was a still favourite place to visit. Everybody loves the park, pool and train that are there.

We also took Grandma, and went to Taupo to visit with Aunty Faith, Uncle Hamish, James and Bruce. Taupo was a fanastic place to visit! The weather was stunning and the kids had their first swim in the lake. It was very refreshing! Lachie lasted the longest out in the deep.

What an adventure.

The AC baths were another big highlight. This is Kate whizzing down the grass water slide. Daddy and Uncle Hamish had a lot of fun on this too!

We had lovely picnic dinners outside our motel in the shade (it was far hotter inside).

The park in Taupo had something for everyone.

This is lovely smiley wee Bruce.

Sam and Kate particularly loved this enormous spiders web.

Both of them made it to the top sitting perch.

James and Kate enjoyed their hot chocolates at a cafe.

Back in Hawera, there were lots more adventures to be had.

We had a trip to Opunake beach although the highlight was definitly the pool and playground to be found there, rather than the sand and surf.

Bradley, Jack, Kate and Sam climbed to the top of the Hawera Water tower.

Lachie and Mum watched from below.

And Kate, Bradley, Tom, Uncle Si and Grandad climbed the mountain to Wilkies Pools. What a cool experience that was and it was definitley a highlight of Kate's christmas adventures.

Highlights from Christmas

Kate's first tooth fell out on the 17th December. It was VERY exciting! Even though Dad accidentally put it down the sink, a tiny part of it was rescued from the U bend and the tooth fairy still came. We left a note explaining about the accident for the fairy and she wrote back to Kate in teeny tiny writing with fairy dust all around it.

The kids decorated Nana and Grandad's beautiful christmas tree!

Lachie got a wiggles sleeping bag for christmas. Once he had opened this present, he wasn't interested in any further unwrapping and snuggled down on the floor with his two favourite things, his dog 'Woo woo' and his 'hop hop' dvd (which is Kate's Peter Rabbit ballet concert recording).

We stayed with Uncle David, Aunty Jaime and gorgeous wee Connor in Wellington! This was a lot of fun. We especially enjoyed our trip to Te Papa.

We had a lovely time staying with Grandma in Palmerston North too.