A short week to get back in the groove

Thanks to Monday being a public holiday in honour of the Queen’s Official Birthday, we’ve had a short week to get back in the groove after our action-packed holiday. Our flight back was a breeze, with Alice sleeping throughout, Sophie enjoying a window seat and Charlotte wowing a fellow passenger with Daddy’s iPad! We left behind a rainy day in Auckland, briefly saw the sun as we climbed above the clouds, and then descended into rain and cold southerlies in Wellington.

Diary for the week…

Monday

A sad farewell to Rachel, Craig and Myles as they move north to the Hibiscus Coast, north of Auckland, after a visit to the UK first.

We hoped to brunch at the recently reopened Maranui Cafe on Lyall Bay – but a line of people snaking down the stairs and out the door put an end to that idea. We ended up enjoying a fabulous brunch at the also popular Elements Cafe, just around the corner, where the service was quick and the food delicious.

Tuesday

09:18
So grateful hubbie could do the school and kindi run today and is working from home (so Sky man can install Sky for World Cup!). No need for little Alice and I to leave the warmth of home all day – just as well since actual temperature is 5.7 and in Wellington that feels like 0°C : 6 layers of clothing recommended by Met Service! Brrrrr! Coffee time 🙂

15:01
Today is not the time for the under-floor heating not to be working! Man’s coming later and hopefully he can fix it soon! Brrrrr! Rugged up in the lounge with the heater on and just taken fresh scones out the oven, mmmmm x

Frances braving the elements to take Sophie to ballet class, whilst Charlotte rugs up to do her homework.

18:00
Man didn’t come 🙁 will have to make do with plug-in heaters, thankfully our home is well insulated.

Sleet and hail! Brrr! Winter’s grip tightens – By Dave Burgess – The Dominion Post

Wednesday

10:53
Waiting for Alice’s immunizations 🙁 had a nice browse in Borders before though and couldn’t resist some World Cup reading for my junior fans!

Found a fiction book by Michele Cox (a New Zealander she won 2 Cup Finals with a top German team and is a member of FIFA), called ‘Way to go Sammy’. The book is aimed at 4-9 yr olds and is a great read about playing about the importance of playing as a team – perfect for our Little Miss 4, who loves to kick a ball around with her Daddy and is keen to join ‘Little Dribblers’. Also got a fab FIFA World Cup junior fact file. Dan has happily volunteered to look after Alice, should she awake, at certain hours in the night that coincide with football games.

13:20
Yes, yes, yes! The sun is back! Just picked Sophie up from Kindi and the Kaikouras are laden with fresh snow. Beautiful blue sky, rolling waves and oh, how I love the rugged South Coast. Magic is in the air today! Sun, sun, sun, oh how I LOVE you! x

Counting down to World Cup. Sky installed. Children revved up – have to go to school in their fav team’s colours on Friday. All Whites! England!

14:40
Walking up to school to pick up Charlotte. Sophie so happy to be out and about in the sunshine and Alice sleeping happily in the front-pack. She is zonked after her immunisations, but seems okay otherwise.

17:00
Alice only just woken up. Hope she sleeps okay tonight; poor love a little out of sorts.

Thursday

10:00
2 children dropped off, 1 hubbie dropped off (after a swift coffee together at Mojo), now home Alice & I go to clear the decks. Just got to transfer a sweet sleeping baby Alice from my arms, in a warm cafe, to the car seat… please stay sleeping, shhhhhhhhhhh little one

16:21
Flitting between making play dough, dribbling a ball down the hall with Miss 4, building a desk for Miss 4 and feeding, changing, amusing, getting to sleep Alice. Charlotte at dancing (thanks Frances). Thinking must put away laundry, draw curtains, think about dinner and go toilet before I pee my pants!

17:00
Heating man here. Fixed one part, but someone else needs to come to fix the gas ignition… at least the weather’s a bit warmer than earlier in the week!

18:30
Soooo tired tonight. Thinking, ‘Will a drink lift my mood?’. Knowing a drink isn’t really the answer, but I’ll take it anyway. Dark chocolate too.

19:51
Ah, thinking, ‘I like the way my cheeks glow after a glass of wine.’

Storytime at Chez Lee, some traditional, others on the iPad (just finished Roald Dahl’s, ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine‘). Alice happy with Twinkle, Twinkle. Sophie’s started the first of the Sophie series by Dick King-Smith (thanks Hay for the recommendation and love your new blog – Prologue to Epilogue x). The fictional Sophie sounds very similar to our own Little Miss 4 – ‘small and very determined, who wants to be a farmer’.

Friday

04:21
Reading ‘The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button‘ on my iPhone, whilst trying to feed 4 mnth old wakeful Alice back to sleep…

9:00
Charlotte dropped off at school wearing red and white in support of England. All the Lee girls, even Alice, sporting red with a dash of white today.

10:00
What a great way to start the day! Sunshine and a farewell coffee with a friend (of crafty cleverness) at Parade Cafe, on Oriental Parade, as her husband’s work calls her away to the UK for a few years 🙁 Ah well, Facebook chats over coffee shall have to suffice x

Sophie skipped Kindi this morning, as ‘feeling tired’ (you wouldn’t know it!). We had a nice walk, with Alice taking a nap in the front-pack, before heading home for a quiet ‘avo.

Sophie also had a fun time taking photographs of herself and her shadow – inspired by the ‘Kids Click’ theme for this fortnight – ‘This is Me‘.

15:30
Charlotte chills at home with Frances whilst Alice, Sophie and I head down to Lyall Bay to pick up fish ‘n’ chips for dinner. Sophie burns off yet more of her unstoppable energy biking up and down the pavement a zillion times.

Thankful for the sun today, as I didn’t get much sleep last night.

Friday evening and Dan enjoyed a few switch off beers, whilst Charlotte & Sophie happily play schools. I take myself off to bed with Alice on the futon, with an ear out for any dramas. Dan home at 7.30pm and we’re all chilled for the weekend.