A Forecast to Smile About

After the deluge of rain that drenched Wellington on Thursday we were so delighted to see the sunshine on Friday. What’s more the forecast for the whole week is SUN, SUN, SUN! Now that’s something to SMILE about, especially on the school holidays!

I’d pre-booked to take the girls to a craft activity in the Wellington Botanical Garden with the wonderful, multi-talented, Fifi Colston, as part of the Spring Festival.

With the weather on our side I woke feeling positive about the day and got the troops out the door early, so we could enjoy a quick visit to Mojo with Daddy before he headed into the office. After coffee and date scones (I’d already had two weet-bix and a yoghurt for breakfast, but I’m a breastfeeding Mumma and my lass has her fill of night feeds still…) we drove round to the Botanical Garden.

Alice drifted off to sleep on the way there, but she happily transferred to the Mei Tai and snuggled into me. We had an hour to play before the craft activity at ‘The Treehouse’ (where I used to work, many moons ago, for WWF-New Zealand). We danced through the tulips to the ‘Wetland’ Walkway, fed the ducks and played hide-n-seek.

The craft activity was wonderful. The girls enjoyed making delightful plant pot holders, using colourful paper plates (sourced from the wonderful Pete’s Emporium in Porirua, which is well reviewed here and here; must get myself there for a craft buy-up!). They planted daisy seeds and came away with a packet to sprinkle in the garden too. They were so delighted with their efforts and can’t wait to see their little seeds sprout and flower.

With the sun beaming and it being Friday I thought, ‘Let’s phone Daddy and see if he can meet for lunch!’. Our luck was in! We headed down to Oriental Parade and entertained ourselves at the beach and playground, whilst waiting for DaddyO to finish up in a meeting so that we could check out the new ‘Parade Cafe‘, recently relocated to The Tug Boat.

We were in for a treat, with the new location being just as welcoming as the old Parade Cafe, but with the added ‘wow’ factor of being on a floating Tug Boat, with outdoor seating, beautiful designed interiors and the same high quality smoothies, coffees and big breakfasts, as well as a range of other food. A most relaxing venue, friendly staff and great food that arrived at our table within 15 minutes of ordering.

After lunch we said farewell to DaddyO (nicking his scooter and leaving him to jog around the harbour to his weekly game of indoor-soccer – on a full belly of pancakes and bacon). We headed home, making a quick stop at The Children’s Bookstore in Kilbirnie for some Birthday presents.

The afternoon was glorious. The girls played out in the garden, running under the sprinkler, dipping in the paddling pool, having great fun.

DaddyO had a ‘pass out’ due to working into the small hours numerous evenings this week, what with all the GST increases, and enjoyed a few well deserved beers at the office with his YouDo team.

The girls were good as gold going to sleep for me. Charlotte sang herself off to sleepy slumbers by 8.30pm. Alice conked out in my arms, whilst I was reading to Sophie, who quickly drifted off around 8pm.

And my Friday evening was spent in p-jays, drinking milk, twittering on my iPhone in bed. I was asleep by 9.30pm. Party days are over for the moment, whilst I cherish Alice. I’m being very zen and simply living in the moment, embracing this moment of babyhood. I know full well that I’ll look back on this time and it will be seem to have passed so quickly. So, the theatre and fine dining can wait. For now I’m smiling at my baby, enjoying my children whilst they are young, and basking in the sunshine when it blesses our home.

And with the NEW LOOK, FABULOUS, Kiwi Mummy Blogs website I have plenty of lovely blogs to read and other Mums to twitter with – all from the comfort of my home.