Weekend Bliss for us in Wellington

Such a great weekend. The rain held off on Saturday for our local school to hold its fair. Dan took Charlotte, Sophie & Alice along, whilst I stayed a home to make the most of the chance to thrash the carpet with our ear piercing vacuum cleaner. The cleaning wasn’t all bad though – I kind of like the rare chance to be in the house by myself and I was even inspired to write a poem to link up with this week’s Inspiration Weekly theme of ‘Air’.

Charlotte came back from the fair with a henna tattoo and a hilariously, fun, hula-hoop dress for Alice.

Sophie came back with her face painted beautifully and had also had a great time. Alice came home to tell me about the horses and the bouncy castle.

In the evening we went round to a friends house for a scrumptious BBQ (thank you Fiona & Paul!). I’ve known Fiona since I first arrived in New Zealand – back in 1997! We had a great time, enjoyed amazing food and all the children got on well (though our Sophie was her usual crazy, loud, energetic, mad self…!). She wanted to stay for a sleep-over – but there was no way (a sure fire way to never be invited back to a person’s house again – and the possible loss of two very good friends!). Anyway, we managed to get home around 8.30pm, after a few *little* fireworks (hint to Granddad with Charlotte’s latest ‘Riddle Mania’).

Alice had a lovely time too, once she’d woken up from a nap in the car on the way to their house. She thought their old fire place look a great spot to sit – she kind of looked like one of Santa’s helpers!

Sunday morning we woke to glorious sunshine. Dan took Sophie and Alice to the local playground, whilst I did a quick tidy up and enjoyed a rare, no-stress, child-free shower.

In the afternoon we went into town for the wonderful, Wellington Christmas Parade! There is no denying it folks… only SIX weeks to go (and we can’t WAIT to see ‘Chicken’ Grandma & Granddad – who crack us up on Skype with their ‘Play School’ like entertainment – in real life! They arrive 20 December! It will be the FIRST Christmas they will have spent with their Grandchildren!).

This year’s Christmas parade seemed much longer and better than ever before. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again and again, ‘Thank you Wellington City Council!’. We are so fortunate to live in such a fabulous, family-friendly city that puts on so much free entertainment for its residents and visitors. Charlotte & Sophie said they weren’t too bothered about seeing it, but decided to watch as Alice’s reaction would be cute. It turned out, we all loved it – young, old and in between 🙂 Alice woke up a quarter of the way in to see her favourite characters; ‘Spot’, the ‘Wot Wots’ and ‘Peter Rabbit’. She couldn’t believe her eyes!

My favourite is always the bands (and the cheerleading troops were pretty impressive too!). Dan loved the Star Wars float the best – with the funky DJ!

We took so many photographs, so I’ve streamed them together into a little movie for your entertainment (and for the girls to look back on… one day):

After the parade we went over to Midland Park, where the temptation of water play in the sunshine was too much for the crowds of children to resist (and too difficult for parents to say, ‘No’ too, hee, hee!).

We finally managed to draw their attention away, without Alice getting dunked and with fairly dry clothes. We went on to the waterfront, where Sophie was really keen to go rock climbing at Fergs. Charlotte joined in the fun too, whilst Alice and I hung around on the crash mats where no body else was… and tried a little free climbing (yes, my ‘Silent Sunday’ contribution was taken at the climbing wall – I have to admit I didn’t hang upside down for long… Dan was just very quick with the camera!).

After burning off some energy on the climbing wall we headed to Haitaitai for a meal at the lovely Nakhon Thai restaurant there (best Thai in Wellington, definitely!). The food was amazing (we’ve had a take away from there before), but Alice’s table manners need a lot of work… Alice, for future reference, ‘Chairs are not for climbing on, neither are tables, and the glass window should not be hammered with a spoon and fork. The wine is for Mummy, she doesn’t want lemon dunked in it – or noodles. Water should stay in the glass, not be emptied onto the plate for your amusement. Noodles are fun, but please try not to blow raspberries whilst sucking a noodle at the same time. Finally, keep your hands to yourself and leave what’s under Mummy’s blouse alone!).

Thankfully we arrived at opening time, when there were no other customers dining in the restaurant, and the manager was extremely friendly, understanding and good humoured! I think we’ll be getting a take away next time… until Alice can sit a little calmer, though she did enjoy the food (even if a lot went on the carpet, over Mummy and the table).

After dinner we got home and worked on winding down the girls for their fifth week of term four at school – only four weeks to go till they break up for their long summer holiday! Charlotte and Sophie’s version of ‘winding down’ was putting on their wetsuits and skidding down a giant water slide mat in the garden! Alice and I had a bath instead… it wasn’t too long before the big girls joined us! With the light evenings we’re all feeling ‘holiday’ time switching on and it’s hard to get the girls to bed early. Their body clocks naturally want to stay up later and sleep in longer come morning… which of course doesn’t work well with an 8.30am start time at school! Oh well, counting down….! Ding a ling!