Officially Spring!

It’s officially Spring – or so I read in the newspaper today. The weather was beautiful this weekend and we treasured every moment. It’s been a rough winter with news reports saying it’s been the wettest on record. After a magnificent six month’s of summer, this winter has been hard on everyone. I reckon treatment for depression and ‘S.A.D.’ must be on the ‘up’! On a personal level I’ve found it hard and long (though in reality it’s only been a few month’s). I’m missing my family in the UK so much and wish the distance wasn’t so far (and the increasing cost of air-travel not so prohibitive). But, on a lighter note, we have had yet another great weekend (with a good ‘ole children’s Birthday party thrown in for good measure on Saturday!).

We feel so close as a family unit and our weekends are always non-stop from the moment we wake. This morning the girls decided it was ‘Father’s Day’ (though it’s actually next weekend in NZ) and cuddled up in bed giving Dan some cards they’d secretly made. Dan was quite chuffed and said he’s looking forward to a repeat performance next Sunday! Charli had even sneaked downstairs and laid out all the breakfast bowls.

After a few family cuddles and games of rolling out of bed (with SJ and Charli taking it in turns to sing… ‘There were four in the bed and the little one said…’) at 7am this morning (family life is wonderful hey!) we pulled ourselves up from the floor (bruises and all!) for breakfast.

In between all the fun and games there’s always the regular chores to do and somehow Dan and I manage to complete them without any need to actually ‘organise’ it. We know instinctively when one of us has the girls happily entertained and the other is freed up to do the errands. We both enjoy taking it in turns to play and ‘taking a break’ to do some errands where we are free to be in our own ‘head space’.

And then it’s back to playing pirates, fairies or schools…! Or even better – they run off to play their own little game and give us a chance to grab a cuddle and some couple time!

The following photograph was taken at a friend’s Birthday party (where Fairy Trina worked her magic again!). We had such a fabulous time, with most of the families being from our local area, with children at Charli’s school or younger ones SJ’s age. The party was held at the local ‘Playcentre‘ which is such a magic place with such a positive vibe:

Today, we planned to take SJ for a horse ride. We phoned up to book a horse and she asked for ‘Panda’. We have known for a few week’s that Panda has passed away, but hadn’t actually broken the news to SJ. She has been happy to ride other horses and we thought she’d forgotten about Panda – but nooooooo. We had to break the sad news to her today and she was heartbroken. She cried with full, genuine grief and emotion – we were absolutely blown away by her depth of feeling. She tried to pull herself together and be brave, saying Panda will be with Simba (our recently departed family cat) and Great Grandma (who passed in May last year); but she was so sad with so many questions. We didn’t think we’d be having such a deep conversation with her at such a young age (nearly three), but she is a very bright young lady.

Questions, Questions… as Charli’s school poem book reads…

Anyway, we finally managed to get out the door and off to Charli’s swim lesson before visiting the stables. We enjoyed a fun drive through the countryside of Makara with the girls loving sheep, cow and horsey spotting!

As always, we had much fun and a beautiful time with the horses (and some fun on the slide over the stream too!).

We are so lucky to have each other and enjoy so many delights on our doorstep. But I think we’d make the most of whatever we had, wherever we are. With children life is so simple. They play in the moment, they feel the present; a dewdrop, a butterfly, a cloud in the sky. It’s wonderful to share their world. They teach us so much about ourselves. As a taxi driver I met recently said, ‘You don’t need to travel the world to learn about life when you have children – they teach you all you need to know about yourself, sometimes more than you want to know!’.