It’s been a busy week getting used to school being back, Alice walking and enjoying the last week of Chinese Grandma & Granddad being with us (they fly home on Valentine’s Day). Thankfully Charlotte & Sophie have LOVED school this week (makes for a very happy Mama!) and we celebrated the end of the week […]
Lyall Bay
Our baby turtle & a shark sighting
It was a surreal day at Lyall Bay. The fog rolling in banked up on the horizon and engulfed the hills around the bay. News of a shark sighting only hours before added to the erie feeling. A fin had been spotted for a few seconds. The beach was closed for swimming, as a precaution, […]
4 Seasons: Riding the first wave of summer
Officially the first day of summer in New Zealand is 1 December. This past week summer has come early. Normally we have a fair bit of unsettled spring weather all the way up to Christmas, but not this year. Calm, sunny skies have made for some primo beach visits. For the first time ever Charlotte […]
LOVE ending a term with sunshine & a volcano!
Term 2 finished on a high note yesterday, with sunshine… … berry smoothies and a ride on the camel at Maranui in Lyall Bay… The car was loaded up with scooter, bike and roller blades and a ‘Violent Volcano‘ (see video at end of post! Thanks Chicken Grandma & Grandad – the volcano rocks!). Looking […]
School’s out and everyone’s at the beach!
Charli’s entire school, of 180 pupils, walked down to the beach on Friday morning. Sophie and I picked her up just after lunch, as we knew she’d be pretty tired. She had a great time; though found the walk there quite tiring – carrying her heavy back-pack (bless, she is only a pint size lass […]
Spring cleaning vibes are in the air
It’s been a week of sunshine and warm, winter temperatures of 15 to 18 degrees. Whilst Sophie has been at afternoon Kindi I’ve been busy tackling a list of jobs that I need to do in the house and garden. It’s great having a little extra time. With spring just over a month away, and […]
Big Swell in Lyall Bay
On Sunday ‘avo we took a walk along View Road, overlooking Lyall Bay, and were amazed at the incredibly high tide. We’ve never seen it as high. It was breaking over the sea wall and drenching people walking past. As we made our way down from the ridge to the bay we saw a family, […]
Winter Saturday
So much fun on one Winter Saturday… And in between the crazy balloon chasing, roller blading, soccer and swimming, there was painting, piano playing, games of connect four and dinosaur top trumps. Purrrrrfect!
Yoga workout with Sophie Jade
On location at Lyall Bay… Sophie Jade’s yoga workout (not for the faint hearted!). Thankfully, the superb Maranui Surf Cafe was close at hand. With every deep inhalation I was greeted to the delightful aroma of freshly ground coffee filtering from the windows, mmmmm, ommmmmm…. She’s still at it in the cafe… can’t sit still […]
Peapods and strawberries to lazy dayzs on the beach
Shortly after breakfast, with Sophie in her PJ’s, the girls teamed up and started moving their painting equipment out onto the driveway. When I asked what they were doing, they simply said, ‘Painting pea-pods!’. Here they are in action… I just love the way they are so creative and work so well together to come […]
One Happy School Girl!
The week before term-break didn’t really feel like Charli’s first week at school. It felt more like a ‘taster’ before a two-week break of reflection and wondering about the future. I had so many vivid dreams of my childhood and schooling, as well as a few strange ones of being within Charli’s body in her […]
Lyall Bay in Black and White
Saturday morning, prior to Dan’s weekly soccer game, was spent whiling away a couple of hours in the sunshine on Lyall Bay beach. Dan took these beautiful photographs. Simple pleasures. Playing in sand dunes, drawing in the sand, making sand sculptures, looking for mermaids and chasing seagulls. Dan won his game of soccer – must […]
Watching the Tide
Monday morning, Sophie and I spent a magic couple of ours really living in the moment at Lyall Bay Beach. Since then the rain has barely stopped all week. We spent this morning at the airport watching the comings and goings – I always love the body filling raft of emotions and excitement I feel […]
Highs and Lows of a day with preschoolers!
This morning was perfect in every way. The girls woke at 7am and were so enthused by the day – I love it when they wake up like that! Sophie was trying to serenade us on the piano, whilst Charlotte headed straight to the art-room (my laundry room) and conjured up one of her numerous […]