Whilst on a sunshine holiday, in the midst of New Zealand’s winter, we enjoyed a fantastic day-trip to Singapore Zoo, along with Chinese Grandma and Granddad, who flew in from the UK to meet us for a holiday. The Zoo is set in a rainforest (so take an umbrella!), though there are a vast array […]
It’s been a week of firsts here in Santa Barbara. First time for driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road; first purchase of a brand new car (a very nice 2014 Acura MDX) in America (serious paper work!), with the driver’s seat on the left hand side; first time dinging a rental vehicle three […]
⤠Loving the satisfaction of home baking. I was craving a biscuit, but didn’t have any to hand. I did have a couple of cups of flour, butter, an egg, sugar and a dash of vanilla essence… half an hour later… yummy biscuits with my cuppa! And once the baking bug has bitten, the hot […]
Autumn left its coat off and let summer take a spin on the weather chart today. After dropping Charlotte & Sophie at school, Alice and I played on the beach. I was quick to ditch my boots and tights for bare legs, so I could dip my toes in with Alice (plus she wanted to […]
You can come too, too, too… And you’ll see some amazing animals that will bring a tear to your eye at Auckland Zoo. Others will make you laugh, though the life of their mates in the wild is often far from a comedy. And some animals are definitely better off safely enclosed, especially cheeky ones […]
They have all the fun at Kindi. This morning was Sophie’s Kindi Christmas Party. They had an awesome spread of party food (we were on sausage roll duty, which meant taking them out the freezer to defrost at 7am and getting them in the oven ready for the party). The entertainment was provided by the […]
Thursday afternoon we spent at Wellington Zoo. With annual passes we visit at least once a fortnight and the girls are well known amongst the staff. We know the timing of all the animal feedings as well as the keepers and the girls were ecstatic to be able to feed the giraffes. The nocturnal house […]
It’s been a crazy few days of sunshine. We had a blast at ‘The Teddy Bear’s Picnic’ in the Botanical Gardens on Sunday (got some great video-clips, but no time to string it together tonight!). Charlotte loved singing along to the music and Sophie enjoyed wandering around the rose garden and riding on the ‘rocket’! […]
Summer nights and the girls are usually asleep around 9 o’clock. Thankfully, they sleep till nearly 9 in the morning, so hubbie’s been having to set the alarm clock for work – for the first time in nearly 5 years! We’re really loving the evenings and the stress free mornings. There’s such a sense of […]
With New Year’s Day and the day after being public holiday’s in New Zealand, Dan has taken off the few days between Christmas and New Year (only three!) and has a good week and a half off work all up! Yah! After the rainy Christmas Day the sun returned and the reason for the lack […]
It’s been a cracker of a weekend. One of those weekend’s where we got lots done on the domestic chore list, but didn’t feel like we were trying hard. We’re sitting here on Sunday evening feeling very chilled and happy (England winning against France certainly kicked the day off to a good start!). Dan’s tapping […]
Despite my previous post, today wasn’t all bad. The day started out with a couple of hours of mad fun at Little Monkeys (free entry all holidays!). Charlotte LOVED it and Sophie did too, but was a little perturbed at having to part with her shoes into a box behind a counter. She kept saying, […]
Returning home from morning Kindi, with Sophie drifting off to sleep, I had thoughts running through my mind of things to organise for Charlotte’s 4th Birthday tomorrow (and the party on Sunday). I was set on decorating boxes, tidying up the house and making sure Sophie got up to bed for a good nap. Charlotte […]
Wellington Zoo, the first Zoo in New Zealand, has just celebrated it’s 100th Birthday. Gone are the Chimp’s tea parties and elephant rides, steel cages are slowly being replaced with ‘open enclosures’ and the welfare of the animals and their psychological well-being is put ahead of all else. In the past ten years Family Lee […]