Ashore thing.

 

Abraham is working on a very exciting project at the moment, and it involves us doing cool stuff as a family - pretty much the best plan ever.
This past weekend, it involved an afternoon visit to the beach. The boys had a fabulous time running about the place, completing the activity (all a little bit hush hush, but more will be revealed in good time..) and finding beachy treasures.
I took along my zoom lens and had a great time mucking around with my camera.
And the trip ended with a big ice cream. Can't beat that! A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

A great way to spend a birthday afternoon too. I hope the birthday boy agreed.
(Happy birthday, Abraham! Love you!)

(Don't you just love Otto's 'dog' in the last picture? He dragged it along for ages, stopping to pat him and inviting us to give him a pat, too! Love the imagination at this age.)

Lately.

My memory card seems to be full of little snippets at the moment. A photo here, a photo there. Things are so busy that I only manage to snap one or two shots of each activity. Sooo, a wrap up post it is!

On New Years Eve we were lucky enough to meet our new nephew.
Baby Liam was born two months ago, but lives in Auckland, so we were yet to get any snuggles.
I am happy to report, that he is just as delicious in the flesh as he looked in photos. He has the perfect wee 'old soul' frown, and is one of those good, solid bubs who are perfect for smooching. Mollie was quite taken with him, too.
We had a lovely evening with his parents and older brother, too. Love those guys!

Otto's new alter-ego 'Denty'. Picture says it all, really.

So, so much delicious food being eaten around here. Entirely too much of it, but soooo good. It has been bbq mania, as Summer always it. I love the social aspects of barbeques - nothing better than sitting round a table with loved friends or family and, somehow, this seems to happen far more often for us over Summer.

Even Mollie has had a few mouthfuls of food this past week! Not much, mind, but it is a start.
The funny little lady is still not really interested in actual food, but it would appear she is quite fond of sucking potato chips, crackers and Vegemite toast.
(It would appear my parenting ideals are slipping too, the boys didn't have salt at all before the age of one! Heck, Aesop was organic 'til his first birthday - good ole third baby...)

In keeping with our ' quality over quantity' resolution, not many things have entered our house in the past week. The few things that have, have been pretty neat.
The 'Mother' trio was a Sallies find. $5! Who could turn that down? I sorted out my china cabinet to make space for it.
The stereo was a big purchase.
After staying at Rachelle and Mark's place over Christmas, we were determined that we, also, would have a cool stereo. So we just flat out copied, and got one the same (different colour though, that counts for something, aye? hah). Since taking this photo, the turntable has been popped on top, and we have already listened to hours of great music. I'm in love!

I'm not a beach fan, but the rest of the family are.
And well, yesterday was so hot that I gave in and we all ventured over the hill. The water was quite rough, but Aesop ventured out into the waves with his trusty boogie board. Abraham followed, while I stayed by the stream with the littlies.
Mollie had her first play in the sand, and wee dip in the water - She was underwhelmed. Hah. Might be a bit little yet to get overly excited about such things.

What have you been up to?

Oh, Ohiwa!

This past weekend was spent at one of my favourite places - Ohiwa.
We head to Ohiwa a few times a year to stay at the campground over there. Sometimes we tent, sometimes we get a cabin, but we always have the greatest time. I think it's because is just 40 minutes from home but it feels like a whole 'nother world.
This weekend we had a cabin, we deemed it too cold for camping and we were right! We hired a cabin and my Mum and Dad came along in their camper. I was so glad we did it this way because we had one fine day, and one day where it absolutely poured down.
Luckily, even in the rain, it is far more exciting to be there than it is to be at home! We borrowed a DVD player, and spent the afternoon watching Fantastic Mr Fox and eating ice creams from the shop.

On the Saturday, when the weather behaved, we spent a good chunk of time digging for crabs in the harbour. There's something so exciting about crabbing. The squelching of the mud, the thrill of the chase, the competition for the biggest nippers, and then watching them all burrow back into the ground when you release them at the end. I think I love it perhaps even more than the kids!

Aesop was pleased to find some kids he knew from school were over for the weekend too. They spent hours racing round on their bikes, kicking the ball around and exploring the campground and sand dunes. So cool to see my boys spending so much time outdoors - not being a outdoorsy person myself, I guess I don't really encourage a lot of outdoor play. I think that might need to be a goal these coming months - more outside adventures!

All in all, it was, as usual, a delicious weekend full of food, family and fun. So good.
Roll on Summer, especially if it means more weekends like this one!

The weekend that was.

Yesterday, Saturday, was such a glorious day that one might almost forget that it was Winter.
I hung out my fifteen thousand loads of washing (and even got some dry!), and we dropped the biggest boy off at a birthday party - seemed the perfect time to head to the beach.

There was plenty of shell sorting, treasure finding, and general beach-fun to be had.
We invited my parents along, and Dad and I snip-snapped photos of every movement with our new flash cameras. Haha. But really, it was the perfect opportunity to give my new camera a really good spin. It's going to take me awhile to really figure it out.

Abraham collected wood to make slingshots with the boys (and looked very spunky in his new sweatshirt he had printed!) and Otto hitched a ride with my Mum. We topped off the visit with a hot chocolate and ice creams, like all of the best beach visits.

We spent the evening sharing a glorious meal with my sister in law and her husband and baby girl. Delightful.

Today, Winter was back.
The rain and cold have set in again, making it the perfect day to sit on the couch and list big piles of things on Felt. 16 pairs of pants, 20 skirts and a few brooches and bits and pieces, to be precise! Phew! The shop is looking full once again, and it feels so nice.
Perhaps you'd care to check it out? It's over HERE.

I wonder what next week will bring.... a bit more sunshine would be lovely!

Christmas - Part one: The festivities & family time.

Our festive days were filled with food, family and fabulousness. I hope that yours were, too.

The weather has been very up and down, but I'll be back with a part two (the crafty part), as soon as the sun comes out long enough to take some photos. I've also got a new wee project to announce. Good times.
In the meantime, we're busy playing with our new toys, eating the leftovers (still!), and wishing there was more family around during the rest of the year! See you soon x

Beach weather.. finally.

The weather has been decidedly un-Summery the past few weeks. We've had a lot of rain (though not as much as some place, poor Nelson..) and most days have had a bit of a cloudy gloom to them.
This hasn't been such good timing because my sister has been home from London for the month, and was really hoping to work on her tan. Hah. Perhaps she is to blame for it all? Murphy's law and all that?
Either way, we were stoked to have a sunny afternoon this week, and spent it wandering down on the beach. The boys (and the non-pregnant adult) did a lot of running and jumping, looking for sticks, and wading in the shallows. I did a lot of waddling behind, with the camera. It was all followed up with an ice cream, and some bare-bum swinging, just the way it should be.

I'm pleased to announce that I finished all of my Christmas crafting late last week, and have all but finished the shopping, too. I have a few things left to wrap, and then I'm all set! Phew!
(Not mentioning the one gift that hasn't arrived on the courier.. hmm.. not impressed.)
In a bit of a last minute decision, we've decided to make presents for all of Abraham's side of the family that we'll see on the day, too. So I'm preparing myself for an evening of baking sweets tonight.
Wish my luck, and hopefully I'll have enough success to show you the results tomorrow!