Ahhhh Summertime.

 Happy new year, lovelies!

We're full into the swing of Summertime, over here. Beaches and pools are being swum in, Christmas presents are being played with (especially that big, bouncy one!), dinners are being eaten outdoors and general chaos is the norm at our place!
(Summer is not my favourite time of the year, but I'm doing my best to roll with it this year, I even donned togs the other day! Say whaaaa?!)

We had the coolest Christmas this year. We spent just over a week camping over at Ohiwa (about 40 minutes from home, nice and handy but juuuust far enough away to make it a real holiday!) with my parents. We had the most glorious weather, just a few wee spots of rain the whole time - just enough to keep the temperature reasonable, actually. We beached, crabbed, walked, blobbed, gifted, ate our body weight in treats, beached a bit more, walked a bit more and even caught the odd afternoon nap. So relaxed and lovely. I really enjoyed not stressing about traveling from family to family, or about getting the house tidy, or even really about preparing a fancy lunch. We ate the most delicious, simple bbq meal and it was just what we needed.
Can't wait to do it all again next Christmas.

I feel a bit like it has taken me 9 days to feel ready for it to be a new year, and a new start! Always need a wee break after a holiday with three kids. Hah. But yesterday morning I woke up feeling like it was a fresh year. I logged myself out of Facebook, for what I hope is going to be a really long break (crushing that addiction will make a HUGE change to my life... you can laugh, but FB addiction is some serious stuff!) and got stuck into my housework. I revised our budgets and I bought a new daily/monthly planner - I'm getting myself organised. 2014, BRING IT!

Check The List: #17 Go Camping.

Last weekend, we headed back over to our fave camping spot - Ohiwa Holiday Park.
We headed over after Abraham finished work on the Friday and my parents met us there, in their campervan. It was shaping up to be a lovely weekend already, and even the stress of putting the tent up for the second time ever (without the instructions that somehow disappeared..) didn't put a damper on things.

The nights were verrrrry testing of my happy-holiday mood, but the days were most lovely. The picture above, quite accurately, shows what my kids all did instead of sleep each night. One would think that running around all day in the fresh sea air would have them out like lights.. but, no. Mollie was even worse!

The days and evenings were filled with beach, bbq and beer. As all good holidays should be.
The boys quickly found a few mates (both ones they knew from home and some newbies) and we often didn't see them for hours at a time (this is less neglectful than it sounds, I promise.) it was quite delightful.

We managed to get out and do some crabbing, which is my personal favourite Ohiwa activity. There's something so enjoyable about the squelching mud and the thrill of the chase (and the dares to see who is brave enough to big up the big 'uns!). And then watching all of the crabs disappear back into the mud at the end. Mollie slept through the entire thing, but it was very cool to see Otto getting braver and braver.

That's not to say that Mollie didn't work on mastering more of her own tricks that weekend, though. Mol has finally taken a real liking to food - LOTS of it. We are doing baby led weaning, so the lass is eating much of what we eat. While we were packing up our campsite on the last morning, Mollie managed to get into a whole loaf of bread. We were, admittedly, so zonked (and needing two sets of hands to take down the tent..) that we let her go for it. It's so nice to see her really getting amongst it. (Fear not, she didn't actually eat a whole loaf of bread, just half a piece.. and soggied the rest of it. Hah)

So, another sucessful tick off the list. And another camping trip under our belt.
I must say that I hope camping gets easier as the kids get older... surely?
(I'll let you know next Summer.. we've already booked in for Christmas!)

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?

A Very Wellington Christmas.

We decided to do something a little different for Christmas this year. We had a bit of a talk, and decided that that kids really didn't need a whole swag more toys, or knick-knacks, to fill their rooms with, but that a super cool holiday would be a great gift for the whole family.
I put the question on Facebook: ' Where would be awesome for a family holiday?' and had a lot of really great suggestions - and a completely generous offer.
My dear sweet friend Rachelle, who I met through blogging and doing Craft 2.0 (many moons ago, when Aesop was tiny!) offered us her house in Wellington for a week over Christmas! She said they were close to town, had sky t.v, a trampoline and, most importantly, a suitcase of Lego. SOLD!

It was a bit of a mish getting organised (more so due to the craft market in Greytown the weekend beforehand..) and we were pretty gutted to be spending Christmas without any family around (Mum and Dad originally were going to join us, but couldn't..) but we were so excited to be heading off on a huge adventure.

The car trip down was what I was most nervous about, I think. Our kids had never done a long drive before, and I feared they would spend the entire time nagging and bickering. I packed bags for the boys, filled with activities (stickers, notebooks, pens, treat foods, magazines etc) and doled those out each half hour or so. They also had the PSP and Ipod to play on in short bursts, and plenty of healthy snacks to munch on.
You know what? They were AMAZING. I don't think there was a single whinge the entire journey. We managed to only stop two or three times, for ice blocks and toilets, and the whole trip only took 8 hours. Score!

The home we stayed in was so beautiful. Rachelle and Mark have spectacular taste (I would have loved to have done a whole blogpost about the house, but sharing their home with the world wide web might be a small invasion of privacy! Hah). They were also kind enough to decorate a tree for us! What a treat.
The boys were so stoked to stay somewhere that was full to the brim of cool toys and to sleep in bunks 'just like at home', Aesop even asked if we could move in!
(Otto though, funny boy, missed home A LOT. Every morning when we asked him what he wanted to do that day, he would say 'Go home to Whakatane!' Such a homebody. )

Our Christmas day was a quiet one. We ate delicious food, the kids opened a few gifts (Carefully showing each one to Nana and Koro through the webcam!) and we spent a lot of time relaxing and playing.
Aesop received the boxed set of Harry Potter books he requested, and Otto got his PSP (Thank goodness Santa had some luck on Trademe!). Mollie was lucky enough to recieve a Dee*Luxe doll as her gift from Santa. She was nearly as stoked as I was. Heh.
We popped down to Te Papa in the afternoon, and wandered around the exhibitions. Who would have thought the museum would open on Christmas day? Pretty smart. I really recommend visiting on Christmas, if you're ever in Wellington. It was lovely and not nearly as busy as usual!

The rest of our week was spent doing wonderful, touristy things around the city. We popped back to Te Papa to seen the History of Gaming exhibition (Abraham and Aesop loved it - we soon realised it was not so suitable for under 5s, so the rest of us weren't so thrilled), we spent a day at Wellington Zoo, walked about Cuba Street, Visited the, very busy, Weta Cave and generally enjoyed ourselves.

I must note though, that Wellington is a very different place with three kids.
All of the things I imagined doing - eating sushi off a conveyor belt, shopping at Iko Iko, eating at cafes etc - were not suitable at all. It was very much more of a McDonalds on the run, and toys from the Warehouse sort of a holiday. Perhaps when the kids are older those things might be more realistic? I hope so!

The trip home went nearly as swimmingly as the trip there.
We stopped in at the Army Museum in Waiouru, which was fabulous.
Yes, even ole gun-hating Mama over here thought it was great. It's very well done, super informative and well, the perfect spot for a break in the trip. Highly recommend that place!
And we made it home just in time to pop the kids into bed and fall onto the couch in a heap. Three weekends in a row of long drives has meant we've had a tonne of fun, but now some, well-earned, relaxing time at home is in order.

Hope y'all had a lovely festive season, too xx