It feels like it should be a lovely day but in actual fact the weather is a bit ghastly.  Not too cold though!   Just northerlies blowing in sheets of rain.  Mike drove me home last night and I left my bike in the basement here.  So if the weather picks up, I can ride home!

 

Mum and Dad are sorting out their new house and getting it looking good.  Things are finding their place.   We even got dinner cooked last night for us so that was great!   I think they had reasons to come back to our house.  Long may that continue.   I think I have forgotten how to prepare evening meals!

 

I need my breakfast.   Let me go and find milk for my Weetbix – and a nice cup of tea.

The parents have all moved in – they were unsure whether they could stay there over the weekend but Toby asked immediately if he could sleep over.  So that convinced them.   Saturday was spent emptying many boxes and trying to find a place for everything.   Toby slept over on Saturday night and I think the Xbox has a lot to do with that.  Apparently he played until 10pm and then asked Gramps to come and turn it off as he was going to sleep!  So, he does have a limit.   It is just a very big limit!

 

Sunday was Father ’s Day and there were presents!  We also had Boston ’s party to go to in Kilbirnie – a wheels party.  We parked in the pool carpark and Toby scooted along with us as we went round to the recreation centre only to find a huge mesh gate in the driveway to stop trucks!  There were some child sized holes in the mesh but they were a little small for me to fit through.  Mike grabbed the chain to check it was locked then lifted the entire gate off its hinge on one side.  Toby gaped!   We hurried through then Mike picked the gate up and put it back on its hinge with me giggling away.   Toby was adamant we weren ’t returning that way!

 

The party was good.   We headed back to Ngaio for lunch and then back home to tidy up.   We got the washing done and I planted out the final plants from my birthday package!  Now I need a few more plants and we ’ll be ready to do some landscaping and get it all done.

 

Today was a lovely start to the day.  Mike has lunch duty at the side school and Toby is very pleased about that.

Wee Abby turns 3 today!   I can ’t believe how fast she is growing up!  Mum and Dad have bought the unit in Ngaio and their furniture turns up there this morning at about 8.30am!  Woo hoo!   They will have a busy weekend putting things in their place!  It is very exciting!

 

Weekend plans?   Well, Toby has a party on Sunday and it is Fathers Day so we ’ll be busy making breakfasts and giving sock presents!  Saturday is swimming and buying said presents!   Maybe Mum can come shopping with me to get it all done!

 

We also need to batt the back of the green room and put gib on.   Hopefully we can find time for that!

 

Ok.   Time to go get some teabags from upstairs!   No tea and little milk.   Insufferable conditions!

 

Mike and I have had a busy time at the conference in Auckland !  Now I have to get back into all the work piling up here.  Phew!   Mike is due back at about 1730 this evening (his plane should touch down around then) and he ’ll pick me up on the way home in his taxi!

 

Toby seems to have convinced after school care that he had a play date with Isaac yesterday and he was left at school.  I ’m not sure exactly what happened next, but I think Isaac ’s mother took him back inside and he must have ended up at After School Care anyway.  I will have to get to the bottom of that.  Mum says Isaac just rang after we left to walk to school, so maybe they want to arrange a real play date!  Poor Toby.   He ’s getting too social for his own good already!

 

I ’d better go and sort out some stuff.  A cup of tea might help out somewhat!

Mike had another migraine last night after we went to the Tabor household to collect wee Toby. But he seems to have suffered no lasting ill effects from this one – probably because he was quick taking some medication. This is the third in two weeks though! Toby enjoyed the Tabor excursion – he hasn ’t been up there for a wee while. They have had visits from relatives and we ’ve been busy too.


So we took the bus this morning. My back was sore once more yesterday after the ride in. So a day off is probably a good thing.

I have planted half the plants I got from the Lewises for my birthday! Will do the others at the weekend. I hope they thrive!

Weekend plans? Swimming, Ron Bichan ’s lunch, rugby at the stadium – and that is just Saturday. Sunday Mike and I are off to Auckland at midday. I stay till Wednesday evening and Mike is back Thursday evening.

Not too shabby a morning – I heard the tuis chortling in the trees this morning. A lovely way to wake up. Mike and I rode in together and left Toby fast asleep. Grandy and Gramps will walk him into school. Aidan T will collect him at 1500 and take him home for dinner! We went out to Jessica ’s birthday party last night so wee Toby had a late night – especially for a school night.


My parents are going to borrow the car today and drive to their new place. I ’m not exactly sure what they are up to over there. Settlement is still Sept 5 th . We have left the car out and pointing down the hill, so no need for a hill start straight off for Dad!

Ok. Time to make a huge dent in my work!

We had a marvellous time up at Mt Ruapehu. We left at 1730 on Friday but everyone (mainly Toby) wanted Maccas at Paraparaumu so that added a bit of time to our journey up there. We arrived quite late (2230 was it?) and crashed into bed with good intentions of getting up at 6am. We finally left the accommodation at 9 or so and Mike, Toby and I had fun at Turoa. The few runs I managed to get in were wonderful. Toby played a lot in the learners area and used his toboggan quite a bit but the main event involved lots of snowball fights.


Sunday we all drove up to Turoa but the high winds had closed the field. So we drove the long way (oops – I cannot navigate around the central North Island – it just confuses me no end) to Tokaanu and soaked in a hot pool for a while.

Monday we all went to Whakapapa and we set Toby back by trying to make him ski down from halfway because we had no idea Happy Valley existed – perfectly set up for doting grandparents to watch their learner grandson and ensconce themselves in a café. Now we know that exists, Whakapapa is the ski area of choice. Toby had a lesson on Monday and another one on Tues. His Monday lesson was with 8 other 5 year olds but Tuesday saw him the only young one in the lesson. So he got a one hour one-on-one lesson and can now turn with some prompting (point your pizza where you want to go – and he turns!).

Mum and Dad found the accommodation lacking. There was a strange incident with the chilly bin (the staff emptied the fridge in one wing and thought we ’d left and consumed the contents of our chilly bin) and the sound proofing is not great. Mike, Toby and I slept like logs though. But that might have something to do with skiing all day! They were pleased to see what skiing is all about and I think their overriding sense was why do we bother. Mike gave me lessons on skiing on Monday as we spent most of the day skiing together and I had an absolute ball! Mike kicked up his skiing to another level with these carving skis and he looked great. Now I have even further to try and ski as well as him!

Mike also tried out his new snowboard he bought in Tahoe. He says he has some work to do to get it to work well (more training on the bike and loads more hours on the board). I can ’t wait to head back up. There is so much snow! Maybe another long weekend mid Sept?

Ok. Time to see what I ’ve missed in the last two day here at work.