The Tuesday with Cubs

Hi,

The new Cub leader is fantastic!  He ran the activity last night and the Cubs all made baking soda rockets followed by match-head rockets in tinfoil.  Lots of explosions and matches - everyone loved it.  And Simon (new leader) did two "adult" rockets at the end.  The one with meths inside it was way cool!

Home to collapse into bed!

Toby has a speech coming up at school soon and seems to be a bit concerned about it.  So we're doing a lot of work on it this evening.

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend of awesomeness

Hi,

Bit busy so I'll have to fill you in later.  Mike flew back to Sydney this morning and Toby and I join him on Friday for the weekend!  Yay!

Might blog about the weekend tonight.
Have a great week.
Love,
Angela

Paua Hut for Guy Fawkes in 36 lines

What happens if you take a whole lot of comments from everyone on the trip and just mash them together?

Mike, Angela, Toby, Beth, Taylor, Carly, Christian, Constanze, Gustav, Moritz, Rowena, Erika, Mary, Rex, Tim, Max, Richard, Hamish, Nick, Marg, Iona, Charlie

There were so many favourite parts

my kids really enjoyed the river crossing,

fireworks

having left over pudding for breakfast

Everyone gathered round the bonfire

roasting marshmallows and damper

Fireworks display and sparklers

Sleeping in the tent

my kids being exhausted enough to sleep in a tent!!

Jelly beans

The company

kids being busy mucking around

having a blast building dams

playing “families”

counting bridges

singing songs (badly and loudly)

The swing

The scenery and weather

Gustav’s admiration of Taylor (who was playing very hard to get!)

Carly (2.5 yrs) walking almost all the way in and all the way out and announcing to those behind her “follow me mateys” in her best pirate voice

The kids all taking turns in the buggy racing over the midway bridge (fun with baby buggies!)

Watching the boys make the dam in the river

Everyone helping each other out with carrying gear, pushing (and carrying!!) the buggy, carrying kids over water

weather forecast coming true

I can bring my  3 year old next time

The fire, dam building and fireworks. I am fairly sure even some kids enjoyed it (not just the dads)

Sleeping in til 7.30!

The dinner and dessert – there was plenty and it tasted mighty good.

That all the kids seemed happy to be around anyone – I saw little of Hamish when we were walking, he had a great time walking up ahead at his own pace.

We had a great time, thanks all for a neat weekend

It was a constant cute-fest with pirate-Carly demanding I'M THE MATEY

I'm still stunned that Beth made it both there and back, with that buggy and didn't once collapse with exhaustion.

It was the first time I've ever seen bread baked on the end of a stick and over a fire.

I realised the true and never-ending power of jellybeans.

I also realised how a simple  game of 'Hide the Hat' could keep kids enthused for quite some time.

Basically, the weather rocked, the company rocked and my back held its temper.

The Thursday with Mike back

Hi,

If you count the fact that he touched down in Wellington 30 minutes  before midnight, then he got back on Thursday!  Yay!  Toby and I are very happy to have him back.

We drove in this morning because I have a meeting until 5:30pm and Mike has a meeting until 6pm!  Too tight for riding.  So I'll rush home to collect Toby and head out to see if I can get him some tramping boots for the weekend.  He has grown out of his current ones and they were very good.  I need some too but we shall see.  My old ones will do fine for this tramp.

So no swimming for Toby this weekend.  We're off to Paua Hut tomorrow morning.  Should be fun!

Have a great weekend.
Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with karate

Hi,

Having lunch in the suntrap with Andrew and Rex was more like sheltering in a raintrap yesterday.  Sally fled at the first wind-blown raindrops, but the rest of us tried to ignore it for as long as possible.  But eventually we too had to scurry for shelter.  It never amounted to much though.

Karate was ok - but we only did half of it before leaving to get some dinner into us.

This morning the wind has dropped and the skies are clear.  Nice morning for a ride.  Mike comes home at midnight tonight.  Let's hope we recognise him!  Heheheheh.

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with Cubs

Hi,

Tuesday was great fun.  If all Tuesdays went this well, it'd be marvellous.  I had lunch with Aidan and enjoyed chatting away about work (it's a shame for her -but she had lots of good advice for presenting to people so I took notes).

I went to the pub next door with Sophie and Matt (work colleagues) to watch the Melbourne Cup race.  Was my horse even in it?

The weather stayed dry (just - a few drops on my ride home) and Toby and I had a hearty dinner of toast before rushing off to Cubs.  We wandered around Karori Cemetery looking for things like the oldest person at death, the youngest person at death, the oldest date...  It was a lot of fun.  The rain stayed away.

Home to chat to Mike with Face Time (a bit quiet as we were almost asleep when he called).  And a good sleep.  Yay!

Rain this morning.  Can't see the tops of the hills.

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Monday with Halloween

Hi,

This is quite odd for me but Halloween is something Toby looks forward to all year.  He plans a costume ages out and his trick or treat route with meticulous care.

Last night I rode home fast and furious (it was so warm) and wandered around the streets of Wadestown looking like a fright - without any costume!  I know this because later when we Face Timed Mike, he said my hair was scary!  Toby's costume held up well and Toby got lots of candy loot.  Wadestown kids do Halloween quite a lot!

Today is All Saints Day.  That is fortunate because we're off to Karori Cemetery tonight for Cubs!  Cool!

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela