Our week so far….

The younger four and I headed off to Nelson on Monday morning around 8:30am.
Quite a civilised time to leave really but we left poor Tim with an almighty mess to clean up!

We had a few extra hours up our sleeves cuz of the music lessons being cancelled.
So we zipped around and did what jobs we could and then headed Stoke way to drop of the kids computer. It’s CD drive had died and our friendly techie Pete managed to locate another for us
As it is hard to get iMac’s that run OS-9 that all the children educational cd-roms are geared for it is quite important to try and keep this one going for a few more years yet.

Then we went out and visited Craig to see his birds.
It was a great visit, he has blue Indian Ringnecks, Barrabands, & Alexandrines plus cockatiels and budgies.
Shanni has decided she would like to wait for his Barraband to hatch the eggs it is sitting on at the moment and then she will hand rear one once it gets it’s first fledgling feathers. She is quite excited about it and Craig is very helpful so we will have a good coach.

We then had some time up our sleeves so we went out to MacMillan’s Pottery.
I had been promising Azzan that he could paint himself a new plate since his baby plate had finally broken.
So we all painted plates – it was fun.

Azzan was just too much of a perfectionist though and wanted to do his like ‘that one over there’ – one very expensive, professionally painted art piece-!!

He was finally happy to make a coloured pizza plate.
There are so many layers of paint under it, it will be interesting to see it once it is glazed.

This is all the plates with their before look.
We should be able to pick them up in the next few days so then I will show you the after look – the colours are very vibrant once they are glazed.

We then hurried back into town to meet Nuana at Starbucks.
She is up from Te Anau for a few days so it was cool to catch up with her.
Rachel arrived with her 2 wee ones too.
So we had a lovely visiting time while Rachel measured the children for their wedding clothes.
Nathan kept her active young Jesse (6) busy while we were sorting all of the requirements.

Nuana then took the 4 children to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.
I had a physio appointment and then a trip to the gym.
Then I got Chinese take aways and made a quick trip around the supermarket for some breakfast food.

Shanni had her camera at the beach so I sifted out a few of the photos to show you the fun they had – there were many dozen photos-!!

They loved the vast expanse of sand and spent ages building sandcastles and moots…..

Nathan – pondered things from a distance.

Then they got loose in the playground

Azzan thinking maybe he was Jonah and looking for a way out

By the time I got back to the motel it was after 7pm and they were like hungry lions.
So we enjoyed a yummy dinner and I popped them to bed.
Nathan couldn’t find anything interesting on the TV so he trundled off to bed too.
Nuana & I chatted for a while before she had to go home.

Tuesday

We were all up bright and breezy, got the motel cleaned up and packed the Safari.
We had 6 appointments between 9:30am and 1:30pm.
Some of them crossed over so I was doing a juggling act.
I was able to pick up some things for Tim and have my blood test done on the way.
Then I dropped Nathan and his book at the dentist so he could wait for his 10am appt.
I then zipped Hali up to the Dr for her 9:30am appt.
Then it was back to drop her off at the dentist for her 10:30am session while I then zoomed down to Shanni’s 10:15 appt with the ophthalmologist.
Then back to collect M&N and up to ‘Deville’ at 11am to meet Ella and the twins for a quick lunch.
It’s a great place to take children as it is fenced all around with a locking gate – wonderful for two busy wee twins
Shanni walked down to her midday appt at the dentist while I picked up bulbs at the lighting shop. Then got Azzan to the dentist for his 12:30am appt.

We were all finished well before 1pm – felt great to get everything done and not feel at all stressed about it.

I was about to leave town when I realised Shanni had a present for Kathryn so we side tracked up there for 2 mins.
We had a lot of fun admiring Grace’s Alexandrine parrot – it just sits on her shoulder, and is so friendly and talkative.
Funnily enough we realised we are getting Shanni’s Barraband from the same person as Grace got her parrot.
An hour later we left town with the children saying ‘we thought you said we would only be there for 2 mins!’

We called in to my sister’s to pick up a wetsuit and found she was having a big clean out in Ruby’s room.
The girls found lots of little girls treasures – when they went back to the Safari with them Azzan was out of the car faster than a scolded dingo!
He wasn’t going to be left out of the treasure hunt-!!

Got through to Blenheim around 4:30pm. Was going to get takeaways but while dropping off the library books we went past the Top Spot restaurant.
I used to work there back in the dark ages – 1973&4 to be precise
So Nathan & I made a fast decision, shot back to Granny’s, I had a shower while the children put on the glad rags and we headed off for dinner out.
The children loved their meals.
It is a very basic menu – nothing of the new fancy sorta stuff – still very 1970’s food and still pretty much almost at 1970’s prices!

We had time plenty of time to get to the theatre.
It was really funny and soooooo different from the previous experience of CATS for the children.
This time we walked in and were greeted by a ‘cat’ purring around us and smooching up to the children – Azzan was particularly favoured by the smooches which he happily responded too

Then while we waited for the show to begin there were several ‘cats’ moving around through the audience.
I was kicking myself I hadn’t taken my camera.
I got this wee pic of Bombalurina smooching up to Hali & Azzan

At half time the ‘cats’ were wandering amongst the audience again – this time they were being much more cheeky. They were stealing handbags, licking ice creams, and having cat fights in the aisles.

Apart from a few wee glitches with the sound at teh beginning the show was excellent.
The children really loved it.
Even Nathan conceded that ‘it was quite a nice show.’

Azzan LOVED it and took the programme to bed with him

Wednesday

I was up and down to the gym before anyone was awake.
Got back at 8am and got stuck into stripping beds and getting the children dressed and packed.
We pretty much blobbed out for the rest of the morning.
I tried to do some Photomax work on Mum’s computer but spent a very frustrating hour and got absolutely nowhere, in fact lost all the work I had done. I guess there is something wrong with her computer as it just would not co-operate.

So I loaded the children into the Safari and headed off to the library.
I spent an hour on the library computer and got heaps done – could’ve done more but the children had chosen their books are were all ready to leave.
So we ducked into Noel Leeming to get Nathan some ear phones and then to the Railway Station to pick up Julie from France.

We had time to have a quick lunch at Springlands Cafe and then collected Mum, dropped Julie at the Cyber Cafe, then the 4 children at Pat’s and then I took Mum to the hospital for her specialist appointment.
Despite being told by several others waiting that the Drs were running an hour or so behind Mum’s appointment was on time. It all went well and we were soon down the road again to collect the kids.
They were having a ball and didn’t want to leave.

Went back and packed up the Safari – not a lot of room once we had loaded all 6 of us in plus all the gear.
Then I shot into the supermarket as we left town and got a few necessities which meant Poor Hali was well and truly sandwiched in the back seat.

We stopped at Okiwi Bay and had a picnic tea while the children let off steam on the playground.
It was low fog along the tops but it didn’t slow us down much and we were home soon after 8pm.

I was sitting at the table chatting with Julie while the children were getting themselves sorted and ready for bed.
Azzan had the old brick of a cell phone he had gotten from Aunty Ruth.
He came and told me he had been talking to Mary.
I was quite surprised.
He had an imaginery friend who was extremely real to him for a long time but he hadn’t spoken of her in well over a year.
I had forgotten where it was she came from so asked him – it was Majorca – silly me to forget that important piece of information.
He told me she was living in Spain now and was getting married.

Azzan came back to me a few moments later looking very sad.
He said that Mary’s husband had died.
I asked him of what?
He said he had been ‘drinking drugs’.

He sadly wandered off up the hall and then turned around and said that he was very worried about Mary cuz he thought she might die too.
I said to him that she was far too bright to do drugs but he said it was because she had been trying to stop her husband from drinking drugs.

Thankfully today the conversation seems to be forgotten.
I am figuring that little people have far bigger ears than we give them credit for!

Today is Thursday and we have had a busy morning.

Julie has helped clean the children’s rooms, vacuumed the house all through and I have put out about 4 huge loads of washing. I just got them all in a moment ago as it was beginning to rain, so am finishing them off in the dryer.

The children have gotten their rooms back into tidy order again and dinner is being prepared.
Tim has been busy doing mussel floats and getting his boat back into the water after it’s survey on Monday.

So now it is raining – in fact it is pouring down – I think we might just blob for a few hours and find a movie to watch.