Oh Christmas Tree!

What a great weekend, if this is the start of summer its going to be a good one!
A new tree was welcomed into the family...the 3 foot one we had last year was at risk of being tackled by Hector. This one intimidates him a little more hopefully. How cool are LED lights, none of that dissapointment of the whole string being out because of one blown bulb.

Lumberjacks

The tress got a big haircut on Friday. We had four arborists here working like crazy!



Before during and after



Was an easy morning of entertainment.................

Phoenix Trading for Christmas!

My card display did me proud last night. We had a Christmas shopping night at Highbury House where Hector goes to creche. It's amazing how a glass of wine at the door pulls in the crowd. It was a wet and windy evening too so we were lucky to get such a good turn out. The fun part was titivating my stall.

The House was packed with entrepreneurial mum's showing off their goods.

Black Tie...(and cream jacket!)

We attended the Moore's annual Christmas party last night.

Was a big night for us...not feeling so chipper today.

But the drama of the missing dress was soon forgotten once the daiquiri's were being served.

I actually drove home so just the one for me.

Just as well, the harbour bridge was closed for a full check point.

It was all hanging out when we got home in the wee small hours....high heels have a limited attention span!

Afternoon Tea

Looks like Hector's learnt the art of self administering his afternoon tea. I was presented with this scene after hearing a crunching from downstairs!

How does your garden grow?

We made a discovery today... one that made a face like this turn into a face like this!

You fill an old squirty bottle full of water and let them go for it!

And the garden seems to like it!

Whitebaiting

Half way through our 5 hour journey down to the Awakino Gorge (amongst Friday afternoon traffic) I wondered why on earth do we mission all this way for a single weekend......... then I got this photo and I'd answered my own question.

We spent Saturday on the banks of the Mokau river willing the tiniest little fish into our net. 19 whitebait. That's it.

But we found other things to do in between checking our net...

The leftovers (fresh water shrimp and the bigger less desirable whitebait) made a lovely afternoon tea for the chooks.

Childhood memories came flooding back when we fed 'Floss'. This little lamb has got one powerful suck. Hector couldn't really manage holding onto the bottle for more than a few gulps.

I was hoping this would look way steeper than it does here because I had my heart pounding out of my chest when I got to the top.

Patriotic Hector

We're going through a bit of a plaster stage at the moment and this was too good not to capture! How cute are those solid little legs poking out the bottom of his start and stripes togs...plus the yank plasters!

Smith's Bush

We had a nature outing to Smith's Bush this morning. Hector and Rocco were delighted to see one another after almost a week apart! Unheardof! It's a boardwalk the whole way around and surprisingly really unlike the typical New Zealand bush.

Hector had an adventure up this huge tree. Very brave! Probably should not have left him hanging there just to take a photo, but check it out - so worth it!

And this is where the real fun started..........

Why do we buy toys for our children?

End result was very messy and requiring some serious laundry attention but we had two very happily worn out boys.

...puddle puddle puddle...