BIG news!!

Having left New Zealand 4 and a half years ago, with a firm commitment to go back we're finally doing it! And in less than 2 months too - eek!!

It's been quite an amazing few weeks that have got us to this point.  The whole process really started when Adam applied for a job with church offices in Solihull.  He got to the final stages and got an interview but didn't get the job.  He was really disappointed but it made him think to ask our friends in NZ if there were any jobs going at the Takapuna church offices.  Alan sent him some info on a job as the Pacific Area Project Manager, which he applied for thinking, yeah right! It was a bit of a long shot...  So he got through to the interview stage which was done via Skype and it went really well.  He got a second interview which went even better.  They said they'd let him know in a week.  When he hadn't heard by the end of that week we thought it was all over so he sent an email to ask if a decision had been made.  Almost immediately we got a phone call, and they told Adam he was down to the last 3 and they would let him know the final decision within 24 hours.  So the next evening a phone call came from New Zealand and our hearts jumped up into our throats... only to find they were calling to ask more questions and check his level of commitment.  Adam assured them once more that he was committed to making a career from this opportunity and was told they would let him know within 48 hours.  It was torture!  Luckily they called the next evening, didn't make us wait two more days, and offered him the job :)

So we're just getting past Christmas now, making the most of it before the manic stress and preparations to go begin.  Adam has to be there and ready to start the job on 24th January.

Leilani's 3rd, but my first nativity

This year I had the privilege to going to my first of Leilani's nativities.  Up until this year I've been working full time - it's now coming up to almost a full year since I quit.

They did "A Christmas Recipe".  They went through all the different ingredients needed for Christmas - stars, angels, snow, santa, the donkey etc and finishing with Jesus.  Leilani was one of the chefs taking us through the recipe and mixing it all together.

She loved it and whenever I caught her eye was trying very hard to stay focussed and not smile back at me!  She did a great job and I loved being able to go for the first time.

Christmas festivities

This was the last week of school for Leilani and she spent most of it doing fun Christmas things.  In fact I don't think they did any work at all this week!  She has been coming home everyday telling me they've been playing games and watching movies.  On Monday she had the annual trip to the cinema and then to Mr Chips for lunch.  And then on Friday she had her Christmas dinner.  She has loved every minute of it and especially likes being in charge of the countdown at home -we have a little blackboard that Mom gave us a few years ago that has "days til Christmas" written on it with a space to write in the days and Leilani's in charge of changing it each day.

It's taken Zach a couple of weeks to get his head around the idea that you only have one chocolate from your advent calendar a day...  We've also had some Christmas parties for Zach and Tilly.  First was the one at Sunbeams toddler group - the NCT group that Angie runs.  Except Angie turned up in the morning telling me Oakley had chicken pox so she helped get set up and then left me in charge of doing the party!  It was a little bit daunting at first because the first few people that came hadn't realised they needed to bring something to add to the food table and it looked like we weren't going to have much more than a couple of packs of chocolate buttons for each child.  But it worked out ok in the end - the late comers brought some more food and it worked out perfectly in fact, each child had a full plate of Christmas junk food and there weren't too many leftovers either.

At the Sunbeams party

On Friday we had the children's centre Christmas party with Santa and presents, bouncy castle and party food.  There was also a table of craft things to make party crowns, but my two weren't interested in that.  They spent most of the time on the bouncy castle.  Zach loved Santa but Tilly was scared of him.  Zach got really upset when Santa left because he didn't manage to get off the bouncy castle fast enough to shout goodbye to him.  SO I told him to shout it anyway because Santa was magic and could hear him anyway, so he did.

Last Saturday they had the primary Christmas party where they had a pantomime put on by the Burns' (who do shows for a living).  They loved it except the only food they got was a hotdog.  In the evening we had the branch activity, which Adam and I ended up doing at the last minute.  Originally Gail had been doing it, but Sandy fell over and badly injured her hip - at first they thought it might be broken; it's not but she can barely even move.  So Gail took on doing the primary one in the morning for her and also primary on Sunday the next day.  So on Friday we took on doing the evening branch activity.  It turned out really well - we had food to start with (with some contributions from people and a load we'd bought at Tesco whilst the kids had their primary party in the morning) and then once people had settled down from eating we did the activity and Mo and Gail took the kids to do some things.  With the adults, Ad and I alternated between rounds of quiz questions and Minute to Win it games (thanks Sara for the idea! She gave it to us for easy FHE games a few days earlier).  We did 5 questions on a theme for each quiz round eg pop culture from 2010, film and tv, Christmas etc. Then the minute to to win it games were fun quick little competitions to do in a minute eg keeping 3 balloons off the ground for a minute, blow bubbles to hit a target, eat a strawberry lace with no hands etc.   I was a little worried people might not want to do the silly games, but actually they did really well with them and everyone got stuck in and competitive.

Coping with the snow...

Just a quick catch up.

We've had the most snow at once that I can remember.  It started last Fri 26th Nov and snowed everyday since then for a full week, we even had a little bit yesterday (Sunday 5th Dec).  Some days was really heavy all day, some was light all day and some days it was on and off.  The heaviest was last Sunday when we had to finish church early to make sure everyone could get home from Grimsby - it snowed and settled about 6 inches within an hour.  At the deepest I think we had about 2 feet of fresh snow, which then got compacted and is now about 4 inches of thick ice.

Leilani and I decided to attempt a good sized igloo.  It turned into a 3 day project and still wasn't completely finished! (Photos soon) On the 4th day we'd planned to finish it, but decided to go sledging instead and that day must have been ever so slightly milder because when we got back our igloo roof was very saggy and we decided to terminate our grand design building project :)

Day 1

Day 2

Start of day 3 - minor collapse overnight...

end of day 3

Quite roomy inside!

Sledging instead of finishing igloo :)

Yesterday we went up to Kidgate School to help dig out the paths in and around the school so it could open again (it was closed all last week).  They had about 40-50 people turn up to help, so it only took about an hour/ hour and a half and we got loads done.  Was a brilliant display of community spirit.  So today I am claiming back normal life - Leilani is back to school and we're trying to get back to our usual routine.  The two little ones are having their nap and I am doing housework as that is what Monday brings in my normal routine :)  I'm happy to be doing it without breaking up arguments between children, being pestered for something to eat, being nagged to put the telly on or generally being annoyed by children who have really had enough of the snow now.

Clearing snow at Kidgate

A little something from Tilly...

SNOW!!!

It started snowing a few days ago and hasn't really stopped.  It got to it's worst on Sunday so church was cut short and everyone sent home to try and avoid driving in any worse conditions.  Yesterday the schools started announcing closures because of the weather - including Kidgate, Leilani's school.  They're also shut again today.  So I am trying to keep on top of things to keep them entertained whilst stuck at home.  To top it off Tilly is sick with a horrible cold and wants lots of cuddles.

So yesterday Zach and I made some cheese scones.  I thought with all of us stuck inside so much we could do with some snacks, so I made a double batch.  Only to find out *after* we'd baked them that Lani, Tilly and Adam don't like cheese scones! So lots for Zach and me then...

Anyway, will try put some pics up when I get a few mins.  Got to go put Tilly in the bath to get rid of the glazed doughnut look!

... and now back a couple of hours later....

Here's some of my latest crochet things:

And it was Adam's birthday last week.  We tried to make his day as special as we could and got a few of his favourite things.  And Leilani and I came up with this for his birthday cake :D

Tilly will finally keep hairbands in!  Most of the time anyway... 

Leilani's school had an art exhibit of all the children's art work.  These were Leilani's two pieces on the "movement" project.  The one on the left was paint and pencils for the back ground and cut out and stuck on rocks and lighthouse.  For the one on the right the sea and sky were done on the computer and the lighthouse and rocks again were cut out of sugar paper and stuck on.

Nicely playing together having turned the washing basket and skateboard into a car.

Movie Night

For Family Home Evening tonight we decided to watch How To Train Your Dragon.  After deciding to do this fairly early in the day it left me with the rest of the afternoon to mull over it and start thinking we could make it even more fun.  I decided to turn our living room into a pretend cinema.  After dinner we got the kids in their PJs and then they waited in the dining room with Adam while I set up.  At the living room door I set up a ticket desk/concession stand and draped our red fleece blanket over the screen then called them to come queue up for their tickets.  We used Zach's play till and pennies from our penny pot so they could come buy their tickets and snacks.  Then they waited in the "foyer" (our hallway) until they were ushered in to their seats.  Once comfy I did the grand unveiling of the screen, complete with opening movie music, I'm sure you know what I mean....

Ticket and concession stand ready to open for business

Queuing up to buy their tickets and snacks before the show

The kids loved it and so did we - they giggled through all of that, telling me I was very silly as they excitedly queued up for their tickets and snacks.  It was lots of fun to do a movie night with that little bit extra, would highly recommend a "trip to the cinema" at home :D

Dry Night

We had Zach's first dry night last night :)  We got him up and took him to the toilet for the last time at about 11.30am and then I got him up again at 6am when I woke up and he had gone the whole time staying dry.  Big success, especially since it took Lani about another 2 years before she managed that.  I really hope this means Zach can crack this quickly and doesn't take such a long time like Lani did.  (She was potty trained by the time she turned 2, but wasn't dry at night til 5 and a half...)

Getting old?!?

I never really thought I'd be all that bothered about turning 30.  I never thought it would be a big deal.  But now I'm 29 I'm *beginning* to think a little differently...  Not so much about being 30, I think the actual number still doesn't really mean that much to me, but I am starting to notice a few minor signs of aging.  I guess I'm starting to realise that while my head got stuck at the age of 22, and I kind of started to lose track of my own age, when I look in the mirrow now I realise I can't pass for 22 on the outside! :)  Now, I'm not worried or depressed about it, I still think I look fairly young for my age, as I have through all my life (a cause for some concern when I was in my teens!) and I'm proud of the fact that I'm the only one of my sisters left who hasn't had a grey hair (I've jinxed it now haven't I...).  The thing I'm noticing is my skin, especially around my eyes.  Not looking quite as plump and youthful, as Davina McCall would put it in her age-defying cream adverts.  The other thing is Jess turned 22.  When my youngest sister turns the age I feel I guess it's time to accept reality :D.  Plus I remember how I felt about 30 year olds when I was 22, and they just seemed so distant and so much older! Ah well, time to grow up and be sensible... No, I don't think so, that's taking things a bit too far...

Recent bits and bobs

Look underneath - Zach wanted to climb in and lie down for the afternoon school run.  In the 2nd photos he's asleep - he ended up falling asleep for about an hour! On the right: Eating his birthday smarties from Grandma O'Gram - after he'd sorted them in to colours of course :)

Chocolate cake!

 Bonfire night at Deighton Close:

Girls night out

Last Friday I had a rare night out with the girls - Lisa, Angie, Sandy and Janine.  It was for Lisa's birthday. We went to a couple of bars in town and had a good chat and a boogie.  I really enjoyed myself, and I'm loving the fact that I didn't come home smelling of smoke as I used to in my younger days when I did this sort of thing more regularly.

Only had my phone with me, so pictures aren't great but you get the idea!