More Holiday Pics

From our time in Christchurch.

.

Daddy reading Aaron an old childhood favourite story "The Adventures of Gumdrop" before bed.

Samuel checking out his newest cousin L. :-) (You had to watch him because he was quite good at giving L a good scragging!)
Because we had 8 kids and 8 adults staying for the last part of the time we were at Nana & Grandad's we did dinner time in relays :-) The kids ate first and then we gave them something to do while the adults had dinner. This night I had a whole pile of glow sticks for them. They had so much fun.

C & B were playing together and C was singing "row row row your boat" and then B decided to lean forward and give him a kiss hehee :-) Very cute.
We all went out for lunch one day to Salmon Tales in Rakaia. Aaron and J were playing on Lyndon's phone during the meal.

After lunch we went over to the park and got a group photo and some of the kids.
Then the kids hit the playground!
Cousin J bought his push bikes out to share. Aaron finally mastered riding without training wheels :-)
Although it was helpful to have a push trying to cycle on the lawn! haha
The new few pics are of a tennis pro in action! First of all you gather your equipment ... bat and ball.
Very important to check that the bat has no holes and you have your legs spaced apart just the right amount!
Careful positioning of the ball ... throw it up then ...
Swing like mad with the bat (and miss the ball altogether)! He did this over and over and over again and probably only hit the ball once in every 20 tries! It was great entertainment for us watching! hehee
When you tire of that you give your sister some helpful hints!
I can just hear him saying "No Maddison you hold it like this"!!! (She doesn't look very impressed with his instructions does she hehee)
Cousin C off and away riding without training wheels :-) So cool to see the pride on their little faces when they realised they could actually do it all by themselves :-)
B & Samuel playing with some "party" balloons :-)
Another line up of cousins. (We took a pic of the kids in 2008 in front of the pantry doors and there were only 5 then ... I tell you it's a lot harder trying to get 8 little faces to look at the camera!).
And another party for the big guy :-)
Delicious cake it was too :-)
Back shortly with more pics!

.

Thanks for visiting.

First few days of our time in Christchurch

After we left Invercargill we had 10 days with Lyndon's parents - they live just out of Christchurch on a farm. The afternoon we arrived, Grandad told the kids he had something to show them in his vege garden. So I tagged along with the camera! :-)

.

When Lyndon is carrying Samuel he holds on to his ear, when I am carrying him he grabs a handful of hair and hangs on!

Grandad showed the kids the pumpkin patch and some little fairies (hehee) had been at work and written all the grandchildren's name on a pumpkin each! Here's Aaron with his one.

And Maddison decided to sit on hers!
They were pretty cool.
Then Aaron asked to go and see Grandad's dogs (he remembered them from last time we stayed in 2009).

April 1st we went into town and met cousins J & B at Chipmunks. Aaron & J had the best time on this huge big slide.

B (she turned 1 at the beginning of the year) & Samuel sat on a couple of bikes together! Samuel was holding onto her handlebar to make sure she didn't get away on him heheee

Cheeky grin! :-)
Maddison took AGES to come down this slide by herself (I had to go with her first and thankfully there is no photographic proof of that!! It was very fast and I had a skirt on ... say no more!)
Her and Aaron went down it together holding hands one time :-)
Chicken nuggets & chippies for lunch for Aaron
and Maddison.
J enjoying some fruit with the remains of some sprinkles off his fairy bread still on his face heheee
I am not sure, but I think this is the ONLY photo I have of the two girl cousins together! Shocking ... how could I have only gotten one!
Aaron, Maddison & J had a ride on this funny plane.
They all loved it.
Obviously it takes great skill (including tongue hanging out) to steer the plane! ;-)
While they rode on that Samuel & B sat on the fence and watched and Samuel bounced up and down waving his arms so excited :-)
Another day Grandad took the kids and Lyndon for a little ride in the boat he is re-building. It wasn't that successful ... it was a bit rough and the windscreen wasn't on so every now and then a wave would hit the front of the boat and they would all get wet!

(there were other dramas too, but they are best forgotten!) ;-) Maddison told me that it was really scary on Grandad's boat!

.

Alright that's it for today. Hopefully I will get a chance tomorrow to share some more photos.

.

Thanks for visiting.

On the Farm

One of the days we were with my parents Dad, Lyndon & Aaron went down to my sisters place to bring back some cows.

.

Here they are heading off. Aaron was pretty excited :-)

The cattle were all at the yards waiting.
Aaron & cousin D patting the farm dog.
Hanging out on the fence watching the others work! :-)

Invercargill

Doing a bit of a catch up with blogging.

Here's some pics of the last days we had in Invercargill with my family.

.

Samuel really enjoyed pushing my Mum's old dolls pram about - he thought he was just so smart!

One afternoon while Lyndon was giving the other two sack rides again Samuel sat on the lawn and played in the dirt. (By the way - Mum and Dad's lawn isn't usually rough patchy soil & grass like in these pics - it's just that they have had some work done to the drive and the lawn needs tidying up now!)
Inspecting his little hands which are covered in dirt very closely! :-)
And what are you looking at?
Ummm this tastes really good covered in dirt too! :-)
Love this sequence of pics of Aaron on the sack. Round the corner ...
At the top of the hill ...
and speeding down :-)
Maddison was on the back (she'd had enough of sack rides ... her face explains it hehee), while Samuel was on the front and was very busy sucking the end of the fuel breather line!
Maddison came off on a corner and got covered in mud! She didn't want to miss out on the bike rides though!
I'll be back another day with updates from our time in Christchurch. Right now I can hardly keep my eyes open! This time zone and jet lag business is exhausting!

.

Thanks for visiting.

We are home ...

Arrived home around 11pm -after nearly 24 hours since getting out of bed! We had a reasonably good trip though and the kids travelled really well ... although we now know not to give them the orange juice that they serve on the plane as it's too strong! (Aaron did a huge vomit!) Poor little guy ... very glad I had packed a change of clothes for them in their trunkies!

.

Coming home in the taxi Lyndon asked Aaron where we were going. Aaron replied "home to our house and my bed is really waiting for me. It's been waiting for a long long time Daddy!" :-)

.

When he got home though he was so excited and went about checking things out, exclaiming over everything (e.g. "WOW there's only one strawberry yoghurt left in the fridge!" and "Oh my, someone ate the apple out of my goodie bag"! heheee)

.

Aaron and Maddison went straight to sleep though once they were in bed. Samuel took AGES to settle and I ended up giving him a shower. He woke at 4.30am and was ready to go. So I have been up with him since then and given him some breakfast, but I think he's ready to go back to bed. (I am too!).

.

Will be back later with updates from our holiday. I didn't have internet access the last week or so, but I have plenty of photos to share! :-)

.

Oh and for those that have asked about the moths ... yes they have been "released into the wild"! hahahaa Actually they were able to fly off whenever they pleased after coming out of their "raccoons". Hopefully I will find out today if there are any left to hatch.

.

Thanks for visiting