Daisy is 7!

It really is hard to believe it but Daisy has recently turned 7! In her short life she has clocked up many air miles and lived on both sides of the world but she has well and truly grown into a "proper kiwi".

I have said this many times but gone is her English accent that people found very cute when we first arrived in NZ. Just like any other person who speaks two languages (English and Kiwi English!) she adapts her vocabulary well depending on whether she is at home or at school.

We asked her what she would like for her birthday and after lots of thoughts and decisions she decided that she wanted to go for a meal at Wagamamas in Wellington and a have new bedroom. The new bedroom has been created slowly over the last few months with lots of storing under my bed of new items, bidding on Trademe for a new bed and then hours spent in the garage painting said new bed to the colour she wanted. 

We decided to allocate the weekend before her birthday to decorating the new bedroom whilst Daisy went for a sleepover at our friends Heather and Barrie's in Raumati. Sadly because we live in a rented house we are not able to paint her bedroom so instead we emptied it and gave her new furniture and a new rug, blanket, bean bag, mosquito net and cushions all in the colour scheme she chose which was pink, black and white.

Rich and I spent the whole of Saturday creating the new room and then rewarded ourselves with a fresh cream bun (which we walked about 6k to buy lol). On the Sunday we picked Daisy up and she was very excited about the big unveiling as you can see in the video below:

We wanted to create a space for her that she would like to spend time in and take care of and in the time since her new room was created she has certainly done that. There are times when after about half an hour of calm and quiet in the house we start to wonder where she is and she can be found either playing with her Zhu Zhu pets or reading or writing at her desk. I think she loves her new room!

On the Sunday afternoon (which was the day before her birthday) we headed into Wellington for our meal. Our initial plan was to have a nice walk along the waterfront then stop for some delicious noodles. Once again though the weather let us down (I see a trend here). You wouldn't have believed that it was summer. (I don't like to complain but I am a bit sick of our so called summer! rant over)

We started with a nice cup of tea to warm our bones then had a lovely noodle main each and finished it off with some delicious cup cakes that we brought with us.

Daisy's actual birthday was on the Monday which happened to be my first day back at work. I did get to see her open her presents and make her breakfast which was pancakes with bacon and banana. (thanks to Trina :0)

She loved all of her presents which included a fishing rod that Rich intended to get plenty of use out of over the summer holidays. Thank you so much to everyone from the UK who sent her presents - it means so much to us all.

Daisy also got plenty of money for shopping trips. One of the first things she bought was a mermaid dress-up outfit:

She was happy to be wearing it - honestly!

Daisy got to spend the rest of her special day at home with her Dad and then we were treated to this beautiful sunset to finish off her day.

Happy New Year from NZ!

New Year had a lot to live up to weather wise compared to Christmas. I think this Christmas was the best weather we have seen so far since being in New Zealand. Sadly New Year's Eve had other ideas.

We had rain, temperatures in the early teens and grey skies all day! We had originally planned to head to Civic Square in Wellington and take Daisy to the early countdown they do for the children but the weather put a stop to that. So we decided to drive to Wellington and call on our friends Tony and Denyse and their daughters Beth and Maddie.

It's been a while since we all caught up last so we had plenty to chat about over a glass of wine and some beers and then we headed back to the safety of Whitby to get out of the weather.

Our friends Jodie and Paul had invited us to their place too so off we went to venue number two.

We ended up staying here for a few hours, Rich enjoyed some tequilas and Daisy enjoyed playing with the other children and watching movies (and generally being bossy!)

By 11pm I was struggling to stay awake and was hoping that the next hour would whizz past. Whilst being sober I did get to enjoy watching and listening to the fellow party goers in all their glory and this kept me entertained.

On the stroke of midnight we sang Auld Lang Syne and dished out the kisses and Happy New Years and I have to say that these fellow English people know how to have a party!! (said in the voice of Frank Gallagher - Shameless)

Christmas NZ Stylee!!

Christmas 2011 was a long, hot, fairly quiet affair. Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon down at Plimmerton Beach where Daisy took much joy in snorkeling in the shallows.

In the evening we headed over the road to Trina and Steve's house with a group of others for a few pre-Christmas madness drinks and nibbles. We then headed home fairly early to get Daisy tucked up into her bed, finish wrapping the presents and giving the house a Santa makeover!

I along with lots of other people love Christmas Eve. The magic of it all as a child used to leave me giddy with excitement and now I am an adult I still get giddy with excitement for our children. Last year of course Jacob was here to share the magic with us so this year we couldn't help but feel there was something (or someone) missing. :0(

As usual I was awake before Daisy on Christmas morning and laid patiently in bed waiting for signs of life from her bedroom. Thankfully this year I didn't have to wait too long and by 7am she was awake and came in with her stocking and opened her presents on her bed.

We then had a chat with her about how we should be thankful for what we receive as there are some people who aren't lucky enough to have a mum and dad or a roof over their heads let alone a roomful of presents and toys.

After our little talk we then followed the Santa sparkles to the living room and Daisy's face lit up when she saw the other presents that were waiting for her.

Before opening the presents we all sat down to a lovely special breakfast of salmon and scrambled eggs which is usually toasted with bucks fizz but this year we opted for cranberry juice instead! (Mum don't get your knitting sticks out just yet) This was just a health conscious decision we decided to make.

After breakfast Daisy got to open her presents and then she chatted to my Mum via Skype who also got to watch her open her presents too. I think I say this every year but thank God for Skype!!!

We then had another Skype chat with Rich's family before getting our glad rags on and heading over the road for lunch.

The rest of Christmas day was spent basking in the very hot sunshine that we were treated to. We had a beautiful lunch made by Trina and Steve (complete with pigs in blankets and Brussell sprouts provided by the pomms from over the road!)

Trina and Steve were extremely lucky to be surrounded by various family members most of which came from Australia for Christmas and this of course made us reflect as it always does on why we are here and will we ever get used to upside down Christmases but it also made us thankful for the lovely friends that we have made and  the great life we have built for ourselves.

We finally left at about 8pm feeling completely stuffed of lovely Christmas food and Daisy and I were fast asleep by 9:30. That's was Christmas is all about.

Boxing Day we decided to take a leftover picnic to Campbell Park in Paekakariki. This is the same spot we spent last Boxing Day when Jacob was visiting. The weather was so much better this year though which meant the little kids and the big kids got to have lots of fun in the water.

We spent the day leisurely playing games, picking at leftovers and catching some rays and felt completely relaxed by the time we headed home.

The following few days Daisy and I spent at home whilst Rich went off to work. We had some gorgeous weather which gave me the chance to work up a good old sweat in our gym with the great equipment that Santa bought for me (being gloves, a kettle bell and a stopwatch!) and Daisy got to enjoy some bike/scooter rides and just hanging out with Mummy. We also got to add to our little veggie patch that Rich created. We are now growing three varieties of tomatoes, some celery and two types of lettuce - get us being all green fingered!