Motat - Museum of Transport and Technology

On Saturday it looked like it was going to be a horrible day, and although it threatened rain we still felt like venturing out, so went to Motat. It has a good combo of indoor and outdoor things to look at and thankfully didn't rain while we were there. I've never been to Motat before and we thought Nathan is a good age now to get into it. He's a hard one to impress at times, we have found in the past things he likes to admire from afar become a bit overwhelming up close, like when we took him to the airshow, he was not really into it at all. But he did enjoy himself here, although from the pic below you'd be forgiven for not believing me :)

I'm having fun.... Honest!

On the Tram

In the ol skool School. Pick me, Pick me

Getting the frisk down from the health police. Hand over that lollipop, sucker!!

Crazy Mirror Maze

The Siblings in Sydney

Last Thursday Dean and Lisa went to Sydney to stay with their brother Phil. They had a great time as you can see from the pics below...

Hanging with Phil and Aunty Doreen

Jamming in the kitchen

Phil and Lisa out and about

Off to Yum Cha

Bondi Beach

The Bro's, can't half tell can ya

A Week in the Mount

After the trip to Lake Rotoma the kids and I spent the week in Mt Maunganui as Dean was heading to Sydney later in the week. We made the most of the good weather, and when the weather packed it in we packed up and headed home.

Monday - Mum's actual birthday day, we grabbed some sushi and found a tree to sit under at Main Beach, at the foot of Mauao (the mountain)

Tuesday - Nathan and I spent a lovely couple of hours together at the beach. We walked out to th end of Leisure Island and then had a swim, the water was so warm Nathan swam for ages, and the waves were small and just right for him to play in, and he also found a nice little pool to relax in. These pics are off my phone so quality a little dodgy

Wednesday I was real tired and we had Lillian come and visit for the afternoon so no outings that day

Thursday - after enjoying our time just Nathan and I (which doesn't happen to often these days) We set off again Thursday afternoon to have a ride on the trike at the beach. This trike I got out of the Toy library as it is a bit lighter than his one and a good one to practice on.

Yay she is finally taking a bottle, she has had one every evening for the last couple of weeks now, With her allergy to dairy, I try get the milk machine (breast pump) going most days but when I don't get round to it she doesn't mind her soy formula too much. Here she is with Poppa before going to bed.

Friday - We headed over to the Flemings to visit Erin and Luca, Nathan loves going there and playing with Luca's toys, he especially loves the 'little house' with all its goodies inside. He was most upset last time we visited and the key was missing, so was delighted when he could get in this time and celebrated with a bit of a hula dance, he he.

Luca is a year older than Maia, and while Luca is definately the taller of the two, Miss Maia is definately more solid in every other way, he he.

Avanti go Rafting

On Saturday Deans work went white water rafting in Rotorua. This waterfall is the biggest commercial rafting drop in the world apparantly. Looks like they had fun.

The Twins turn 55

We headed to Lake Rotoma for a day of family, friends and fun to celebrate Mum and Aunty Louies birthdays. We had the boat and a wakeboard, kayaks, water buscuit and a BBQ lunch. The weather was mostly good although the wind could be a little cool at times.

Cool Dude!

Although the weather was cool at times the water was really warm

Aunty Lou and Briar


Had to take a picture of the outfit, she started out in a summer dress but when the wind picked up on went the jeans and a jumper, then the sun came out again so on went the sunhat.

Louie and Bainbridge

Ruka trying on Leonies Harley for size. He's mastered his two wheeler with training wheels so might be looking to upgrade.

Paddling in the shallows with dad

How cool is Hollie

On Saturday my brother and I went to see Hollie Smith perform at Zoo Music. Once again the Zoo has put on a great series of concerts which are pretty cheap and being in the middle of the zoo, makes for a great venue. Katchafire is coming up, not sure if we'll get to that but it would be cool! After last years experience of The Black Seeds being so packed out we went quite early and waited in line to get a good spot, in which we did. She is an awesome Kiwi singer and it was great to check her out live after listening to her album heaps. It was also cool just to hang with my bro, who also appreciates her music but was mostly checking her out i think :) We had a nice set up of snacks to enjoy, so laxed back in our chairs, ate, chatted, and generally enjoyed the evening. After a great time we decided we would do more bro/sis outings as thats part of the reason he moved up the road, to spend time with the fam.

A day at home

Sometimes I really feel like we need to get out and do something and was thinking we should get back to our Thursday playgroup today. But I had heaps of housework to do so we stayed home. We actually had a neat day. Nathan played with his cars on the road mat that I scored from the Toy Library (love that place) then he helped me wash the car. So the house got cleaned and we played and we had our lunch outside and the sun was shining. Basically it was a simple but enjoyable day.

Hanging out

Maia with her Coolio hairdo hanging in the play thingy ma jiggy I got for her from toy library. She was excercising her legs in there by standing up.

From Coolio to Tina Turner

Bye Big Cuzzy

Yesterday on Waitangi Day, we went and had a bbq to farewell Alicia. She is moving to Aussie next week after enjoying her holiday there so much. She has family there and will be starting school as soon as she arrives. We will miss her heaps. She is so good with the kids, they love their big cousin. Bummer, there goes our babysitter he he. Just when she gets old enough to babysit she leaves us :) Well we'll have to send the kids over when they're older and she can take them to Dreamworld.

Wow another weekend

Can you believe it's February already?? I'm loving this summer, I love being busy and getting out and about and having fun in the sun, and all that hoo haa. Here's what we got up to this weekend...

We took Maia with us to Dean's workmate, Matt's 30th birthday (because we couldn't leave her with anyone as she still won't take the bottle!!). Everyone had to wear white... There were loads of kids and Nathan would have had fun but he hung out with Ayla for a while and stayed at his Nana's, so he also had lots of fun.

The Birthday boy

Maia making friends

Heading home as the sun was going down

We picked Nathan up on Sunday and he was all pooped out, I couldn't resist taking a picture of them holding hands which they often do while chillin in their car seats.