A few days away

This past weekend we had a little break away to celebrate Hannah May's 15th birthday. It was just what we all needed, although the weather was pretty rubbish.

After a cancelled flight Thursday evening, and an overnight stay in Napier, we were up at silly o'clock to catch our flight to Auckland.

We arrived to discover that trains into the city weren't running due to an electrical issue but eventually they started up again, so we finally made it to our motel mid morning so we could check in and drop our bags off.

We spent the rest of the day at Sylvia Park shopping centre as the rain was bucketing down on and off again.

After an early dinner I think we'd all crashed out to sleep by 9pm. Up bright and early Saturday morning, we spent a few hours walking around Queen St, before the rain set in again.

The Auckland Sky Tower, just up the street from where we were staying, was lit up for the King's Coronation.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner out for Hannah's birthday.

Then we found a new treat to try, croffles, from the Wafflers.

Can you spot a snoozing Diesel in the background of this photo? Well, he had a super fun time at my brother and sister in law's, hanging out with his mate Buddy, their black labrador, and he came home completely knackered from all the fun times and walks they had. 

We finished our lovely weekend with birthday cake for Hannah - she just loves sprinkles, so this cake was just perfect for her, and delicious too.

See you soon xx

Merry Snippet

Another ornament is done and put away into the gift box. This was one of my Stitchmaynia starts, Merry Snippet by Lizzie Kate.

Stitched on 32 count Vintage Mocha Belfast with mostly the recommended threads, I finished this into a trimmed pillow ornament with a red velvet ribbon.

It was a sunny winter's day yesterday so Hannah and I made the most of the sunshine and went out for a walk for an hour or two in the afternoon.

Of course, there also had to be a stop at our favourite cafe!

See you soon xx

Birthday Wishes

Today is Hannah's 11th birthday - how time flies! 

We had an early birthday dinner out on the weekend and after school today, we are meeting friends for afternoon tea at one of our favourite local cafes.

Tonight Hannah has picked to have her favourite dinner, which will be followed by birthday cake, of course lol.

Happy birthday to our sweet Hannah May - a clever, funny, kind girl who loves her family and friends, loves to read, dance and swim, loves make up, face masks and doing her hair in all sorts of crazy ways xx

See you soon x

Birthday Celebrations for Hannah

Last week Hannah turned ten years old and as part of her birthday festivities, we spent the previous weekend in Taupo with some of our family and friends.

We left home Friday evening after swimming and work, and it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive north. We were treated to a gorgeous sunset as we were heading into Napier.

For this weekend away, we stayed at Taupo's Debretts Resort and Spa where there's accommodation, hot pools, a spa, cafe and fun activities for the kids including a huge bouncy pad.

We hit the pools straight away, good to have a soak at the end of a long day.

The next morning after breakfast and another swim at the pools, it was time for us to head into town to check out the Saturday morning markets and a wander around the shops. It was a fairly bleak day, grey and cold and the lake was as flat as a pancake!

Glenn and Jess decided to try their luck at the Hole in One platform, no joy though ha ha.

Then it was back to the Resort for the rest of the day, making the most of all the facilities.

This is the little bungalow we stayed in, very cozy.

Looking down at the hot pools and hydroslides.

Donna made Hannah a cake - the kids were very impressed and believe it not it is made out of rice bubbles, the breakfast cereal.

After another swim early Sunday morning it was time for us to pack up and head home.

It was a glorious day in Napier, sunny and warm so we stopped at our favourite place in Ahuriri to have an ice cream by the sea.

On Monday morning, Hannah was up bright and early to open a few special pressies and then it was off to school for the day.

We had a lovely dinner with Hannah's grandparents, cousins, aunty and uncles:

Followed by birthday cake -

I still can't believe that Hannah is now 10! My youngest niece Sally also celebrated her birthday last week, her birthday is the day after Hannah's and she is now seven. Gosh the years go by fast!

See you soon xx

Now 10

On Wednesday 7th May, 2008 at 8.42 am, a precious little girl, Hannah May, joined our family and now today that sweet little baby girl is turning 10!

I can't believe how fast those ten years have gone by and we couldn't be prouder of our girl - a smart, polite, funny, caring and beautiful young lady. Happy birthday sweet Hannah May, 10 years old xxx

Midweek

If you follow other Kiwi and Aussie bloggers you would have already seen that we're experiencing some extreme heat temperatures right now. This hot weather has continued day after day for nearly two weeks but the last two days have been extremely hot. Our little town recorded 42 degrees C yesterday afternoon, not officially by the NZ Met Service but there were lots of unofficial temperatures reported in to our local radio station. All I say is thank goodness for our swimming pool, where we can chill off multiple times each day!

Usually I wait until February to begin my Christmas stitching each year but as I've already kitted up several Christmas designs I decided to get it underway on Sunday. First up, is Little House Needleworks' Season's Greetings. This is my second time stitching this lovely design.  I couldn't find the recommended Cherry Cobbler thread in my stash so I'm using GAST Schoolhouse Red instead.

Each week I'll be participating in #santasundayxs, a stitch along you can follow on Instagram.

Hannah started a new school year on Monday, Year 5, and all the regular after school activities will commence this week too.  She's very excited, and nervous too, about her first ever over night school camp coming up in a few weeks time.

 I had a couple of my reserves waiting for me when I stopped by our local library earlier in the week:

It's been sometime between book posts so I'll work on one soon as I've read some fantastic books recently.

See you soon xx

This Week

Another week has rolled around and what a busy one it's been.

I've been trying to squeeze in more finishing of my 2017 Christmas gifts. Most years I've worked throughout the year on the finishing side of things but due to our extensive house renovations over the past few months, I've had no space to sit at my sewing machine  until recently. I've just loved working on the items I've made for family and friends and sorry, most of these won't be shown until Christmas :)

Hannah just loves having her face painted and over the past month, she's had it done about three times! My Mum has recently finished working on Saturdays after many years and now she has a free day, she has been taking Hannah to all the fairs and garden expos on around our town.

I haven't been to see a movie for ages and last Saturday Mum, my MIL Heather and I went along to our local movie theatre.

We didn't see this one

but Murder on the Orient Express, which we thoroughly enjoyed - great cast, scenery and costumes.

I've had several of my latest reserves come in at the library so trying to get through a few of these as I've got a pile of books ready for the summer holidays.

I haven't read any Marian Keyes books in quite a few years and this didn't disappoint. This would be a perfect beach read.

Next up, I've been looking forward to Jane Harper's next novel as her first one, The Dry, was my favourite read of 2016. 

Today at Hannah's school is Wacky Hair day, raising funds for new audio equipment for the school hall.

It's a bit hard to tell from the light in our kitchen early this morning, but half of Hannah's hair was sprayed silver, the other half gold. Good fun!

Have a wonderful weekend xxxx