this moment

{this moment} -  A single photo  - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Thanks SouleMama

more beach

We had a lovely family outing to a local beach and playground last weekend.  Lots of fun playing and blowing bubbles.  I quite enjoy the mildness of the Auckland winters.  I think we might visit the beach more than we do in summer!

holiday fun

I know it's almost the holidays again but last school holidays the boys and I did this amazing thing (with some lovely friends too). Aotea square was filled with thousands of empty boxes and we got to build and play for an hour or two.  We were the architects of box city and had to make the tallest possible towers and fun tunnels and hideouts.  Then we got to smash it all down.  It was seriously awesome.

Afterwards we pottered about in town.  We stumbled upon a free sausage sizzle, watched buskers, browsed the magazine shop (#1 loves Archie comics if anyone needs a birthday gift for him (in two weeks)) and ate a lovely piece of vegan carrot cake at the Raw Power cafe.  Vegan carrot cake oh my goodness!

solstice

Did you know that it was the winter solstice last week?

It always seems too early to me.  Like it should be later in winter. 

Previous years we've made lanterns and gone for a lantern walk but this year we just lit all the candles we could find in the house and ate and did things by candlelight.  I didn't get the camera out till it was teeth brushing time and B said "why aren't you taking photos of all of this?".  Oops.

walking to school

Walking buses are great but our walking car is even better.  We call it that because there are just four kids.  It works really well because when someone is sick we just text and the other mamas can do the extra drop offs and pick ups no problem.  Since I'm often working till 230pm now it's really great having someone else bring the boys home after school and I take them all in the mornings. I got the cool hypnotic glasses at the opshop last week.

old phone pix

Just discovered how easy it is to make collages using random cell pix I wouldn't have otherwise bothered to upload to the blog.  Some of these are very old.

piano man

He played on the baby grand in front of a couple of hundred people last week.  So proud.

winter at the beach

 I took the boys to Cheltenham beach for a bit of fresh air and to tire them out when DaddyB was away in Christchrch in the snow.  I made them pop their hoodies on as it wasn't quite short sleeve weather anymore.

 No snow here just golden sand...

 and silly giggling boys.

nom nom nom

up since three

Somehow I forgot yesterday that afternoon coffee makes me sleep terribly. I went to sleep okay but then woke up far too early at 330am, and couldn't get back to sleep for hours.  So around 530 I finally decided to get up.  Feel like a zombie though.  These pictures were from December last year.  The first day of the school holidays.  We took a tennis racket and a cricket bat to the domain and had a lovely morning there.  The Winter Gardens are gorgeous and there's a mysterious fernery to explore and a massive old dead tree to climb on.  Since I've figured out how to do slide shows it's much easier to share a big number of pictures without all the faffing about with layout.

help?

I realise that I have been absent from my blog for a wee while and really I'm only back to ask for help... although maybe bookface would be the better option... anyhow I"m trying to do my GST.  Arrgh!

I've been doing GST for a while on my freelance photography jobs but they haven't had tax taken out.  Now I'm working regularly (part time) some of my tax is taken out.

So the question is... do I use the NET (before tax including GST) amount to figure out my return????

Do any accountant types read this? 

Took this picture of my pigtail bunches last night for my bloggy friend Pippa.  We went to a movie together and, once again, forgot to get a photo for her blog.  She blogs almost everyday.  I'm a total slacker but that's what works for me :o)  Anyway I stole my photo back from her blog teehee.

mucky pup

Somehow face painting (each other) was their developmental activity recently.  

 It required a large amount of scrubbing to get off.

 This is his clean face.

It appears he forgot to clean his arms.

diamond jubilee

So Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating sixty years as Queen. 

We've done some colouring in and puzzles.  This site has lots of great printable activities.

I thought a British themed dinner might be nice but haven't really got there yet.  Feeling lazy.

We did watch this lovely tribute with the boys though.

after school walk

Walking, talking about books, waving at trains, eating a nice block, getting a dvd (the muppets), being suprised at the red riding hood movie cover, getting an ice cream headache and playing at slingshots.