weekend eve

I love Friday because it is weekend eve.  However, it is Thurday weekend eve for me this week becasue tomorrow Alex and I are off to Dunedin for the iD Dunedin Fashion week.  For lots of reasons this weekend is going to be great, besides the fashion there is time with my friend, visiting Jasmine and hopefully meeting Simon and Nicky's very new baby Brianna AND shopping, markets, art and staying at a new hotel.  I feel very blessed to be able to do this.  Thanks Jonty and Nic for not making me feel guilty for taking time off.  The things that are not going to be so great about the weekend.  Missing Ben's birthday party and most of all missing Nic's first Weet Bix kids Tryathlon.  He seems very ok with me not being there but I have a few moments of the guilts.  Mind you, I miss most stuff of Nic's so I guess it isnt a bit deal to him as long as someone is there.   Alex, Ruth and I are off to Ellerslie Flower Show on Sunday...straight off the plane and to the show.  What fun. 

Last weekend was brilliant.  Aside from spending the morning painting the giant @#$%& painted graffiti off the fence, I got to go to Nic's cricket which was fun. Then a walk in the park with Steph and then Jasmine was in town and we went out to Wagamama for dinner then to the Chinese Lantern festival.

Sunday was Nic's birthday and we took him and four friends ten pin bowling.  It was hilarious.  7 year olds are so funny and observant and self aware.  Gorgeous.  I won the bowling, by the way.  Then home for pizza.  Later in the afternoon the entire family came over for afternoon tea.  That was great too, sitting outside eating a lot of stuff and enjoying everyones company. 

I was so impressed with Nic and how he managed himself.  So calm and kind and very sweet.  I almost shed a little tear later thinking about the weekend.  Warm with love it was.

60 years!

Diamonds are forever....it is our party season as I record every year, but this year we have an added family celebration.  My lovely aunt and uncle celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary this weekend.  It was especially poignent as Brian has been hanging in for over a year for this day.  He spends some hours of each day on oxygen and Fay is tireless in her support and spirit.  They are a testament to the strength of love and support during a long and varied time together.  And, they look fantastic!!  It was a perfect sunny afternoon in my cousins gorgeous garden.

Ruth in her lovely new dress, very garden party  

Shona and my mother (she was the bridesmaid)

Lovely cousins, Wendy and Penny

Fay (standing) and Brian

Nic and Olivia giving Fay a lovely private concert.

Stolen

Yesterday was the last of our birthdays for a while and we were gifted a gorgeous Autumn day. We were at the bach and the beach was almost deserted save for few other families enjoying the last stolen days of summer too. Some who I recognised as regulars from this summer. The waves were non existent due to recent weather activity so there was calm and peace and savouring in the air.

Ben had a lovely day and the children as normal just lived every moment of it and had a ball.

Here is the photo we took of the cousins last year and beneath is this year's. How they have grown physically and in so many other ways. What a difference a year makes, especially for Liv, Nic and Danielle-being school kids now.

Ben loved his birthday because it was about the things he loves...bubbles, balls and food

Phew

Last night we collapsed on the sofa after a big birthday day. Nic decided at 5.30am that is was present time and when we encouraged him to go back to his room he just cranked up his computer so the rest aspect of the morning was soon shattered. Consequently birthday activity started very early. After presents from us and our overseas family Nic phoned is Granny in England and Auntie Louisa. Lovely conversations.
Then at 10am after frantic food prep we took a small group of Nic's friends off to Pirate Island Mini Golf. Now that was a crazy experience!! Those girls just raced around the course taking little head of skill or the holes really and going flat out. It was fun but mad. Ruth and Simon joined us and neither of us took cameras which is unheard of so I only got a few snaps on my phone.

Nic, Bethany, Bella and Holly. Bella won, she is a natural sports girl and I can see her going far. And she is a redhead so we really love her!

Back home and all the rest of the family arrived and with the children and doing two lunches, a kids one and an adults one, I almost keeled over. It all went really well and I think everyone had a great time. The kids were great!

Holly and Nic
Olivia, Ben and Holly

Six is different to five! I felt a bit nostalgic on Friday at work but didn't have time to pontificate yesterday and now it is another day and the sun is out and there are things to do.

Because of the flat out nature of the day I didn't get many good photos as there seemed little time to pause and capture. I loved the cake though, hope Nic did. He pretty much cleaned it up last night so I am guessing so. Thanks to everyone who contributed to a great day.

Parties

Every February/March my posts are full of parties - children's parties... and of course this year is the same. We had Simon's birthday last weekend (although he is not a child) and Gill and the girls were in town so our family gathering was bigger and better. Alas, I forgot to take my camera so no lovely photos.

Yesterday was Olivia's party and due to the unseasonal and grindingly lengthy patch of crap weather we were forced into the school pool for fun activities instead of the beach as we normally might. We are all scaling down our parties this year following the 5th party extravaganza of last year so it was just family and might I say, very pleasant.
Olivia's cousins Danielle and Kayla are just lovely girls and the five children play fantastically together.
Nicholas made some fruit kebabs to take along but alas they did not compare with the pink sugary fare on offer. They did get eaten but I think it might have been the adults that went green instead of pink.

I would have liked to edit and play around with the photos but no time...sun is out and we are off to the beach.

Sport, Culture and Love

I had the pleasure of attending the Royal New Zealand Ballet's Romeo and Juliet on Saturday. I just loved it. I haven't been to the ballet for a few years so this was a treat and my expectations were easily fulfilled. The staging and costumes were terrific and the dancing on the whole was lovely. Being the matinee, the lead dancers were having a cup of tea and a lie down while the understudies flexed their incredible muscles. I thought the choreography was gorgeous and really creative in the telling of a very old and well known tale. I checked out the choreographer Christopher Hampson and found this really interesting article about him and ballet in a UK ballet mag. You might like to read it if you are interested in such things.I went with Marie-Anne who used this opportunity to introduce us to her new man. He is lovely and endured the subtle scrutiny of the family as well as the full on verbal assault from Nicholas. Great to see you friends happy. That is all that matters when push comes to shove.

Added to this cultural and social activity Vanessa's 40th birthday cocktail party and catching the kids animation collection at the film festival. We had a truly lovely weekend topped off with NZ collecting a small raft of medals at the Olympics. Yay

Will you marry me?

We had the very big pleasure of attending a wedding yesterday afternoon. No better way to spend an cold damp afternoon than in the company of friends witnessing the loveliness of a wedding. Clare and Phil - congratulations!!

Loved the bit where as part of their wedding vows, they asked 'will you marry me?'. That got us all going. It was gorgeous. After lots of drizzle all morning, the sun appeared just in time for the outdoor service. Butterflies in their 10's fluttered in the trees and gorgeous gold leaves acted as a stunning backdrop. Sounds very poetic and it really was.

Another really cool thing about going to an old friend's wedding is catching up with all your other old friends. Here we are posing - with no flash on the camera so not that great a photo but fun none the less.

Party season draws to a close

Ben's 3rd birthday party today. A family affair, we gathered at the bach. Usual suspects, cute girls in pink and blue boys. All for the last Davis/Thompson party for a few weeks at least. Next one is mother's 70th in Moeraki. Something to look forward to...I digressBen was very underwhelmed by the gathering and took it in his stride. Not one for a great show of emotion, he looked passively at his orange robot cake as we oohed and aahed. He did make more than one journey to the 'traffic light biscuit' plate though, and I suspect pretty much cleaned them up. Happy Birthday Ben, you gorgeous little boy.
My boy had a less than fantastic day as a week of school obviously took its toll. Jonty and I have lost the plot more than once this weekend and are very much looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Things must get better...surely. I am relieved to see others smiling and nodding when I describe the new and challenging behaviour and live in hope that things will improve in the next 12 years. Having said this, that ratbag boy then goes and gets excited about goggles in the shower and produces a gorgeous moment of swimming practise on the floor afterwards. Little bugger

Profusion of Pink

Our family party season kicked off last Thursday with pizza and ice cream sandwiches in celebration of Simon's 30 something birthday. On Sunday we attended a 'fairy party' to celebrate Olivia's 5th. Ruth put a lot of work in to the designing and decorating of the back yard and it was all lovely and pink and fairyish. The 30 degree heat also helped to make a lovely laid back atmosphere. All the girls floated around together playing lovely girl games in a little cloud of pinkness. The boys entertained themselves with the boat and ball games. Parents and grandparents languished on deck chairs under trees and caught up on each others year. Many of us only seeing each other at the annual event.

What made the event so very pleasant was all the lovely children who behaved like angels. No stampede to the food table, no tantrums no fighting or crying. Let's hope Nic's bash next week is as calm and relaxed.