Catch ups from the iphone (from September onwards!!!)

I've finally gotten around to downloading a whole lot of pics from my phone so here they are in one massive post! Some of them have been on instagram already, but I feel like I need to save them here too just to preserve the memory :) So here we go.....

Grandie & the boys just about to sing Happy 59th birthday to our beautiful Mumma xxx (Unfortunately the cake didn't taste as good as it looked!! I was pretty impressed with my first sponge attempt in forever, but it was just an internet recipe & it was pretty hard so won't be doing that one again anytime soon!

When Precious Pod came to stay the night. I can't remember what the occasion was, but we love having her over for any reason at all!

My handsome boys just after coming home with fresh cutz x

The spider hat my little spider made at creche for Halloween

Esmeralda & her handsome Ninja x

Stan & Mac having a father/son date at Monster Jam

Mac with his gansta crew - (L-R Zion, Lucas, Mac & River)

Hanging with Pod after her school athletics day :)

So pretty x

Eva bought a book about dinosaurs to read with Spence at swimming

So adorable together! x

Spence's face paint at the mall

Our 2nd annual thanksgiving dinner run by the Chadderton family

Mell's kumara/orange/mint salad that I've made HEAPS of times since I first tried it at her place back in November....and still loving it!

My handsome little midriff showing elves x

Mac feeling super sorry for himself the afternoon he ran away from me after school & then tripped on the hall deck & cut his leg pretty deep. It was even worse for him too cause he was so looking forward to the water fights at the big day in at school the very next day :( (Which he ended up just having to sit on the side & watch cause he wasn't allowed to get it wet)

A sneaky pic of the house my bema went to

Spency & his 3rd cousin? Mikey

Such a fun night & next day at our New Year's eve party this year! Kol had organized a secret location & it turned out that it was it was at the Walter's house. A new member family had moved in directly behind them so Kol had asked if he could take down the fence between their big backyards to make a massive area where they set up two bouncy castles, marquees & tables, marshmallow roasting, Kol's cool big wooden board games.... & then there was a limbo competition (that Stan won) & dancing till the countdown & fireworks at midnight. Love our ward!

Then the next day we went back again for a bbq & more chillin & relaxin while the kids played some more on the bouncy castles & had water fights & fun on the water slide :)

The boys in their flash ride. Mac would totally be in heaven if he had one of these for real!! He's already telling me that when he has a mum (he means wife), he's gonna have a 2 seater car that he'll take his mum in - & then when he's not taking her in the car he'll let his kids have turns sometimes haha

The santa's grotto for this year's Christmas in the carpark at the chapel (decorating team was headed by Nix this year)

Different nativity sets

The hall all decorated so people could come in & listen to the Nonoa's & some of the rest of the ward singing carols

Santa's awesome chair made by Kol

Nativity housed in a cool stable this year made by Rob Williams & Kol

A little shopping trip with my angels - who were both starving & hungry so we didn't get much shopping done!

How I found Mac when I came home from the gym one morning....he stays with Stan while Spence & I go to the gym & he'd obviously had a thrilling time with Dad that morning haha

Pretty Pod & I waiting for Aunty Mell, Mac & Spence to finish in the volcano simulation on our trip to the museum a couple of weeks ago

After that we headed off to Wendy's for lunch...

And then onto Potter's Park for a little bit of splash pad fun :)

Then two Saturdays ago after our ward pool party, we headed down to North Head so the cuzzies could have some fun sliding down the mountain....only problem was that it decided to rain (after not having rained for ages!) The kids still tried to have a little bit of sliding action, but the boxes got pretty muddy in all of like 5 mins so after a short wander around we decided to call it quits & go back to Peach for some fish n chips

Then last, but not least we got to have our precious little Ella Bella over for a sleepover with Spence, while Mac went off to have some fun over at Pod's. We went to Nikau's 4th birthday party at the park that night so these two went to bed at about 10 & when they went quiet I went in to check on them, this is what I found lol....they obviously wanted to be cosy, otherwise they would've chosen the big bed to share together!!

And these are the bags that the bag lady had all packed & ready to go first thing in the morning ;)

After all that fun, this is what our house looked like at 5 o'clock that afternoon after we'd met at Pt Chev park & swapped the kids back :)

Phew, that was a long catch up but so good to be up to date with lots of fun times over the last few months! It's been such a beautiful summer & we've had so much fun out & about....just a quiet weekend at home now before we're back into happy school days on Monday!!! Woohoo!!

Summer School Swimming with Helen

Last week the boys were lucky enough to do a week of Summer School with Helen & although I was a little bit over it by the end of the week, I LOVE watching them have their swimming lessons & seeing their technique & confidence constantly improving. 

This little guy's always been super anxious of the water (& lot of other things!), so before lessons with Helen it was hard for us to even coax him in & now he loves hopping in, even if it is just to muck around on the steps. He still often tells Helen that he doesn't want to or can't do it, if she's trying to convince him to go down & get a toy off the bottom of the pool or something, but he's still soooooo much more happy & confident than he started out, so he's come a long way!

Unfortunately his listening skills are about as good as his brother's!!! They're always the one under the water when the teacher's trying to explain something :(

Spence & his little buddy Tai (my friend Jacqui's son)

Mac's come a long way too!! He's never had the same anxiety issues that Spence has had, & his technique's getting pretty good. Next term he even gets to try out the Birkenhead pool for one day a week so that'll be cool to see how he goes there, cause apparently it's 3x the length of Helen's pool!!

I always wonder if he can actually see outta those things lol