Things I'm Loving....

As Paisley Jade says every Friday.....

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something that you can be thankful for... no matter how simple it is.


Today I am loving the weather.
It was one of those days where when you wake it is a little cool and foggy but once the sun comes up the fog disperses and suddenly you are left with this glorious day.
The sky is blue and the sun is shinning.
Now I remember why I love living in New Zealand. This is one of those beautiful left over summer days that pop up at the beginning of autumn.

I am loving surprises too.
Well surprises for the children are even more fun. This morning when we dropped the boys at school there were 2 hot air balloons launching from the school grounds. I have never seen the boys run into school that fast before, they were so eager to see the balloons.
Once I got to work I nipped back to school to find out what was happening.
Turns out one of the parent's father's owns one of the balloons and decided to go flying today. So they cleared it with the Principle to be able to launch from the school. Well we had the sun and the glorious skies but sadly no wind once the balloon was blown up.
1 of the balloons did just manage to lift off, with one of the teachers inside, and then headed out over Hamilton, unfortunately when the bell went to start school we actually had no idea as to when that teacher was going to be back as we could all see the balloon gently floating over Hamilton heading north!
The children thought this was wonderful that their teacher had floated away and was coming back anytime soon.
The balloons totally disrupted school though because when the bell went at 9, no one wanted to move, they were giving up and down rides to the kids if they had parents there at the time, so many of the classes stood around and watched the balloons and then about 9.20 the balloon finally ran out of gas so they had to fold it down, the kids loved watching how fast they grounded the balloon and folded the canvas up, it was fascinating to watch.
think there will be many stories written today at school about how the balloons came to the school.
Such fun, thanks to Rebecca's dad for giving the school such joy on a glorious Friday morning.

I am also loving my weight lose.
Yes I lost another 500g (1.1lb) this week taking my total to 2kg (4.4lb).
Slow and steady still working and that is all I wanted.

Why don't you pop over to Paisley Jade where she is hosting this weeks Things I'm Loving for us to all join in with. Always great to get a boost of good feelings from others.

Sunshine Fun

Today it has felt like spring.

The sun is shining and it is glorious.

We met up with some friends and went to the Hamilton Gardens for the tulip festival. Perfect place to go when you want to burn off energy from 5 children, 11yr old, 6 yr old and 3 4yr olds.

All around the garden was tulips in bloom. There was also a few stalls at the pavilion selling Dutch items but we spent most of our time wandering round our usual favorite spots in the Gardens taking heaps of pictures. There are even some of me! I had to keep asking the family to take pictures because like all bloggers we never actually end up in the pictures because we are always taking the pictures!

Our good friends Lisa, Cameron, Hollie and Nathan were with us and we had an awesome time.

Sunshine

Isn't it amazing what a little sunshine can do for everyones spirits after so much winter cloud and rain!

The radio told us yesterday that, hopefully, this weekend will be dry.

The first dry one in 13 weeks!

Yes, we have been having the odd nice day during the weeks of winter, but come the weekend and all it can do is rain!

Today is a beautiful sunny day, with the odd cloud and the whole step of the city seems to be brighter and chirpier.

I love the effect the sun can have on people's moods.

With spring officially only a couple of days away, hopefully soon we will start to have some more days like today.

Pictures

The middle of August in New Zealand is winter, and yes we have our fair share of crap weather, but then slipped into the middle of it all you get a day like today. The sky is so blue, the sun is warm and your spirit gets raised at least 200%.

This is what makes it so nice living here over the UK, you don't get days like this in the middle of winter in England. As our front deck gets all the sun all day, then it was silly not to have a bench or 2 out there to enjoy the sunshine with. We regularly have lunch out there. Show me a child that can resist bubbles. Ben and Alex love them, but then so does mummy.Ben decided to help me with the washing. How could I not let him help me hang things up? At least they were pegged up, I can work on the straightness another time(I know picky picky at least he is helping) This is what I like to see....a man on his knees working!

Winter

This whole week has been fabulous. Blue sky's and sun shining. What more could you want in the middle of winter with a 2 year old at home!
What makes it even better is my 12 week old is now sleeping longer at night, so I am getting a 4-5 hour block of sleep each night. Yea, there is life again.