Camper Van

As we flew down to Wellington we decided to do something different to get us back to Auckland. So we organised to relocate a camper van from Wellington to Auckland.

This means that we got a camper van very cheaply because they are always having one way bookings and then have vans stuck in parts of the country where they don't need them, so rather than pay for a driver to go and get the van, they rent them to the public at a very cheap rate, like $5 per day instead of the standard rate of $114 per day, you do have a limited amount of time that you can take to get the van back but they are very adaptable. Check out here if you want more details, it covers New Zealand and Australia.
The boys thought this was a wonderful idea and had great fun for 3 days in the van.
The van we obtained was a 6 berth, so had plenty of space for all of us and our stuff, was a little old, but served the purpose we needed. The boys thought the bed at the top was fun, but they were too little to be able to sleep up there, so it became our storage area, very useful actually.
It was good fun, but nice to eventually get home and stop moving! felt like I had been on the move for days.

Patchwork Quilt

At the conference they referred to all the different services involved with parenting like a patchwork quilt.

Quite a nice resemblence I think.

Several months ago National Office sent all centres some material and asked us to create a quilt block. There were certain specifications involved, but generally a block representing what our centre meant to the local community and when building the block we had to try to incorperate the 2 pieces of material supplied so every block had a common thread.

I was the lucky person who had the privelige of putting our block together. We didn't go for anything too fancy, found a design that represented what we wanted to say and then I printed it onto special quilting material you can put through your home computer printer and then added some borders. I was really happy with what we ended with, simple but nice.

It was quite funny because I had forgotten about this, as it was about 3 months ago I sent it in to National Office and then there they were talking about parenting and a patchwork quilt in one of the evening sessions.

Suddenly it dawned on me what they were about to do.

The quilt, celebrating 55 years of Parents Centre, it was a wonderful moment to be part of, especially as my block was part of it, even though it was for Central Auckland Parents Centre, it was still my block.

There were some amazing blocks in the quilt. The centre block showing the logo of PCNZ was so well done. In the blue plain squares the quilter had quilted in the shape of the logo, unfortunately it doesn't show here, but looked so good in person. A lot of effort had gone into this and it showed. It was beautiful.

Conference

The conference was something I wanted to experience as it was being run by National Office, the annual conference is usually run by a centre somewhere around New Zealand.
I have had the pleasure of attending conference for the last 2 years, firstly in Auckland and then last year in Christchurch. So I was interested to see exactly what National would put on and how well it all ran.

National Office is based in Wellington so this is where conference was held this year. They held it at Te Papa, the museum in Wellington, actually quite a cool place to hold a conference. Steve and I had been to a dinner there previously but not a whole conference.

Unfortunately due to the shuttle issues we had and helping Steve get the boys settled before I went to the conference area, I didn't have time to attend the official service, but I did get to the first session at 8.30pm

They opened the conference with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) but they managed to make this last 2 days!! We had half the AGM on the Friday night and then had the other half on Sunday morning! I have never known anyone be able to make an AGM last for so long, unfortunately it meant that attendance at the 2nd half was way down on the first half.


The speakers and break out sessions on the Saturday were good, some inspiring speakers. I found my first break out session a little slow to get going, but made some good contacts whilst in the session. Got to meet someone in a centre not far from where I will be in Hamilton, so we got talking and exchanged details, so will get in touch when I move.

I also got to meet 2 people from the Hamilton Centre, so know when their meetings are being held, so will go along when I have moved. Sounds like they are going through a small bad patch, sort of what Auckland went through last year, but looking forward to seeing if I can help and working with a different committee with a different way of doing things in a different town.


The conference dinner on the Saturday night was good, nothing too fancy but had a theme of 60's & 70's. We had some wonderful costumes appear and some people really went to town on their design. The entertainment was fabulous, they got 'The Beat Girls' who were just amazing. Played all the right music and they were so entertaining.

Sunday was another good day at conference, again some more good speakers and good break out sessions.
Something new they did this year was to have a Dad's Day, generally they ran sessions for the Dad's on the Saturday, so Steve was registered for this and he says it was very interesting. In total there were 4 dad's at the day but they had good speakers and good discussions on how this day could be better organised and planned so more dad's could attend. The only small problem to it is that all the dad's are at home looking after the kids so the mum's can attend conference, so something big would have to be organised about childcare to allow the dad's the advantage of attending conference at the same time, but Steve said lots of ideas were flowing around and it will be interesting to see what comes of it, hopefully that will not be the one and only dad's day at conference.

At the end of the day this is a conference for volunteers, apart from the paid people in National Office the rest of Parents Centre New Zealand (all 52 centres) runs on the wonderful enthusiasm of volunteers and the awesome time they are prepared to give.
Like all volunteer stuff, you can be involved a little or a whole lot, just purely depends on what you want to take on.
To meet up with another 150 people all with the same enthusiasm as myself is very inspiring, so I always come away from Conference with lots of ideas to try and help our centre over the next year.
Not sure where conference is being held next year, they are talking about having a 'Volunteer Symposium' instead, but hey will give anything ago, so watch this space and will let you know where and when and what it will be.

Parents Centre

The weekend has been very busy as we flew to Wellington on Friday so I could attend the National Conference of the organisation that I volunteer for Parents Centre New Zealand.
They are an organisation that hosts and organises Childbirth Education Classes and Parent Education classes once the baby is born. Check out their web site for more exact details of what is on offer.

The boys had a ball on the plane, although Ben decided once we were about 2 minutes up after take off that he had had enough now and that we could go down now, but after a little reassurance everything was good, it was only an hour long flight so nothing too hard, although Ben didn't like the blocked ears he got as we were coming down and there were a few tears there. Alex thought it was all good fun and as usual didn't want to be strapped into his seat, but we survived and I think they both enjoyed their little adventure on the plane.
Unfortunately I wish I could say the same for the shuttle to the hotel, this was organised by the conference and it took an hour to get us from the airport to the hotel, after doing a ticky tour of Wellington to drop others off first! So that meant that at 5pm we were still in the shuttle, with the boys being so good but quickly loosing it because they had had enough and were getting hungry and thirsty!
So it was great to get to the hotel and have them be so on to it, check in took 2 minutes and we were in the restaurant before they opened at 6pm, but that didn't matter, they were so good with the boys, even found out what the chef had in the kitchen that the boys could eat without us having to ask. The young waiter we had, Adam, was fabulous, he went out of his way to assist us and even predicted some of the stuff we would need and just appearred with it before we had asked. When you are travelling with a 2 & 4 year old, this makes all the difference to enjoying the time away or stressing out. Thank you Adam, you made our time away so enjoyable.

The room was small but suitable, it had 2 double beds and a lovely little kitchenette area, with dishwasher and washing machine!
Seeing as the boys were only going to be with us there for 1 night, it was just right.

Travelling with Kids

Yesterday we flew down to Wellington so I could attend a conference. We were actually amazed at how small the amount of bags there were to take with us, considering it was for all 4 of us and we were not coming home till Wednesday after getting a camper van for a few days (thus the car seats)
Due to how long we were going to be away, it was actually cheaper and easier to get a shuttle to the airport. The boys thought this was a good idea. Ben enjoyed the ride, Alex was so tired with it being sleep time, so he enjoyed the ride because he doesn't remember it!Luckily we were able to get him out of the shuttle without waking him, so getting around the airport to check in was easy. Just had to remember not to check him with the luggage at the counter!

PS: This is my 100th blog.

Hiding

Seems my 2 love to hide. Alex is very good at it too, although a little dangerous at times because he will go and hide and is so good he won't say anything, even if you call his name, he stayes dead quiet and won't answer. Great when you are playing at home, but could be a worry if he ever ran off in a shop to hide!

Alex found a cupboard to hide in today, Ben did exactly the same when he was this age.

Shame it is the cupboard on our tv unit!

Suitcase

As we are flying to Wellington this weekend we realised that we really needed a new suitcase. We brought a new one not long after Alex was born, which the boys share, but Steve and I don't really have anything suitable for the 2 of us to share.

So we looked around and found something suitable.

Children being children decided that this was an ultimate hiding place.

So our 2 had great fun hiding, amazing how many kids you can fit in a suitcase!

Cute

I announced I was going out for 5 minutes the other day and suddenly Alex was at the door waiting for me to go so he could wave goodbye.After a very early start to the day, 5.30am, because we had a house full of relatives with jet lag, and a big day getting to know his cousins, Ben settled to sleep very easily.
This is how we found him when we went back to turn his light out.
So peaceful and happy.

Here At Last

My brother and his family are here at last.
Iain is my little brother, oh and my only brother. He is married to Claire and they have 2 boys, Ellis who is 6 and Harvey who is 3.
They have emigrated to New Zealand for a new life and are going to be living in Rotorua.

Finally my boys have some other relatives their own age around.
So cute to see all the cousins together, they all got on really well, which is great to see.
Although how can you not like each other when playing with a Thomas the Train Set and Lego.

Claire and Harvey, still a little wide eyed from jet lag, but doing well.
Ben getting use to Uncle Iain being there.
I am so glad to have them here, I haven't seen Iain for 4 years, and prior to that would have been when I left England 10 years ago.
So I can honestly say I don't really know my brother and his wife, but I am so looking forward to getting to know them and their boys and having them in our lives much more than when they were 10,000 miles away.

Welcome to new Zealand Iain and Claire, Ellis and Harvey, we wish you all the best.
You know where we are in Hamilton if you need us for anything, so please do just call or come visit, our door will always be open to you.

We are so glad to have you here.

They Have Arrived

So after a manic morning at work I finally found myself, with the family at the airport.
We had our signs ready and we raced upstairs to the big windows to watch the plane land.
We were lucky enought to catch it land and taxi all the way to the gate right in front of us.
So the boys got to see the plane right up close and watch all the men doing the work as they emptied the luggage, checked everything and prepared it for the next trip.

Grandma and Grandad have been arriving at the airport so much in Ben's life that the sign we have to wave when they arrive is preprinted and laminated! Stuck nicely on a stick, it gets loads of remarks when ever we go to the airport.
People always smile to see Ben with his sign, they think it is so cute.

Here they come, nearly at the gate.
Unfortunately it was all a little emotional when we finally saw them face to face, so didn't manage to get any pictures, but had a lovely big cuddle, with tears, from my baby brother.

So great to finally have them here.

Alex and Ben

Alex is not a happy chappy when he wakes from his lunchtime sleep!
As you can see all he wants to do is snuggle until something takes his fancy and then he is off.

Alex must have been sick too often this winter...because Ben now knows how to take his own temperature and tell us when he is sick!

Grandma's Camper Van

When you have a camper van in the drive way, then why not make use of it.
Our 2 decided they wanted to hold a party in there and then have dinner as well, who were we to say no.
So we set the table, placed a sheet down to catch the mess and away we went, sitting on our own driveway eating dinner in Grandma's camper van.

Unfortunately the fun ended abruptly when Alex fell out the door!

The Joneses

The Joneses are the real estate company we used to sell our house.
There was a letter from them when we got home yesterday saying congratulations on the successful sale of our house and thank you for using them over any other real estate agent etc.

They also included a CD of all the marketing pictures they took, so we have a nice memory of our house. The CD case has a nice picture of our house on the front with a SOLD sign over it.

They also wished us all the best of luck and included 2 lottery tickets for the next 2 draws!!
How cool is that, something so small but so cute.

That made us both smile and was such a nice token gesture from them.

So a huge thank you to Jane and Adam from The Joneses, we really appreciate what you did for us and all the help you gave us. Also thank you for answering all those silly emails and calls we probably made when trying to work out what happened next or when something was going to happen.

500 kms Later

This weekend has just been a marathon travel for us, and the boys have been so good during it all.
Yes we travelled 500kms this weekend.
We left home on Saturday morning about 10am, to go to Hamilton to meet the lady renting the house to us so we could officially sign the papers.
All went well here and she was very happy to meet us.
We will meet her again in 2 weeks time when we collect the key from her, we don't start paying rent until Sept 29, so can't really have the keys prior to that.
Then we got in the car and carried on to Rotorua, with mum and Iain & co arriving on Wednesday, we needed to make sure all forms of transportation is available for them to get home with when they leave us, so that meant we had to collect mum and dad's camper van.

So we had a lovely night in Rotorua with my Aunty and Uncle, who kindly put us up for the night. Ben and Alex spent time with Jazz and Chedan(my cousin's children). Steve and I got to relax a little.
We collected the van and then on Sunday morning we drove to Papamoa to:

1. Drop of my cousin's children who had been in Rotorua and needed a ride home


2. To go and look at the local campsite and see if they would have space to take our new caravan we are looking at getting.
   
   

This was a lovely time, despite the rain! Where had the sun gone from the day before? So we checked out the campsite and sadly we don't think we will be able to place our caravan there, but no worries we will sort something out.

So then we started the marathon journey home, unfortunately we ended up stopping 4 times, once or twice just to have a quick drink and a biscuit and yes once was for clearing up Alex who succeeded in throwing up spectacularly just before we were going to stop for dinner.

We stopped for dinner at the same restaurant we seem to have stopped at for the last 3 times we have travelled home. Beginning to get to know their menu and what is actually good and hot and what is not. The boys love their toasted cheese sandwich with a slice of ham on the side and at the end of the day it is their dinner that I am more worried about, Steve and I can eat anything later on when we get home but they are always so tired so we have to stop so we know they will eat.

So we finally got home at 7.30 on Sunday evening, very tired, but having successfully achieved everything we needed to this weekend.

Emigrating

My brother and family have arrived in Dubai to spend a couple of days with grandma and grandad.
All very emotional and exciting for them.
Start of a very big adventure but sad to leave all the people behind in England.

They get here on Wednesday afternoon, so we will all be at the airport to meet them and welcome them to NZ

After daycare

Little rituals are what sometimes keeps this family flowing right.

Ben and Alex always love having a drink as soon as they get in the car from Daycare, so we utilised an old baby bag we had and it is now the drinks bag.

Every morning we do bottles of drink for them and then we put them in the insulated bag and the drinks then sit in the car all day whilst we are at work, until we pick them up.

We came up with the bag as the drinks were getting hot sitting in the sun all day long!

This way they don't get too hot and if they do leak for any reason it just messes up the bag and not the car.

So before the car can leave Daycare, we have to get out the drinks, you would think they hadn't had a drink all day sometimes.

My Brother

Today my brother and his family start a new chapter in their life....they are emigrating to New Zealand.
Yes it seems that everything is happening to my family all at the same time.
In fact Steve and Iain are both starting their new jobs on the same day....Oct 1.

So at 14.15 today they board their first flight this way.
They are joining mum and dad in Dubai for 4 days and then mum is flying with them to NZ on Wednesday next week.
We are all going to the airport to meet them and then they will stay with us over night before going down to Rotorua, where they will be living in our parents house for the next year.

Mum is staying with them for a week to get them all settled and sorted and then she is flying back to Dubai.

So all the best to my little brother and his tribe, Claire (wife), Ellis (6) and Harvey (3).
I look forward to getting to know you all and having our boys get to be great mates with your boys, they are cousins after all.

See you really soon.

Steve's Last day at ADHB

Today is Steve's last day working with Auckland District Health Board.
He has been working with them now for just over 12 years.
In that time he has started in the Operating Rooms and ended in the IS Department.

He originally started as a Staff Nurse in Theatres, he then also took on the Anaesthetic Technician Role. Through doing this he was one of the people that assisted in getting Auckland Hospital all set up for the start of doing Liver Transplants within New Zealand in 1998. (Would you believe he was also involved with the first heart transplant as well in about 1987)

In 1999 he became one of the Nurse Educator's within the Operating Rooms, this then lead to him being seconded to a project within the IS department to look at the computer programme they were planning on implementing to capture the data within the Operating Room. As a senior person with the OR's he was an ideal person to represent the OR's on the project.
Unfortunately Steve never went back to the OR's because when the project finally finished he secured the position of Functional Support Person for the programme.

So Steve has spent the last 4+ years looking after PIMS (the computer programme from iSoft, not the drink!) or iPms as it is now known as.

It is through doing Pims that Steve has obtained the position down in Hamilton.
They have just implemented Pims within their hospital but have not gone live with the Theatre Module of it, that is Steve's job.
So rather than being on the team this time, Steve is going to lead the team.

I know he will miss ADHB, it has been a big chunk of his working life for so long. He has met some wonderful people along the way (including me and look where that lead him!)

This is Steve's farewell to all at work:
'The time has come now to say goodbye as this day is my last at ADHB.
I have spent 12 years working here starting at MBOR as a Staff Nurse to a Charge Nurse to a Anaesthetic Tech to a Nurse Educator to the IS department.
I have had experiences here that only ADHB could supply such as being involved as a Tech for the First Liver Transplant, involved with the change programme to install iPMs theatre and build a new hospital.
I wish to thank all I have met for the fun times as well as the stressful ones.
I am off to Waikato District Health board to help in installing the iPMs theatre module to their hospital.
All the best.'

So I am sure everyone will join me in wishing him all the best in Hamilton.
They can all buy him drinks at dinner tonight.

Trains, Trains and Trains

In the last couple of weeks Ben has really got into his trains.
We set up some track in the study on the weekend before his birthday and it has stayed there ever since.
We started with a pretty basic set up and as he has gained more track along the way for different things, like birthday and extra special gifts for very good behaviour, we have extended it.
He loves disappearing into the study and running his trains, Steve loves joining him too.


Alex likes to help but seems to spend more time getting yelled at for sitting on the track or running off with a train.

The last picture here shows Alex with his own little track and train, our little way of trying to distract him from what Ben was doing, but as you can see all he wanted to do was sit on it and keep showing Ben stuff.

A Place We will Miss

Since Ben was 7 1/2 months old he has been attending daycare. He had a 6 month break as he turned 2, whilst I was at home on maternity leave with Alex, but after that he has been there until this day.
Alex joined him when he was 7 1/2 months too.

We chose this daycare as we felt it had a homely feel to it, plus Ben took an instant liking to it on the times we visited prior to him starting. He was always fascinated by what was going on and all the pictures on the wall, all the other places we visited, he never seemed that interested in them.
We have never for a moment regretted sending our boys here, this has been the 2nd place for them to grow up, the place where they do all their messy play, learn to share with more than just 2 other people and learn where they fit in with a big group.


Daycare have always been very accommodating to our needs, always being able to help us when we have required extra sessions, be it for 2 weeks or 6 months.

When Alex was first born I could ring them at 8.30 to see if they had space for Ben and he was usually there playing by 9.15.So he did quite a few extra days when Alex first arrived. It was great to have that outlet for both myself and Ben.
He got to play and have lots of attention and I got to have one on one time with Alex, or more time to sleep!

The current owners took over a month or so before Ben first started and lots has changed whilst we have been there. The rooms inside have become even bright and colourful than I remember them on our first visit.
There are so many little corners for the kids to hide in, escape to or even discover. The walls are always covered in pictures and stories of what everyone has been up to in the centre and it is always fun to find out what has been happening.
The boys have their little set routine and are so good with what happens when they arrive and leave. It makes collecting them and dropping them off so enjoyable.
So thank you so much to Glenda and her wonderful team at 'Under 5' Care and Learning.

My sons have grown so much with all your love and care.

We shall miss you all very much, we are very grateful for everything you have ever done for our family, your support and your open door to our family.