School Break

I am happy to announce that we have survived the first week of the school holidays.
Bug is off for two weeks and the anticipation leading up to the first day of her holiday put us in quite a good mood.

Naturally we have been busy with things around the house but to my greatest delight the weather also allowed us to spend some serious time on the beach or at the park.
I always worry that keeping my hyper super duper energetic little girl busy will be impossible and that she will turn into this out of control kid I pretend I never met.

Can I just say "NOT this time!!". She has been fund and helpful as well as a good sister. We have developed this something for something system and it seems to be making both of us happy.

We have been able to share our outings with her little friend Jake and the two of them can get lost in their pretend world for hours while Jake's mom and I enjoy a little "gossip" time.

I also think we might have found the best kept secret of St. Heliers. This little co op ice store carries very limited variety ice cream but the are absolutely delish....

Rotorua a.k.a. Rotovegas

On our latest journey we set out to check the local "Vegas". No, not because we wanted to gamble. Not even because of the wonderful magic shows. WE wanted to spend some quality time in the stinky geothermal pools, Rotorua is well known for.

We found a quaint little hotel on the "strip" with it's own tiny thermal pool, self containng kitchen. Perfect for a family traveling with small children kind of place.


Besides the first day of rain we actually got to spend some time just walking, playing and dipping into the stinky thermal water everywhere we wnet.

The scenery is quite amaizing, the pools are incredible. You can see steaming air everywhere you look. The smell of the thermals' is so apperant that at the time of our arrival I naivly but totally seriously commented that "someone had a poopy diaper!"

The reason the locals call the place Rotovegas is that it is a major destination for domestic or international tourists. As soon as you reach the city limits you can tell that most of it's population is set to "milk the cow".

Really we had a fantastic time. One well deserved get away and we loved it all the way. Well, maybe not our breakfast at the "most amazing" and "best of New Zealand's" cafe but hey it can't be all perfect.

Melting heart

Each day I wake up and I am so thankful to have two beautiful, happy and healthy child.
Each day some things drive me crazy and some things just melt my heart.
Today was that kind of a day.

Our day started out a bit slow, a bit groggy and a bit crazy at the same time. I was certainly ready to pull out my hair if I had any. Thankfully I shaved it recently.
It is quite a well-known phenomenon I would imagine in every family house.
Wake up, have breakfast, nurse, change diaper, use the potty, get dressed, brush hair and teeth, make lunch box ingredients, have a sip of coffee (if you can just jug down as much as you can, while you can, but be careful the beverage you are about to drink is HOT!!!) make sure everything is packed, get to the car, buckle up…….

Every day when we get to kindy, I help Bug settle in. There is a routine we follow each day we go. Today wasn’t any different, besides that I decided to hang around a little.
As I was sitting there Bug came up to me holding another little girl’s hand, one whom I haven’t met yet. She seems to be older, definitely taller and way more shy than Bug has ever bin.

Just as I was about to ask her name Bug introduced her to me and told me that “she just got back from a long vacation”. Once again I automatically turned to this new friend and asked her “where she spent her vacation”? To which I got no response, but a nice little smile. At this point Bug came to her rescue, took her hand and off they went with an “see you later mom.”

I watched them run to the swings while laughing at something invisible to me. I watched them enjoy their newfound friendship where words didn’t seem to matter.
Later I found out from one of her teachers that the new little friend has spent 3 months in Croatia (where she is from) for 3 months and her English has gone out the window.
Bug took it on herself apparently to teach her everything she needs to know and make her feel welcomed back and comfortable.
As I said, she melts my heart.

I'm dreaming of a lemon tree

Guess what? We've got a lemon tree!
Well,not really! Our neighbor has lemon tree that is full of ripe lemons at the moment. Yeah, that is what I thought too! It is winter here and we have a citrus tree full of it's juicy fruit.

Seeing how they would go bad unless we rescue them, Bug and I decided to put them to good use.We picked them ourselves right off of the tree, we put on our baking aprons and squeezed out their delicious juice to make our favorite LEMON BARS!

Bug loved making them so much that now we have a plan to make lemon cake, lemon torte, lemon jelly, lemon pudding, lemon soup, lemon muffins, lemon shots.......

Where the wild things are

After our decision to make the big move I became so excited about the wonderful landscape New Zealand has to offer. It is THE perfect place if you love the outdoors.
You can say we are those people. For the first time I took Bug for a hike, quite a long one I might add, she was only about a year old. It was always quite important to us that our kid/kids end up liking just being outside, running wild and loving nature.
Even though we live about 5 minutes outside of the city even our neighbourhood has great reservoirs and "bush walks" as they call them here.
It seems to be something that both Bug and Bee enjoy, it is free and time well spent!

Playing Dress Up

We played dress up. Well, actually we dressed Bee up and than laughed and laughed until we almost peed our pants. We laughed at him and he laughed with us. Poor guy if he would know that we were laughing at him.

He is such a great sport though. He let’s us do whatever we want as long as we keep him entertained. So, this time around we took out a huge hat, a small hat, a cape and Bugs wonderful flowery hair band.

Maybe next time we pull out the tutu’s lining Bug’s closet and everything pink. Hey, who said a boy can wear whatever his sister wants?

Walking in the winter wonderland

Sorry, but we have been hibernating. Winter has come and is almost gone and I could not be happier knowing that all this rain and “cold” weather is about to end.
Living in Southern California makes you forget that winter actually brings some changes to the weather for the rest of the world.

This year New Zealand’s winter was quite mild compared to last year’s. Right after we arrived in Auckland we experienced cold weather we never imagined a “tropical” country could have.
Having four seasons allows us to experience all the different colors, smells, noises that New Zealand has to offer.

During the winter months we took, as many walks as we could take be that early in the morning or late afternoon. Our neighborhood has great streets that lead right down to the bay, which of course offers an amazing playground.
Bug loves to ride her bike but lately she actually prefers to walk.

While we walk we talk. When we talk we talk a lot. She asks lot of questions and they all have to be answered. We have to talk about how the moon gets home and if it would drive a car what kind would it be? Or, we talk about superheroes and their hobbies besides saving peoples’ lives.

Sometimes we stop by the coffee shop for a cup of hot coco and a grandee vanilla late. If she has been really good we ask a pastry to come along.

We love to take pictures and explore. Bug picks flowers but only the ones we find on the ground. She thinks they need lots of care and the warmth of our home. Needless to say they last about a day and than they quietly “go away”.

So this is how we hibernate. Soon winter turns into spring and that will be our new reason to take our long walks. Only to explore what spring has to offer……