end of July

 

end of July?!?! It is just odd to be in jackets, sipping hot chocolate, eating soups and hunkering in at home by 6pm because the darkness has come in July. Mentally my head is all confused by the dates. Someone said to me today – oh its August 1st and it takes me a few seconds to process that. A part of me is thinking that fall and winter is approaching and that football will soon be on tv (if we had a working tv). I don’t think I will get it until the temperature gets warm enough for shorts consistently.

last night bill did a great thing and came home early. he was home by 4, which was awesome. we got the kids up and I took off on a run (much needed) with plans to meet them at a park.

after meeting back up. me and eleanore.

claire.

bill saving claire from a high chain bridge (these are NOT easy to get over for 2 yr olds).

our claire saying “cheeeeeze”

Eleanore.

down the slide.

claire and ellie have NO fear. they are up and down things all the time. thankfully no big falls have happened.

most of the parks have these big teetor-totters.

so thankful to have Bill around to help push our way back home. I get plenty of comments here for having so many little kids – especially when all 3 are on the BOB. we definitely attract attention – no surprise here.

decisions

this has been a week of decisions. do I put charlie in acorn kindy? (the kindy I originally thought would happen has fallen through due to hour changes) wait for st heliers kindy? little school kindy? no kindy? do I put the girls in childcare/kindy at all? do I join a gym without childcare? do I join a gym with childcare, but very specific times? do I drive 28 minutes each way to attend BSF on mondays? do I enroll the kids in sports/swimming lessons? do i? do i? do i?  it is part of settling into a community and this is my first time doing it with kids. I remember meeting friends and getting involved in rochester and how exhausting it was. now I am doing it with 3 busy wolf children with me.

my head is spinning with pros and cons of all options above. and in reality I am running around doing things with the kids like a chicken with my head cut off. our week has been going much better now that I know what I have gotten myself into. I am in a new country with a few ‘sort’ of friends (really acquaintances) and 3 little kids. I’m not in rochester anymore (shed a tear).

monday we went to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) a worldwide Bible Study that I attended before I was married and living and working in Minneapolis. Laura also taught BSF for MANY years and I was super excited to be in a city that offers a morning program so Charlie, Ellie and Claire could attend. We drove about 28 minutes south of where we live because that is about the closest class to me. upon entering I was treated so kindly. people were hugging me and welcoming me. I checked the kids in and they did pretty well. one thing I like about my class is that I am definitely in the minority – white that is. the group is mostly asians with many groups speaking only mandarin and the lessons are done in mandarin. such a change of scenery for me and the kids compared to rochester, but I like it. they actually put me into a group that had just had an american lady there for 1 year while her husband was working as a doctor in NZ. so they were happy to have another american in the group.

today (tuesday), I met the wife of the Head & Neck fellow and her two kids (Millie – 4, Finn – 2) at her gym’s swimming pool. Prue and Nick are from Australia and we hung out with them on Sunday night and had a great time. Her pool has different sized kiddie/wading pools and so I decided to brave it. Going to a pool alone with 3 littlies is not always the best idea. For the most part it went pretty well. The pool worked out well for managing the kids, which made me happy. Exiting the pool and getting dressed is always the hard part, but we survived and then decided to head over to the Domain for packed lunches. Again – sounds easier than it is. I couldn’t find a parking spot close to where we wanted to go so I dropped Charlie off with Prue and then drove until I found a spot and it was FAR away. I loaded up one girl in the ergo on my back, carried one on my front and hiked it back. we had a great little picnic lunch and the kids played. around 1 the kids were melting so I had to hike it back to the car with all 3. the fun never stops! but we survived another adventure and are figuring out our new normal.

one thing I have decided is that I don’t want to schedule my days like I did in rochester. although I loved, just loved, the RAC and it was perfect for my life there. I really don’t want to spend this year at the gym, at swim lessons, at soccer/gymnastics/younameit (I REALLY miss my friend playdates though!!!). I want to explore and do things with the kids. this is probably the last year where I can be with charlie, ellie and claire most of the time. when we return to the states charlie will be starting kindergarten and the girls will be in preschool and I probably will be doing the things mentioned above and that will be great. but I hope and pray that this year is a year our family will cherish. that charlie, ellie and claire will learn how to play together, care for one another and be each others’ best friends. and I can actually say that I already see glimpses of that. over the last week the kids are slowly learning how to play all together in peace. charlie is leading the girls in different activities (some better than others), they will pull up chairs around their little table and doodle together. they will play “pappy’s boat” in charlie’s mildewy closet.

a quick shot of charlie and the girls playing in the “cold room” (large living room we don’t really use right now because it is chilly!)

focused ellie. she only lasted coloring on the paper for 3 minutes. then it was her belly button, lips and wall. love some washable markers!

the kids play at that little table lots.

I am going to make a decision about Charlie’s kindy sometime this week and then just be excited about all of the things we get to do as a family here.

now off to watch the bachelorette on itunes! my only TV for the week.

week one–survived

our first “real” week has passed and we are on the eve of another week. I can say that if I had written this post on wednesday or thursday night I would have had a much different outlook than I will tonight (sunday – july 28th). to be honest, most of last week was exhausting and emotional. I started off my week pretty well and met some mums and their kids at a playground. the kids played hard and it was a fenced in playground so I didn’t have to kill myself while managing everyone. charlie played with boys and things were looking up. bill was late getting home, which bummed me out because I was hoping for a new way of life, but then I had to remind myself this was his first day as well and he had to get acquainted and make good impressions for his first few weeks – he can’t be leaving work early on the first day and seem like a slacker (has Bill ever been a slacker?). tuesday also went pretty smoothly with a trip to storytime at the library and then playing at the beach/playground where again charlie played with some boys.  the things that I’m finding are the most challenging are 1. my kids are eating like crazy so I have to pack full on meals before leaving the house each day to prevent meltdowns from hunger and 2. things like bathroom breaks for the kids. in the states, I was usually with a friend when we were out and about or in REALLY familiar places/small places alone and I could leave a child or two in the vicinity of a friend and take JUST the child that actually needed to go to the bathroom away. not so here – even if I tried to ditch charlie he would realize I was leaving and follow and I can’t just leave claire alone because that girl doesn’t care where I am and she would just wander off. so imagine at storytime when ellie says she has to go “gunkle” and I try to sneak her off to the toilets only to have charlie stand up and come and claire and then we ALL squeeze into a little tiny toilet and I try to get ellie to go to the bathroom quickly while claire is trying to touch her and everything around her and charlie is poking her. it gets plain tiring!  wednesday took a turn for the worst when I woke up to rain and another day without a workout (it is my drug of choice). rain meant even if I just wanted to walk with the kids and get them outside I couldn’t….hmmm what to do. back to the library for storytime and then I decided to brave a grocery store run and take the kids to pak n’ save. this is not target people. phew! this was about the time that I really – really started to miss my friends. I was on the verge of tears for most of the morning because I was just tired and wanted to sit in one of my friends kitchens and have a cup of coffee and chat and let our kids play and not feel tense. we took another stop to the beach because the kids were begging to get outside and then it was back home and upon getting into her highchair ellie fell and cut her face. at first when I glanced at the cut I thought we might have to go to the ER for stiches and I almost really lost it, but then I called bill and he talked me down. thankfully I was able to get the bleeding under control and finally everyone to sleep! bill was home around 5 so I was able to fly out the door for a quick run before it got dark. exactly what I needed. 

thursday a friend from church that has identical twin 4 yr old girls sent me a text that we should get together at the Auckland Domain and go to the museum for a bit and then outside to feed the ducks/eels (more on this later). I figured I could handle that and knew that the BOB wouldn’t help me much so I would just bring one ergo and try to keep the kids around me. probably my first mistake was thinking I could easily manage this. even with a friend (I barely know her so it is different than a friend that knows my kids and me) it was very ambitious.

charlie and ellie waiting outside the museum.

me and claire. this lasted about 1 minute happily.

once inside the museum I quickly realized I might seriously lose one of the girls. they just dart off so quickly and they are small and the museum is a bunch of exhibits high and low, twisting and turning. it was BUSY! I tried my best to keep on an easy going face all while trying to chat with a new mum. e&c are just so independent and want to walk “me self”! so they put their hands in their pockets to show you that they can do it alone. I let them as long as they are staying by me, but their problem is they often think something else looks cool and then walk that way – in DIFFERENT directions. at what point do twins become easy? someone remind me. we did sit in an earthquake simulator and it was cool and freaky at the same time. at every exhibit/scenery change charlie would pitch a mini fit, which always adds to the fun. we headed outside to feed the ducks/swans/eels. there are a crazy amount of ducks and swans around and people enjoy feeding them cheap bread. rachel (the friend) had a few bags of old buns that were “too sugary for them to eat” so they feed them to the birds. it was classic – I handed charlie, ellie and claire the bread for the ducks and what do they do…start shoving it into their mouths. classic – so much for “too sugary for us to eat”. ha! my kids live for sugar! after feeding the ducks (and c, c &e) we headed over to these cool trees and the kids ate lunch – again – no pictures because I was keeping the children from jumping into the ponds with the ducks/eating old food they found on the ground/helping climb trees/encouraging eating/etc. after all of that we walked into a winter garden which has more ponds and I thought for sure a kid was going to launch themselves into a pond. but I literally dragged the children out of there kicking and screaming. they had fun, but I was fried and I still had to drive them home (20 min) and then put them to bed.  doing things with kids is worth it, but SO much work!

Friday, we woke up to a beautiful double rainbow and I knew things were looking up. for one – I had no plans of really going anywhere. I had loads of laundry to do (remember the line drying – it definitely doesn’t do itself that’s forsure!) and I knew I couldn’t handle another busy day. so we hung out at home, loaded up and went down to the playground/beach and played for a long time, went into the library to read some new books and take some new ones home and then it was back home for lunch, naps, my cooking/cleaning time, etc. I was pumped because linds and rob were coming that night and I needed some friend and family time!

yeah! a real friend who knows me and loves on my wild and crazy kids!

the kids were excited too!

charlie’s newest lego creation.

saturday morning we cruised out to the french market that I am obsessed with…

and then went to Britomart to cruise around. the kids had fun climbing on these structures.

Sunday we headed off to church (our second time there). it was nice to go to something familiar and the kids did great going into childcare. after church we went to Western Spring Reserve (there are TONS of reserves/parks/open spaces here) and again there were heaps of swans/ducks/pigeons/native birds. a few of the swans were trying to go after claire because she was eating a banana, but her dad protected her.

this is where it nasty! there are gobs of eels in these duck ponds. I have never seen this in the states, but this is taken looking into the water from that bridge above – there were a ton of eels swimming on top of each other and they are looking for bread and stuff. it makes your skin crawl!

all that to say, we had a great weekend with L&R and a delightful dinner tonight with another head and neck fellow and his wife and their two kids (4, 2) who are living here from Australia. Tomorrow starts another term here so all of our normal activities will be up and running (that was the hardest part about last week – nothing was in session). We are doing BSF tomorrow morning and then I will call all of our kindy options for charlie and determine which one is the best fit for him and hopefully get him started on that the following week.

La Cigale french market

Saturday we headed out to an adorable french market in Parnell. It was great and I’m hoping to get more of my groceries there in the future.

They definitely don’t skimp on the creamy goodness here. This little egg/bacon/bean/pizza thingy was dripping goodness.

the kids are constantly hungry. they have been so active here so whenever we bust food out they scarf it down. it is actually really nice – most of the meals I have made they devour and they are eating bananas, apples, and pears like candy.

speaking of candy…charlie and I waited in line to get 2 more treats. me take!

before heading home we wanted to find a park to let the kids run around. we started heading towards the park that we found via google maps and then realized we would have to take this cool path through the woods to get there. the BOB did some off-roading.

up another big hill. after sitting for a bit we cruised up and down the main shopping streets in Parnell and then headed home.

once home I ran inside and packed a quick lunch and we headed to a lookout area near our house to check it out and feed the kids.

eleanore and claire were in dancy/girly moods and were tiptoeing/dancing/wiggling all over. they are such a pair.

more beautiful views of Mt Rangitoto

we cruised down to a secret beach – or at least that is what we told the kids. there were people on the point of it when we arrived – so it obviously wasn’t that secret.

hiking down to the beach.

looking back at kohimarama and mission bay (st heliers is directly around this point so you can’t see it here).

Ellie.

Care – eating sand. she just won’t get over that.

now if you get grossed out you might want to skip the next few pics. the only issue with our kids eating so much good, legit food and being so active is that they tend to need to relieve themselves at the worst times. usually when hiking/exploring. here was another time charlie said “dad…I have to go ___ (fill in the blank)”. “oh good” is usually bill’s reply. so bill improvised – he hung charlie’s little bottom off of the rock and a few seconds later we were good to go.

oh – he also had to pee  too. much easier to deal with. thankfully ellie or claire didn’t have to go as well, but let me tell you that has happened a few times here in NZ. issues with young little systems.

more dancing and toe walking.

charlie trying to hear the sea in this tiny shell.

bill started finding tons of sea glass (the glass chunks that get all soft from the waves) and he started showing the kids. then they all started sifting through the sand to find pieces. claire was classic – she wouldn’t really focus that hard so would just hand Bill random pieces of shells, rocks, sand, sometimes sea glass.

charlie was pretty good when he was focused. picking up sea glass about 75% of the time. eleanore, of course, was all over it. she picked up the most sea glass of everyone. her personality is really developing and it is awesome how focused and determined she is.

handing yet another piece to dad.

claire free styling with a shell. she is such a free spirit – love her!

a little sick of picking up sea glass so claire decided to go explore the water.

LOVE these two!

how cute are they?

sometimes we pinch ourselves that we have these two little identical girls. so sweet to see their similarities and differences.

claire showing off her sand face. yuck!

we had a fire. too bad we were eating dinner by the time it burnt out. oh well – it has thankfully warmed up a bit so our house hasn’t been nearly as cold as the first week.

our little free spirit up close.

Bill starts work tomorrow after 2 weeks off. What a blessing these last 2 weeks were. We loved having him around for everything! The kids are going to be in shock tomorrow when it is just me – ha!