How hard can it be?

How hard can it be to get a nice pic of Papa and the grandkids?  Turns out, its really, really, really hard!

Started with two babies and then thought "Let's get all the grandkids....

 Darn, Papa has his eyes closed and ooops, we forgot Micah.  "Micah, where are you??"

Ok, Micah's here now.  Oh nice smile Micah and Papa...umm Isla, can you look at the camera please?
Luca, you too...and Oriana, please try and smile



Oh I give up, this is as good as it's gonna get!!



Besties at the beach

Micah and Isla are at that age now where they really enjoy each other's company.  They used to before as well but I've noticed lately that they really look forward to seeing each other.  Isla is talking more and more and it seems like Micah understands every single word.  Plus Isla has the patience of a saint and will listen to Micah's constant chatter and bossiness. 

On Micah's day off from preschool, I asked him what he wanted to do and he immediately replyed "Can we go play with Isla?"  So I texted Aunty Lagi and sure enough, she was free!  So off we went to pick her up.  We crammed 3 car seats in the back and off we went. 

Had a really fun day and even though I thought it might be a mission with 3 kids, it was actually easy peasy because Isla and Micah entertained themselves.

What are you doing next Monday Isla?  Wanna come play again?? 

Happy 4th Birthday Micah!

It still hasn't sunk in that our little boy is 4 years old and that he'll be going to school next year!!  This year, we were going to go to Splash Planet for his birthday but when we decided 3 weeks before his birthday that Mark and Micah would join in on Israel's trip instead, we had to rush and try and organise a birthday party for him.

Since he now has some mates from preschool, we decided to have a separate party in the morning for his friends and then invite the family and family friends in the afternoon.  Not sure why we made that decision, but it sounded like a good one at the time.

Unfortunately we didn't consult Micah about this and so when his friends arrived in the morning for the party, he ran into his room, took his pants off and hopped into bed.  Horrified, I tried and tried to conjole him out of his room and to come and play with his friends but to no avail.  Obviously Micah subscribes to the philosophy that 'It's my party and I can sleep when I want to...".  So his little friends spent about 30 mins playing on their own until Micah decided to make the grand entrance and away we went.

Funnily enough, the kids did end up playing mostly in Micah's room and in his bed so he got his way after all.

Next year, we're definitely going away on a holiday....because it took us all about 3 days to recover from having 2 parties in 1 day!!

Happy Birthday son!

Splash Planet

This year, Micah and Mark took a boys trip away and joined in on Israel's Birthday NZ tour.  When one of the Taulelei boys turn 10, it's tradition that they get to go on a trip of their choice and have the 'man talk' with their dad.  When Xander turned 10, he went on a trip to the Gold Coast with Joe and we met up with them there.  Last year when Israel turned 10, he decided on a NZ road trip and so Mark and Micah met up with them on the last stop - Splash Planet!  Just so happened that Walter and Lilly also went along and so did Xander, Ethan, Leigh and Bill (Leigh's brother).
I stayed behind in Wellington with Oriana (the thought of putting on swimming togs didn't really appeal to me so I used the excuse of "Oriana's too young to travel" to get out of going! lol).

But it looks like they all had a great time and all the kids came back happy and very well tanned!

Micah's first play date

Micah had his very first play date today.  I tell you, this is a whole different world for us!  We invited his friend Saskia to come over to play for a couple of hours.  Everyone pitched in and got up early to clean up the house.  Papa cleaned up the outside, Mark and I set up the toys and cleaned up the house and Nana baked choc chip cookies.  A lot of effort but we wanted to make a good first impression!

The backyard looked like it could have been a daycare facility! lol

We all had a great time - Saskia is a bright, intelligent and wonderfully behaved little girl - oh so different from our Micah! ha,ha  For lunch, she only wanted to eat carrots and apple while Micah only wanted his cheese toastie.  Then when asked what movie they wanted to watch, he wanted Bambi and she wanted to watch Kung Fu Panda....what the hey? lol

She got on brilliantly with Micah and before we knew it, it was time to go home.  We all had a great time and now everyone is having naps!!



Happy Belated Birthday Uncle Matt!

Ooops Sorry Uncle Matt, we forgot to wish you a hip hip hooray happy birthday and an even fabulous New Year.
I know it's like a month late, but if it makes you feel any better, we're planning to send you and Rach a care package with some kiwi goodies for your birthdays!!!

Yippeeee.....hope you had an awesome day!!

What a skux! :)

Micah's Prize giving

This is a picture of Micah's preschool class.  Can you see him in the middle there with his happy face on?  LOL

I asked him later on why he was so grumpy and he just shrugged his shoulders.  The friends that he plays with the most are Saskia (blonde girl - second from the left, back row) and Arnav (boy with the blue top sitting on the middle chair, front row).

Before preschool broke up for the holidays, they held a little prizegiving and all the kids got certificates for achieving something this year.

 Micah got a certificate for his wild imagination.  Every time he goes to school, he pretends to be either somebody else (e.g. Isla or Lilly)  or an animal (e.g. dinosaur or doggie).  It's gotten to the point where the kids ask him who he is when he arrives at school and then they all play along!

This year, Micah also received a special certificate for being kind and caring towards others.  His teachers said that he always goes out of his way to make the new kids at school feel welcome.  I think this probably comes from the time that he spends playing with Isla and being aware of someone that is younger than he is.

Merry Christmas from us to you!

Summer is here

Wow, all of a sudden the temperature has been hitting the mid 20s here in Wellington.  I never thought it would come but yep, summer is finally here.  I think I prefer summer in Wellington over the sweltering heat in Sydney.  At least here you can go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather.  In Sydney, we tended to stay indoors most of the time because it was just TOO hot!

So with summer comes lots of time to play outside.  Micah loves it when Isla comes over for play dates.  They really are tight as two peas in a pod.....most of the time.  They do have their battles as well but most of the time they enjoy each other's company.

Last week they were playing with the hose filling up buckets of water for their swimming pool.  I felt so sorry for them trying to swim in their budget pools that I went out and bought them a secondhand paddling pool off TradeMe. 

Fun, fun, fun!

With their budget bucket pools

Rub a dub dub two monkeys in tubs

Yippee, upgraded to a real paddling pool

Ooh and off come the clothes