jane had a busy day meeting various people and tidying in preparation for our visitors (according to the current flight tracker they’ve now left LA for Auckland and are but 10 hours away at the time of writing)
i had a busy day at work
kezia had swimming and there’s been various logistical tennis things to work out.
hi. the server where funkypancake and associated blogs live seems to be having a bad hair day/week/month. try again later if slowness prevails. thanks. dave
the day started with some family skyping, then off to church followed by a meeting about a friend in need
this afternoon kezia’s been at a birthday party and esther had a friend round. they spent 4 hours talking and did a bit of swimming in the pool
meanwhile jane and i did various domestic stuff including preparing for our soon-to-arrive international visitors and some pool maintenance
this evening jane, kez and i went for a walk round the cemetery with pearl, then the humans had a dip in the pool.
Pearl drank from the non-drinking tap.
jane and kezia were up early for kezia’s 6.30am start swimming lesson. jane and pearl went for an early morning walk on the beach and it was lovely apparently
then jane and esther went to tennis. esther won her doubles match and practically drew her singles match as it went to tie-breaker and she lost 7-9. i know that because kezia and i relieved jane of her watching duties half way through
as soon as we all got home we had a very quick lunch then zoomed over to a vineyard out in the rolling hills of north west auckland to watch some bands
there were three bands on in the grounds of the vineyard
lawrence arabia is one of our new favourites
alongside phoenix foundation who are an old favourite
we were sitting near the front in the blistering sun
but we got a great view of both the stage and the dancing crowd
there was a really nice atmosphere of people just enjoying the music and the lovely weather
then this evening we watched a bit of family telly
mad busy day at work for me, but all good productive stuff. i won’t bore you with the details, but this year looks like it’s going to be very busy already (here’s an example of why)
girls had good days at school, and jane was busying about today and has a new lovely hair cut
this evening was swimming for both girls and i went for a coffee with warren accompanied by bag pipes
Dave had a busy day at work.
Esther had a busy day at school.
I did domestics.
Kezia got 2 PBs at a swim meet.
today was a public holiday to celebrate Waitangi Day
so we took Pearl for a walk on Muriwai.
dogs can run free on much of the beach
so once we were confident Pearl wouldn’t run away, we let her off her leash.
there were loads of black Labradors on the beach so she had lots of fun
the girls had a giant ice-cream on the way back (pictures below)
then esther was out at tennis then her church youth group
the church group were meant to be meeting at the beach but there was a tsunami warning which thankfully amounted to nothing, but meant they changed venue for their barbeque so that was all good
meanwhile kezia and i went to the shops for a wander round the sales (a successful trip in that she came back with only slightly less than she went with!)
then this evening i’ve been fiddling about with the pool trying to change a light bulb and doing some cleaning
as you can see the gorgeous weather is back after 2 days of rain. just how we like it!
Kezia turned 11 today. Well done her. She celebrated by going to school.
she opened her presents at 6.45am so i could be there to watch. that was good
jane had church work. i had work and my half year review which went very well.
then this evening there was violin lessons, then dog training (kezia took this photo of a tonguey hound)
and now the girls are in the pool in the night time darkness
School and work for most of our family today. I did shopping and domestics.
Here is Esther in her school uniform.
It has been raining today.
early start at church for me, training up a new sound person (went well)
various domestic stuff this afternoon including the girls doing some sorting for church
then this afternoon we did some crazy golf. chance of actual rain tonight
jemima (aka jane) won the golf. quentin (me), mertha (esther) and finwick (kezia) didn’t.
the girls went for a swim after dinner and i took pearl for a walk