While the Cat's Away...

these mice will play!

Tony has started an EMPA (Masters of Public Administration) program through the Australia/New Zealand School of Government. It's a two year program that he'll work on alongside his job, family time, church involvement... you get the picture - he'll be busy. Thankfully, most of the work is done from home and only twice a year it's residential (in Melbourne), the other times they meet for classes it'll be in Wellington. So this past week was his first trip to Melbourne and so we tried to endure the week without him...

 The Saturday morning before he left, he spent some time playing with Hunter and his new "Marbleous" toy... the two of them built an amazing track. Then we went for a family bike ride on our old 'market bikes'... remember those!?! The bikes with the baby seats we used to ride through the streets of Taipei!?! Well, our casual family ride turned into a 10km+ workout up the hills from J-ville/Tawa return. Hilarious! It started out downhill on a beautiful sunny morning with us all laughing and smiling and reminiscing of our fun rides along the riverbed in Taipei. It ended on an overcast, rainy uphill battle that we grunted out on those rickety bikes! Oh how quickly things can change. Anyway, we had a good laugh and after a shower, we dropped Tony off at the Wellington airport.

 When we came home, I set up the kids' tent in the lounge... they got to watch Cars while eating almonds and raisins... fun, fun, fun!

 A little while later, a few friends came over and we all enjoyed a fabulous hot pot dinner!!! The kids LOVE hot pot! I'm so thankful Grace has the know-how and the gear... it's so familiar! I moved the tent to the kid's room and attempted to let them sleep in it over night - BIG MISTAKE!!! After an hour of them fighting, shouting, me going in and out - I finally got rid of the tent - Helena slept in her own bed and actually Hunter slept in the tent at the foot of my bed! Mom, such a pushover when dad's away!

 This week was actually the first week of new routines with the start of a new school year/term for Hunter, new Life Group season, new term for swim class (though our personal routine was a bit off for obvious reasons). So Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Hunter had kindy from 12.15-2.45, with Thursdays being my volunteer day so Helena has a chance to play too. One of his best buddies has moved up to morning kindy, but he's got a new little pal now too... so that's fun. Tuesday night we went back to the Lewis' house for Life Group. It was a beautiful night for a BBQ to start out the new season. We're thankful to have these families to 'do life with'. After Life Group, I put the kids in their pj's and took them to the Botanic Garden for a glimpse of the "Garden of Wonder"... or so I'd planned. I thought there was an event on every night of the summer... but I was mistaken. Going out of our way and staying up too late already made the disappointment of not seeing the lit up trees all the harder to swallow as Hunter incessantly asked "why weren't the trees lit up?" all the way home to bed! Boy, that should teach me to check on-line first! Right?!

 

 Wednesday we had our first swim class of the term... and the cool thing was despite Hunter's hesitations to participate, he's got a new classmate who actually lives on our street!!! So whatever happens with his progression in swim class, at least we'll have made a new friend. And speaking of new friends... on Thursday BEFORE kindy, we went to Khandallah Park for the first time with new friends we made in the pre-Christmas swim class. After a bunch of running around, flying fox flying, swinging and laughing, we went on our first 'Bush Walk'... about a 10 minute walk through some trees. Thanks Lucas and Erin for introducing us to 'hiking'... I have a feeling we may just do this a bit more. And you can imagine how tired the kids were after playing at the park and going to Kindy and the supermarket... they were asleep by 7pm!

So Friday... Friday we had a quiet at home day playing with toys, tidying up... then a friend came to visit, we took a trip to the park, ate an early dinner while watching Toy Story (so I could do some prep)... and the kids were also asleep by 7pm!!! Which was what I was aiming for because Friday night we had a party - "Sowing Seeds of Laughter, Reaping Fruit of Friendship"!!! Grace and I invited ladies from our suburb to come together to laugh! We made it a 'healthy' theme so we had a beautiful vege platter, fruit tray, whole wheat pita chips, cheeses, nuts... and of course some dark chocolate. We played a story-telling game which was a hit! Lots of smiles and laughs and new points of contact between girls of various ages! I've found having something to plan while Tony's away is the best way to get through the time apart (and get the house clean).

So we said good-bye to our last girlfriend and went to bed around 11.40...but Helena was up... so I gave in and let her sleep in my bed since Hunter was already there (last night before dad came home...). Sleep was the goal, but by 1.30 I was tired of telling them to stop talking, stop putting their feet on me, stop taking my blankets... so we did something CRAZY!!!!

 Yep... recognize those yellow wrappers!!! Can you believe that at 2am I put sweatshirts and shoes on my kids, packed them into the car and took them to that place that starts with an Mc??? TOTALLY out of character... but MEMORABLE!!!

 After they ate their cheeseburgers and fries (which the lady just gave us on top of the apples I ordered) and drank their juice, they played on the slides for a few minutes... laughing hysterically at the fact that they were at McDonald's while it was dark outside!

What kind of parent takes their kids to McD's at 2 in the morning!?!? 

(I had asked this question out loud as we drove into the parking spot, then turned to see another car with a teenage boy getting out with two peole who I assume were parents or guardians of some kind... so I'm not the only one).

What kind of parent takes their kids to McD's at 2 in the morning then gets frustrated that they won't stay quiet in their own beds?!? Oh well, Hunter said this morning, "Can we do that crazy thing again sometime?"... oh sweetie, probably not anytime soon... but watch this space! I'm sure we'll have plenty of other crazy adventures in our lives together!!! In fact, I can guarantee we'll have plenty of crazy adventures!