Fun with friends

Our weekend started with a fun trip to the Rail expo in Po-ree-ru-a as Noah called it. We went last year when it was in town, but with the advantage of being a whole year older and wiser, Noah was much more excited about the experience this time around. We met up with Magnus, Bronson, Keryn & Marissa there, and Magnus was equally enthralled with all the trains, Bronson being a little too young to fully appreciate it at only 5 months old. Noah especially enjoyed the Thomas lego train and the little train carrying jaffas in its carriages that tipped over for a surprise treat for him. Just before we went to the expo we had visited Toyworld, and the nice man who owned the store gave Noah a Thomas cap that made Noah fit right in amongst all the other train enthusiasts! The level of detail on some of the sets is amazing, some are so intricate and clever with all sorts of working parts. One of my favourites was an alpine set complete with a working miniature gondola.




Later in the afternoon, we did some tidying up of the loft and a spot of painting (the breakfast bar). Unfortunately, it took us 3 colours before we found one we were happy with, but think we have finally settled on a dark brown the same colour as the canvases I have just finished. Then Jared came over for dinner (mmmm....homemade pizzas), and then I left the two big boys to it and went out to Mana to catch up with Marissa & Sally for a lovely girl's night out and chat. I was a bit of a girl about town this weekend as I had two nights out in a row, the night before I had been out with my antenatal friends for a meal out at Hazel followed by a scrummy dessert at Strawberry Fare. Mark made the most of the nights to himself and had Gareth over on Friday and Jared on Saturday for some Fifa 09 football on the Wii.

Sunday morning we took a trip to the shops (looking for more paint for breakfast bar colour no. 2), then in the afternoon Mark took Noah for a swim with Phoebe and George and then the 3 families took a trip together to our local fish n chippie, and followed us up to our local park to have a picnic dinner and let the kids burn off some energy. It was a lovely warm evening and the bad weather that had been predicted never arrived (until tonight - Monday - anyway!).




Mark makes what is known as a 'Ghostbusters' coffee, and Noah 'helps' find the picture hooks to hang the canvases with


Noah and Daddy build baby lego planes, and Noah and his buddies play 'I Spy' with the digger while waiting for our fish n chips to cook
I finally finished my canvas painting in the week, and got them up on the wall last night (hence the delay in the blog). It was a bit of a mission lining them up horizontally but we got there in the end. We are both thrilled with the results, and it really feels like the lounge has had a new lease of life now.





This week we are gearing up for the big end-of -study party we're hosting on Saturday afternoon. We've invited about 40-50 people for a family afternoon BBQ, so will be hoping for some half-decent weather so we can make good use of both indoors and outdoors on the day. We decided to take up Shannon & Guy's offer of the table/chairs from Vast which will be arriving sometime this week, so it'll be nice to actually have somewhere to put all the food too!

I also hope we are actually celebrating not commiserating as my results come out midday on Friday. I've been having a few issues with random ailments of late, gunky eyes, blocked ear with loss of hearing, and a stiff neck/shoulders which I have been visiting the osteopath for. I think my body must have finally decided that it can relax and just let go after having to be so focused all of this year. It'd be nice to think that there is an end to all the ailments though as Mark is seriously considering trading me in for a younger model at this rate!

We'll leave with you a short clip of Noah the gymnast...pointed toes and all!