Life lately...

So apart from taking lots of photos of the boys and the sunrise, what have we actually been up to lately? I thought I'd share some recent happenings in bullet points to get you up to speed:

• We have somehow managed to plan 3 out of 4 weekends away in a row - not sure quite how that happened but it's certainly made for some busy and fun times!
• First up we made a flying visit to Hamilton two weekends ago so Mark could watch England play the All Blacks. I on the other hand loved the opportunity for some bloggy friend catch-ups, firstly with the lovely Leonie (Kiwiatheart) at the beautiful Hamilton Gardens. Whilst there I took a photo in the Chinese gardens that got selected as a bnw_newzealand_ favourite on their Instragram feed.

•  Later in the day we headed out to Dee's place - she of Needle and Nail fame. My boys had such an amazing time playing with Ty and the other kids in their great and glorious outdoors and didn't want to leave! I totally forgot to take any photos as we were having such a lovely chat, but we did come home with something from Needle and Nail for a certain person's upcoming 8th birthday, but that shall have to remain a surprise for another day.
• We also got to hang out with our great friend Tracey and her kids - it was cool to see all four of them on their bikes zooming up and down the country road my parents live on.



• On the trip home we got a glorious view of the mountains in the Central Plateau, Mylo was particularly interested in seeing Mt Nguaruhoe after playing the mountain in his Battle of the Mountains play at daycare recently. 

• We are still painting. It's slow going. But we are on the homeward stretch, and I'm hoping we can do the big 'after' reveal soon.
• Y'all know I'm a massive fan of Coldplay. Like bigger than big. I think my love affair began in earnest with their X&Y album, which only grew more with Viva La Vida and Mylo Xyloto. But I'm sad to say that I'm rot really loving the new Coldplay album Ghost Stories though...it doesn't have enough upbeat anthems for my liking - about the only one that is like that is Sky Full of Stars and the rest are a bit meh. Give me Paradise and Every Teardrop is a Waterfall any day.
• Usually I'm more excited that the shortest day has passed and that it's onwards and upwards to lighter days. This year it's tinged with a bit of regret that this means any dawn photography on future weekends is going to involve even EARLIER starts than 6am. Ah well, it is what they say - you snooze, you lose!
• Speaking of early starts - why is it that a certain 4 year old has decided that the coldest and darkest time of the year is the perfect time to start waking before 5.30am. It seems to be related to needing a wee at this early hour and even if we restrict how much he drinks before bed it doesn't seem to matter! Here's hoping it is just a phase.
• We celebrated our annual mid winter Christmas last weekend (on our only weekend at home for four weeks!) That's 5 years running now that we've kept this tradition and I for one love that it's become such a part of who we are. Over the years we've celebrated with different friends or just on our own as a family. This year it was lovely to be able to celebrate it with our dear friends Jackie and Heidi. Jackie told me that she'd been waiting for an invite for the past five years too.....ha ha! We had a lovely pork roast cooked by hubby, I made a favourite of recent times - my gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate orange cake for dessert, and the boys raced the girls at Mario Kart on the Wii.

• As well as our mid-winter Christmas, Noah had 3 birthday parties to attend in 3 days - which is crazy because he hadn't been to a birthday party for months. Lucky for him they all ended up being on the one weekend we were at home though I guess!
• This weekend we are heading over to Castlepoint in the Wairarapa for a whistle stop one nighter - our first time visit. Of course I'm hoping for some decent weather to get a few shots of the bay and lighthouse - fingers crossed as the weather isn't looking too hopeful!

And that is our life lately!