The last few weeks of Project 52 in 2014

A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2014.

There's nothing like finishing a 52 week project a month late....ahem. Better late than never though I say!

The week before Christmas you boys got to hang out with our dear Nikki - what a treat that was for us all. One afternoon we went downtown to see the Kirkcaldies Christmas windows - Nikki had never seen them (despite living in Wellington most of her life!) so it was great to introduce her to one of our annual traditions. After a quick hello to the resident Santa, we enjoyed an ice cream in the glorious sunshine together afterwards on the hottest day of the summer thus far!

 





Eddy the elf finally made an appearance and you enjoyed seeing all the hijinks he got up to leading up to Christmas. Although you were equally excited to get early Christmas presents from your aunty and uncle in Wales - LEGO advent calendars to open each day!

 

 

 

 



We had so many adventures on our Christmas holiday that there isn't space to tell it all and some adventures are worthy of their very own story! That being said there were a few highlights for you boys like getting your own mask and snorkel sets for Christmas in preparation for our holiday to Rarotonga next year.

 

 

The snorkels seemed to have been used more times out of the pool than in so far if you see how often you've been caught with it on Mylo!

 

 



 

 

 

But you so enjoyed the chance to try them out for real in the outdoor pool at the Aquatic Centre in New Plymouth.

 



But what took your fancy even more were the two diving boards there - a 1m and 3m board. You both loved them so much that we ended up taking you to the pool three times in two days! Noah you were so confident going off the big board and although you preferred the lower board, even you gave the big board a go Mylo! And you managed to convince your mum to try the little one too - what fun!

 



You both  tried out body boarding for the first time and loved it - we all had such a blast at Oakura Beach - with thanks to my aunty who had the foresight to meet us at the beach with all their boards!

 



There were so many opportunities to get out and about enjoying water sports over the holiday too - another day we took a trip up the Coast to the splash pad, had a dip in the sea and a ride on the miniature trains at Raumati!

 

 

 



One day while at Nana and Poppa's we had perfect kite flying conditions - I thought this picture of you flying the kite Noah epitomised the perfect childhood Kiwi summer!

 

The other success of Christmas this year was receiving your very own Barcelona and Real Madrid football kits which did not come off your bodies for DAYS afterwards. We even found you'd slept in yours on Christmas night Noah!

 

 

Another winner were the new onesies Grandma and Grandad sent over from the UK - one would think it a little warm for onesies right now but that doesn't seem to bother you two in the slightest! You had an epic LEGO building session last weekend wearing them and when you got a bit hot just stripped down to the waist and carried right on with your building!

 

On New Years day we went and saw Paddington at the movies with our lovely Nikki - it was definitely a fun afternoon out if your face is anything to go by Mylo!

 

 

And no holiday in the Waikato would be complete without a ride at the Cambridge bike park. I love this shot I captured of you Noah - you've grown so much this year we are having to think about a new bike already!

In keeping with my decision to be a bit less scheduled in the blogging department I'm not going to be officially doing the 52 week project this year but that won't stop me sharing little snippets of your lives over the course of 2015. I'm so excited to see how you both develop and grow - and on the growing front you're both rocketing up - both of you have grown 2-3 cm over the last three months - all this Kiwi summer sunshine has definitely helped!

50/52: A shepherd and a drummer boy

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

Whew we are on the home stretch to Christmas now.....and it sure felt like it over the weekend as we enjoyed watching the Arise Christmas production 'Nativity' and seeing the boys participate in it on stage too.

We are still fairly new to Arise - we only started attending about six weeks ago, and despite the size of the church (well over 1,000)m, we have been made to feel extremely welcome and part of things so quickly which was my initial fear in going to a church this big. The Christmas production is a pretty big affair there - put on at 4 sessions 10am, 12pm, 5pm and 7pm on the day. This year the younger kids in Rocket Junior (age 4-7) sang Mary's Boy Child all dressed up as shepherds, angels, and barn animals. Then the Rocket kids (age 8-12) put on a rousing rendition of Little Drummer Boy complete with red buckets for drums - although you have no idea how far and wide I had to search around Porirua to find that dang red bucket two weeks before that!

 



The production was incredibly well done, had a powerful message and it was awesome seeing the kids both up on stage getting into it! It was awesome to have both Nikki and our friends Jackie and Heidi along to see it and then we all enjoyed a BBQ back at our place afterwards.....on a rare afternoon of sunshine!

49/52: Goals, goals, goals - for the love of the game

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

I never want to be one of those parents who brags all the time about how good her kids are at x or y. I was absolutely useless at sports growing up - I'm still scared when any balls come flying at me whether it be in football, cricket or any other ball game. Badminton was my thing - I think I enjoyed it because even if you did get hit with the shuttlecock there was no real danger of getting properly hurt. And when I recall the fact Mark has broken his arm twice since coming to NZ, once when a cricket ball hit him and the other time when a football hit his wrist last year - I feel somewhat justified in my fear of flying balls!

That being said, our boys have developed a real love of football - and I have Mark to thank for that for getting them involved so early in Little Dribblers and more recently in a local winter football club. Noah was pretty timid in the early days, and has really only come into his own on the field the past two years - he's really tall for his age and has learnt to use his size to his advantage on the field. (And I totally forgot to get any photos of Noah playing this week - too focused on encouraging him from the sidelines!)

Mylo on the other hand, well he was wanting to kick anything that moved before he could even walk properly, and growing up in his brother's shadow it was inevitable that he would start playing at some point. I don't know that much about football, but Mark tells me that having a good left foot is a fairly rare skill in football, and despite not being a leftie - Mylo seems to love kicking with this foot!

This year, both the boys are playing in Friday football teams with kids from their class at school. This means that this mama has to stand on the sidelines at the notoriously windy and freezing cold Ian Galloway park for two hours on a Friday afternoon both this term and next. We are about seven weeks into the season and we are yet to have a warm and windless afternoon - the past two weeks have been utterly bitter - so much so that Mylo and I had to retreat to the car between games for a bit of respite one of the weeks. Last week I even had two jackets on (one was a puffer!) that's how cold it can get and it's meant to be SUMMER football - ha de ha ha!

Last week both the boys had great games though - Mylo scored 7 out of his team's 8 goals and it was great to see him be a leader on the field amongst his classmates. Noah also scored 4 goals out of his team's 5 goals so we had two happy and proud guys who came home that night. I would be lying if I said I wasn't totally stoked and super proud of their efforts - but I love watching them play even when they don't score any goals at all - coming from this ball-scared girly I find the fact they are on the field getting so stuck in pretty awesome just in itself!

48/52: getting into the spirit of it

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

A couple of weeks ago we went to our friend's place for a belated Guy Fawkes fireworks night. Sometimes it's good to have to step outside your comfort zone and you both surprised us by being willing to hang out with the girls and get your 'pretty' on. We were especially surprised that you were OK with this Noah at the age you are, but good on you for getting into the spirit of it all. The face says it all mind you!

 



This is the third year running that we've had a fireworks night with our good friends and every year the kids get that much more into it - less frightened of the big bangs, more adventurous. Noah - this year you were even brave enough to light and throw a smoke bomb or two!

 

 

The best bit was seeing all you kids playing so happily for hours without any adult intervention!

47/52: The adventures of Goldie

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

A couple of weeks ago we went to Hamilton to visit our lovely family who were visiting from Australia. Mylo's class has a special friend called Goldie (I think he's actually Winnie the Pooh in disguise!) who likes to go on adventures with the children if they are away from school, and so we got the pleasure of taking him on our trip north.

Goldie had a great time: reading stories with Mylo, testing out the new swing bridge near Nana and Poppa's house, playing rat-a-tat-cat, helping Mylo play tennis and adventuring through the lovely Hamilton gardens.

 

 

We all thought it was great fun to have Goldie along for the journey and it made us stop and remember to capture the moments as they happened too!

What was also cool was getting a thank you card from Goldie who was delighted to have gone on such a cool adventure with us!

46/52: In the blink of an eye

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

Sometimes boys you just have to indulge your mama. When she gets all misty-eyed and wants to hug you a little harder and longer than normal. Because you see boys the thing is you don't see the passing of time like we do.

 Punnet Café - March

 

Punnet Café - November 

To you, life sometimes seems interminably slow especially when you are waiting for an important occasion to arrive like your birthday or Christmas. But for me, sometimes I see you strike a pose or in a photo like this one above (Noah) and I get this incredible sense of the passing of time and how fleeting these moments are when I can still get hugs from you whenever I want, when you still marvel at the littlest things, and when you are still small enough to pick up for a cuddle (well at least one of you is!). And in these photos I see you how much you've grown in just six months Mylo from one Punnet café visit to the next, from a still at day-care 4 year old to a big school boy and it hardly seems possible.

All I ask is that I have the sense to not forget to stop and appreciate these moments. To be in tune enough to feel a sense of awe and appreciation at the great privilege it is to parent these two on their life journey.

45/52: Awards galore!

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014.

Sometimes it doesn't rain but it pours. Last week was like that at our place!

Noah: you received an award in assembly (your first one for at least a year) for "being such a good natured classmate with loads of enthusiasm and cheekiness for everyone every day''. Whilst you weren't quite sure that you're that cheeky (and nor are we!), you were still chuffed to have the recognition of being a nice person to have around in the class. Then later on you got Most Valuable Player of the Day for your Friday football team. A good day all round!

 

Mylo: you got Star of the Week in your class for "trying hard all by yourself when you write your own stories". You also received Player of the Day the weekend before at Little Dribblers too.

It's lovely to see that others can see that you're getting in lots of effort in your endeavours. We're so proud of you both!

44/52: Rock climbers

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

The other weekend we went to Taranaki to see my gran and your great-grandma who we christened 'Gee Gee' once you boys came along thinking it would be easier to say than Great Grandma - and the name has totally stuck. You really love going to spend time with her and she spoils us all. We are so very blessed to still be able to go and stay with her in her own home - she's nearly 89, and doing so well all things considered!

One thing we hadn't yet done in the local area was climb the famous Paritutu rock - it juts quite spectacularly out of the local landscape and is a short, very sharp climb to the top. I'd only done it once myself in my early twenties but we thought what the heck! we would give it a go.

It wasn't an easy climb by any stretch of the imagination and there's a very good reason why they have rope chains to give you something to hold onto on the way up. When Dad asked you on the way up Mylo if it was fun you said 'no it's not because I can see far down below' - it's clear you're not a big fan of heights! Once we moved onto another section with rocks on either side, apparently you told Dad that 'this is much better because I have rocks on each side of me'.

Looking up - and whatever you do don't look back down!

 



 We made it!

 Worth it for the sweet views!

 From the bottom looking up

 



 From down at the marina it's hard to believe we were even up there,

and it looks so small from down below!

We were so proud of you both for tackling such a tough climb with such energy and no complaints!
The views from the top were pretty sweet and Noah you quickly spotted a few seals playing down around the other Sugarloaf islands.

And now every time we visit New Plymouth in the future, seeing that rock on the horizon will be a constant reminder that we nailed this bad boy together, or in Sir Ed's words - 'we knocked the bugger off!'

43/52: Confident kayakers and a giant plate of icecream

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

Noah: one of the highlights of the trip was staying at a really cute Kiwi bach right on the estuary at Pakawau - miles from anywhere. The way the tides had worked, it had been low tide during the day most of the time which meant we had a view of...well..mud. But on the last day we decided to time our outings so that we'd be home in time for high time at 11am - and sure enough the tide came in so we could give the kayak a go. Dad and I took turns with you boys sitting in front of us, but we let you both have a turn paddling. After a while you thought you might like to have a go on your own, so that's just what you did. We knew it would be pretty safe as the water was only waist deep at most, and you cherished the opportunity to be adventurous and try a new activity.

 

Mylo: you also loved the kayaking and when asked what your favourite thing was on the holiday, that was it! I didn't get any photos of you on the kayak as you went out with me most of the time but you really enjoyed the feeling of doing something fun on the water. Something else that was fun was trying out the 9 flavours of icecream at Penguino's Gelato Bar in Nelson - you're not a fan of ice cream at the best of times (strange child!) but you did enjoy dipping your spoon in with the rest of us to see which flavour came out tops - we all had our own opinion on that front!

42/52: On the boat

A portrait of my children once a week every week in 2014

Noah: there was this one day on the holiday that was completely out of the box. We never intended to go to Lake Rotoiti as we weren't sure we could fit it into the trip and thought it might be too far to go on a day trip. Well, we found ourselves with a day to spare and thought we would seize the moment. When we arrived we made a snap decision that with the glorious weather we would take a water taxi out on the lake. Our water taxi driver was super nice, and you ended up having a great old conversation with him about Cub Scouts, and on the way back he let you drive the boat, and even put his captains hat on you. You were made up! And then when he proceeded to do some 360 degree 'bagels' (not donuts) that just finished off an amazing experience for you!

Mylo: you also loved the boat trip but weren't keen on having a drive of the boat and that's OK - you do know your own mind. Later that afternoon, we played at the Tahunanui playground while Dad went to get Stefano's pizza and the gales of laughter I heard coming from you as you and Noah played on the slide chasing each other down time after time brought a smile to my face and warmed my heart.