Anya

Our friends from Geraldine (and Boulder), Sarah and Sven, paid us a visit and introduced us to little Anya. What a beautiful little baby...


She kept the entire family entertained...


We hope to see them again next week.

Spring Fair

We recently had our locally famous Motueka Steiner School spring fair. The Motueka Steiner School is well known for its spring fair, and the entire town turns out. Its always a wonderful day for the whole family. This year was no exception. The weather was perfect, and the vibe was joyfully festive.

Much to the disappointment of many of the young children (and some older ones too ;) ), Amy was not the fairy queen this year. Instead, she sold the beautiful handmade dolls at the midnight elves stand. Here's a picture of the lovely fairy queen from last year...


The funniest story about the entire fair could only have happened in a place like Motueka. Two calves strayed from their farm and wondered into the school in the morning when the fair was still being setup. Naturally, they were added to the petting area with the other lambies and alpacas.

Here's the confused pair...


The farmer had no idea his lost calves had become a feature of the school fete. He called the police who somehow located the them in the petting area of the fair. He agreed to leave them there for the enjoyment of the children for the rest of the day.

The fair is an important fund raiser for the school, and even fairies have to pay. EFTPOS stands for Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale or something like that.



They have great craft tables for the kids. Little Anton was not happy about being told off for eating the paints though...


I'm pleased to say that the fairy queen was a hit this year also...

school holidays

Today was the first day of spring break. Beck is thrilled to have his sissie home all day long. They're getting along swimingly - for now.

We went up the road to the Mud Castle for afternoon tea yesterday. I took this before we got in the car...


I wonder what the pictures will look like at the end of school holidays.

Beck is Three

Beck turned three on Saturday. He opened presents in the morning...


and had a party on the beach in the afternoon...


It was a beautiful day. Beck was quite content playing in the sand.


Beck's friend Aila had a great time also. She was very proud to be on a date all by herself.

Happy Birthday Beck

This little guy turns 3 tomorrow!


He has a hot date with Ayla...


He's so excited, he could climb a tree.




We'll get him to put his shoes on the right foot for his date.

For the first time in seven years, Amy and I went skiing for the day without the ankle-biters tagging along. I took Amy on a little tour and showed her some of the views over the back. It was the first time she had been all the way to the top of the ridge. The mountains around the top of the south are stunning...


The direction that Amy is pointing is mainly unspoiled national parks that cover the top of the south island...


It was a magnificent day full of blue sky, fresh snow and smiles...


but strangely enough, we missed the kids and thought of how much fun they would be having if they were with us.
Isn't life peculiar.

Spring is here again

Spring has arrived in the Moutere. The air is full of energy. The little lambies are growing fast.


It's great to see the kids outside enjoying their amazing surroundings.


This is the rainy season, and we've had plenty of it. We've also had some beautiful days. The skies are quite amazing. Rainbows everywhere. Here's what it looked like from our porch this morning.


Here's Amy helping the neighbour herd their sheep...


That's probably not something she thought she would be doing a year and a half ago. How much our lives have changed. We're loving it.