Here and there

Well the kids have been here ... and now they're there. 

 It's been quite an emotional few weeks.

And I'm feeling a little blue.

My GKB came home from hospital and the next day was Aaron's ordination. He wasn't able to attend but I went with Jacqui our eldest daughter, our youngest daughter was away visiting her grandchildren for Easter or she'd have been there too. 

Aaron and Sofi after a relaxed but suitably formal service. 

Very proud Mum and sister.

There was a nice celebratory supper put on afterwards.

Aaron called in on his way home and donned his robes so his father could have his photo taken as well which was really thoughtful of him. We appreciated that :)

A couple of days later it was time for our house group to farewell them so we had raspberry chocolate cake before we started our study that evening. Yum. Very rich though.

Then at the weekend the family wanted to have a farewell get together and as Vanessa was home from her visit we gathered at her place. Nothing formal, we had takeaways - fish n chips, Chinese and pizza so there was something for everyone. Including the wee fellow.  Followed by GF cream puffs :)

Not long after Aaron and Sofi left on their trip north to their new home and appointments in Auckland.

They crossed on the ferry on a beautiful day, after the crossings had been cancelled for three days due to stormy weather. 

Out for a meal with Chloe, Atu and the kids in Palmerston North.

They drove up and stayed with friends and family or called in for coffee and a catchup on the way.

Catching up for coffee with Andrew in Cambridge,

and spending money in his shop before they left.

Then arriving in Auckland to discover their furniture hadn't arrived and was still on the wharf in Picton. I was quite pleased to hear that's where it was as we'd seen containers toppled on the wharf in Wellington due to the winds and hoped theirs wasn't among them.

So they're camping in their new home at the moment. Luckily they'd packed their camping gear in the car in anticipation of their first night being without furniture so are coping okay for now.

So they've been here, and now they're there. Not a five minute drive away but a two hour flight. Sigh.

Hoping everyone is well and enjoying the season, whatever it is. There is always beauty to be found in our surroundings if we only look.

Until next time,

Diana

Queen's Birthday Weekend 2019

Well that was a weekend and a half...but we got through it :)

Queen's Birthday Weekend happens in June, and you guessed it, we commemorate the Queen's birthday. A long weekend, Friday through until Monday.

*************

It started off with our expectant mother going into labour late on Thursday and giving birth to a lusty son on Friday via emergency C section. He weighed in at 9lb 1oz and is named Arlo. We haven't been to see him yet as, although he is doing well, mother is a bit overwhelmed and isn't up to visitors. So we'll put it off for a few days and go when she's ready. Sorry no photo's, you'll have to take my word for it that he's a good lookin' dude!

*************

On Friday night I helped my daughter decorate the church hall for a baby shower. Yes, we have another little person joining the family in August :) A little girl this time. So it was a pink theme.

Very traditional.

Chloe lives in the North Island. She came down for the holiday weekend so her Mum decided a shower would be nice for her,

and for her old girlfriends.

She was given some beautiful gifts, the girls and the family did her proud :) Someone was even thoughtful enough to give her a big pink fluffy dressing gown for herself.

Her aunties and grandma's provided most of the afternoon

 tea and it was a lovely spread. It was also very cold with snow threatening which is why we are all dressed in our winter woolies.

We managed to get a photo of Chloe with all the grandma's.

Left to right we have two great grandma's, grandma, mum to be, grandma and great grandma.

As you can see we decorated with little baby outfits and dresses - from back when my girls were babies and toddlers.

I didn't know they had kept them.

 The only trouble with decorating is that it all needs undoing but the young girls all stayed behind and helped. I thought that was a really nice gesture.

*************

Now it's Tuesday evening and I've spent the day away at

the funeral of a friend. He was only in his late 60's

 and his death was unexpected. But it was a joyful funeral,

he had a deep faith and has gone home to be with his Lord.

As I said, it's been quite a weekend, but we got there.

So, have a good week folks,

until next time,

Diana

Chloe and Jack

Just touching base with everyone to let you

 know I am still alive and kicking. 

Last night my youngest grand daughter Chloe got in touch to see if we wanted to  join her in a girls only afternoon tea: coffee and brownies. So my little mother and I went out with her to a nice cafe/bar and  had a very relaxing afternoon out. Two of the 'girls' couldn't come, my daughter and her youngest daughter but we were still a nice little party. This is the first time Mum has been out socially for a long time, months in fact. She has been back in hospital since last time I posted and they have put one of the stents in. What a big difference it has made to her but we are still awaiting the main op. and so she is still staying with us. It was nice to go out and not be visiting the hospital for a change :)

My little mother is tired tonight though.

Vanessa (daughter), Chloe, Monica (eldest grand daughter), mum and me.

On Wednesday night my middle grandson, Jack, had his year 8 formal. Girls a dress and boys trousers, shirts and tie. That would be a novelty for the boys in particular I think and possibly for some of the girls as well :) They have been practicing some ballroom dancing for several weeks now as well as some more fun stuff.

The photo below is Jack all scrubbed up and ready to dance (reluctantly in his case). This is his final year at primary school and next year he will travel into the city to attend high school, growing up and starting a new phase in his life. They are all growing up so quickly, I don't know where the time is going to, sigh.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, it has been through many incarnations before I managed to get this pic on the page. 

Keep well,
Diana

An ordinary week

Hoping to join Amy and her friends for 

Five on Friday, if I can come up with five.

So let's have a look at my week.

On Monday youngest daughter sent us a picture of a house 

being demolished and said, "guess where this is". 

We both looked and decided it was house in Port Chalmers 

so just ignored it really. But no, it was a house on our main

 road so we went down to have a look.

It was built in the 1880's and then in the 1950's was converted to a rest home which was run by a christian trust. Unfortunately the trust came to the point in the last year or so where it couldn't 

afford to keep it going and so the home closed and the house

 and site was sold to a developer :(  There were quite a few little boys watching, school holiday time, and quite a few

 bigger boys as well. A sad sight really.

We woke to a nice windy day on Tuesday. Generally Monday is my main wash day but I hadn't done a full wash because the day had started out really cold and bleak. Minus 5C  with a good frost.

But look what I found when I walked out to the letterbox, a tiny daisy trying to open, and another one just in the bottom right

 of the picture that hadn't opened quite as much. Talk about hardy.

Anyway Tuesday, I decided to get the towels and sheets 

out on the line and they got a good fluff up in the wind.

I don't think we saw the sun at all on Tuesday but it was slightly warmer because of the wind. We woke to snow on 

Mt. Maungatua this morning and a cold, biting wind.

On Wednesday our youngest grand daughter turned 18 and 

so we took off for the city to look for some hand luggage

 for her. We found something in our price range in about

 the third shop we went into. I do like these sales :)

 And I don't know what was going on but every shop we went into had done a re-lay so nothing was where it had been and we spent a lot of time wandering around looking for departments. Now tomorrow we need to go back in, but to different shops this time, as her young brother turns 10 tomorrow. We thought we'd find something out here, but not what we are wanting. 

On Thursday I had a meeting to go to and I was also on 'soup duty'. This meant I made a big crock pot full of vegetable soup and took it down to our venue. After the meeting was over those of us who could, stayed for a soup and bun lunch. Luckily for me I had wrapped a big old towel around the crock as somewhere along the way as I was transporting it, it slopped over the top and made a bit of a mess of the towel, but not the car thankfully. I have to admit I went to bed for granny nap in the afternoon, :) No photo's for Thursday.

No photo's for Friday either and it was quite a mundane day. We had 'not quite gale force' winds in the morning and bitterly cold as there was snow about. A bonus with the wind was that we got a few more feijoas from the tree when we thought they were finished. Youngest daughter came in for a visit and a coffee in the morning and during the afternoon we went out to do a bit of shopping and hopefully find youngest grandson his birthday present. My GKB found a light meter for his camera so I suppose that was something and I came home with a pair of tights but that's not what we were looking for.  And that's my five on Friday.

Saturday's light party

It's a wet and miserable day here, 

not at all like last Saturday evening 

when I volunteered at the Light Party

 in the city's football stadium.

face painters receiving their instructions

The light party is an event put on by 

the Acts of Kindness charitable trust as an alternative 

to the trick or treating of halloween.

It was nice and warm out on the field under the roof.

on the big screen - a *Kapa Haka group on stage 

A gold coin entry and various stalls around about

 selling eats and drinks, at (mostly) reasonable prices.

Non stop entertainment on stage all evening

and lots of bouncy castles, races, games and such like

 for those who are young or young at heart.

Chloe and her mate

Youngest grand daughter Chloe and her friend 

were volunteers as well, on the face painting booth.

the crowd coming in - gate is at the centre right

Their younger brothers and sisters were 

somewhere in the crowd. During the course 

of the evening we went for two 

Guinness Book of world records. 

The first one popping bubble wrap 

and the  second was for holding your hands in a heart shape.

I haven't heard how we got on but it was a lot of fun,

I was roped in as a marshal for that as well :)

tea or coffee and cake $2-00

My main job was working on a tea and coffee booth

and I must admit I had a ball and will 

be volunteering again next year.

The photo above was taken at the end of 

the evening just before we cleaned up.

***********

*Kapa Haka is part of the cultural identity of 

most, if not all, of our primary schools in New Zealand.

I've put an explanation from Wikipedia below.

*Kapa Haka -
Kapa haka is the term for Māori performing arts and literally means to form a line (kapa) and dance (haka). Kapa haka is an avenue for Maori people to express and showcase their heritage and cultural Polynesian identity through song and dance.
Kapa haka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapa_haka


Well I hope you all have a wonderful week.
I have a very busy one coming up 
but today's outing has been cancelled so this morning
I took the opportunity to write out some Christmas cards!
I know, I know, but November is a busy, busy, month for me.
Diana

A formal night out

Well, here she is, as promised. Gorgeous youngest grand daughter in her formal dress.

Now I hope you are not going to be bored because this post is mostly pre formal photo's.

Lovely Chloe...

I took my little mother over to see Chloe in all her finery 

a couple of hours before she was due to go out.

It was a bitterly cold  night and the wind was blowing a gale

so we said we would take the dress to her rather than her come over for it.

with her Dad...

She had her makeup done by a friend of her mother 

and her hair done by another friend who is a hairdresser.

Sometimes we older people come in handy...

especially when it comes to contacts.

her beau...

They went over to her boyfriends' home and their group left from there.

The boys looking dapper in their suits, tuxes or whatever they wore, 

I'm out of touch these days, and of course the girls were gorgeous.

and her friends

Photo's were taken by all and sundry,

some on cell phones so not quite as clear as they could have been.

But still a nice record. 

Then it was into another friends' Jeep Cherokee 

to be chauffeured to the ball in style.

the hairdo

An evening of 

 dinner, dessert and dancing.

What more could you ask for?

joining in with:
roses of inspiration

And that's it for now.
See you same time, same place, 
next week.
Diana

Sweet sixteen

Today was another cold, wintry day, with snow threatening. Again. It continues to threaten but never eventuates, but it is cold, -5 degs Celsius tonight. But who cares - we didn't - today we had a birthday to celebrate.

Our youngest granddaughter turned sweet sixteen today.

Happy birthday Chloe, we love you heaps.

We went out for lunch after church with some of the family and one of her friends. The snap above is Chloe sitting next to her aunty, then her Dad and her other Granma.

Young Danny was there as well but middle grandson Jack had much more important things to do, he was at the swimming pool celebrating his mates' 10th birthday. That's where I'd be too if I was a 10 year old boy.

After we finished our first course we decided to have dessert. My first choice was for banoffi pie (I love banoffi pie) but someone said 'we have birthday cake as well'. Hmm, banoffi pie followed by birthday cake, I don't think so. So parfait it was. Followed by birthday cake. Red velvet birthday cake. Oh dear, 

I really shouldn't have had dessert, not even parfait. 

I had a tiny piece of birthday cake there 

and brought another piece home to eat later.

 Much to Chloe's horror we sang Happy Birthday to her, 

in a public place. Then it was time to venture out into 

the weather and head for home after a very enjoyable

 afternoon of good company and good food.

Stay comfortable wherever you are.

See you next time

Diana