December already!

Hello everyone I can't believe that tomorrow is December 1. The year seems to have gone very fast. My kids both brought home great school reports today and only have 13 more days at school and then they are on summer holiday until February. We have just put our Christmas tree up, which is of huge enjoyment to Mylo (our nearly 1 year old cat). I went outside today to feed the guinea pigs and when I came back in he was sitting near the top of the tree trying to pull one of the M&M Santa's off the tree. Our vegetable garden is starting to look really good all the seeds have sprouted and the plants are looking great, and all our fruit trees are starting to have fruit. Most New Zealand native trees are evergreen so we haven't noticed a lot of change in the leaf situation but all our trees we have planted (and there are many as we are slowly turning the lower portion of our section into a forest) have got new growth and are looking a lot more established they they were this time last year. I have actually managed to do a little bit of cross stitching recently, I designed and stitched an ornament to put into my "Sock in to me Santa" exchange. I won't say what it is at the moment or post a photo as I don't want to spoil the surprise for the recipient but all I can say is that they are getting a Renae original and there as yet is no other one the same in the world, though that will change as my daughter saw it and demanded that I make one for our Christmas tree too. Well I need to go, Harper's Island is about to start and as we only have 2 episodes to go I need to watch it.
Take care all.

Renae

Monday Sptember 7th

Hi again. gosh I'm an irregular poster, but finally I'm back. Spring has arrived here and the weather is much warmer. Our plum tree is in blossom, daffodils and tulips are poking out of the ground all our native trees are getting new leaves and I spent yesterday afternoon digging over and putting compost on half of the vege garden (the other half will follow soon). Cole and Nerise had a school production that they had been working on all term come to it's climax last week and it was great. Cole was a small Scottish man (complete with kilt) and Nerise a Kea (one of New Zealand's native alpine birds known for it's ability to destroy things, such as sleeping bags, boots, rubber on cars etc). I will put photos up on my webshots soon. The kids had their first regional first aid competition on Saturday in Balclutha (about an hour's drive south of Dunedin) while they were competing A.J and I took the chance to geocache in an area we hadn't done before. Nerise and Cole were in the same team of 4 representing Dunedin and they did very very well, they ended up with 3 seconds and 2 thirds and their team was second in their age group, so they are both very very excited.
There are only 3 weeks left of this school term and then it's 2 weeks school holidays. Both kids are doing a week's swimming lessons in the first week and then we're just going to take things as they come for the second week. Once they go back for the fourth term there are only 10 weeks until Christmas and summer holidays so Christmas will be here in no time at all.
Well time to go again.
Renae

Friday July 3 2009

I can't beleive it's been nearly a month since I last wrote. In that time we have had our first snowfall for the winter season. This caused snow right down to sea level, and there was even snow on the sand at the beach. All schools were closed for the day, so we had a great time playing outside, making snow people and sliding down the hill. Dunedin is a very hilly city (some say mountainous) so when it snows it is very dangerous place to drive. We are expecting more snow along the coast this weekend, it has already snowed inland further. Today is the last day of the second school term of the year and the kids have 2 weeks holiday before going back for the third term. The second week of the holidays and we have the Cadbury chocolate festival to keep the kids amused, with all sorts of things happening involving chocolate. There is chocolate painting, chocolate sculpting, giant chocolate wall climbing etc. THe big event is the Jaffa race down Baldwin Street. Jaffas are chocolate balls surrounded in orange candy (there are small ones and giant ones). Baldwin street is according to the Guiness book of records the steepest street in the world. Each jaffa is numbered and rolled down the hill and if your jaffa is the first to cross the finish line you win. The jaffas are "sold" before hand to raise funds for a charity. We also have Nerise's birthday in the holidays, she had her party last weekend, It's hard to believe that my tiny little 1.4 kg (3 lb) baby is going to be 8.
I have actually managed to do some stitching, I managed to do 2 hours the other day before Mylo the mental kitten woke up and decided to attack my thread. He really is a playful kitten but sometimes he does get annoying, particularly to my 6 year old son who has just mastered tying his shoelaces and Mylo comes along to "help".
Well need to go, will hopefully write soon.

Friday 8 May 2009

It's Friday again and we are in for a very wintry weekend. It is very cold outside (3 C without taking into account the wind factor) and very cold southerly winds. We are predicted to have hail and snow showers this weekend. There is no major landmass between the South Island of New Zealand and Antarctica so when the winds start blowing from that direction it is always very cold. Not too much has happened this week except we have acquired another frog from school. The junior school (years 1 and 2 , 5 and 6 year olds) have been looking at 'change' and have been watching tadpoles changing into frogs) Cole's last year, Year 1 teacher still had the tank set up for tadpoles as she still has 2 of them and didn't know what to do with her newly changed frog. She knew Cole had some so offered it to him. We now have a very teeny frog living in a tank in Cole's bedroom going by the name of (wait for it ) Futurama. Nerise has been swimming for the last 2 weeks with her class at school and has become very tired so we are having a quiet weekend this weekend and they have decided they want to bake. Nerise wants to make gingerbread men and ladies and Cole wants to make lollie cake , no baking involved in his at all so perfect for a 6 year old to make. It's nearly time for me to get out wrap up in my winter clothes and walk to get my kids from school. I hope you all have a great weekend.

May 1 2009

Hi again,
Well it's sunny today, cold ( only 10 C) but at least it's not raining. So what am I doing today, lots and lots of washing. I will be putting my 4th load in soon, I decided that as it was a nice day I would wash all the bed sheets, duvets covers etc. I dry my washing outside usually so at this time of year we take advantage of any sun we get. As I write the rain water I collected for the frogs is siphoning into their tank, they love rainwater, and the 3rd load of washing is doing it's final spin. Mylo, the crazy kitten is jumping onto my shoulder and trying to chase my fingers around the keyboard. I have finished cleaning the house ( I like it to be tidy before the weekend starts and the kids are home), all I have to do now is make all the beds and then I am going to cross stitch for the first time in about 2 months. I'm quite looking forward to it. I will be safe from Mylo because as soon as I make my daughter's bed he will be on it, sleeping in the sun. Someone who left a comment asked how do we cope with a hot Christmas? Well we know no different apart from what we see on TV and generally Christmas day here is a chance to have a barbeque with family friends, go to the beach etc. Our meals are often cold meats, salads, cold desserts. It's also a great time for kids to get outside and ride their new bikes, scooters etc. Christmas occurs just after the longest day here and because I am so far south and daylight saving is in place at that time of year then we have very long days, it's sunny by 4am and doesn't get dark until about 11pm and even then it's not totally dark we have more a twilight sort of night at that time of year. A lot of people spend their holidays camping. The kids are all off school from early to mid December until early February so it's just like your summer vacation but at Christmas time.
Hope you all like the photos.

Renae

Photos

For those of you who have asked for photos I have a webshots album, the address is
http://community.webshots.com/user/Renaenz
Enjoy

Renae

29 April 2009
Welcome to my blog. I've started this because I have so many people that I need to send emails to and I just never seem to have the time anymore, so thought this was the best way to keep everyone up to date. Those of you who don't know me too well, I live in the South Island of New Zealand, I'm married and have a 7 year old daughter and a 6 year old son. I am a microbiologist but am not working at the moment as we believe children should have a parent at home when they are young and we would have hated putting them into daycare full time. We all enjoy geocaching and spend a lot of our time walking around some of the mountains and walks around here hunting for caches. The kids liken it to being pirates on a treasure hunt. I cross stitch, but haven't done any for a while as we have a new kitten in the house who loves nothing better than to attack me as I'm stitching. Luckily he is now nearly 5 months old so is starting to leave me alone so I will be able to stitch again. I am currently in the process of stitching Noah's Sub, a zoo door sign for my daughter and a Buzz Lightyear for my son. The kids went back to school this week after 2 weeks holiday and that combined with the kitten growing up I am planning to stitch again later this week. We are currently in Autumn here and it's definitely getting colder and there are leaves everywhere. It's also dark by 7pm now so I will be spending more time inside anyway so what better way to spend my time than stitching. Hopefully the colder weather this term at school and the fact that the kids have to spend more time inside will mean we won't have as many injuries from the kids as we did in the last term.My son managed 3 injuries one requiring an ambulance trip to hospital and needing to have his head glued together and an arm injury requiring xrays, bandages and sling for a few weeks for my daughter. Ahh the joys of having kids;-)
Well that's all for now, it's nearly time to walk up to school and pick up the kids hopefully I'll blog again soon.

Renae