Xmas Tree and Jack n Sandra "Purple" Tree!

So I decided to include a picture of the Christmas tree cause it was just do different looking.  It's super green with super long needles and are all really soft and flimsy.  And then I realized that we have a Jacaranda tree in the corner of the neighbor's yard making a big purple mess on the driveway! 

The last few days that seasonal rains have kicked in, supposedly this is what the weather is supposed to be like this time of the year, not the hot sun that we've been getting.  It's kind of a nice break for the hot hot sun though, so I don't mind.  On Wednesday, it was so hot and humid the kids want to have a water balloon fight on the trampoline!   At first they were so excited to play with them that we were lucky if they made it out the door of the house before bursting!  Then Libby went to find a bucket to put them in to collect them after I filled them so that they could go use them all at once.  But Tessa slowed down the process because she just wanted one all the time.  She understood when I handed one to her she had to go outside and then somehow managed to break it either on herself on threw it at the ground.  Soon it turned into, one for Tessa, one in the bucket because she kept coming back for more!  Then they got dressed as angels and headed back to school for caroling and a bbq.  I went for swim at the pool in Takapuna and then out to dinner and ice cream.  Yesterday, it was a rainy day all day long, perfect for just being lazy, catching up on some TV shows and watching Christmasy things.  I did go and get some things I need for this weekend, though, e.g. some pieces for my costume for Astrid's 25th birthday party tomorrow night.  We have to go dressed as something beginning with "A".  I'll put up pictures of what people came up with in a few days! 

Tonight, I'm making my first trip to the west coast of Auckland to stay with Jenny in Waimauku to be nice and close to Muriwai Beach for tomorrow morning where we'll be taking our surfing lessons!  Astrid's party is also out that way in Kumeu at night so it will be a Saturday spend entirely in West Auckland.  Sunday, we're planning a Christmas picnic, where everyone is bringing some kind of dish to share and a gift for a yankee swap, so hopefully the rain subsides by then! 

A NZ Christmas Tree

Purple mess on the driveway

Purple Tree, Purple Tree!

Hot and Humid!

I forgot to say yesterday that I heard on the radio in the morning that Sunday was not only hot in temperature for this time of the year (26 C which is about 79 F) but it felt like 36 C which is about 96 F!  The humidity was really high.  Must have been all the rain coming today!  Last night and pretty much ALL day today was very wet!  However, it was still very warm and sticky.  It wasn't nice being stuck in the house in the stickiness!  Tessa and I made our own play dough and colored it pink.  We then tried to make some Christmas decorations and Reuben helped out as well.  Tessa decided to use cookie cutters on all the shapes we had already cut out, pretty much mangling them all so ended up with lots of random play dough blobs....one or two stayed in tact after I baked them in the over to make them hard.  The activity was kind of reminiscent of Island Dolphin Care for me, where we did lots of play dough making, baking, then decorating! 

After picking Libby up from school, Tessa, Libby and I went for a quick swim in the bay, which didn't last too long...Tessa got a little chilly because it was still pretty cloudy.  The swings outside have been modified to include a set of rings (hose over the rope tied into circles) and just a lower "surfing" swing for doing tricks on.  The last couple nights we've been outside watching the "circus" perform!  The monkeys learn new tricks everyday!

Whoops! Forgot to Blog!

I guess the end of last week was just too busy, writing a blog update just kind of slipped my mind!  Let's see...Thursday I played some tennis in the afternoon, and then because it was so hot I went for a swim in the bay right at the house before the tide went too far out.  Later, I went to yoga then Thursday night a few of us girls tried out this sports bar in Takapuna that has karaoke every Thursday night!  There is also a chance to win $50 every Thursday if you sing karaoke.  Unfortunately, we didn't quite know how the winning worked.  It's just a raffle of all the numbers on the list where you sign up to sing, so the more songs you sing, the greater your chances or winning!  Sure enough, the one guy that sang about 10 songs won the money!  Next time we'll sing a lot more songs!  Before the drawing all we had done was "All I Want for Christmas is You." 

On Friday, in the morning I went to yoga, but brought a bike across on the ferry with me to meet Sophie afterward.  We met back at the ferry wharf and cycled to Mission Bay.  It was the perfect day to be out and about, nice and sunny but there was a breeze as well to keep us at just the right temperature.  We at lunch at Masala, our new favorite Indian restaurant (with $10 lunch specials!) and then had some ice cream.  It was a much shorter ride that we though to Mission Bay so we continued on to St. Helier's Bay and then Ladies Bay up a hill to a lookout point.  We rode back down the hill and decided to lay on the beach for a little while.  It started to get MUCH windier so we started out ride back to the ferry, which proved to be much harder than the way there with the wind blowing straight at us!  We ferried back to Bayswater and then decided to lay on the grass for a bit in the sun, since it didn't seem to be as windy there and we watched the sun go down later on. 

Saturday was another nice warm summery day and Sophie, An, Astrid and I went to a party in Coyle Park put on by George FM radio station.  There was a DJ providing the musical entertainment and people dancing and sitting around just enjoying the afternoon.  After that we made our way to the Auckland Domain on the other side of the city where we attended Christmas in the Park, a televised event where there are hundreds of people!  One of the performers was Altiyan Childs, the newest Australian XFactor winner, among other locally famous performers.  The event finished with a pretty nice firework display. 

On Sunday, just to keep up the Christmasy activities, I played tennis as usual, but it was dress-up tennis where most people showed up in Santa costumes or other festive attire.  It was soooo hot though, I did wear red and green and my $2 Santa hat with white braids from Christmas in the park but it was not too fun playing in it! 

I can't believe it's summer again!  The kids finish school on Thursday for their summer holidays!! It's about 6 weeks break.  The university students have already finished for their summer!  They are starting to get excited about Santa coming and Tessa is even talking about Santa lots.  At school the kids wrote letter to Santa, and last week, Santa wrote back.  It was a cute letter and Libby especially LOVED it!  She wanted me to read it over and over again to her.  But what I couldn't get over was that at the end of the letter he asked for a glass of milk, that's usual and water for Rudolf and his SHEEP! And there was a picture of Rudolf pulling the sleigh with a bunch of sheep!  I asked Julia if the New Zealand-bound sleigh was always pulled by sheep but she said it was a novelty to her as well.  Maybe the school was just trying to confuse the kids!  Or the reindeer were on holiday?  Who knows!

Lookout from Ladies Bay

Bayswater marina and the bridge Friday afternoon

busy, busy Christmas in the Park