What we did with Theo

Last weekend we hopped in the car at Friday lunchtime and went off to Hamilton. Good trip up and not nearly as much wet weather as we had expected. Simon cooked tea and we settled in.
Next morning we were left in charge while Simon and Jackie had a night in Thames. What a shame the weather wasn't nicer. We had to go up town so that I could get some paper from the Trade Aid place for a market day project. We decided to grab a bite at Sierra  and Theo picked his own - but then we had a bit of sharing around. A good place to go as we got a Gold Card discount of 10%!

 Then back to do the serious playing! There were stickers for the sticker book.

 A rather hardened set of playdoh which we moistened with water which was very messy, but with a huge amount of enjoyment.

 In the odd bright break there were games of soccer and a new variant of Piggy -in-the-middle. I've never used those rules before.

 Duncan felt that a bit of rough and tumble was called for. "No Grandad, you have to do that on the bed or you'll get hurt" Simon texted a few times during the day. We were doing OK as babysitters - never heard him cry once.

 Next was a visit to Barry and Liz who are in reasonable health and looking forward to their campervan tour in Oz with Wren and Margaret. After playing very quietly for over an hour Theo said, "I want to go home now" Placated with another piece of Liz's shortbread we managed to stay another half hour. What a good little chap!
Dinner, bath and bed and at least three books and he went off to sleep and we didn't hear from him apart from snoring until the morning, although I did go in and straighten him up a couple of times.

Sunday was another miserable day , so it was more inside activities like the old favourite of making a house with blankets and chairs and the sofa.

The miserable weather meant that Simon and Jackie were home just after two - I think that they were a little underwhelmed by the welcome they got. Theo just kept on playing - but it was nice to have a snuggle in the deconstructed house.

I had cooked dinner, but not being used to the oven it was not too brilliant. Will pay to go out next time! Then we were allowed the TV on to watch Dancing with the stars - they don't watch too much TV in that house which is why Theo has such wonderful powers of concentration for a 3 1/2 year old.

Time to go on Monday morning - a ferocious farewell from this little lion! We didn't have much rain again on the trip home but it got very cold going over Traffords Hill - 4 degrees and the Waioeka was running very fully with lots of waterfalls - Not a day to be doing the Tauranga Bridge crossing!!
PS I think Duncan has been able to fix his glasses that got mangled in the rough and tumble!

Hard Core Climbers

Queen's Birthday weekend allowed us time to get down to Dunedin. Both Duncan and I had very fraught mornings, but everything worked out OK and we arrived in Dunedin about 5 pm. Millie had prepared butterchicken which Jill put the finishing touches to as Millie had  ice-skating, and Jill had handmade Naan bread. This delicious meal was finished with mango mousse.
It was cold and dull the next morning which was a shopping expedition. Grandad and Alex went off to hunt down shoes - Alex chose bright pink Vans, while Duncan went for something more restrained in grey and a pair of slippers. We got Millie a skirted black coat which I hardly saw her out of, Jill  and  I got Kumfs, (hers were boots with zips and small studs and mine had tigerskin) and I bought Jill a leather handbag as an early birthday present.
We went out to lunch at Ironic, and since most of us had Mexican meals we managed to knock off a nice bottle of Spanish wine before heading home for a nap. A nice easy meal of soup and ciabatta for dinner and then we watched a documentary from Netflicks, starting with the lady who burned herself on MacDonalds coffee and continuing with an insight into the corrupt judicial system in the US.

Next morning Duncan went off to play golf with some optos. We were both a bit shocked at how dark it was just after 8am. The sun was very low in the sky almost blinding us as we began the steady climb of Flagstaff Hill.

 It is only 2-3km up but steady uphill all the way. The cold air bit into my lungs, causing quite a bit of huffing and puffing  - just as well there were views to be looked at on the way.

 Just at the top was it a bit slushy underfoot and I steadied myself on the rocks as we neared the top.

 Then of course there was the inevitable selfie. Believe it or not I am actually holding Jill's hat on here!

 Here I am at the top. I just want to stress that I had a skivvy, jersey, padded vest on underneath my coat - I'm not really that wide.

From up here you could see all down the Dunedin Harbour and I mused that if a tsunami came there wouldn't be much hope for St Kilda residents as it would barrel  up the harbour as well as come in at St Claire and St Kilda beaches.

There were plenty of pockets of snow on the side of the track and amongst the tussock. I managed to miss Jill with this snowball as we wended our way down, with thoughts of warming Hot Chocolates at the Cadbury factory.

Unfortunately the Cadbury Factory was closed so we went home and showered and changed and THEN went to the Cadbury factory. My year 9 and 10,s are doing a statistics project on candy coated chocolates - ie, a very serious body of work on Pebbles, smarties and M and Ms.

 More shopping followed. I went and helped Rua choose a new outfit, the shirt of which you can see below - just a shame that you can't see the red and black plaid trousers that go with the quite plain shirt. We went to Customhouse for dinner - unfortunately they had changed their name and menu recently, but the food was still very good quality.

 Millie scrubbed up beautifully for this occasion. There's no doubt that being in school shows certainly improves your make-up skills.

 Monday morning we played Monopoly with the kids - the NZ version with up to date money values which was a little confusing for the old codgers. However Duncan still managed the win.

Then on the plane for a long, but quite pleasant trip home. Great trip, and so pleased we didn't stay longer for floods and earthquakes in the subsequent days.