big driving weekend

Went north to Pauanui for the weekend, left Fri after work, and came back sunday afternoon, and did a side trip to Auckland on saturday afternoon... some very late nights, but great time at the beach, Ella stayed on at the beach with Barry and Grandma while Ang and I had the afternoon/evening in Auckland with friends.

Ella is getting quite game with the surf these days, and would run in and then turn round and hi-tail it out again screaming with glee all the way!!!

nice run down the beach with Mum (to go for coffee!!)

wonder if Mr and Mrs Ed got offered fry's with the side salad and coke they were enjoying sunday evening in Tokoroa... alfresco dining...

faraday centre

Today we went to the Faraday centre with friends, and had a ball with all the very hands on activities/displays. Ella liked the giddy chair, (like she needed much help with that anyway...)


and Joe was flying Thunderbirds 2 here!!!

Lily and Ella did a very good job of playing the piano although i think they may have had a little bit of help...

Donkey rides!

just had a great afternoon at Erika's parents place, and Colleen took all the kids for a ride on the Donkey cart. Around the orchard, and up and down the drive...
Ella enjoyed the afternoon but drew the line at sitting on 'Wilbours' back... just petting the donkeys ears was enough thanks Dad...

busy weekend at home

It has been a busy weekend here, and hot too, as Ella can vouch for, seen here keeping cool in the paddling pool...Also here are a few pics from last weekend, firstly Ella giving Stacey a kiss, (Haden Sandy & Stacey were out in NZ for a visit) Great to catch up with them...

Then Ella and I had a great time at cousin Eden's christening.

Back to this weekend, (including a few hours during the week,) I managed to finish the gate and fence to keep little Ella and her friends off the street. (or at least for the time being...)

And lastly, look out Anna Kornakova, I think Ella might be keen on Tennis. This outfit would be a hit on the courts!

New features

just been fiddling with the web site a bit, note there will only be the last 3 posts showing now, if you only check in on this page once every few months you'll just have to look in the archive folders...

Also note the new links on the right side, one that links to a calendar that outlines what the Simmons family is up to over the next few weeks. (will attempt to keep this up to date, but no promises there!) and if you are not of the linking nature then especially for you I have been able to insert the calendar onto the bottom of the web page, so if you just scroll down below the last 3 posts then you will see what we are up to over the next few weeks.

The other new link is to a friends web site, they have immigrated here from the UK.
--Tales from NZ--

Ross.

big bed

What have I started.

Last night Ella wanted to take her baby doll to bed, and just for something different I suggested to her that she put baby doll to bed in the big bed in her room while she went to bed in her cot like normal.

Well 20mins later there was a screaming match going on because Ella wanted to be in the big bed with baby dolly… in order to put an end to the noise and get Ella off to sleep, she was promptly settled into the big bed (with a few pillows on the floor in case of the obvious roll out of bed that was likely to happen…)

10min later off to sleep no problem… 12 am no problem, 2am no problem, 3.30 awake and standing up in bed asking someone to hold her hand… (? Half asleep at this point and holding hands to cross the road was the big lesson at daycare today…) tucked in and back to sleep, 4.45am screaming, had fallen out the bottom of the bed onto the washing basket (obviously the only place where there were no pillows to land on…) took a bit to settle back in after this but still outright refused to be put back into the cot…

6am still asleep, 7am still asleep, 7.30am still asleep, come on Ella get up!!! She had to be woken up so she could have breakfast with Mummy before she went to work!

We will wait and see what happens tonight…

Update, has gone to bed in the big bed and only needed telling twice to go back to bed before going off to sleep for her daytime sleep...

Christmas

taking elephant for a walk early on boxing day (allowing everyone else to sleep in peace...)

Gosh, that chocolate was yummy, (thanks aunty Tania)

berries anyone?

driving Uncle John and Aunty Judiths new bus, Beep Beep

new years eve at the Farmers Market, (Uncle Narly behind the camera...)

See ya later homeboy, nice to have you around to play uncle Narly, see you again in April

dolphins on Christmas morning

same pod of dolphins that was responsible for the body slamming of some poor woman the next morning, only they weren't doing any aerobatics for us here, just some sedate swimming...

bike ride in the rain

marine Parade in the rain... the hot chocolate afterwards was well deserved!

Uncle Cole's Tree house

you cant get me up here uncle cole!

visit to the aquarium

yep, if you ever come across a shark that is bigger than you Ella, just poke it in the eye...

back on line!

had a bad month with updating the blog, for starters it has been the silly season which is a good excuse for not keeping up to date with the blog, and then there was the horror of a blank computer screen where there was once lots of non-backed up files and photos!!! thankfully i have managed to get it back up and running after 2-3 weeks of stress about taking it into the shop and getting it back with a blank hard-drive... turns out i didn't need to take it to the shop after all, i managed to get into the system and delete the broken bits and it seems to be running fine again for the time being.
back up photos is the job for tomorrow...
that will also give me a chance to update a few of the last months worth of photos onto the blog.