Making our own fun as we count down to the end of 2017!
It is hard to believe that this week we have finished another memorable Christmas AND will be saying goodbye to 2017 - just mind blowing! I know I echo the ageing population in saying just how fast this year has gone, but seriously? How fast has this year gone?!
Christmas in the de Wit home was probably one of our most memorable. I think the kids are at the most awesome age now. The Christmas Eve gift swapping tradition was just so cool. The looks on the kids faces when they opened their thoughtful gifts from one another, it was just priceless. I must admit I prepared myself for the worst in terms of the kids just buying what they liked. But I'm happy to report that I was gifted a lipstck from Jed (who chose all on his own) and gold bracelets from Abby. Noah's gift was so sweet, I got a sort of puzzle that he obviously thought I'd get great joy out of and out of the tool section and everything else in the store, Gav received toys from all three kids - go figure!
Our home was bustling on Christmas morning from the sensible time of 7.30am (thank God they slept in a bit!) and for the first year this year I did stockings with the kids. I think they will definitely be a feature each year from now on as was such a nice little teaser to the morning before Church without the torture of having to choose just one gift to open before Church. I felt very accomplished in my Christmas planning this year as by mid-year I had all the kids toys bought at a bug toy sale and on lay-bye for half the price I would have usually spent. I still enjoy shopping at Christmas time though (or at any time for that matter) so I leave family gifts to have to get around Christmas.
This year Gav is, for the second year, working through the Christmas holidays. It is wonderful later in the year when he has a bunch of leave we can use on family holidays BUT it doesn't make Summer holidays easier solo-parenting it at the beach while Gav is at work... It also means we can't go far because he is the only one on call.This was a bit of a downer to process when he initially chatted to me about it but I decided that we would make the best of it and make our own fun in this less than ideal situation. Gav ended up getting a call to head to Waikato for work yesterday so I thought we could head down with him, drop him at work and spend the day exploring Hamilton. I was initially skeptical of whether there was enough to explore in a City that I have never ranked more than just one to 'pass though' on your way South... the night before I did a bit of Googling (as you do when you're clueless) and wrote a nice long list of things to do there as a tourist. Most of these things were free, much to my delight. I thought we would make our way down the list, but to be honest we only did a few things out of a long list of parks and playgrounds and water parks which means we will be returning to Hamilton soon I suppose!
One of my favourite places was Hamilton Lake Domain. It had so many playgrounds and interesting things for kids to get stuck into, sitting on the edge of the picturesque Lake AND it had a lovely cafe - what more could you want, mums?? What I thought would be a 30 minute play turned into a couple of hours of exploring and trying things at this cool park.
We then headed to a place I had only visited once, pre-kids and I remember being so impressed with it, I had always planned to do my wedding photos there. Silly idea though, planning a wedding in Auckland and the photos in Hamilton...yeah, not so much of a great plan. Well I had forgotten just how cool the Hamilton Gardens were! I expected a whinge or two some way into the expedition but they were totally engrossed in the maze-like adventure, going from one garden experience to the next. Eventually, a good few hours later, we found the cafe and I rewarded the troupers with an ice cream and ended our visit there at the amazing playground complete with maze, big stage they can play on, tree-houses, secret doors to miniature houses and all sorts of cute and interesting bits and pieces.Sadly to say, we didn't even make it around the open gardens and I promised we'd come back. I was just so chuffed that we got as much enjoyment as we did out of a free trip looking at gardens, not something I've ever really done with the kids.
I decided after a day of traipsing around in the heat that we should head to a mall, definitely shopping time! The Base was such a huge collection of shops so we grabbed lunch and made our way around for an hour or so. We came away with new lunchboxes for the kids for school next year, because it's not a shopping trip unless you buy something and you don't feel guilty if it's something the kids actually need, right? I was also so impressed with a kids playground, smack bang in the middle of the car park (fenced of course)! What a brilliant idea and why on earth has Auckland not caught onto the fact that people will prolong their shopping hours if there is somewhere that parents can let the kids run off some steam after sitting still for so long? And those small indoor ones don't count. Not on a weekend day anyway when no one can move or find your kids because it's so busy.
At the end of the day I had exhausted kids (just the state you want them in if you have to drive home 2 hours). I caved to the idea of taking them to a movie at 5pm when Gav was still not done at work. The thought of taking the three kids to the swimming pool alone was just not high enough up on my list of desirable things to do... So we found another mall and went to a $10 movie, Paddington Bear 2! It was SO sweet, I really enjoyed it. It made me want to visit London. Gav arrived half way into the movie and what was supposed to be an afternoon of hanging out with him at the pools turned into half a movie's worth of seeing him and then hunting together for my car which was parked on the opposite side of the mall but they had closed all the entrances...so we walked around the outside...for quite a while... And so ended our spontaneous trip to a place I had very little expectation for, but that delivered a memorable day of adventure and fun. We put on their pajamas, cranked the audio book we got from the library last week and grabbed some takeaways. The kids were asleep within 15 minutes.
It is now the second last night of 2017. A new year of possibilities and opportunities is dawning and I have hope and faith that it will be our family's best one yet! Praying that like our trip to Hamilton, 2018 will surprise us, hold adventures and end up more fun than we thought it would!
Our home was bustling on Christmas morning from the sensible time of 7.30am (thank God they slept in a bit!) and for the first year this year I did stockings with the kids. I think they will definitely be a feature each year from now on as was such a nice little teaser to the morning before Church without the torture of having to choose just one gift to open before Church. I felt very accomplished in my Christmas planning this year as by mid-year I had all the kids toys bought at a bug toy sale and on lay-bye for half the price I would have usually spent. I still enjoy shopping at Christmas time though (or at any time for that matter) so I leave family gifts to have to get around Christmas.
This year Gav is, for the second year, working through the Christmas holidays. It is wonderful later in the year when he has a bunch of leave we can use on family holidays BUT it doesn't make Summer holidays easier solo-parenting it at the beach while Gav is at work... It also means we can't go far because he is the only one on call.This was a bit of a downer to process when he initially chatted to me about it but I decided that we would make the best of it and make our own fun in this less than ideal situation. Gav ended up getting a call to head to Waikato for work yesterday so I thought we could head down with him, drop him at work and spend the day exploring Hamilton. I was initially skeptical of whether there was enough to explore in a City that I have never ranked more than just one to 'pass though' on your way South... the night before I did a bit of Googling (as you do when you're clueless) and wrote a nice long list of things to do there as a tourist. Most of these things were free, much to my delight. I thought we would make our way down the list, but to be honest we only did a few things out of a long list of parks and playgrounds and water parks which means we will be returning to Hamilton soon I suppose!
One of my favourite places was Hamilton Lake Domain. It had so many playgrounds and interesting things for kids to get stuck into, sitting on the edge of the picturesque Lake AND it had a lovely cafe - what more could you want, mums?? What I thought would be a 30 minute play turned into a couple of hours of exploring and trying things at this cool park.
We then headed to a place I had only visited once, pre-kids and I remember being so impressed with it, I had always planned to do my wedding photos there. Silly idea though, planning a wedding in Auckland and the photos in Hamilton...yeah, not so much of a great plan. Well I had forgotten just how cool the Hamilton Gardens were! I expected a whinge or two some way into the expedition but they were totally engrossed in the maze-like adventure, going from one garden experience to the next. Eventually, a good few hours later, we found the cafe and I rewarded the troupers with an ice cream and ended our visit there at the amazing playground complete with maze, big stage they can play on, tree-houses, secret doors to miniature houses and all sorts of cute and interesting bits and pieces.Sadly to say, we didn't even make it around the open gardens and I promised we'd come back. I was just so chuffed that we got as much enjoyment as we did out of a free trip looking at gardens, not something I've ever really done with the kids.
I decided after a day of traipsing around in the heat that we should head to a mall, definitely shopping time! The Base was such a huge collection of shops so we grabbed lunch and made our way around for an hour or so. We came away with new lunchboxes for the kids for school next year, because it's not a shopping trip unless you buy something and you don't feel guilty if it's something the kids actually need, right? I was also so impressed with a kids playground, smack bang in the middle of the car park (fenced of course)! What a brilliant idea and why on earth has Auckland not caught onto the fact that people will prolong their shopping hours if there is somewhere that parents can let the kids run off some steam after sitting still for so long? And those small indoor ones don't count. Not on a weekend day anyway when no one can move or find your kids because it's so busy.
At the end of the day I had exhausted kids (just the state you want them in if you have to drive home 2 hours). I caved to the idea of taking them to a movie at 5pm when Gav was still not done at work. The thought of taking the three kids to the swimming pool alone was just not high enough up on my list of desirable things to do... So we found another mall and went to a $10 movie, Paddington Bear 2! It was SO sweet, I really enjoyed it. It made me want to visit London. Gav arrived half way into the movie and what was supposed to be an afternoon of hanging out with him at the pools turned into half a movie's worth of seeing him and then hunting together for my car which was parked on the opposite side of the mall but they had closed all the entrances...so we walked around the outside...for quite a while... And so ended our spontaneous trip to a place I had very little expectation for, but that delivered a memorable day of adventure and fun. We put on their pajamas, cranked the audio book we got from the library last week and grabbed some takeaways. The kids were asleep within 15 minutes.It is now the second last night of 2017. A new year of possibilities and opportunities is dawning and I have hope and faith that it will be our family's best one yet! Praying that like our trip to Hamilton, 2018 will surprise us, hold adventures and end up more fun than we thought it would!
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