girls weekend

Hannah, Lily and I had a lovely weekend away in Sydney seeing Beth and James, while Paul, Noah and Isaac had a boys weekend back home - this is how we sold it to Noah!
We got some very good prices on flights from Wellington - but at horrible times - had to leave Palmy at 2.45am for the two hour journey to Wellington airport for the Saturday flight and got back to Wellington at 11.30pm last night so back home at 1.30am.
Joe was picking us up so I sent him a text saying we'd landed to which he replied "I thought it was 1am you got in not 11pm - have only just left home" luckily he was joking and was waiting for us once we got through passport control!
Lily gets so tired on these trips that we planned rest times for her, she stayed at the hotel and watched DVDs while Hannah, Beth and I went on into Sydney to Paddy's markets - and some cheap "Jimmy Choo" look alike bags, then to an ABBA exhibition at the powerhouse museum.
This was great, Beth laughed when I said "Look there's the album cover everyone has" because this really showed my age -its years since records went out. They had the costumes they wore to the Eurovision song contest and we sang along to some songs and were in tune 31% of the time!
James came into Sydney late afternoon with Lily and we all went to the show Mary Poppins. Some wonderful singing but not in the same league as Wicked which we saw when we were last there.
On Monday it was queens birthday w/e in NZ but an ordinary working day in Oz. Lily went to watch a movie with all our bags, and was the only one in the cinema while Hannah and I shopped in the MacQuarie centre.
they had an ABC shop and I managed to get a puppet teletubby which Isaac loves
We stopped in the city and had lunch with Beth, then onto the airport and home on a totally full flight, with "seat only" - no movies or food. Still its only 3 1/2 flight and was a great w/e.

Wedding videos

Before the wedding




The wedding service



After the wedding

Enjoying school holidays

We've had a good break from school and Massey so far. Beth went back to Australia on Tuesday and on Wednesday Paul had a clinic in New Plymouth so the boys and I went with him.

I was SO SO tired after the wedding and was able to have a snooze each afternoon while the boys watched a DVD at the motel.

We stayed till Good Friday and It's been the long holiday weekend since then, so we're already half way through the holidays without having to think of anything to do.

Next week we're going to the Wiggles om Wednesday. It will be the first time Isaac's been to the theatre so it will be interesting to see how he does.

Isaac is getting a lot of enjoyment out of simple things now. The photos show him sitting in a box, which he loved being pulled along in, and in the bath while on holiday where we could only just see his face peeping out above the bubbles.

Noah spends a lot of time "sorting out wires' - one of his autistic like behaviours. We have two boxes in the garage we just let him have, but he can make an incredible mess with them as he is proudly displaying in his photo!

more wedding photos

wedding photos at last!

A wonderful wonderful wedding brilliant speeches, beautiful people, lots and lots of tears

the boys both made it down the aisle at the right time (Noah then played with maps on the IPad and didn;t even watch Beth and Paul come down!)

these first photos are just our snaps before the ceremony (too rushed to take any more once things started!)

my tears started seeing Beth in her dress, then gettign all 8 kids together on the stairs then seeing Beth with Paul.

It was just very very special, all the family together, dressed up and on top form.

Lily thought she'd missed the wedding

The groom's twin brother David is to be best man and photographer at the wedding. To make life a little easier he decided to take a few photos in advance on Tuesday. Rain is forecast for Saturday and Tuesday was a glorious day so he got some really good shots of them in the rose garden where James proposed to Beth and by the law books in the central library. Lily didn't realise this was happening and as she arrived home, there were James and Beth in all their wedding glory. Lily said in a rather subdued manner "You look nice" but she looked like she was about to cry. When Beth asked her about it Lily said she thought she'd missed the wedding! Poor Lily. So Lily now knows that Beth wouldn't dream of getting married without Lily there and preparations continue.

Paul had yesterday and today off work so we went to the supermarket and did our biggest shop ever (still only got 20c a litre off petrol though!) ready to host a kitchen tea, a bridesmaids breakfast (where the guys will cook!) and a Sunday brunch. Beth says she'll invite everyone at the reception to this so I hope they come as we now have enough food for about 100!

My brother Jon and his wife Bev fly in from Sydney this afternoon, my sister Carolin and family arrive soon after lunch, Rachel and Adam late this afternoon and Sam and Anika late this evening. We have a rehearsal at 5.30 then a mad rush to get Isaac and Noah to bed before a family meal at a local restaurant 'Bethany's' we should have 13 at that and then 15 for coffee afterwards once Sam and Anika arrive.

We have made Noah a social stories book about the wedding on the ipad (using stories2learn app) some of the pages say "I will be a page boy, I will start the wedding" "I will go in a smart car with ribbons on it" - he loves this one as ribbons and wires are an obsession for him "On Saturday we will have a bridesmaid breakfast at our house. I will help dad cook" - he is a bit worried he will burn himself as he know thins we expect him to cook us a full meal! "Vicky will play the piano and I will walk slowly down the aisle." (Vicky is the bestman/photographers wife - so we are fully using guests! "I will smile at everyone then I will sit by mum and watch dad and Beth walk down the aisle" - we have practised this a little and get quite a lot of grimacing but I'm hoping true joy will take over on the day - Noah choose the photo to accompany this page as

"I will sit quietly while James and Beth are married then I will sing loudly "How great thou art" - the kids all love this song and I'm sure Noah and even Isaac will join in.

"At the end I will hold Beth's train and walk out of church" Noah thinks this other meaning of the word train is hilarious and keeps telling us he will carry a Sydney underground train - we actually tried to practise the train with Beth and Isaac while Beth was dressed for the photos but unfortunately Isaac thought it was a parachute game like they played at school and immediately tried to get under it - it will be interesting to see how he does on the day!

"David and Diana will take lots of photos. I will do what they ask me to do."

"I will sit quietly and listen to the speeches"

"I will stay up late dancing and dancing. It will be a lovely wedding." Noah has again chosen the photo - seems like we'll have a wild 1970s time!

wedding countdown begins

Joe is home from Korea now. Here we are meeting him at the airport last Sunday. He was very embarassed to have to pose for the phto - he'd forgotten what our family is like in his two years away!

It was great to see Joe again and he's lost 30kg! Isaac was totally overwhelmed. He was happy to see Joe and asked to be picked up but once Joe did Isaac scratched him till he drew blood!

Hannah has flown to Auckland. Beth flew from Sydney to Auckland last night and as I write the hens night should just be beginning there, attended by all the bridesmaids apart from Lily along with Rachel and Anika.

Tomorrow Beth and Hannah catch the same flight to Palmy.

I am racing like mad to do as much Massey study as possible today and work on my next assignment now so that once Beth comes I can concentrate on the wedding.

it is gettign very exciting now and this time next week we'll be at the reception!!