Thirteen

My neice Caitlyn has been visiting us from Australia over the school holidays.

At thirteen, she seems so grown up compared to my girls. She is so much fun and takes the most wonderful photographs. I love seeing her perspective and getting a glimpse into the relationship between the cousins.

Some of her photos are highly staged.

 And others are just about the moment.

My parents and Caitlyn just left for the airport to go home. We'll miss them so much but it's been fantastic having them here for the holidays. Now I just have to figure out a way to cheer up Maddy and Eloise!

Home

I'm back from my holiday and before you think it, no I didn't bring this rotten rain with me. I do think the weather gods conspire to throw torrential rain at you when you return from holiday. It adds to the whole depressing experience!

Don't you love the little trail the short one has made walking back and forth to the water to fill her bucket? I suspect the taller one was doing a little bossing around don't you? Needless to say, we had a wonderful time with my family and I even got some hand sewing done whilst watching endless episodes of Australian MasterChef with my Mum.

So I now have ridiculous amounts of unpacking to do, which is very depressing but a certain someone decided to put a great big smile on my face this morning. Look what arrived for me in the post today.

It's a wonderful parcel from Megan of Mousehouse. I ordered these gorgeous personalised applique pillowcases from her just before I went away.

They came so beautifully wrapped and with some gorgeous tags and a very funny card (it reads, my life would be so much nicer if only my Mother would stop knitting). Thank you Megan, you really put a smile on my face and I can see a lot more orders coming your way for these pillowcases. They are divine!! Megan is having a giveaway on her blog which is definately worth entering. Pop along and join in now.

My facebook giveaway closes at 6pm today, Kiwi time, so if you haven't already, head over there and make a last minute entry.

Mummy time

I was lucky enough to have a night away with two lovely friends on Friday night. We went to one of the friend's family beach house (bach if you are a Kiwi) up in Mangawhai for some just girls time. Just what busy Mums need every so often!

This is the view I woke up to, peeking through the blinds of my bedroom.

Aren't the sand dunes stunning?

We did a whole lot of this, played scrabble in our pyjamas, ate great food and drank wine.

We had a lovely walk on the beach collecting shells and driftwood for a school project.

I came home feeling full of energy ready to tackle the first week back at school.

How about you? How do you get your Mummy time?

A little holiday....

We took a little holiday over the weekend. Pure bliss. The four of us tootling off on our favourite annual adventure to the WOMAD festival in New Plymouth.

There were colourful flags...

and there were incredible performers with beautiful voices...

{Iva Lamkum}

There were wild French men to entertain us...

 {Babylon Circus}

We took our shoes off to dance...

and waved our flags in the kids' parade.

We wore facepaint and ate yummy food from around the world

We stayed up late and laughed...

And finally, we said goodbye to the wonderful friends we stayed with at their

beautiful home at the foot of Mount Egmont.