Happiness is having a playground nearly all to themselves

Feed the birds

I just can't seem to say the phrase without that song from Mary Poppins launching on some sort of auto-neuro-playback-loop.  But maybe that's just me.  So as that earworm burrows merrily around in my head, I'll tell you about our adventure over to Pt. Chev. 

I'd been chucking all of our stale bread ends and stuff into the freezer for a while, and when we had a whole heap we went off to the Western Springs park to feed the flock of birds that are always there.  You know, the ducklings and the pigeons and stuff.

And then some swans turned up and it was this whole gorgeous idyllic scene with the afternoon sun glinting on the pond.

We had a great time making sure that everyone got something to eat, even the little sparrows.

With this attitude, we became quite popular.


Soon, the ne'er-do-wells began sizing us up for a score.

And it actually started to get a little intense.  Those greedy, grabby birds!



But it turns out that once the bread is gone the birds lose interest pretty quickly and it's easy to give them the bum's rush.

And once the roving gangs were cleared we were free to frolic once more.

!eseehC

I asked them to pose nicely for a picture by the sculpture.  They turned obediently and made for their positions.  But at the last second, Amiri demonstrated his parkour skills by leaping for its ledge and Arram veered left for the underbrush.

Matakana!

We had an adventure up north to Matakana (pronounced 'Monica' by the kids.)  We took a stroll down Main Street, and found that the local church was having a little picnic and inviting all the passersby to come in.  So we came in.  We had to.  Because they were offering pony rides.

This is April.

And this is Jazz.

And this is the boys getting saddled up for their first ride.

And here they are in action.  Ride 'em cowboys!!


There were actually lots of things to ride in Matakana.  Like this lawn ornament that was apparently more fun in theory than in practice.

Or this, which was, I'm pretty sure, the most fun that our family has had for a dollar all this week.

We love ducks

We will follow them right down into the river if Mama will let us.

The boys taste their first cannolis*

 

 *As recently popularised in our house on 'From Scratch'.
 

I am beyond impressed

Today I had lunch made for me, and the house cleaned.  No, I didn't hire a housekeeper; I just have an incredibly mature son.

Amiri was pretending that the living room was a beach and decided that, naturally, we need to have beach snacks.  So of his own initiative, he went to the cupboards and got out the bread, peanut butter, and jam.  He assembled a sandwich for everyone and even got us little drinks of milk.  The meal was delicious!

Then, to my utter amazement, he put away all of the ingredients, wiped all the crumbs off the counter, and then got out the vacuum cleaner and cleaned up the flour that I spilled this morning when I was making pancakes! 
 

After the fountain they did some rock climbing

After a great deal of encouragement from his big brother, Arram finally did try to jump to the next rock.  And he made it!
 

Not much has changed in the fountain department

May I direct you back here for a blast from the past.  The fountain no longer exists; that's progress for you.
 

Michigan wins the bridge competition

I was sick recently and just couldn't manage an exciting adventure.  But we needed SOMETHING to explore.  So we drove over the Harbour Bridge and then stopped to look back.

We even scampered underneath it!  (Look at the little trolls...)

As an engineering feat, it's pretty impressive, no doubt about it.  Especially the part about doubling its vehicle capacity later with the 'clip-ons'.  But it's still dwarfed in comparison by the mighty Mackinac.
 

Expressions of dignity and quiet reserve during another dinner out

Phone etiquette

Ring, ring...
'Hello?'
'Yeah.  Is that Allison?'

'Contact Allison on 021-xxx-xxx.'

'I've got to go right now, but can we talk more later?'
'Sure.  I'll ring you tomorrow, OK?'
 

It was a milkshake kind of night

We had a fancy Friday night dinner out, and the boys got to have milkshakes.  Arram definitely enjoyed his and was pretty pleased with the sprinkles and little peacock decoration in it.

Amiri was stoked to have a strawberry milkshake all to himself.  He was also fascinated by the peacock.

What do you mean it's made of paper?

At first I thought 'Shemp' but maybe now I think 'Moe'

Amiri got a big kick out of discovering that he can stand underneath the big WHHHRRRRRR hand dryer in the bathroom.  His hair stayed like that the rest of the evening.

A trip to Bastion Point

We enjoyed the flower gardens, the reflecting pool (although it was tremendously disappointing for not containing any fish), and the Savage Monument which we ran around and over and across about a billion times.  We watched the kite flyers, played tag, both hid and sought, and had a highly amusing game of catch-the-imaginary-ball.  Arram is awesome at that game!  I didn't manage to get any good shots with the boys in them because I was just too busy playing, but take my word for it that we all had a wholesome afternoon of exercise and went home thoroughly tuckered out.

At the Wintergardens we saw something so entertaining we ended up staying for most of the afternoon

The Wintergardens are a couple of gorgeous greenhouses amid some courtyards and formal flowerbeds inside the Auckland Domain.  We went exploring there on a whim after lunch the other day.  We poked about and stuck our noses into all the little corners and then we found Something Amazing.

A pond.  With goldfish.  Real goldfish. 

It turns out the fish are half-tame and beg for food.  They school up and will follow you en masse as you move around the edge of the pool. 

Well, that's that.  Mom just better sit down and make herself comfortable, because we're going to be here a while.


I was totally proud that my kids were respectfully observing the fish, not snatching or hassling them.  What's better, I didn't even have to tell them to.  That's just the kind of people they are.

Just a little scenery for you today

The boys were fast asleep in their carseats; a light mist was falling.  I came to a lovely spot in Mission Bay and stopped for a moment to snap a couple of photos.  You can see Rangitoto in the one on the bottom.

Water play

The boys love playing with water out on the balcony.  They ferry their little buckets from the sink in the bathroom to outside, pouring the water from vessel to vessel, splashing around, and watching it drop down. 

So it was with some interest that I noticed the other morning that they were ferrying bucket after bucket of water, not outside, but into their bedroom.  Then, sounds of great merriment ensued.  I had no choice but to tiptoe in with my camera.

So this explains why he's so good at climbing

A drive out to Piha

Piha is one of the most famous beach towns in New Zealand, and the site of a popular lifeguard reality show.  When we were out west anyway the other day, I decided to take a little side trip and check it out, even if the weather was looking a little threatening.  Here's what we saw.

First, I snapped a triptych showing the left-to-right panorama of the seashore.  Note the famous 'black-sand beach'... in reality it's a basin of talcum-fine gray powder that goes aerosolised with the slightest breeze and must make Piha housekeeping a nightmare.

Here's Amiri posing in front of iconic Lion Rock.  Arram was asleep in his car seat so we just hopped out for a second in the carpark.  Notice his, 'Mama, my eyes think the wind has rocks in it!' face.

 

Here's another view of Lion Rock, from inland at roughly the point where it bisects the north and south halves of the beach.  

 

Given Piha's notoriety in NZ, I would have expected it to be a Daytona-esque tourist destination full of flash and underwhelming substance.  But in reality, it's a quiet little town with surprisingly few opportunities for visitors to be separated from their money.  In fact, despite the obvious differences-- the hairpin turns through a mountain range, the jaw-dropping vistas, water that can be glassy one day and malicious the next-- Piha gave me a distinct rural-Wisconsin-in-the-1980's vibe. 

Piha is a town with its feet firmly on the ground.  It's as if it squints its eyes within a weatherbeaten face, gazes out to sea and says a shrug, Oh yes, we're well aware that we're inside one of the many small miraculous pockets nature has created; please do come and spend some time with us but just keep in mind that we have to get up early tomorrow morning.