Birthdays and beyond…..

Rich’s birthday was the day after my last post, his first in NZ!

A boat is what Luca and I wanted to get him, but we have not found the right one as yet, so….a LEGO in the meantime,had to suffice, neither Luca nor Rich were unhappy about this, and spent the rest of the evening in construction mode 🙂

I got Rich a mixer off Trademe, (second hand site), a wee while before his birthday which he has been using for baking and making dough, (his pizza’s are really really good, all the kids agree!) It sounds like a helicopter, and randomly changes gear or shuts off, but overall does a great job for $60. Rich says it is way easier than kneading it all by hand :). Our neighbors make sourdough, and have the starter which they have offered to share, so that is his next mission. We are all big fans of sourdough in this house….

Luca continues to play football…..

He getting better at it bit by bit, last weekend he got the “play of the day” trophy which he was pretty happy with

He and his mates have started to hold movie nights at our house, usually on a Saturday. They are in the middle of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” movies at the moment……

I know we are settling in when Luca asks for a list on his door of his chores. I have done this for a few years now and seems to do the trick to stop me nagging, for the most part anyway 🙂

We have been having some wet, cold, rainy days but interspersed with lovely ones, like today, here is Carey’s Bay, a short walk from our place, so so pretty….

Usually on my walks I come across these “wild” geese, they have taken up residence in Back Beach and greet all who walk by, very contented birds they are 🙂

The house is fill of random sticks that Luca and his friends bring home and if they inadvertently end up in the fire ,( occasionally I have had a purge), I have had explaining to do, they are apparently not sticks at all and highly useful, last lot were actually wands! Harry Potter a big influence in this house, Luca reads to us each night from the Harry Potter series. I have been banned from going near the sticks 🙂 .

This came up on my feed the other day and seemed to be telling me something, it is kind of spooky how this happens on FB feeds, like they have a camera watching your day to day, hmmmm…..

Rich is the “go to” person for childcare I notice, there are constant texts for pick ups or drop off’s, and I usually come home to a house fill of kids. It is such a good way to get to know Luca’s friends, we have always placed importance on this, and have welcomed all of Luca’s friends wherever we have been, really really want this to continue through the teenage years!!!!

Speaking of the teenage years I had thought it would need to wait until them, for Luca to get braces, but seems not. We have anticipated Luca needing dental work since his adult teeth started coming in, crowding and a bite issue being obvious to us. He saw the dentist when we first arrived here, then the Orthodontist last week, and braces go on in 2 weeks. Luca pretty excited about getting them! I do not think this would be the case if he was a teenager, so makes me even happier about it being done now. Good thing we anticipated, and started saving for them a couple of years ago as they are not cheap, but doing it now will help avoid any longer term issues. I am really big on oral health, it effects so many other things. All NZ schools have a “dental bus”, that means kids teeth get seen annually at school, it is a good start but dentists and orthodontists are still very expensive. More needs to be done to address the cost, especially for the lower socioeconomic demographic who have so much stacked against them anyway.

Quick update on Pica…we are now at the point of booking flights!!! I am awaiting an email from the importer confirming this, so I can organize the NZ permits and quarantine. In the meantime she is having lots of fun in Vancouver! Next post I should have more news, until then, here she is just emerged from a mud puddle, one of her favorite things to do 🙂