Early 2006 (in reverse chronological order)

 
May In May, my jet-setting husband went to the US again (Chicago and Dayton, Ohio this time. Whoo hoo - I guess he's not going for the night life!). We took the opportunity to go visit my Mum in Auckland.  I popped in to Ceres, my erstwhile place of work with the children. George stopped at the system administrator's desk just long enough to turn off the main computer, the one with the sign saying "Please leave on at all times".  We beat a hasty retreat just then!  And yes, he will be reminded of this in years to come. 

Here is a photo of them at Ceres' retail shop, not getting into trouble.

 And this is on the deck at Gugu's house.

April
trip to Germany		 Marcus, my "baby" brother, got married to a lovely girl named Sarah Brunotte in Stuttgart at Easter. We took the opportunity to head over (kid-free, thanks Gamma and Gangan!) and do a bit of touring on the way. ( 9 days without the rug rats was a long time!)

The wedding was lovely and very sweet. I didn't realise I wasn't supposed to take photos during the service, though!

This - below - is the best photo I have of them. I hope I get some better ones from family's photos.

here they are, getting ready to throw the bouquet


the ensuing tussle. Christina is the one in black. As you can see, she's not letting go!
proud mother hoping for the next wedding


Christina, victorious.  Matt wasted no time in texting Tim, her boyfriend, to let him know the news.
His reaction? "Sounds like my luck is in!"   What a man - welcome to the family, Tim!
  We spent a few days in Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber, which is where my father was born and spent his early years. The family mill - the Knausenberger Herrnmuehle - is now a Bed & Breakfast, which is where we stayed. It is run my father's cousin.
Rothenburg is a very picturesque, if touristy town. My dear father grabbed my camera and recorded us walking around - bless him! There aren't many photos of us together these days! 
 

Matt looking very Deutsch indeed! After all, when in Germany...

You can't really see the baby bump under my jacket, but I'm about 5 months pregnant with #3.

   
March
A Day in
our Lives		 In early March, we decided to take photos to record "A Day in the Life" of how are are right now.  
It's a Sunday morning.  We used to have copious cups of tea and the newspaper in bed. Now we have tea, sippy cups of milk and crawling children in bed!

We try to take the children to church somewhat regularly at St Luke's Anglican church.
George is looking all spiffy in his nice clothes, but Lucia doesn't enjoy the process of getting dressed and makes it a daily battle.
Soon these behaviours will change, I am sure!
 

   

A few Sundays later, this is Lucia at church looking well-dressed and well--behaved. Our children seem to think that church time is for eating, as raisins work wonders in keeping them occupied. Karl Marx may have said that religion is the opiate of the masses, but food is definitely the opiate for my children!
 

 
  After church, Georgie and Mummy have sleeps.  In Lucia's words, this is because: "Georgie is a baby and he doesn't know, and Mummy is sleepy because she has a baby in her tummy."

After nap and lunch (not sure which order!), we played outside under the totara tree closest to the house. Lucia and George have a little play house out there - for those of you familiar with our section in previous years, it was called The Dunny and we stored our tools in it before we had a barn.  Before we moved in, our fencer Lachie Nixon, had the digger operators chuck it on a front-end loader to move it for us!

On this particular day, we finally hung up a swing we'd been meaning to hang for ages. Then we decided to cut off a low-hanging branch that had been getting in the way for a while, so Matt got out his chainsaw and George helped with clean-up!
 

   
  Here's a cute photo of Georgie very proud of himself, and this is what the house looks like from under under the picnic totara.
 

 
   
February Lucia's 3rd birthday party was a lot of fun, although I'm hoping to get some photos from friends to prove it!
Here she is enjoying her new easel, paints and painting smock - very well-coordinated presents from friends and family.

      


Lucia with her new haircut, nearly 3. What happened to our little baby!?

 
   
January I don't have photos for 2006 so far. My camera succumbed to excess humidity while visiting my father and Elisabeth in Coromandel in January. Fortunately they took heaps of photos and are happy to share them.
   

 
We greatly enjoyed Baba and Rif's spa pool. My ulterior motive was to get the kids used to water, splashing and blowing bubbles in preparation for swimming classes.


A trip to Pauanui Beach led to a trip to the coffee cart run by my german cousin Christine.  Poor Baba didn't get much of his hot chocolate!
 
 

George at 16 months, chubby and cheeky.  He loves to feed himself, and practically needs hosing down after a meal!  He's still sunny as anything, although the scowling beach photo at the right would say otherwise.