happiness-making

what a difference a (holi)day makes!

there's a reason that teachers + kids have six weeks off in the summer.. after arriving on the doorstep of Christmas completely bah humbug, we've experienced the wonderful therapy of beach days, friends + family visits, little espressos in the secret garden, a bavarian sausage fest, the arrival of my very own sewing machine (squee!) and a youth production of Alice in Wonderland, which was mike's theatre début. raych is now half way to her new life in The Windy City and joel heads to The Big Smoke in a couple of weeks!

it seems that insty has become my new photo album: the hols started with a fab week at the beach, the instant skool was over:

swimming with the fishies

at Goat Island

the gentle rhythm of swim, read, eat:

rinse + repeat

our fave little spot at matakana:

pimms for mama, fanta for Mousey

the pre-christmas shenanigans

(oh, hello snapchat!)

dress-ups for Christmas eve at work

the engineers

rapping wrapping it up

you look like Christmas morning

boyz in the surf

bears to stay

my, how you've grown..

the four biggest kids were missing!

 

and... i got my sewing machine out, cut a pattern off one of my fave dresses, and voilà!

but wait..there's more!!! cos you can never really get too much of a good thing..

unless it's food and riotous living.. am now booked in for bootcamp and the cycle of losing the last ten kilos again... funny how we suddenly realise that everything else has come first for far too long + we need to re-prioritise self.

which brings me to my ABCs.. cos skool starts again tomorrow..

(a) sleep, exercise, eat

(b) i can't  make everyone happy

(c) slow down, slow down, slow down

cos really, even though life continues to deliver absolute fabulousity:

in the form of Cheshire Cats

and March Hares

those ABCs are to be the priority in 2014, cos the rabbit hole is fine during the summer, but we can't be falling down it again in real life. #antijinx

because, that ^

moustachio disguiseying, though,

is to be encouraged.