Dave is officially Excellent

Picture the scene: last Wednesday evening, the events centre under the cupola of the Auckland Museum.  360º views over the city and Waitemata Harbour. Wine, canapés, expectant groups of guests seated at round tables.  A hush falls as the presenter fumbles with a envelope: 'And the winner of the award for Clinical Excellence is……. David Semple and team!'  And the crowd went wild!!

It's not quite the Oscars, but it's close! 

Little Bo Peep...

… has found her sheep.  At the garden centre, last Thursday actually.

There you are!

Reuben and Tilly try very hard, while Harriet does some good hiding

It was sports day at school for Reuben and Tilly on Tuesday.

Year 0 girls are off!  Tilly is in stripy top at left.

Reuben the Kea

This is a kea, New Zealand's native parrot (renowned for attacking sheep and car windscreen wipers, apparently!)

And this is Reuben, who has just been invested as a Kea, which is also the junior branch of Scouts in New Zealand.

Well done Dave!

Dave competed in his first triathlon on Sunday.  Here he is captured by Tilly during the run stage.  

NZ triathlons are made extra difficult by the presence of dinosaurs on the course, but here's Dave as he punches a brachiosaurus out of his path (the T-Rex has already decided to give up and is running away by the look of it).  

Tilly is very domesticated

Aaargh!  Aaaaarrgh!  The hoover!  It's EATING my hand!

Hair by Pesto

Y'know, I wasn't entirely happy with my current hairstyle.  It was sooo hard to control - because my hair is quite fine

So when I heard about a trial for an amazing new hair product, I volunteered straight away

I just rubbed it in thoroughly, like this

And I really couldn't be happier with the results!  My hair has body, texture - it's just great.  Hands up for pesto!

The self-controllable gorilla wins a certificate

We're getting a bit behind the times here, but back in September it was Father's Day in NZ.  Here's what Reuben wrote on Dave's cards:  

Anyone need their computer disproblemed?  We can recommend the services of our local brown gorilla...

Cuteness wears a pair of sunglasses

The sun was out on Sunday so we got the outdoor cushions out of storage under the house and had the sunshade up for the first time since about May.  Harriet discovered that you only need a pair of sunglasses to have a LOT of fun.

Watch out! Evil cyborgs about!

Resistance is futile when you're up against something like THIS.  Submit NOW!

Discovered Reuben's latest plan for world domination while having a clear-out earlier.  If it was a secret, he shouldn't have left it lying around, should he?

And we have lift off!

Sharing a cheeky cracker with best friend Eléanore

We haven't had a blog post about Harriet for a while, but stand by for a major announcement…

At last! Tilly starts school

Waving us goodbye on Monday morning

After at least a year of pining and longing,

Tilly has a birthday

The long-awaited day has arrived and Tilly is now 5!  'Four is a boring number' she declared this time last year.  Fortunately, she has persevered and can put her annus horribilis behind her.  Fist day at school tomorrow - to say she is excited is an understatement.  Here are a few shots from earlier today.

Chocolate spread for breakfast can really set you up for the day, says Tilly

We all find our ski legs

Panorama from Coronet Peak, looking back towards The Remarkables.  By 'eck, it were a bit gorgeous

We think Queenstown's all right

Not a bad view... Looking back across Lake Wakatipu on the descent to the airport

So we've come to Queenstown for a week, and we have found Winter!  

Table manners and some nice photos...

Harriet is normally fairly angelic when it comes to sleeping through, but on Saturday and Sunday nights even the usual failsafe of the NZ politics podcast droning in the background didn't have its usual effect of boring her back to sleep when she woke up in the wee small hours.  She has been a bit snotty over the last few weeks and not eating that much, and we wondered if she was actually waking up because she was hungry.

The taste sensation that's sweeping the nation

We have been conducting an on-going campaign against mice over recent months - and up until this afternoon I thought they were winning. Here's a message I didn't expect to find propped against the toaster last week.  

Tilly has a lot to say for herself

Recently, Tilly has had an explosion of creativity.  From being fairly uninterested in drawing a few months ago, she has gone to producing a new masterpiece every other day.  And it's not only drawing - she also does a lot of writing too and sounds out most of the words by herself.  Here are some of the best bits from her growing portfolio.

My space rocket.  'Iron Man has gone to the moon in his rocket and found an alien'

We have lots of birthdays

The force is strong with this one...

This time last year, Hannah was keeping her legs crossed and hoping that Reuben and Harriet's birthdays would not fall on the same day.  

I have a happy mother's day (and get some very large green knickers)

Aahhh….

Musical children

Mozart apparently started composing at the age of three - but we can beat that.  Behold our musical baby:

We are happy campers

Little Miss Perky surveys the world from her new bedroom

Flighty nuts? We say no.

Found at the supermarket yesterday:

Yep, grounded almonds.

What a warrior-ess!!

Tilly the trooper

So Tilly had her first trip to ED in NZ last night (actually it's her first trip to ED anywhere come to think of it).  Full gory details after the break...

And all was for an apple

At the start of the month we all headed over to the other side of the ditch, as they refer to the Tasman Sea round here, and spent five nights in Sydney.  Getting us all there was not without complications,