Sleeping beauties

Reuben and the masked avenger get some shut eye...

Well guys, here we are at Los Angeles, half way round the world.  Only lost one bag so far (and that's the airlines fault not ours) and hopefully it will be joining us here via a later flight.  As you can see, Reuben and Tilly did some sleeping last night.  Harriet didn't do too badly either and now we're in the Air NZ lounge grabbing a cup of tea and a shower before part two.  Children are being great even though we're all pretty tired.  Next stage will be the toughest leg of the trip as we're all starting tired, so wish us luck!

The year according to Reuben

Reuben came home with his summary of the school year today.  I think this speaks for itself!

Getting ready for Christmas

Time is rushing away towards Christmas and our trip to the UK.  Taxi booked, accommodation sorted for all the nights of our stay, car hire organised, Christmas presents bought - time to relax a bit before we tackle the packing.  Auckland weather has been fabulous recently, blue skies and temperatures in the high 20s, so we headed down to the beach on Sunday afternoon with the kayak.

Tilly asked for first ride and headed off with Dave.

All I want for Christmas is...

…well, to quote the song, two front teeth wouldn't go amiss for Reuben!  He is still minding the gap.  But what he and Tilly really want, as dictated to us while they were in the bath yesterday, is as follows and we're posting it here in case anyone is looking for inspiration for Christmas presents:

We are the champions!

Like father, like daughter… Cycle king Dave and Playball queen Tilly

We've been very busy covering ourselves in glory recently.

Trickle trickle

It was Hallowe'en last week and while the light evenings don't provide much of a spooky atmosphere, that didn't seem to diminish Reuben and Tilly's excitement - probably because they were very keen to go trick or treating for the first time and sweets are still sweets whatever the time of year.

Tilly ghost, 2nd left; Reuben vampire bat, 3rd from right

More please!

Our Harriet is growing up fast.  She was checked by the nurse at the end of October and weighed in at 7.45kg, which puts her just above the 50th centile, although her head circumference and her length are above the 90th centiles (Semple head and Burdekin height genes maybe?) She passed the 6 month mark on Saturday (how did that happen so quickly?) and has had her first week of eating solid food.  We did what the books tell you to do, and started her on baby rice.