Well it's as always, been ages since my last update!  Heres' a list of the various things we did with Mum/she did with us / the kids.

• Went for a walk around Ahuriri to look for Kingfishers.  We found quite a few.  Took some nice photos as well.   Afterwards we got a couple of treats from the McDonalds drivethru.  It was a great little walk though, hunting around trying to find a Kingfisher until we eventually spotted one.  Then two, then quite a few.  Never got too close to them though, but we certainly saw some.  Mum kept saying "Did you bring the Binoculars" but no, we hadn't brought any with us.  It was her bird watching trip not ours!
• Granny did lots of rock painting with the kids.  There's still lots of rocks around the house with Sharks etc painted on them, they also went and hide some down...

Thursday I worked from home having gotten up at 3:30am for a cutover of Lampton Quay and then an upgrade of the Wellington BNG from SROS 15.0R3->21.10R4.  I was quite nervous such a big SROS jump wouldn't work but after 15 minutes and about 4 reboots while it upgraded firmwares on cards, it came up and started working again like a champion.  The rest of the day was working with one eye open and helping Sarah have the massive cleanout she did of the kids rooms.  Just getting rid of all the plastic toys and shite they've accumulated over the past couple of years.  I also setup Granny's room because it was GRANNY ARRIVAL DAY!

Thursday night everyone was very excited! Granny was going to arrive!  We had it all planned, I was going to take Biscuit for a walk then when I got back we'd head out, grab a...

The final pool inspection was yesterday morning.  I had all the documents ready, I was expecting a 20 minute grilling and questions and all that sort of stuff (not that I would have known the answer to many questions) but instead he was happy to be left alone and wander around outside before leaving 5 minutes later.  Told me everything was OK and I just needed to fill out a form 6 online.  So I filled out a form 6 and then yesterday afternoon I got the email with our code of compliance!

Good thing he wasn't here a day earlier when the kids were letting themselves into the pool by putting a chair up near the gate and getting in that way.  I've had the pool heater on and given the weather hasn't been freezing (just wet) it got up to about 22c which the kids seem more than...

Saturday morning I took the kids up to Tennis and then over to swimming.  Both did pretty well, the only problem at Tennis was I realised I'd forgotten the swim bags so had to zip home to get them.  But thankfully no one bashed their head or hurt themselves while I was away doing that.  Once swimming was over we zipped home to make sure Beth was all super packed up, then we drove to the Airport and waited around for Sarah and Beth's boarding call to fly to Auckland for the Spring Carnival!  This is what Beth's been practising for for a number of weeks now and what the display that was put on for us last weekend was all about.  Eventually it was boarding time so we gave them a big kiss and a cuddle and off they went.

Theo and I then went into town to buy...

We went to Beth's Cheerleading display yesterday afternoon.  This year the proper competition is in Auckland and Sarah and Beth are going up for it then.  Yesterday was the show for everyone to see what they've been up to and fundraising for the club.  We got there nice and early so we mangaged to get a good seat right up the front.  Sarah had spent the morning with Beth getting her makeup done, eyeliner, mascara, false lashes and bright pink lipstick.  All part of the cheerleading requirements.  I said to Sarah how silly it seems given the focus is on the cheerleading aspect, not what they look like, but she rightly pointed out that Theatre is the same, you have to put on overly expressive makeup so that you clearly stand out under lights.  After a lot of work upstairs Beth was ready!

So yes we got a seat...

I was up bright and early this morning for another go on the Treadmill.  The good news is, both kids still slept in like rocks this morning.  Sarah's probably right, the excitement of the treadmill on the first day was something for them to both want to get up when they stired and have a look.  This morning both still fast asleep like bricks at 6:45am when I went to wake them up.  I meant to do 30 minutes on the 'mill this morning, but I accidentally knocked the safetly plug out at 22 minutes in and it all ground to a halt, so I called it quits there.

Then when I was reading the news I saw the breaking "Queen Dead!" and then my Twitter feed just flooded itself silly with Queen shit.  Poor ol' Queen though.  She had a good life.

All the diet eating (well, not shoving...

I've hired a treadmill to get ready for the Trail Run I'm doing in November.  But also just for general fitness and weight loss.  I have given it a few small tries since it arrived on Tuesday morning, but this morning (Thursday) I thought I'd give it a proper go!  It's in the playroom downstairs, when it arrived I was quite shocked by how large it was.  I mean I don't know what I was really expecting but it wasn't something as massive as it is.  It was a right mission to get it in the front door and there to the location I wanted it, then to get it into the playroom it had to be slighly dissassembled so that it could fit through the door.

Anyway I did 2km on it today, but I don't know it's in the best location because at 6am both kids were up...

So we had Beth's Birthday party on Friday night.  It went pretty well really, she had a good time.  A couple of small issues, Sarah went out earliler in the day and got Beth some nice helium ballons, a 9 and a love heart. When all her friends arrived, she wanted to take the 9 outside.  We told her, repeatedly, that it was bad idea and that even though it was tied to her wrist it would probaly slip off, or get caught on a tree. She argued that it would be fine so in the end we said fine, off you go but you'll lose it.  I think it was about 3 minutes later the tears started, she'd tried to get on the trampoline with it and somehow it'd become untied and floated off into the sky, never to be seen again.  So was very upset but we...

It's Beth's 9th Birthday today.  She's been so excited for it all week.  Last night about 7:30pm she started crying and explained to Sarah that she really doesn't want to turn 9.  She wants to stay 8!  Poor little sausage.  Sarah had a talk to her and explained the one thing we can't do is stop growing older.  Not sure what made her start thinking like that, maybe because we often joke with both of the kids "Stop Growing Up!" mostly when their clothes don't fit them anymore or other such things.  It probably didn't help that she was super tired from going to Beyond The Bell, they're always both knackered after going there for the afternoon.

She's having a sleepover with her friends tonight, 3 of them are coming over.  Isla, Daisy and Isla.

Sarah worked on Beth's cake last night, it's got a cute little frog same as...

On the weekend I hired a trailer from the BP.  Theo helped me hook it onto the car, taking care to screw the D-Shackle to the towbar, then checking the lights/indicators with me.  The first trailer, the indicators didn't work properly so we had to go back into the BP and get them to swap it over.  Theo then helped again hitch it up, check the lights (Yup they work now Daddy! *thumbs up*) and then we drove it home.  He then helped me over the next ~3 hours load up about 850kg of rocks, old bits of timber especially from around the pool and the old Walnut tree that used to be in the backyard, broken things from the veggie garden, heaps of old and broken bricks from around the place.  He only had two breaks, one a Lemonade break and two a break when he managed to get...