It's been a long time coming...part 1: fleeing the country

So here's the jist of the things we've done since Halloween.
After the pumpkin carving and trick and tricking I settled down for a panicked flurry of assignment work and revision for my exam. I continued to do the drive from Te Atatu to Glen Eden each day, hanging out at the library every morning for internet access (ie facebook Chris) and to research bits and pieces for the final 40% assignment. Around 12 I would pack up each day,and head over to Visionwest kindy where I would collect Cam and pop over to the visionwest cafe where they gave me free coffee. Cam would get a ham and cheese toastie and then I would either head off to Parrs Park or Ceramco Park or send him back to kindy until 4pm and hightail it back to the library and collect Kieran at 3, let him play with Alex in the school grounds until 3:30, collect Cam then drive to Te Atatu, stopping in at a playground, the beach etc on the way. In the last few weeks the glorious weather, and the lack of aircon (coupled with non-functioning windows) made me positively avoid the car :P We did have some fun with the Te Atatu Treasure Hunt, sleepovers, Kieran doing some Judo lessons-  and doing very well at them! - and going on some lovely nature walks. The last day before Chris came back was stunning-  lovely blue skies and warm. After kindy Cam and I headed to Ceramco we we climbed around on some falled trees, ran around the skate park fixtures, mucked around on the playground and rolled down the grassy banks. In short, exactly the sort of behaviour you expect from a 3 year old and a 30 year old :P
Finally Chris arrived back in the country and the boys cries of joys were delightful to hear. Oddly, Chris who had mocked my description of driving the car in the afternoon as a 'sweatbath' and told me to 'harden up' waxed lyrical over the lack of aircon when we headed off to Hamilton for Jen's wedding. Lol. I admit my early morning drives in the cool air, with a duration of 20 minutes, hardly stacked up to several hours in the heat of the day - even so...The wedding was lovely, the venue was stunning and Jen was a beautiful bride. The boys prowled around Te Awamutu aka Rose town. It was very pretty and abounded with roses. Abandoning my husband and children I headed home with Mary and Katherine while they remained to have some family time with the whanau. Once home on Sunday I studied like a fiend for the Monday morning exam. Thanks to some wonderful friends Kieran had spent Sunday night at their house and was going to school with them so we didn't need to drive all the way into Oratia only to turn around and drive all the way back to get on the motorway :) The exam went reasonably well, and I came home and gave away vast amounts of my belongings :) I do miss my Edmond's flour tin, but we could not fit in the suitcases :) Our last night in NZ was spent having dinner at Colin and Ros's. It was a lovely night :) Shortly thereafter, we headed into hell, otherwise known as three long plane rides, 2 train rides and a taxi ride. Helloooo England!