Four Years Old

 New favourite dress with the previous favourite discarded on the floor.

Birthday Dinner at Nana's

Last day at pre-school

As it was almost her birthday they baked Amy a cake.

Queenstown Trip March

 Donna was cycling the Queenstown Classic - a three day ride from Queenstown to Cromwell, then Wanaka and back to Queenstown. These shots are in Cromwell at the end of the first day's ride.

 Cromwell Heritage Precinct

 Lake Wanaka, day two.

 The Nvader riders at the end by Lake Wakatipu, Quuenstown. Donna far left.

January 2016

Cooling off

New Year

 First ice cream of the year - before lunch on January 1st! After a quiet Christmas with friends, Nana arrived on New Year's Eve. On New Year's day we went to Spencer Park, not realising there was a huge gala day on, which meant for even more entertainment than usual.

 Water dodgems. Unfortunately Amy is used to steering wheels which don't actually do anything - like in the old movies, so didn't quite get the hang of it.

She's mastered the cargo net though.

Maybe nail polish wasn't a great idea Santa

.

Santa Clause is Coming to Town

Christmas Eve - putting out food for the reindeer

 

Putting the visitors to good use - John over from England

Merry Christmas Everyone

Kaiapoi Santa Parade - waiting for the main man

Pre-school Christmas Party

Visit to Nana October/November

Nana's Birthday

Sharing with Kyoka - Japanese Student

November

September 2015 - Weekend in Wanaka

 After months of training, it was finally time for Donna's latest adventure race, in Wanaka, one of our favourite places in New Zealand. Here we are waiting for the start of the race on the shore of Lake Hawea. It's a ( o'clock start so still quite cool.

 Here we are many hours later waiting at the finish. Someone had thoughtfully dumped a big pile of snow by the finish line, probably trucked in from one of the nearby ski fields which are still open this time of year. It's the most snow Amy had ever seen in one place and thankfully kept her amused for quite some time. And yes Ian or Tracy, if you're looking, that is the dress you bought her just over a year ago - she loves it.

 Brenda Cathy and Donna - the team, at the finish line after a 2km run, 12km raft down the Hawea river, 33km mountain bike ride over undulating terrain, 12km orienteering over seriously undulating terrain, another similar 21km bike ride followed by a final short uphill dash to the finish line, and just shy of nine hours on the go. Get those girls a drink.

Sunday was daddy's time to go and explore some walking and mountain bike tracks whilst Donna and Amy had a more relaxing day, at the beach, at the world-famous (in Wanaka) Puzzling World, and the park.

 

September 2015

Amy with her sometimes best friend Lily the cat from across the road. She's never scratched or bitten her - she has both of us, despite the abuse she gets. Indoor shot again as winter drags on. Looking forward to some warmer weather this month.

Winter

What do you do on a cold winter's day? You go to the toddlers' big day in, get your face painted, get lots of free stuff like balloons, decorate a cookie on a stick and hang on to it just long enough to get a photo before devouring it.

Then it's time to shake it all down on the bouncy castle.

Making muffins with mum. Well, decorating them at least.

Amy's first experience of snow. Last time we had any she was only four months old. This is what we woke up to this morning. We weren't exactly snowed in. Still there was enough for a few icy snowballs and a tiny snowman (do you want to build a snowman?) And we discovered that snow is quite cold and wet!