Cat assuming the role of mouse.

Lucy and Finn have being going toe to paw a bit recently.  
On Sunday I caught an amusing photo sequence of 'cat and mouse', this time the cat assuming the role of mouse.

Game on; hot pursuit.

Missed, but he's got a tail ain't he ...

Nup, Dad, he's gone.

Another Wet Weekend

The wet weekends have been queueing themselves back to back it seems this winter. In between breaks in the shower fronts and cabin fever, I caught this picture of the mid winter leaves.

Why blog?

I've been pondering why I write this blog. I started writing it as an idle interest, an experiment almost, unsure where it would head. What I have discovered is that blogs are hard work. I've noticed many start, stutter and stop. Quitting them is almost the trend.

The direction that this blog has found itself is now primarily about the family.  We have a distributed family in the sense in that it is spread over half the country. While the nucleus is based in Wellington, the rest are in Auckland. That  means our daughters have grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins based at the other end of the country; and while  we are lucky enough to visit each other reasonably regularly, however that does not prevent long stretches in between, and milestones passing by.

So, that has formed the core purpose of this blog. Simply put, an online diary of what the kids are up to. Not only does it serve to too keep remote family members up with the play but also forms a useful history for ourselves on how they are growing up. 

There is also a tertiary purpose. Photos. I have found that I enjoy taking photos, and have also found that my family are useful to inflict my photographic skills upon. Every once and a while, to my great surprise, I get the odd nice picture. I see no point in keeping photos locked up on photo albums or on other physical media.  A blog is a useful way to publish them. After all, everyone likes a nice picture of the kids. 

Luckily, outside immediate family, and web indexing crawlers, I seriously doubt if anybody bothers to read these entries. Perhaps the odd passerby. 

To counterpoint the previous statement, I'm professionally concerned about privacy issues on the internet. Many shall and will comment that such a blog of this nature is an antithesis to such notions. While what I publish makes no attempt to be anything other than public (verses the misrepresented-pseudo-private of that consummate internet evil juggernaut that is facebook),  I aim to only publish what a causal member of the public could observe about us anyway. Well, that's the theory. 

Amelia Turns Five

June is a busy month.

Roll out one wedding anniversary, and three birthdays within the space of 14 days. It ended with Amelia turning 5.

Being 5 involves several things. Well, there's starting school of course, but it also involves giving attitude and having theme based parties involving professional fairies.

He's a photo of Amelia and her pro-fairy sorting each other out on her party on Sunday. Actually the pro-fairy was pretty good. She would have to be - she had 16 five year olds in the palm over her hand. It amazing what a facial expression and a lolly pop can do to a five year old.

Amelia's cousin Gwen came to visit. She got a pro-fairy face paint job. Seems the paint quickly put her 'in role'.

On Monday Amelia headed off to school with apprehensive parents in tow. I'm happy to report that she has flown into the role of being a 5 year old school kid. School uniforms are a relief; no more morning 'debates' on what to wear.

Lucy Turns One

A shot of Lucy on her first birthday. Her big sister gave her the purple teddy bear.

Wool in Winter

A shot of Lucy in her winter woolens, ready to depart outdoors into the weather.