Don't waste the good weather!

Yesterday (Saturday) I got to sleep in until 7.30, as Caitlyn had woken up and gone back to sleep again. I had a look outside and saw a day with not a cloud in the sky. It would have been daft to spend the day indoors, so I woke Caitlyn and Bianca at 8.00 and got them breakfasted. Then we headed out north, along with our new au pair Sandrea. Lea had warned me that I needed to be home by 1.30 so I could sort out the payment for the new house in Auckland with internet banking.

Bianca wanted a horse ride and it was pocket money day, so we stopped off at Queen Elizabeth Park where there are horse rides on weekends. She brought a pink straw cowboy hat like Jessie wears in Toystory 2 with, but of course she had to wear a helmet on the horse. We got there a little early but Bianca got her horse ride anyway. This is one of the things we need to source again when we are up in Auckland.


After the horse ride we headed out to Lindale Farm. Sandrea hadn't been to Lindale, and it's a good experience for city dwellers. We couldn't stay for the farm show which starts at 2.00, but we did the farm walk. Bianca bought two dollar bags of animal food with her own money. It was quite a novel experience for Sandrea to see the animals and feed them. They had a set of piglets, a goat and two sheep that were wondering around on the path instead of being in a paddock, which made the walk a bit more interactive. Of course I couldn't let Caitlyn walk loose as she would pick up anything she saw on the ground and put it in her mouth, so I had to push her in her stroller the whole way.
After lunch I put Caitlyn to bed and started getting ready for the afternoon. I decided that since the weather was so nice we could all go to Plimmerton beach for one last swim. I couldn't find Bianca's swimming costume, so she just wore a pair of jean shorts and a T shirt. The water wasn't bad after the first couple of minutes, and Bianca went in up to her waist. Caitlyn was happy running along the water line as far as she could before I caught her and turned her around so she could run back to where Bianca and Sandrea were. She did go in the water a bit and I had to follow her.

After half an hour in the water I decided it was too cold to stay longer. Both kids were good when it came to washing the sand off at the foot showers, and Sandrea and I changed them into warm clothes in the boot of the car. We drove around Plimmerton a bit to where the rocks are by the firestation, and Sandrea got out to take photos of the sunset.

I had brought food with for the kids, so they were eating supper in the back of the car. Sandrea and I ordered a pizza each from a pizza shop on the way home, and we waited for them in the car. As soon as we got home I popped Caitlyn into the bath and Bianca into the shower, which did a good job of heating them up. Sandrea decided she wanted to make pancakes for desert, and she found a pancake recipe in an old cook book we had brought over from South Africa. Bianca had to wait about 45 minutes after the pancakes were ready before she could have hers because she has to wait an hour after her nightly chemotherapy before eating again.

After Caitlyn was in bed I got Bianca settled in the kitchen watching Tom and Jerry on youtube, and started installing Kubuntu (an alternative to Windows) on the computer in the lounge. As you might guess if you know me my computer setup is non-standard, so I have a couple of minor issues to sort out before it becomes usable. But I found a nice Settlers of Catan game clone called Pioneers on the installation program that I played late into the night. So I was hoping Caitlyn would repeat yesterday's sleeping late today, but she didn't.