As winter is fast setting in, and I have a bit of extra time on my hands at the weekend, I thought I would do a post with my daily routine as an Au Pair.
6:45am
Alarm goes off and I get out of bed and get dressed, and this is definitely getting harder now it's so cold and dark in the mornings!
7am - 8am
Get the boys breakfast, and breakfast for myself as well as making Darragh's lunch. Make sure both the boys backpacks have everything they need in them, Cillian has a spare set of clothes and a water bottle for the car, Darragh has his coat, Reading Bag, lunchbox and water bottle. Then I sort it clothes for them and make their beds, stripping the beds every Monday. Next it's helping them brush their teeth and getting them to take their night time nappies out to the bin. The rules are no playing until they're ready which normally works for them to get ready quickly (well for Darragh anyway!) and then they either play with their toys or sometimes watch cartoons before we leave at 8am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and around 8:25am on Tuesdays and Fridays.
8am - 9am
Set off to drop Cillian off first, apart from Fridays, normally have a few tears from him as he 'misses' his Mum, but normally it doesn't take him long to calm down thankfully! He's in the equivalent of a preschool room and they always have heaps of activities set out in the morning, but I've never managed to distract him with them! He always needs at least 2 cuddles, high fives and a kiss before I leave, and then we have to make funny faces through the door to him! If I forget to do any of the above it results in an emotional breakdown and I have learnt my lesson by now!! Then it's Darragh's turn to go to school, he's a first year, and a lot easier to drop off, I just need to remind him to take his reading bag out of his bag as he forgot a few times which meant he was coming home with the same book every evening. If everything goes to plan, it's normally just after 8:30 by the time Darragh's in school so I get home and finish tidying up before having my break.
9am -11:50am
This is where I have my break, on Tuesdays it's until 2:45pm and Fridays I don't get a break! I used to go for a run every morning, but I've gotten out of the habit and feeling pretty lazy plus its gotten really cold! So now I tend to faff around on social media for a bit, and I've been reading a large amount of books or catching up on tv! So not exactly the most productive break but I enjoy myself!
12pm
Pick up Cillian from kindy, then come home and get lunch sorted. He's a pretty slow eater so I normally plan for at least half an hour for lunch! We then do his sounds after we've finished, at the moment he knows 'm', 'n', 's', 'c', 'a', 'i', 'l' and 'd', I've been introducing a new sound each week and he's been doing really well! I then reinforce this with either jolly phonics, reading eggs (a really great app for learning to read, would really recommend it!) or a game I have made up. For example, I have made a garage with different letters on each space, then put a letter on each car. He has to match the car to the space and say the sound as it goes in. I try and keep this learning time up for as long as possible until he gets bored, and this really varies day by day!
1pm - 2:35pm
I then will have at least one other activity planned for Cillian and I to do with each other, and fill in the rest of the time with free play (which is normally playing with trains or cars!). Some example of actives we will do together are taking his scooter, bike or bat and ball down to the bay, an arts and craft activity, cooking and sometimes we leave early and go to a different play ground before picking Darragh up from school. We have to leave at around 2:35 as although it only takes around ten minutes to get there, sometimes it's near impossible to get a parking space, let alone a space close enough that they both won't whine at me for parking too far away!
3pm - 5pm
Normally I get to school a good ten minutes before the bell rings, so we wait outside the classroom for a wee bit before Darragh comes out, and he's normally one of the last ones! If the weather is half decent we play on the playground at the school for a bit before heading either home or to the scenic reserve. I then normally have at least one activity planned for the afternoon, and that's either a trip out to the reserve, library, bay or play date or some sort of craft - Darragh is super creative and it's always awesome to do crafty things with him as his imagination is awesome! At some point we do Darragh's reading homework, and if they've been good they can have 15 minutes on their tablet each. Other than that it's free play! I'm always constantly thinking about the balance between letting them just do what they want to do and me thinking up things to do to stop both them and me from getting bored. Sometimes it just doesn't work though depending on how tired they both are! Also, once or twice a week I will be making dinner, so I'll start to get the ready too.
5pm - 7pm
Normally by now, the boys will be playing on their own and I'll be helping with dinner or tidying round a bit. After eating, which takes a long time in Cillian's case, I'll either run a bath or bring their pyjamas down, and then they'll have dessert if they had a clean plate. Afterwards, it's free playing for a wee bit before brushing their teeth and sometimes reading them a story before bed. It kinda depends on how busy the motel is as to how involved I am in putting them to bed, but I always have to give them a kiss and a cuddle before hey go to sleep or they'll be back downstairs demanding one!
Fridays are slightly different, as I'll have Cillian all day and we'll go to mainly music at 9:30 then head to a playground with the other au Pairs, and potentially stay their until 2, with a packed lunch, if the weather is nice enough and they are enjoying themselves! Then after school the boys have football practice at 4:30 so Fridays are pretty busy and tend to go really quickly!
Friday, 30 June 2017
Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Back to Aotearoa
Thursday 8th - Sunday 18th June 2017
After landing back in New Zealand, we stayed at Wade's parents house in Geraldine as it was quite late, and saved an extra hour of travelling. The house was freezing as Sam and Kerrie were still ought in Aussie and it was 1 degree when we landed! It didn't take long for me to fall asleep and then I didn't wake up until 10:30 the following morning when Darragh woke up, oops!
We had a pretty chilled out day, and just played with the toys in the afternoon... after a whole week without them they all get super interesting again! We then made it to football practice, and I was so glad I had bought a coat, it's so cold especially when the sun is in!
This weekend I did pretty much nothing, and it was brilliant. Well, I watched all of the new season of Orange is the New Black so not really nothing!
Mary had started to train me up to work in the motel this week, which is actually way more fun then I thought it would be! (Although I haven't actually spoken to any of the guests face to face yet!).
This week was more about getting settled in to the new routine, the two hour time difference had really messed up the boys' sleeping pattern and when school stared they were on the grumpier side of life which is always fun! We still had a fun filled week, going on adventures and obviously playing with Lego, and Cillian is still keen to learn his sounds!
After landing back in New Zealand, we stayed at Wade's parents house in Geraldine as it was quite late, and saved an extra hour of travelling. The house was freezing as Sam and Kerrie were still ought in Aussie and it was 1 degree when we landed! It didn't take long for me to fall asleep and then I didn't wake up until 10:30 the following morning when Darragh woke up, oops!
We had a pretty chilled out day, and just played with the toys in the afternoon... after a whole week without them they all get super interesting again! We then made it to football practice, and I was so glad I had bought a coat, it's so cold especially when the sun is in!
This weekend I did pretty much nothing, and it was brilliant. Well, I watched all of the new season of Orange is the New Black so not really nothing!
Mary had started to train me up to work in the motel this week, which is actually way more fun then I thought it would be! (Although I haven't actually spoken to any of the guests face to face yet!).
This week was more about getting settled in to the new routine, the two hour time difference had really messed up the boys' sleeping pattern and when school stared they were on the grumpier side of life which is always fun! We still had a fun filled week, going on adventures and obviously playing with Lego, and Cillian is still keen to learn his sounds!
Friday was the first Friday I had Cillian all day, as he now goes to kindy all day on a Tuesday, and I pick him up just before getting Darragh from school. Mainly music was pretty fun, I especially liked the cakes for morning tea! We then headed to the park, and it was so nice to be able to spend the day with the other kids and their au pairs.... Cillian had a blast!
I'd like to say I had another fun filled weekend doing lots of cool, interesting stuff... but I actually spent my weekend watching shows and reading, as well as doing a bit more training for the motel!
I'm now over half way through my time as an Au Pair, and I have such mixed feelings about this. Australia has reignited my passion for travel, and I'm so excited to go to Sydney in two months, but at the same time I have grown very fond of this family and it will be hard to say goodbye!
Friday, 23 June 2017
Gold Coast
Monday 5th - Thursday 8th June 2017
After getting the long train, then a few buses to get back to the turtle beach resort, I was exhausted! At one point I thought I was going to be locked out of the resort, but I snuck in and waited outside the rooms, trying desparetky to get ahold of wade or Mary! Eventually I did and the boys gave me a super lovely greeting... telling me all about their adventures over the weekend and saying that they missed me! They are pretty cute!
The following day we made our way to Sea world. I was a bit dubious about going, due to the animal cruelty side to it, and if I had to buy a stand alone ticket I definitely would not have gone, but I went along with the family as I got a ticket for 70 bucks to enter 3 parks which wasn't pretty cheap!and actually, I am pretty glad I did as the kids had such an awesome time it was lovely to see!
We watched the sea lion show, which was pretty cheesy and we kinda regretted sitting in the sun for it as it went on for ages! Then we had a look around Nickelodeon world, I would've loved it here as a kid! When the spongebob characters made an appearance, Spongebob ran pasts all the kids and went straight to hug me... pretty weird! I don't want to think about who was in that costume!!!
They had a deal on where if you bought a drink for $13.99 it had unlimited refills all day, so I took that as a challenge and got in 6 refills!
After lunch we went on the big rollercoaster, and took Darragh with us. He sat next to Wade, and was slightly unsure at first but saw it as a boat and seemed fine. Then we went up, high, and he started panicking a bit less him! He freaked out at the end with the big splash! I had forgotten how much I actually enjoy rollercoasters though!
We stayed and watched the dolphin show, which made me think about my decision once again as there is no way those poor animals have enough room in their enclosures. They're pretty talented though! The worst bit though was seeing the polar bears... like why on earth do they have polar bears in Australia!!!!
We then headed back to the hotel after a long, busy day got changed into slightly warmer clothes, as it gets pretty cold in the evenings, and then went out to grab food. The pub we went to had a kids entertainer and they had a free buffet for the kids on a Tuesday, so we picked a good day to go! The boys even had their faces painted!
Wednesday morning we headed off to movie world, and I have to admit, I was probably just as excited as the kids if not more so! It's pretty similar to Disneyland, but for warner bros, (sadly no Harry Potter though!). We watched Looney tunes 4D as we walked past it just as they were showing it, it was pretty good! I haven't watched the looney tunes for ages, and I'd totally forgotten all about it!
We then went to the kids section, and Darragh bravely tried out the smaller rollercoaster after his borderline traumatic experience the day before. He loved it! He ended up going on it like 6 or 7 times! We spent most of the morning there, before going to the stunt show. The stunt show was mega cheesy, but when they were actually driving the cars it was pretty cool!
The last ride we went on was the justice league ride, pretty similar to the buzz light year ride at Disney land! There was only room for four in the cart so I went by myself and had a great time shooting all the starfish things - I doubled up with two guns! At the end Wade and Mary seemed confused, turns out they didn't realise you could lift he guns out and they were for shooting! So I made ya go on it again, and th boys loved it!
Oh and also I topped up my drink twice again (took me a while to find the refill station) so I totally got my money's worth haha!
We went back to the same pub we went he previous day for dinner, and the rest of eh family joined us there. It was such a lovely last day of the holidays!
The following morning we got a late checkout so we just chilled at the pools for a bit. Then we went shopping back at Pacific Fair and I finally bought myself a cheap coat! We then dropped the hire car off and headed backwards to the airport to the land of the Kiwis!
Australia, it was a blast. See you in a few months!
After getting the long train, then a few buses to get back to the turtle beach resort, I was exhausted! At one point I thought I was going to be locked out of the resort, but I snuck in and waited outside the rooms, trying desparetky to get ahold of wade or Mary! Eventually I did and the boys gave me a super lovely greeting... telling me all about their adventures over the weekend and saying that they missed me! They are pretty cute!
We watched the sea lion show, which was pretty cheesy and we kinda regretted sitting in the sun for it as it went on for ages! Then we had a look around Nickelodeon world, I would've loved it here as a kid! When the spongebob characters made an appearance, Spongebob ran pasts all the kids and went straight to hug me... pretty weird! I don't want to think about who was in that costume!!!
They had a deal on where if you bought a drink for $13.99 it had unlimited refills all day, so I took that as a challenge and got in 6 refills!
After lunch we went on the big rollercoaster, and took Darragh with us. He sat next to Wade, and was slightly unsure at first but saw it as a boat and seemed fine. Then we went up, high, and he started panicking a bit less him! He freaked out at the end with the big splash! I had forgotten how much I actually enjoy rollercoasters though!
We stayed and watched the dolphin show, which made me think about my decision once again as there is no way those poor animals have enough room in their enclosures. They're pretty talented though! The worst bit though was seeing the polar bears... like why on earth do they have polar bears in Australia!!!!
We then headed back to the hotel after a long, busy day got changed into slightly warmer clothes, as it gets pretty cold in the evenings, and then went out to grab food. The pub we went to had a kids entertainer and they had a free buffet for the kids on a Tuesday, so we picked a good day to go! The boys even had their faces painted!
Wednesday morning we headed off to movie world, and I have to admit, I was probably just as excited as the kids if not more so! It's pretty similar to Disneyland, but for warner bros, (sadly no Harry Potter though!). We watched Looney tunes 4D as we walked past it just as they were showing it, it was pretty good! I haven't watched the looney tunes for ages, and I'd totally forgotten all about it!
We then went to the kids section, and Darragh bravely tried out the smaller rollercoaster after his borderline traumatic experience the day before. He loved it! He ended up going on it like 6 or 7 times! We spent most of the morning there, before going to the stunt show. The stunt show was mega cheesy, but when they were actually driving the cars it was pretty cool!
After grabbing a bite to eat, we explored the rest of the park. Mary and I took Darragh on the scooby do ride (Cillian was too short much to his dismay!) as he had a new found love for roller coasters. I thought it would be a ghost train, I did not realise it would be as intense a rollercoaster as it actually was! Poor Darragh hated it, but I loved it!
We then made our way to the Wild West area, and went to go on the big water flume. Darragh, still not quite recovered from Scooby, was not up for going on another ride, but because Cillian was allowed on this one, we persevered and he (very) reluctantly got in the boat! Cillian sat next to me, and he enjoyed it at first, until we went backwards and down a pretty steep drop! Then it was just tears all round from the pair of them! They were totally fine though!
After this, we headed for the Arkham asylum ride. Wade was super keen and I said I'd go on it with him, but as we got closer I got more and more nervous. It's the first virtual reality rollercoaster in the aouthern hemisphere, and I kinda wanted to try it, but I forgot to bring the five bucks with me and to be fair I think it would've messed with my head a wee bit! I was freaking out. I was sitting in the roller coaster wondering why I was doing this to myself. The only thing that made me do it was thinking about my bungy jump and how the scariest thing turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences! And, yet again, I'm really glad I did it! It was soooo much fun! (Even though I did scream all the way around).
We popped back to the kids bit for a bit after that, and met Batman on the way out! The kids were super excited about it, it was really cute!
Oh and also I topped up my drink twice again (took me a while to find the refill station) so I totally got my money's worth haha!
We went back to the same pub we went he previous day for dinner, and the rest of eh family joined us there. It was such a lovely last day of the holidays!
The following morning we got a late checkout so we just chilled at the pools for a bit. Then we went shopping back at Pacific Fair and I finally bought myself a cheap coat! We then dropped the hire car off and headed backwards to the airport to the land of the Kiwis!
Australia, it was a blast. See you in a few months!
Monday, 19 June 2017
Noosa
Friday 2nd - Monday 5th June 2017
Lily picked me up from the train station and, although we hadn't seen each other in years, it felt like we had never been apart! It was just under an hours drive to get to Noosa and we stopped off at a look out, just catching the sunset. It was phenomenal. It's pretty easy to see why Lily has chosen to live here! Afterwards, we went back to her place and I met her boyfriend, Sam and we grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican place, then went out for a few drinks.
Lily had work in the morning, and I really meant to make the most of the morning so I got ready sharpish, but then I made the rookie mistake of lying down on my bed and I fell asleep for a few hours... oops! At least my hangover wasn't so bad after that?
We decided to bring Sam's sister's dog, Max, to the dog beach after getting food from a local French bakery (had the most delicious pulled pork pie). The beach was stunning (unsurprisingly) and it was a nice to be able to sunbathe in the winter!
Sadly Monday came around too quickly, and it was time to head back down to the Gold Coast. I sorted out all my bits, or so I thought! Lily took me to the national park for a quick walk, where we saw dolphins literally 10 metres away from the shore... the closest I've ever seen them! It was then a rush to get to the train station and grab a maccas before my train left. We said a quick goodbye nad then I made my way back down. An hour into my journey, Lily messaged me. I had left my iPad at hers because I am an idiot! I debated going back up to get it, but I'm the end Lily got it posted down to the Gold Coast for me!
So despite me being a slightly hungover idiot, I had the best time in Noosa and I know for sure that I will be back again!
Lily picked me up from the train station and, although we hadn't seen each other in years, it felt like we had never been apart! It was just under an hours drive to get to Noosa and we stopped off at a look out, just catching the sunset. It was phenomenal. It's pretty easy to see why Lily has chosen to live here! Afterwards, we went back to her place and I met her boyfriend, Sam and we grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican place, then went out for a few drinks.
Lily had work in the morning, and I really meant to make the most of the morning so I got ready sharpish, but then I made the rookie mistake of lying down on my bed and I fell asleep for a few hours... oops! At least my hangover wasn't so bad after that?
We decided to bring Sam's sister's dog, Max, to the dog beach after getting food from a local French bakery (had the most delicious pulled pork pie). The beach was stunning (unsurprisingly) and it was a nice to be able to sunbathe in the winter!
We went out for a few cocktails this evening, with a few of Lily and Sam's friends. However, we didn't stay out too late and headed back to their house. Sam wasn't feeling too great so he went to bed, but Lily and I stayed up and reminisced on the good old times of brownie pack holidays! This ended up on the memory of being rudely awoken at 7am by 'Crazy horses' blasting out and then us finding 'The very best of the Osmonds' to sing along to. To our surprise, we still remembered a fair few words and had a lovely sing along, and, naturally, we recorded ourselves singing and posted it on Facebook. (One of those things we probably should've waited until we were sober to do but too late now!)
The next day we made our way down to Rainbow Beach, and to get there we had to go on the ferry and drive on the beach a fair bit. We had a BBQ (because if I didn't have a BBQ in Australia I would have considered it a waste) and chilled out for a bit before heading back home, where Sam made a delicious roast dinner! Yum!
So despite me being a slightly hungover idiot, I had the best time in Noosa and I know for sure that I will be back again!
Friday, 16 June 2017
Queensland
Thursday 1st - Friday 2nd June 2017
Finally the day was here to get a bit of winter sun over at the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. We had a chilled out morning picking the car and doing a few bits before driving up to Christchurch to the airport.
The flight was just under 4 hours and I ended up reading half the novel I brought with me in that time... it was supposed to last me the whole week! Jetstar isn't the most luxurious of companies, but it does the job! We landed in Coolangatta at around 5ish there time, it took us a while to find the shuttle to the rental car place but Darragh was super excited to see that there was a tv in their playing Mr Bean!
We then drove down to Turtle Bay Resort, it looks pretty cool! There's s splash zone with water slides and things for the kids as well as three other pools. We grabbed dinner at the restaurant there, I had a pizza, it wasn't he nicest in the world but I was so hungry I didn't care! I was pretty paranoid he whole time about spiders though... luckily I didn't see any bigger than we get in England but I still made sure everything was zipped up! We had a little wander around before heading up to the room for the night - it had been a pretty long day!
The next morning I repacked my bag as I was heading up to Noosa to visit Lily and Sam for the weekend. I walked down to 7eleven to grab a go card, kinda like an Oyster card for Queensland. There was a huge shopping centre on the way, so I had a quick look around. The place was so big that I got a wee bit lost a few times! It was so nice to see a load of shops that I actually recognised!
I then walked back up and grabbed a sandwich for lunch. Wade and Mary dropped me off at the train station I needed to go to, as they were going to a shopping centre nearby. It only cost me just under 11 bucks to get a four hour train... I can't believe how cheap it is for trains here!
Finally the day was here to get a bit of winter sun over at the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. We had a chilled out morning picking the car and doing a few bits before driving up to Christchurch to the airport.
The flight was just under 4 hours and I ended up reading half the novel I brought with me in that time... it was supposed to last me the whole week! Jetstar isn't the most luxurious of companies, but it does the job! We landed in Coolangatta at around 5ish there time, it took us a while to find the shuttle to the rental car place but Darragh was super excited to see that there was a tv in their playing Mr Bean!
We then drove down to Turtle Bay Resort, it looks pretty cool! There's s splash zone with water slides and things for the kids as well as three other pools. We grabbed dinner at the restaurant there, I had a pizza, it wasn't he nicest in the world but I was so hungry I didn't care! I was pretty paranoid he whole time about spiders though... luckily I didn't see any bigger than we get in England but I still made sure everything was zipped up! We had a little wander around before heading up to the room for the night - it had been a pretty long day!
The next morning I repacked my bag as I was heading up to Noosa to visit Lily and Sam for the weekend. I walked down to 7eleven to grab a go card, kinda like an Oyster card for Queensland. There was a huge shopping centre on the way, so I had a quick look around. The place was so big that I got a wee bit lost a few times! It was so nice to see a load of shops that I actually recognised!
I then walked back up and grabbed a sandwich for lunch. Wade and Mary dropped me off at the train station I needed to go to, as they were going to a shopping centre nearby. It only cost me just under 11 bucks to get a four hour train... I can't believe how cheap it is for trains here!
Monday, 12 June 2017
The Lead Up to Aussie
Monday 22nd - Wednesday 31st May 2017
I had tonnes planned out for this week with the kids, actually going to the effort to have set activities each day! Unfortunately, on Tuesday Cillian came down with a sickness bug which meant the rest of the week we had a sick week. We watched movies and played a few games, but it wasn't until Thursday when he seemed to be getting better, and he was totally fine by Friday but had to stay off kindy because of the 48 hour rule! Luckily that was up before the afternoon so we met the au pairs and went to football practice as usual that afternoon!
Friday evening I slept over at Fabienne's with Sabrina and Julia as we were heading off to Dunedin in the morning. Julia brought some German sweets and they're my new favourite thing! So yummy! We then pretty much snacked and binge watched catfish for the rest of the evening!
We had a pretty chilled out start to the day, we planned to meet Anka in Oamaru to see the penguins, despite repeatedly saying they wouldn't be there as it was the wrong time of the day but never mind! We saw a few seals though, and a wee seal pup too which was pretty cute! Another seal was just chilling out on the seats, which meant we had to be a bit wary as they can be pretty vicious.
It took us a while to find Anka, and when we did we decided to go and play on the steam punk playground - as, naturally, that is what Au Pairs do!
We then made our way down to Dunedin, stopping off at the K Mart on the way. We checked in to our hostel, about a 15 minute walk away from the centre and, the best thing about it, it was called Hogwartz. I was expecting it to have been decorated a bit more in a Harry Potter theme, but there were a few bits and pieces here and there as a reminder! My personal favourite being the Dobby picture!
After putting our bits in our dorm, we headed into town to have a wander and to grab some food it was nice to be able to see Dunedin in the day light as I didn't spend much time here on the Contiki. We headed to the train station, as a couple of the others wanted to check it out, and there was a wedding going on there, seemed pretty random but was quite cool!
We went out for a bit after the game, but we seemed to get to the bars at the wrong time as everywhere was pretty quiet and not much seemed to be going on, until we decided to head home just before midnight... there was then queues to get in the places we had already been! Typical! But to be fair we were all shattered anyway and I had literally no money left in my budget to drink like I would've wanted to anyway!!
After checking out Sunday morning, we headed to the Cadbury factory and yes, I did the tour again! Although I came out with significantly less chocolate this time which sucked! Still loved it though!
We then headed towards Tunnel Beach which reminded me of Durdle Door! The weather was beautiful, albeit slightly on the colder side! It's a truly beautiful beach and I would've liked to stay longer but I didn't have any food so we went back into Dunedin.
There were a few more places we wanted to stop off at, but we went the wrong way for one of the beaches (I had misheard the name of the beach!) and could not find the elephant rocks, but we stopped off for dominos on the way home to get a trusty $5 pizza!
The next few days pretty much consisted of packing and entertaining the kids before holiday! I didn't have much planned as I thought we'd just chill out and go with the flow for he last few days as the boys excitement levels were through the roof!
I had tonnes planned out for this week with the kids, actually going to the effort to have set activities each day! Unfortunately, on Tuesday Cillian came down with a sickness bug which meant the rest of the week we had a sick week. We watched movies and played a few games, but it wasn't until Thursday when he seemed to be getting better, and he was totally fine by Friday but had to stay off kindy because of the 48 hour rule! Luckily that was up before the afternoon so we met the au pairs and went to football practice as usual that afternoon!
Friday evening I slept over at Fabienne's with Sabrina and Julia as we were heading off to Dunedin in the morning. Julia brought some German sweets and they're my new favourite thing! So yummy! We then pretty much snacked and binge watched catfish for the rest of the evening!
We had a pretty chilled out start to the day, we planned to meet Anka in Oamaru to see the penguins, despite repeatedly saying they wouldn't be there as it was the wrong time of the day but never mind! We saw a few seals though, and a wee seal pup too which was pretty cute! Another seal was just chilling out on the seats, which meant we had to be a bit wary as they can be pretty vicious.
It took us a while to find Anka, and when we did we decided to go and play on the steam punk playground - as, naturally, that is what Au Pairs do!
We then made our way down to Dunedin, stopping off at the K Mart on the way. We checked in to our hostel, about a 15 minute walk away from the centre and, the best thing about it, it was called Hogwartz. I was expecting it to have been decorated a bit more in a Harry Potter theme, but there were a few bits and pieces here and there as a reminder! My personal favourite being the Dobby picture!
After putting our bits in our dorm, we headed into town to have a wander and to grab some food it was nice to be able to see Dunedin in the day light as I didn't spend much time here on the Contiki. We headed to the train station, as a couple of the others wanted to check it out, and there was a wedding going on there, seemed pretty random but was quite cool!
After getting ready at the hostel, Fabienne, Sabrina and I walked down to the stadium to watch the
Highlanders v Waratahs game. Despite growing up in a family full of rugby fans this was the first time I've actually gone to a live rugby game.. and I loved it! Granted, I was a tad rusty on the rules, but I was pleasantly surprised in how I could actually understand what was happening and the last ten minutes were so intense it was amazing!We went out for a bit after the game, but we seemed to get to the bars at the wrong time as everywhere was pretty quiet and not much seemed to be going on, until we decided to head home just before midnight... there was then queues to get in the places we had already been! Typical! But to be fair we were all shattered anyway and I had literally no money left in my budget to drink like I would've wanted to anyway!!
After checking out Sunday morning, we headed to the Cadbury factory and yes, I did the tour again! Although I came out with significantly less chocolate this time which sucked! Still loved it though!
We then headed towards Tunnel Beach which reminded me of Durdle Door! The weather was beautiful, albeit slightly on the colder side! It's a truly beautiful beach and I would've liked to stay longer but I didn't have any food so we went back into Dunedin.
There were a few more places we wanted to stop off at, but we went the wrong way for one of the beaches (I had misheard the name of the beach!) and could not find the elephant rocks, but we stopped off for dominos on the way home to get a trusty $5 pizza!
The next few days pretty much consisted of packing and entertaining the kids before holiday! I didn't have much planned as I thought we'd just chill out and go with the flow for he last few days as the boys excitement levels were through the roof!
Friday, 9 June 2017
Another Working Week
Monday 15th - Sunday 21st May 2017
Back to reality this week as it's the first proper week doing full time, as my birthday wasn't really a whole working day. This week I'm focusing on Cillian learning his sounds some more, so I'm looking at different activities to help him with that, but I've also decided that I'm going to start doing themed weeks with different activities - mainly so that I can plan some fun stuff to do rather than just playing with their toys all the time! But I think I'll start that after we get back from Australia, as Cillian's changing his hours so he'll do a full day on Tuesday at kindy and I'll have him all day in a Friday so we can go to music and movement with some of his friends!
One of the activities I did this week was make Cillian a letter garage - a letter on the parking spot and matching letters on the cars. The idea is that he will park the cars in the space that matches and he loved it! He was super good at matching them, even though he hasn't learnt all the sounds yet! He even grabbed the letters from Darragh's learning bag and matched them up too! It makes me super proud to see him excelling because of what I've been doing with him.
We also brought their scooters home from their old house, and Cillian was super excited to try out the skate park! It was really cute, he did his 'tricks' (jumping on and off the scooter) and I could tell he really wanted to go down the ramps but was way too scared!
Luckily it was a nice day on Friday, so Fabienne and Fie were still at the playground after I picked up cillian from kindy. We had a blast playing hide and seek and playing with the bat and ball!
Back to reality this week as it's the first proper week doing full time, as my birthday wasn't really a whole working day. This week I'm focusing on Cillian learning his sounds some more, so I'm looking at different activities to help him with that, but I've also decided that I'm going to start doing themed weeks with different activities - mainly so that I can plan some fun stuff to do rather than just playing with their toys all the time! But I think I'll start that after we get back from Australia, as Cillian's changing his hours so he'll do a full day on Tuesday at kindy and I'll have him all day in a Friday so we can go to music and movement with some of his friends!
One of the activities I did this week was make Cillian a letter garage - a letter on the parking spot and matching letters on the cars. The idea is that he will park the cars in the space that matches and he loved it! He was super good at matching them, even though he hasn't learnt all the sounds yet! He even grabbed the letters from Darragh's learning bag and matched them up too! It makes me super proud to see him excelling because of what I've been doing with him.
This week I have also discovered Centennial park, a scenic reserve in Timaru, so I took the boys there twice after school this week. It was pretty cool, there's a few bits of playground equipment around the place and a huge duck pond - obviously we had to feed the ducks! I'm trying to get them more used to longer walks as Wade and Mary have asked me to do this so they won't whinge as much when they get taken on hikes!
This weekend I decided to have a chilled weekend of not spending any money so I have more saved for next weekend when I go to Dunedin. Saturday evening I ended up doing a few lifts to town for some of Wade's friends so that was a nice easy way to make some extra money!
Monday, 5 June 2017
Birthday Week 🎉
Monday 8th - Sunday 14th May 2017
The boys were still pretty tired from the weekend so we had a chilled start to the week. But with my birthday and Mother's Day coming up I had plenty planned! Although, saying that, we've spent most of the week making some awesome forts!
It was Julia's birthday on Tuesday, so we all went back to Koji for sushi to celebrate. There's quite a few au Pair birthdays over the next week or so which is pretty strange! I met Marion and Anka, two other au pairs that aren't doing it through Au Pair link. It's pretty cool to meet up with the girls, especially as they all know what Au Pair life is like, we share funny stories and give each other ideas for activities and, most importantly, arrange play dates!
Cushla came for her second visit on Thursday, and brought a castle defender kit with her which the boys love! You build a castle and then use a catapult to shoot knights at it to knock it down. There are also numbers on some of the items so you can play it more competitively, but right now they just like knocking it down!
That evening, Fie, Mara, Fabienne and I met Cushla at coffee culture for our monthly au Pair catch up. As au Pair link is having its 10th anniversary, Cushla bought us all hot chocolates which was amazing! So then, as a start to my birthday treats, I got the hot chocolate cake, basically marshmallow on the top, layer of chocolate cake, layer of chocolate mousse and a bottom layer of chocolate cake. Safe to say it was delicious!
I was pretty lucky that the boys didn't wake me up mega early on my birthday, as I'm pretty sure they were way more excited than me! Darragh was waiting for me in the lounge and then as soon as I got up he went and got everyone else to come so I could open my presents! They got me some chocolates and biscuits as well as a passport cover and luggage tag to remind me of New Zealand when I'm off on my travels, which was super thoughtful!
The boys were still pretty tired from the weekend so we had a chilled start to the week. But with my birthday and Mother's Day coming up I had plenty planned! Although, saying that, we've spent most of the week making some awesome forts!
It was Julia's birthday on Tuesday, so we all went back to Koji for sushi to celebrate. There's quite a few au Pair birthdays over the next week or so which is pretty strange! I met Marion and Anka, two other au pairs that aren't doing it through Au Pair link. It's pretty cool to meet up with the girls, especially as they all know what Au Pair life is like, we share funny stories and give each other ideas for activities and, most importantly, arrange play dates!
Cushla came for her second visit on Thursday, and brought a castle defender kit with her which the boys love! You build a castle and then use a catapult to shoot knights at it to knock it down. There are also numbers on some of the items so you can play it more competitively, but right now they just like knocking it down!
That evening, Fie, Mara, Fabienne and I met Cushla at coffee culture for our monthly au Pair catch up. As au Pair link is having its 10th anniversary, Cushla bought us all hot chocolates which was amazing! So then, as a start to my birthday treats, I got the hot chocolate cake, basically marshmallow on the top, layer of chocolate cake, layer of chocolate mousse and a bottom layer of chocolate cake. Safe to say it was delicious!
I also got a few cards from family back home which was really lovely - always nice to know that people are thinking of you on your birthday, even if they are in the other side of the world! Dad and Nickie also surprised me with flowers, chocolate and a bear from a local florist! Was a total surprise did not expect it at all!
Wade took the day off today, and Mary went to pick up Cillian from Kindergarten and then Wade took him upstairs to watch a movie so I had an extra few hours chill time which was awesome! I finally got round to finishing Martin Chuzzlwit - just in time for it to go back to the library!
After he school run, I made some Mother's Day cards and presents with the boys before making another huge fort surprise surprise! We got an Indian takeaway for dinner, my choice! Mary had made me a white chocolate tim tam and Baileys cheesecake and oh my god it was amazing!
I then spent the evening chilling with a few beers and watching blind spot so all in all a pretty good day!
Mary and Wade let me stay in one of the motel units so I could have a lie in the next morning which was a brilliant treat! So nice to not hear the kids fighting over what to play with or watch at 7am! We had a big fry up breakfast Saturday morning and then I pretty much just read for the rest of the day! In the evening, Marion picked me up and we went to Mara's to watch a few movies.
Sunday again was pretty much a chill out day as well. It was Mother's Day and I had forgotten I had all the cards and bits in my room so I forced myself out of bed at 9 so that the kids could give their presents to Mary. I went to coffee culture with Marion after breakfast as she was driving through Timaru anyway! In the evening I went for a walk with Mary and Cillian but other than that I didn't do a whole lot this weekend!
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