Mr and Mrs Rutherford, Albion, Charlie, Rupert, Daphne and Baxter

Saturday 14 October 2017

School Holidays and Rupert Turns 4

On the 11th of October Rupert turned 4! He had a very cool birthday with lots of great presents including a new bike, some Lego and Paw Patrol gear.

Rupert had his Birthday dinner at Sally's house with some of his cousins and neighbours.

During school holidays we decided to pitch our tent down by the river. it was lots of fun although the boys were a bit scared by the windy weather during the night.

We also had a few drinks to say or final goodbyes to our wonderful au-pair Catherine Orton who left us to head back home to the UK this week.

Some Progress On Our New House

After months of waiting we have finally had some progress on the house. The water tanks and septic tanks have now been installed.

Also Don bought a sleepout on Trademe and dismantled the roof before loading it up and bringing it to Masterton. A big thanks to Henry Bunny for all his help.

The lean-to at the back of the house is to be demolished to make way for a new extension.

And our wonderful au pair Catherine had a birthday this month.

Charlie is 5!

Our beautiful Charlie is now 5. Wow what a great milestone and boy is he ready for school.

Charlie's farewell from Masterton West Kindy.

We went bowling to celebrate, Daphne loved it.

the most rain we've had since we moved here

Charlie now joins Alby at Fernridge Primary School

Grandma and Grandad visit

Grandma and Grandad Rutherford came to stay for a couple of weeks. We had a great trip out to Castle Point and they spent lots of time helping us on with jobs around the place.

Grandma showing the kids a shrivelled old rat!

Daphne is growing fast

Rupert getting an Xray for a broken bone in his foot thanks to an accident with a garden fork.

We love having BBQ's on our river bank.

Coffee with Dad.

Exploring the park near Mt Holdsworth

And spending time with our wonderful neighbours, Georgie and Craig, their children and their horses!

On March the 13th I was involved in a nasty car accident that put me in hospital for 5 days. A vehicle that didnt see my car smashed into me and shunted me into oncoming traffic which lead to a head-on collision with a van.

I had a broken shoulder, munched knee, fractured nose and eye socket. It took me 4-5 months to recover from the injuries and the symptoms of a mild head injury and concussion.

It was a big shock as you can imagine and has made us appreciate the happy lives we lead and the people that love and support us.

This is an article from the sentencing in September.

Alby turns 6

We have had a very disrupted year this year and the blog has not had much attention... here's a few updates.

On March the 8th Alby turned 6! Amazing to think 6 years has gone by since this little guy came into the world.

We kept it pretty quiet and had a family party at home after school then we all went bowling and had pizza. It was so much fun and the kids loved it!

Also we had Uncle Malcolm visit for the day and it was great to show him our house project.

Wednesday 1 March 2017

Christmas, a New Year and a new home.

This post may be a bit all other the place as again its been quite some time since the last one and there is a bit of catching up to do!

Christmas was spent at Parangahau in the Hawkes Bay with Christmas Day lunch and Boxing day at Hinerangi with the extended Ward family. The Hini Mini Tenni Tourni was fun as always. I've played in it for many Christmases and never won - Don on the other hand won on his first go!

Our annual Christmas video.

Before we left Auckland Charlie had his Christmas party at the wonderful Fire Station.

And his last day.

Daphy balloon catching.

And light gazing.

We had a wonderful day at the zoo with George and Tommy. We miss the zoo!

A few snaps before we left Auckland.

A lovely last night at the Bywaters.

We had a wonderful couple of weeks staying at Emma and Willies house in Masterton before we moved into our little cottage. A great introduction to country life!

We spent time with the Bartons over New Year.

And caught up with some of my old Masterton friends and their kids - there was a lot of them!

We have now settled into life on Matahiwi Road. We are staying in my Aunt Sally's two bedroom cottage, just down the road from our new (old) house. It is great, very green and quite (albeit very small!). The chooks are free range and the kids are getting better at keeping their food away from them!

The Hills were our first visitors, we took them to our river for a picnic. We have to crawl under the electric fence!

Alby lost his first 2 teeth!

The driveway has gone in at the house.

The kids love exploring the farm machinery.

They got to go on an actual forage harvester!

This spot is going to amazing once it is finished!

The chooks nest in the trees.

And sunbathe on the deck.

Daphy prefers no clothes!

The little boys love their new kindy (it is the kindy I went to as a little girl!).

Alby is loving his new school, Fernridge. Now reading fluently and a better speller than me!

We now own 11 cows...

And our container of belongings which sits in our paddock.

We are loving the river and make the most of it when the sun is out.

And sometimes when it is not!

We have finally managed to hang our swinging chair - a wonderful spot on a sunny evening.

Don and I managed to get away by ourselves for the first time in 6 years! We went to see James Taylor at Church Road Vineyard in Napier. It was amazing!