Family life in Hamilton

 Since my last post I have moved to Hamilton where I'm staying with Saskia and Jelte's daughter, Marieke's family as she needed some help with painting and general housework. This means that since last Wednesday I've been having fun playing with the 3 children; Samara (8), Zachary (6), Kaia (4) and the chocolate Labrador Mila (2).
Before leaving on Tuesday the Two Germans went fishing with Jelte and caught some Snappers which we ate as a starter at dinner. As afternoon tea Saskia and I made some cinnamon swirls which were quickly polished off. For dinner, after the very fresh fish, we had home made pizza made in their pizza oven (shown in the photos); so tasty!

On Wednesday we set off early so that we could drop the boys off at the farm and Saskia could get her hair cut on the way to Hamilton. Finally arrived at around 5pm and I met the family and helped make the side to go with the BBQ.
On Thursday Marieke and Chris had to work and the kids were at school and kindergarden so I was left to clean the house with the company of Mila the dog, it made me laugh when she only responded to my commands when said in a Kiwi accent. 
On Thursdays they have violin lessons at their Grandma's so we all went round and I played some games with the children before family dinner.
We started preparing the house for the mammoth task of painting the window and french door frames on Friday. After making many paper aeroplanes the kids went to school so we sanded and painted all the frames. Time seemed to run away from us so before we knew it we were off picking the kids up again. Was given a true taste of British summer in the form of Pimms to go with my Lasagne then once the kids were in bed we sat back and watched the film 'Interns' whilst munching on chocolate.

Saturday was a long day of much painting with a few breaks for some tasty food such as ANZAC cookies which Samara had made. By the time we'd finished painting for the day we were all too tired to cook so got an Indian takeaway.
It was Marieke and Chris' wedding anniversary on Sunday so Chris' Mum took the children and I for a day out. First stop was Raglan where I helped Kaia painting her mug then we went for a coffee followed by lunch under a classic New Zealand Pohutukawa tree. They took me for a tour of the area before heading back for the santa parade. Another surreal Christmas experience where the kids were loaded up with sugar meaning they were extremely hyper when we returned home. Luckily they reached their sugar low by the time I was babysitting in the evening.
Had another intense day of painting on Monday after going in to school to play the violin along with the school; first time I'd picked up a violin in nearly a year and I was playing in front of 350 kids (all with bare feet); felt nice to play again though.
In the evening I made chicken Cacciatore which we ate on the floor in front of the Christmas tree as an advent treat.
I finally finished the painting today so baked a banana cake and am now having a relaxing afternoon before going back to Saskia and Jelte's tomorrow.

It's been great fun having children around for the week; also helps to make it feel more christmassy. Brings back memories of when I was younger.